Practical Religion # 11

Self-Inquiry (continued)

10. Let me ask, in the tenth and last place, whether we know anything of being ready for Christ's second coming?

That He will come again the second time is as certain as anything in the Bible. The world has not yet seem the last Adam. As surely as He went up visibly, and in the body, on the Mount of Olives, before the eyes of His disciples, so surely will He come again in the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory (Acts 1:11).

He will come to raise the dead, to change the living, to reward His saints, to punish the wicked, to renew the earth, and take the curse away, - to purify the world, even as He purified the temple - and to set up a kingdom where sin shall have no place, and holiness shall be the universal rule. The creeds which we profess to believe continually declares that Christ is coming again.

The ancient Christians made it a part of their religion to look for His return. Backward they looked to the Cross and the atonement for sin, and rejoiced in Christ crucified.

Upward they looked to Christ at the right hand of God, and rejoiced in Christ interceding. Forward they looked to the promised return of their Master, and rejoiced in the thought that they would see Him again. And we ought to do the same.

What have we really got from Christ? and what do we know of Him? and what do we think of Him? Are we living as if we long to see Him again, and love His appearing? Readiness for that appearing is nothing more than being a real, consistent Christian. It requires no man to cease from his daily business. The farmer need not give up his farm, nor the shopkeeper his counter, nor the doctor his patients, nor the carpenter his hammer and nails, nor the bricklayer his mortar and trowel, not the blacksmith his smithy. Each and all cannot do better than be found doing his duty, but doing it as a Christian, and with a heart packed up and ready to be gone. In the face of truth like this no reader can feel surprised if I ask, How is it with our souls in the matter of Christ's second coming? The world is growing old and running to seed. The vast majority of Christians seem like the men in the time of Noah and Lot, who were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, planting and building, up to the very day when flood and fire came. Those words of our Master are very solemn and heart-searching, "Remember Lot's wife," - "Take heed lest at any time your heart be overcharged with the cares of this life, and that day come upon you unawares." (Luke 17:32; 26:34). Once more I ask, - In the matter of readiness for Christ's second coming, "How do we do?"

I end my inquiries here. I might easily add to them; but I trust I have said enough, at the beginning of this volume, to stire up self-inquiry and self-examination in many minds. God is my witness that I have said nothing that I do not feel of paramount importance to my own soul. I only want to do good to others. Let me now conclude all with a few words of practical application.

~J. C. Ryle~

(continued with # 12)