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The King Appears in Person, December 9
Our God shall come, and shall not keep silence: a fire shall devour
before him, and it shall be very tempestuous round about him. He
shall call to the heavens from above, and to the earth, that he may
judge his people.
Psalm 50:3, 4
.
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 is moved out of its place.
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 followed him.”
Revelation 19:11, 14
. 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.”
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