It was a short service, with plenty of singing, and Salome enjoyed it very much.
And then came the sermon. I had never seen the preacher before, nor do I now remember what he was like. But I remember his sermon, and I shall never forget it as long as I live.
I took Salome on my knee, and told her to listen when the sermon began, and I can see now her little earnest face, as she fixed her eyes on the clergyman. She had brought her Testament with her, for she would not part with it at all that day, and I turned to the text when the clergyman gave it out—Matthew xxiv. 40.
How Salome looked up at me when she saw what it was!
"One shall be taken, and the other left."
"Taken where?" said the clergyman. "And left where?"
"That's just what we want to know!" whispered Salome to me.
"What is the greatest sight you have ever seen?" the clergyman went on. "Perhaps some of you have seen the Queen. If we knew the Queen was coming to our town, what an excitement and stir there would be in the place! What grand preparations would be made! And when she came, what a splendid sight it would be! You would all want to see the procession go by, and try to get to a good place, where you might see all that was to be seen. But, my young friends, you and I will see a far more glorious sight than that; we shall see the grandest sight that this world has ever seen; we shall see the Lord Jesus, the King of kings, coming in His glory!
"As the Lord sat on the Mount of Olives one day, He told His disciples a great deal about His second coming. He told them that on the day He shall come all will be going on just as usual; that day will be exactly like any other day.
"Half the world will be awake when Jesus comes. Trains will be starting just as usual, shops will be open, people will be buying and selling, and making money. The children will go to school just as on any other day; they will play at cricket, or marbles, or leap-frog, just as you did yesterday, and will do to-morrow. Your fathers will go to their work, your mothers will wash, or iron, or bake, and you will be talking, and laughing, and playing, and quarrelling, just as usual. In one house there will be a wedding that day, in another house there will be a funeral. People will stand at their doors and talk, and gossip, and make mischief, just as you see them every day of your life.