“First of all, how will He come? While Jesus, who had led His disciples out of the city, was in the act of blessing them, He suddenly rose before their eyes, and a cloud received Him out of their sight. Have you ever thought of this fact, beloved, that the cloud itself was a miracle? Whoever heard of a cloud at that special period of the year, in Palestine? And I very much doubt if anyone, save the apostles, in all the country round about, saw that cloud. If you ask me what I think the cloud was, I should be inclined to refer you to the 24th Psalm, and say that the cloud was composed of the angel-convoy, who, like a guard of honour, escorted the Lord back to glory, crying, as they neared the gates of the celestial city, ‘Lift up your heads, oh, ye gates, and let the King of Glory come in!”
“He went away in a cloud. The angels, addressing the amazed disciples declared to them that ‘He would so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go.’
“It may be that to the letter that will be fulfilled, and that our Lord’s return for His Church will be in an actual cloud. I think it is probable it will. Anyway, we know that He will come ‘in the air,’ for Paul, to whom was given, by God, the privilege of revealing to His Church the great mystery of the second coming of our Lord, and who said, in this connection:
“‘Behold, I show you a mystery: we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye,’ when writing more explicitly to the church at Thessalonica, said:
“‘For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air; and so shall ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words.’
“Now, beloved, can any words be plainer, simpler, than these of Paul’s, forming, as they do, the climax to all that has gone before in the New Testament. Jesus had Himself said,
“‘I will come again and receive you unto Myself.’
“The angels said,
“‘In like manner as ye have seen Him go, He shall come again,’ and now Paul amplifies this manner of His coming, while, at the same time, he emphasizes the fact of that return.