The Great Controversy The Great Controversy | Page 642

draws nearer the earth, becoming lighter and more glorious, until it is
a great white cloud, its base a glory like consuming fire, and above it
the rainbow of the covenant. Jesus rides forth as a mighty conqueror.
Not now a “Man of Sorrows,” to drink the bitter cup of shame and
woe, He comes, victor in heaven and earth, to judge the living and the
dead. “Faithful and True,” “in righteousness He doth judge and make
war.” And “the armies which were in heaven” (Revelation 19:11, 14)
follow Him. With anthems of celestial melody the holy angels, a vast,
unnumbered throng, attend Him on His way. The firmament seems filled
with radiant forms—“ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands
of thousands.” No human pen can portray the scene; no mortal mind
is adequate to conceive its splendor. “His glory covered the heavens,
and the earth was full of His praise. And His brightness was as the
light.” Habakkuk 3:3, 4. As the living cloud comes still nearer, every
eye beholds the Prince of life. No crown of thorns now mars that sacred
head; but a diadem of glory rests on His holy brow. His countenance
outshines the dazzling brightness of the noonday sun. “And He hath on
His vesture and on His thigh a name written, King of kings, and Lord of
lords.” Revelation 19:16.
Before His presence “all faces are turned into paleness;” upon the
rejecters of God’s mercy falls the terror of eternal despair. “The heart
melteth, and the knees smite together, ... and the faces of them all
gather blackness.” Jeremiah 30:6; Nahum 2:10. The righteous cry with
trembling: “Who shall be able to stand?” The angels’ song is hushed,
and there is a period of awful silence. Then the voice of Jesus is heard,
saying: “My grace is sufficient for you.” The faces of the righteous are
lighted up, and joy fills every heart. And the angels strike a note higher
and sing again as they draw still nearer to the earth.
The King of kings descends upon the cloud, wrapped in flaming fire.
The heavens are rolled together as a scroll, the earth trembles before
Him, and every mountain and island

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