Early Writings
by Ellen G. White
Hope of the Church1
 |
 |
|
When Jesus comes, will we be crying for the rocks to fall on us, or will we say, 'Lo, this is our God; we have waited for Him, and He will save us'?
Illustration ©
Review and Herald Publ. Assoc. |
|
As I have of late looked around to find the humble followers
of the meek and lowly Jesus, my mind has been much exercised. Many who profess
to be looking for the speedy coming of Christ are becoming conformed to this
world and seek more earnestly the applause of those around them than the
approbation of God. They are cold and formal, like the nominal churches from
which they but a short time since separated. The words addressed to the
Laodicean church describe their present condition perfectly. (See Revelation
3:14-20.) They are "neither cold nor hot," but [108]
"lukewarm." And unless they heed the counsel of the
"faithful and true Witness," and zealously repent and obtain
"gold tried in the fire," "white raiment," and
"eye-salve," He will spew them out of His mouth. {EW 107.2}
The time has come when a large portion of those who once
rejoiced and shouted aloud for joy in view of the immediate coming of the Lord,
are on the ground of the churches and the world who once derided them for
believing that Jesus was coming, and circulated all manner of falsehoods to
raise prejudice against them and destroy their influence. Now, if any one longs
after the living God, hungering and thirsting for righteousness, and God gives
him to feel His power, and satisfies his longing soul by shedding abroad His
love in his heart, and if he glorifies God by praising Him, he is, by these
professed believers in the soon coming of the Lord, often considered deluded,
and charged with being mesmerized or having some wicked spirit. {EW 108.1}
Many of these professed Christians dress, talk, and act like
the world, and the only thing by which they may be known is their profession.
Though they profess to be looking for Christ, their conversation is not in
heaven, but on worldly things. "What manner of persons" ought those
to be "in all holy conversation and godliness," who profess to be
"looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God." 2 Peter
3:11, 12. "Every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as
He is pure." 1 John 3:3. But it is evident that many who bear the name of
Adventist study more to decorate their bodies and to appear well in the eyes of
the world than they do to learn from the Word of God how they may be approved
of Him. {EW 108.2}
What if the lovely Jesus, our pattern, should make His
appearance among them and the professors of religion generally, as at His first
advent? He was born in [109] a manger. Follow Him through His
life and ministry. He was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. These
professed Christians would be ashamed of the meek and lowly Saviour who wore a
plain, seamless coat, and had not where to lay His head. His spotless,
self-denying life would condemn them; His holy solemnity would be a painful
restraint upon their lightness and vain laughter; His guileless conversation
would be a check to their worldly and covetous conversation; His declaring the
unvarnished, cutting truth, would manifest their real character, and they would
wish to get the meek pattern, the lovely Jesus, out of the way as soon as
possible. They would be among the first to try to catch Him in His words, and
raise the cry, "Crucify Him! Crucify Him!" {EW 108.3}
Let us follow Jesus as He so meekly rode into Jerusalem,
when "the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God
with a loud voice, . . . saying, Blessed be the King that cometh in
the name of the Lord: peace in heaven, and glory in the highest. And some of
the Pharisees from among the multitude said unto Him, Master, rebuke Thy
disciples. And He answered and said unto them, I tell you that if these should
hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out." A large portion
of those who profess to be looking for Christ would be as forward as the
Pharisees were to have the disciples silenced, and they would doubtless raise
the cry, "Fanaticism! Mesmerism! Mesmerism!" And the disciples,
spreading their garments and branches of palm trees in the way, would be
thought extravagant and wild. But God will have a people on the earth who will
not be so cold and dead but that they can praise and glorify Him. He will
receive glory from some people, and if those of His choice, those who keep His
commandments, should hold their peace, the very stones would cry out. [110]
{EW 109.1}
Jesus is coming, but not as at His first advent, a babe in
Bethlehem; not as He rode into Jerusalem, when the disciples praised God with a
loud voice and cried, "Hosanna"; but in the glory of the Father and
with all the retinue of holy angels to escort Him on His way to earth. All
heaven will be emptied of the angels, while the waiting saints will be looking
for Him and gazing into heaven, as were the men of Galilee when He ascended
from the Mount of Olivet. Then only those who are holy, those who have followed
fully the meek Pattern, will with rapturous joy exclaim as they behold Him,
"Lo, this is our God; we have waited for Him, and He will save us."
And they will be changed "in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the
last trump"—that trump which wakes the sleeping saints, and
calls them forth from their dusty beds, clothed with glorious immortality, and
shouting, "Victory! Victory over death and the grave!" The changed
saints are then caught up together with the angels to meet the Lord in the air,
never more to be separated from the object of their love. {EW 110.1}
With such a prospect as this before us, such a glorious
hope, such a redemption that Christ has purchased for us by His own blood,
shall we hold our peace? Shall we not praise God even with a loud voice, as did
the disciples when Jesus rode into Jerusalem? Is not our prospect far more
glorious than was theirs? Who dare then forbid us glorifying God, even with a
loud voice, when we have such a hope, big with immortality, and full of glory?
We have tasted of the powers of the world to come, and long for more. My whole
being cries out after the living God, and I shall not be satisfied until I am
filled with all His fullness. {EW 110.2}
|
