Shaping our lives by his blessed example....
For that is just what we cannot do—shape our lives by his example. When we are ready to stop “trying” to do this, and will yield ourselves that we may be conformed to his death, then our trying may be changed to trusting, we can “leave the miracle to him,” and returning to the beautiful hymn whose first verse makes a bad start, we can sing with new meaning the opening lines of the third verse:
Walking by faith in the steps of our Saviour,
Upward, still upward, we’ll follow our Guide.
THE SECOND COMING AND VICTORY
The next great event in God’s program for the redemption of the world is the coming again to the earth of the Lord Jesus Christ. The last chapter of the Old Testament points forward to his second coming. The last recorded words of the Lord Jesus are his words of promise, “Surely, I come quickly,” in the last chapter of the New Testament. The last recorded prayer of God’s people in the Word is the answer of their heart to this promise, “Even so come, Lord Jesus.”
The last word of the Old Testament is the word “curse,”—“lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.” The central word of the last verse in the New Testament is “grace.” He will come with the judgments of his curse and with the revelation of his grace.
Are You Ready for His Coming?
Among the many signs that seem to point to the nearness of his coming there is none more striking than the movement of the Spirit in separating the children of God from the things of the world and making them hungry for the things of eternity. There are many sad evidences of falling away, and of increasing worldliness on the part of large masses of professing Christians, but these make all the more notable that deep hunger for victory in Christ and conformity to his likeness which increasing numbers of Christians are sharing. Is this the work of the Spirit in making a little flock ready for his coming? Are you ready?