10
A Word to the Little Flock
hands and a pure heart shall be able to stand, my grace is sufficient for
you. At this, our faces lighted up, and joy filled every heart. And the
angels struck a note higher and sung again while the cloud drew still
nearer the earth. Then Jesus’ silver trumpet sounded, as he descended
on the cloud, wrapped in flames of fire [
2 Thessalonians 1:7, 8
] He
gazed on the graves of the sleeping saints, then raised his eyes and
hands to heaven and cried out, [
John 5:25
.] Awake! Awake! Awake! ye
that sleep in the dust, and arise. Then there was a mighty earthquake.
The graves opened, and the dead came up clothed with immortality.
The 144,000 shouted, Hallelujah! as they recognized their friends who
had been torn from them by death, and in the same moment we were
changed and caught up together with them to meet the Lord in the
air. [
1 Thessalonians 4:17
.] We all entered the cloud together, and
were seven days ascending to the sea of glass, when Jesus brought
along the crowns and with his own right hand placed them on our
heads. [
2 Esdras 2:43.
] He gave us harps of gold and palms of victory.
[
Revelation 15:2
.
Revelation 7:9
.] Here on the sea of glass the 144,000
stood in a perfect square. Some of them had very bright crowns, others
not so bright. Some crowns appeared heavy with stars, while others
had but few. All were perfectly satisfied with their crowns. And they
were all clothed with a glorious white mantle from their shoulders to
their feet. [
Revelation 7:9
.] Angels were all about us as we marched
over the sea of glass to the gate of the City. Jesus raised his mighty
glorious arm, laid hold of the gate and swung it back on its golden
hinges, and said to us, You have washed your robes in my blood, stood
stifly for my truth, enter in. [
Isaiah 26:2
.] We all marched in and felt
we had a perfect right in the City. Here we saw the tree of life, and the
throne of God. Out of the throne came a pure river of water, and on
either side of the river was the tree of life. [
Revelation 22:1, 2
.] On
one side of the river was a trunk of a tree and a trunk on the other side
of the river, both of pure transparent gold.
[16]
At first I thought I saw two trees. I looked again and saw they were
united at the top in one tree. So it was the tree of life, on either side of
the river of life; its branches bowed to the place where we stood; and
the fruit was glorious, which looked like gold mixed with silver. We
all went under the tree, and sat down to look at the glory of the place,
when brothers Fitch and Stockman, who had preached the gospel of
the kingdom, and whom God had laid in the grave to save them, came