The Second Coming

How the Kingdom of God cometh.

(The Gospel History, Section 115)

And he said unto the disciples, The days will come, when ye shall desire to see one of the days of the Son of man, and ye shall not see it. And they shall say to you, Lo, there! Lo, here! go not away, nor follow after them: for as the lightning, when it lighteneth out of the one part under the heaven, shineth unto the other part under heaven; so shall the Son of man be in his day. But first must he suffer many things and be rejected of this generation. And as it came to pass in the days of Noah, even so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. They ate, they drank, they married, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all. Likewise even as it came to pass in the days of Lot: they ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; but in the day that Lot went out from Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all: after the same manner shall it be in the day that the Son of man is revealed. In that day, he which shall be on the housetop, and his goods in the house, let him not go down to take them away: and let him that is in the field likewise not return back. Remember Lot’s wife. Whosoever shall seek to gain his life shall lose it: but whosoever shall lose his life shall preserve it. I say unto you, In that night there shall be two men on one bed; the one shall be taken, and the other shall be left. There shall be two women grinding together; the one shall be taken, and the other shall be left. And they answering say unto him. Where, Lord? And he said unto them, Where the body is, thither will the eagles also be gathered together.

The Second Coming

(The Saviour of the World, Vol VII Book I Poem XI)

As heedless child will oft propose
A query sore perplexing those,
His wiser elders who have thought
Full deep upon the subject brought
Lightly before them by the child,—
So was the Lord Himself beguiled
That subject to pursue had been
Suggested lightly, half in spleen.

Ah me, the mighty late unroll’d
Before Him by those querists bold!
By violence the kingdom comes,
Relinquished hearths, uprooted homes,
By battles, sieges, grief and pain,—
Calamities shall men attain
Full often to that place of peace
Where th’ poor and prisoner find release!

He turned Him to the faithful few
Who followed Him, “Not e’en for you
God’s kingdom shall be won with ease;
The time shall come when days like these
When ye go walking up and down
And follow Me from waste to town,
Scant clothed and sparsely nourishéd
With seldom place to lay your head

Shall shine to you as halcyon days,
For ye went with Me in My ways!
‘O for the Son of man!’ your cry
‘How joyful we when He was nigh!’
Not for a day, the Son of man
Shall come to you on the old plan,—
Familiar friend, great Comrade kind,
Acquainted with your inmost mind!

Then all men shall your longing share,
Their senses quickened by despair;
Born of the wish, behold the thought—
A Saviour they themselves have wrought;
Lo, there He is!, they cry, Lo, here!
Believe them not, nor yet draw near
In hope to see your Master shewn
In other semblance than His own.

But you, My friends, shall have a sign:
No secret-coming shall be Mine,
No modest Birth in cottage home
Shall shew a fear that I have come.
Regard your lightning flash, how bright
How searching, dreadful is its light;
How heaven’s illumed from end to end
As yon fine flash its way doth rend!

So awful shall the Coming be
Of Him, in lowliness ye see.
Because these things shall not be yet;
First go we with our faces set
Towards Jerusalem; They shall reject
The Son of man, and the elect
E’en ye My friends, shall turn and flee
Before the shame that waits on Me!

But persecutions have an end,
Soon, judgment for blows; God doth send
His terrors on the troubled mind
Of men to His mild dealings blind;
Oblivious are they of that Power
Regards their every trifling hour;
They go their ways, they eat and drink
Marry and feast, nor ever think
Of the meek Son of man they slew;
So lived the frivolous, lusty crew
To whom My servants in old days
My message brought, with lax delays,
For feast and song and marriage rite,
A thousand ways of vain delight;
The people put them off; e’en those
To whom their secret hearts disclose
The terror of the Word. Ye know
How Sodom was destroyed, e’en tho’
Good Abraham interceded; see
Draws nigh a like calamity
To those reject the Son of Man.

In that day, lo, let him who can
Escape: for intimate and near
The judgment, searching close, severe
Think not to say, “You too have wrought
At one employment, both were taught
By one same teacher: wherefore, then,
Should I with bad, he, with good men,
Be reckoned in the judgment?”

Nay,

Not a man’s work reveals his way,
Nor where his lot is cast, nor whom
He needs must shelter in his room:
A gulf is fixed ’twixt those and these,—
The men who seek their life,—their ease,
Their comfort, wealth, high place,—“for all
Things which concern the Spirit’s call,
All these shall lose the life they seek;
But there be men of spirit meek
Who give their lives, an offering free

So service they may do to Me:
These men, I say to you, shall save
That life they erst as freely gave
Abundant blessings shall be theirs,
Fullness and joy for bygone cares.”

“Lord, when shall these things come to pass?”
I show you plain as in a glass
But yet perceive ye not! E’en there,
Where home’s proud eagles flock, despair
Shall seize on you, their fearful prey—
Lo, there in Israel’s judgment day!

St. Luke xvii. 22-37