We are now amid the perils of the last days. The scenes of conflict are hastening on, and the day of days is just upon us. Are we prepared for the issue?...

The leaders of the Jewish nation had the Old Testament Scriptures, which plainly foretold the manner of Christ’s first advent. Through the prophet Isaiah God had described the appearance and mission of Christ, saying, “He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief.”...

All the wonderful events clustering around His second coming, they looked for at His first. Therefore, when He came, they were not prepared to receive Him....

Between the first and the second advent of Christ a wonderful contrast will be seen. No human language can portray the scenes of the second coming of the Son of man in the clouds of heaven. He is to come with His own glory and with the glory of the Father and of the holy angels. He will come clad in the robe of light, which He has worn from the days of eternity. Angels will accompany Him.... The sound of the trumpet will be heard, calling the sleeping dead from the grave....

As they [the Jewish leaders] gaze upon His glory, there flashes before their minds the memory of the Son of man clad in the garb of humanity. They remember how they treated Him, how they refused Him and pressed close to the side of the great apostate. The scenes of Christ’s life appear before them in all their clearness. All He did, all He said, the humiliation to which He descended to save them from the taint of sin, rises before them in condemnation....

We are now amid the perils of the last days. The scenes of conflict are hastening on, and the day of days is just upon us. Are we prepared for the issue?...

The Son of man will bestow upon the righteous the crown of everlasting life, and they shall “serve him day and night in his temple: and he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat. For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.”—The Review and Herald, September 5, 1899. FH 369


Jesus did not seek to attract the people to Him by gratifying the desire for luxury. To that great throng, weary and hungry after the long, exciting day, the simple fare was an assurance both of His power and of His tender care for them in the common needs of life. The Saviour has not promised His followers the luxuries of the world; their lot may be shut in by poverty; but His word is pledged that their need shall be supplied, and He has promised that which is better than earthly good—the abiding comfort of His own presence. MH 47



And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. Matthew 24:31 (King James Version)