17. Heralds Of The Morning. 313
of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ” was the“ blessed hope.” When the Thessalonian Christians were filled with grief as they buried their loved ones, who had hoped to live to witness the coming of the Lord, Paul, their teacher, pointed them to the resurrection, to take place at the Saviour ' s advent. Then the dead in Christ should rise, and together with the living be caught up to meet the Lord in the air.“ And so,” he said,“ shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words.” 465
On rocky Patmos the beloved disciple hears the promise,“ Surely I come quickly,” and his longing response voices the prayer of the church in all her pilgrimage,“ Even so, come, Lord Jesus.” 466
From the dungeon, the stake, the scaffold, where saints and martyrs witnessed for the truth, comes down the centuries the utterance of their faith and hope. Being“ assured of His personal resurrection, and consequently of their own at His coming, for this cause,” says one of these Christians,“ they despised death, and were found to be above it.” 467 They were willing to go down [ 303 ] to the grave, that they might“ rise free.” 468 They looked for the“ Lord to come from heaven in the clouds with the glory of His Father,”“ bringing to the just the times of the kingdom.” The Waldenses cherished the same faith. 469 Wycliffe looked forward to the Redeemer ' s appearing as the hope of the church. 470
Luther declared:“ I persuade myself verily, that the day of judgment will not be absent full three hundred years. God will not, can not, suffer this wicked world much longer.”“ The great day is drawing near in which the kingdom of abominations shall
465 1 Thess. 4:16-18. 466 Rev. 22:20. 467 Taylor, Daniel T.,“ The Reign of Christ on Earth; or, The Voice of the
Church in All Ages,” p. 33. 468 Taylor,“ The Voice of the Church,” p. 54.
469 Idem, pp. 129-132. 470 Idem, pp. 132-134.