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He comes!
-Spurgeon, "The Beatific Vision"
With clouds of angels, cherubim, seraphim,
and all the armies of heaven, He comes!
With all the forces of nature--
thundercloud, and blackness of tempest, the Lord of all
makes his triumphant entrance to judge the world!
The clouds are the dust of his feet in that terrible day of
battle, when He will rid Himself of His adversaries,
shaking them out of the earth with His thunder, and
consuming them with the devouring flame of His lightning!
All of heaven will gather with its utmost pomp
at the great appearing of the Lord.
Not as the Man of Sorrows, despised and rejected,
will Jesus come.
Rather, as Jehovah came upon Sinai, in the midst of thick
clouds and a terrible darkness- so will He come,
whose coming will be the final judgement!
-Spurgeon, "He is Coming with the Clouds"
The Beautific Vision-
We have I believe, all of us who love his name,
a most insatiable wish to behold his person.
The thing for which I would pray above all others,
would be forever to behold his face,
forever to lay my head upon his breast,
forever to know that I am his,
forever to dwell with him.
Yes, one short glimpse,
one transitory vision of his glory,
one brief glance at his marred,
but now exalted and beaming countenance,
would repay almost a world of trouble.
We have a strong desire to see him--
"Millions of years my wondering eyes
Shall over your beauties rove;
And endless ages I'll adore
The glories of your love."
Oh! the sight is better still.
We are to see him 'exalted'.
We shall see the head, but not with its thorny crown.
"The head that once was crowned with thorns,
Is crowned with glory now."
We shall see the hand, and the nail-prints too, but not the
nail; it has been once drawn out, and forever.
We shall see his side, and its pierced wound too;
but the blood shall not issue from it.
We shall see him not with a peasant's garb around him,
but with the empire of the universe upon his shoulders.
We shall see him, not with a reed in his hand,
but grasping a golden scepter.
We shall see him, not as mocked and spit upon and
insulted, not bone of our bone, in all our agonies,
afflictions, and distresses; but we shall see him exalted!
No longer Christ the man of sorrows, the acquaintance of
grief, but Christ the Man-God!
-radiant with splendor,
-effulgent with light,
-clothed with rainbows,
-girded with clouds,
-wrapped in lightnings,
-crowned with stars,
-the sun beneath his feet.
Oh! glorious vision!
How can we guess what he is?
What words can tell us? or how can we speak thereof?
Yet whatever he is, with all his splendor unveiled,
all his glories unclouded, and himself fully revealed;
we shall see him as he is.
We shall see him, beloved-- not abhorred, not despised
and rejected,
but worshipped,
honored,
crowned,
exalted,
served by flaming spirits,
and worshipped by cherubim and seraphim.
"We shall see him as he is."
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