14 
GOLPDENee-RUTHS 
) eas ahi Sa Cn ee : ; 
REJOICE EVERMORE. PRAY WITHOUT CEASING.—1 Thess. 5:16, 17. 
ne ee eee 
God's blood-bought and redeemed | 
ones; the ransomed from the fall, 
the salt of the earth, the called-out 
ones, \ 
His coming will be sudden, ‘‘As 
the lightning cometh out of the 
east and shineth even unto the 
west, so shall also the coming of 
the Son of man be:”’ (Matt 24:- 
Zi.) 
He likens His coming to Noah’s 
generation, when suddenly, after 
nine hundred and sixty-nine years 
of intense warning, the rain fell in 
torrents bringing on the great del- 
uge. You say, how do you know 
they were warned for nine hundred 
and sixty-nine years? The names 
that were given in that age carried 
with them a message for their gen- 
eration. 
Enoch was a man of God of 
whom the Bible states, “‘He walked 
with God and was not for God 
took him.’”’ He is also termed a 
preacher of righteousness. He 
preached that the world would be 
destroyed by a flood. His soul was 
so possessed with the message, and 
he was in such close communion 
with God, that when a son was 
born to Enoch, God told him that 
whenever this child died the flood 
would come. This so impressed 
Enoch that he named_ this child 
Methuselah. The meaning of the 
word Methuselah is ‘““When he dies 
the flood is coming.” 
Even though this child was a 
warning to his generation yet peo- 
ple became accustomed to his 
name. On it was heaped ridicule 
and scorn for they declared it never 
had rained and such a thing was an 
impossibility, that things had con- 
tinued as they were since the time 
of the fathers. Sin was turned 
loose on the earth. But suddenly 
as had been declared for a thousand 
years, the flood came and all were 
lost except Noah and his family, 
who took refuge in the ark. 
Then again He likens His com- 
ing to the sudden rain of fire and 
brimstone that fell upon Sodom 
and Gomorrah. Suddenly, in a 
moment, in the twinkling of an 
eye, when men least expect Him 
and are least prepared to meet 
Him, because they have disregard- 
ed the warning, while men are 
sleeping, He is coming and only 
the awake, alert and prepared ones 
will see Him or go out to meet 
Him. For He is coming only to, and 
for those who have prepared them- 
selves, and made themselves ready, 
who have met the qualifications of 
a guest for the marriage supper of 
the Lamb. For, ““Ye brethren are 
not in darkness that that day 
should overtake you as a thief.”’ 
(I Thess. 5:4.) 
His coming is to catch His elect. 
This will be sudden. But sudden 
as it will be, it should not catch 
those who have prepared them- 
selves and made themselves ready, 
those who have met the necessary 
qualifications to enable them to be- 
come a guest at the marriage sup- 
per. 
“But ye brethren are not in dark- 
ness that that day should overtake 
vou asa thief. Ye are all the chil- 
dren of light, and the children of 
the day. We are not of the night 
nor of darkness. Therefore let us 
not sleep as do others: but let us 
watch and be sober. For they that 
sleep, sleep in the night. and they 
that be drunken are drunken in the 
night. But let us who are of the 
day, be sober, putting on the breast- 
nlate of faith and love: and for an 
helmet, the hope of salvation. For 
God hath not appointed us_ to 
wrath, but to obtain salvation 
through our Lord Jesus Christ, 
Who died for us that whether we 
wake or sleep, we should live to- 
gether with Him. Wherefore com- 
fort yourselves together, and edify 
one another.”’ (I Thess. 5:4-11.) 
SESS, Poe, 
“e 
- Septemb 
ore] 9 2 
Will we keep this appointment _ 
to obtain salvation? You were 
not appointed unto wrath. You — 
were appointed to salvation. Will 
you keep this appointment? ‘This 
is what the Savior had in mind 
when He said, ““Take heed to your- — 
‘ 
: 
Sees 
<i 
selves, lest at any time your hearts _ 
be overcharged with surfeiting, 
rn 
and drunkenness and the cares of — 
this life, and so that day come upon 
you unawares. For as a_ snare 
shall it come on all them that dwell 
on the face of the whole earth. 
WATCH YE therefore and pray 
always, that ye may be accounted 
worthy to escape all these things 
that shall come to pass, and to 
stand before the Son of man.’ 
(Luke 21:34-36.) 
It was this event that the Savior 
had in mind when He gave the par- 
able of the ““Marriage of the King’s 
Son,’ and said “The wedding is 
ready, but they which were bidden 
were not worthy.” 
Oh, the loving heart of the Sav- 
iour! With what earnest longing 
He waits to see if you are going to 
keep your “appointment to salva- _ 
tion.”’ Ever after He had ascended 
on high, so eager was He, and so 
great was His concern that you 
would not fail to keep this ap- 
pointment that He called back 
from yonder world, as he gave His _ 
Revelation to John, and said, “‘Re- 
member therefore how thou hadst 
received ‘and heard, and hold fast, 
and repent. If therefore thou shalt 
not watch, I will come on theeasa 
thief, and thou shalt not know 
what hour I will come upon thee.” 
(Romeas fa 
Then as with a feeling of tri- 
umph in the fact that He knew 
there would be those who would 
be found ready and waiting for His 
appearing He said of these, “And 
they shall walk with me in white; — 
for they are worthy.” (Rev. 3:4.) 
| will come on thee as a thief” is. 
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