The Great Controversy The Great Controversy | Page 340

lightning flashes from the heavens, will come the end of their bright
visions and delusive hopes.
As God sent His servant to warn the world of the coming Flood,
so He sent chosen messengers to make known the nearness of the
final judgment. And as Noah’s contemporaries laughed to scorn the
predictions of the preacher of righteousness, so in Miller’s day many,
even of the professed people of God, scoffed at the words of warning.
And why were the doctrine and preaching of Christ’s second coming
so unwelcome to the churches? While to the wicked the advent of the
Lord brings woe and desolation, to the righteous it is fraught with joy
and hope. This great truth had been the consolation of God’s faithful
ones through all the ages; why had it become, like its Author, “a stone
of stumbling” and “a rock of offense” to His professed people? It was
our Lord Himself who promised His disciples: “If I go and prepare a
place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto Myself.” John
14:3. It was the compassionate Saviour, who, anticipating the loneliness
and sorrow of His followers, commissioned angels to comfort them with
the assurance that He would come again in person, even as He went into
heaven. As the disciples stood gazing intently upward to catch the last
glimpse of Him whom they loved, their attention was arrested by the
words: “Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this
same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in
like manner as ye have seen Him go into heaven.” Acts 1:11. Hope
was kindled afresh by the angels’ message. The disciples “returned to
Jerusalem with great joy: and were continually in the temple, praising
and blessing God.” Luke 24:52, 53. They were not rejoicing because
Jesus had been separated from them and they were left to struggle
with the trials and temptations of the world, but because of the angels’
assurance that He would come again.
The proclamation of Christ’s coming should now be, as when made
by the angels to the shepherds of Bethlehem,

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