The Great Controversy The Great Controversy | Page 300

Chap. 17 - Heralds of the Morning
One of the most solemn and yet most glorious truths revealed in the
Bible is that of Christ’s second coming to complete the great work of
redemption. To God’s pilgrim people, so long left to sojourn in “the
region and shadow of death,” a precious, joy-inspiring hope is given in
the promise of His appearing, who is “the resurrection and the life,” to
“bring home again His banished.” The doctrine of the second advent
is the very keynote of the Sacred Scriptures. From the day when the
first pair turned their sorrowing steps from Eden, the children of faith
have waited the coming of the Promised One to break the destroyer’s
power and bring them again to the lost Paradise. Holy men of old looked
forward to the advent of the Messiah in glory, as the consummation of
their hope. Enoch, only the seventh in descent from them that dwelt
in Eden, he who for three centuries on earth walked with his God, was
permitted to behold from afar the coming of the Deliverer. “Behold,” he
declared, “the Lord cometh with ten thousands of His saints, to execute
judgment upon all.” Jude 14, 15. The patriarch Job in the night of his
affliction exclaimed with unshaken trust: “I know that my Redeemer
liveth, and that He shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: ... in my
flesh shall I see God: whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall
behold, and not another.” Job 19:25-27.

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