Light Through Darkness
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that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers,
nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any
other creature,” would be able to separate them from “the love of God,
which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” “In all these things,” they said, “we
are more than conquerors through Him that loved us.”
Romans 8:38,
39, 37
. “The word of the Lord endureth forever.”
1 Peter 1:25
. And
“who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is
risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh
intercession for us.”
Romans 8:34
.
Saith the Lord: “My people shall never be ashamed.”
Joel 2:26
.
“Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.”
Psalm 30:5
. When on His resurrection day these disciples met the
Saviour, and their hearts burned within them as they listened to His
words; when they looked upon the head and hands and feet that had
been bruised for them; when, before His ascension, Jesus led them
out as far as Bethany, and lifting up His hands in blessing, bade them,
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“Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel,” adding, “Lo, I
am with you alway” (
Mark 16:15
;
Matthew 28:20
); when on the
Day of Pentecost the promised Comforter descended and the power
from on high was given and the souls of the believers thrilled with
the conscious presence of their ascended Lord—then, even though,
like His, their pathway led through sacrifice and martyrdom, would
they have exchanged the ministry of the gospel of His grace, with
the “crown of righteousness” to be received at His coming, for the
glory of an earthly throne, which had been the hope of their earlier
discipleship? He who is “able to do exceeding abundantly above all
that we ask or think,” had granted them, with the fellowship of His
sufferings, the communion of His joy—the joy of “bringing many sons
unto glory,” joy unspeakable, an “eternal weight of glory,” to which,
says Paul, “our light affliction, which is but for a moment,” is “not
worthy to be compared.”
The experience of the disciples who preached the “gospel of the
kingdom” at the first advent of Christ, had its counterpart in the expe-
rience of those who proclaimed the message of His second advent. As
the disciples went out preaching, “The time is fulfilled, the kingdom
of God is at hand,” so Miller and his associates proclaimed that the
longest and last prophetic period brought to view in the Bible was
about to expire, that the judgment was at hand, and the everlasting