“2. ‘Voice of the archangel.’
“3. ‘The trump of God.’
“But leaving that, again I would emphasize this truth, that it is only the trained ear of the spiritually-awakened soul which ever hears the call of God. We believe that all Scripture teaches the secrecy as well as the suddenness of the rapture of the church.
“In all the many appearances of the risen, resurrected Lord Jesus, during the many weeks between the resurrection and the ascension, even though, on one occasion, at least, He was seen by 500 disciples at once, yet there is no hint, either in the Word of God or in the records of history of that time, that Jesus was ever seen by the eye of an unbeliever. And depend upon it, no eye will see, no ear will hear Him, when He comes again, save those who are in Christ.
“‘The world seeth Me no more’ our Lord said, ‘but ye see Me.’ ‘Him God raised up the third day, and gave Him to be made manifest, not to all the people, but unto witnesses that were chosen before God, even to us who did eat and drink with Him after He rose from the dead.’
“When the voice of the Father came from heaven, witnessing to Jesus’ truth, the people that stood by failed to hear it as a voice, but exclaimed,—‘It thunders.’ In the case of Paul on the way to Damascus, those with him heard nothing understandable.
“Enoch was taken secretly. Noah was shut into the ark before the flood came. Only Israel, at Sinai, and not the surrounding nations, understood those awful physical manifestations of God’s power. Elijah was taken secretly. The nation neither saw nor heard anything of it.
“When will He come? I do not know; no one knows exactly; but this we do know, from the Word of God—that nothing remains to be fulfilled before He comes. He may come before this meeting closes. Again we know by every sign of the times that His coming can not now be delayed much longer.
“Now to a very important feature as to the truth of the second coming of the Lord. There are many who argue that such teaching will tend to make the Christian worker careless of his work, his life, etc. There was never a more foolish argument advanced.
“First take a concrete illustration that gives the flat denial to it—namely, that the most spiritual-minded workers, at home and abroad, are those whose hearts (not heads only) are saturated with, not the doctrine merely, but the expectancy of their Lord’s near return. Then, too, every such worker finds an incentive to redoubled service in the remembrance that every soul saved through their instrumentality brings the Lord’s return nearer—‘hasting His coming’—since, when the last unit composing His Church has been gathered in, He will come.