XXIV.

HIS SECOND COMING.

They shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven ... and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn.--_Matt._ xxiv. 30.

Dearest Lord, is there a sadder word than this in the whole of the written Word? Did a sadder ever fall from Your sacred lips? That when You come again to finish the work of redemption by the destruction of the last enemy, death; to gather to Yourself those for whose salvation You came down from heaven, and were incarnate, and suffered, and died, and founded Your Church, and gave Your sacraments; those whom You bade to watch and wait for You and lift up their heads at Your coming; that when at last You come, this shall be Your reception--“_then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn_”!

What an awful testimony to the decay of truth among the children of men, to the unchristianising of the world! “_All the tribes of the earth_,” as if the elect would be but as the ears of corn left on the field after the harvesting. O Messiah, so long promised, so earnestly expected--is this the return of those to whom You were sent, among whom You have lived as one of themselves, for whom You have sacrificed everything You took from our nature?

“They shall see the Son of Man coming”--not now in the midnight silence as once to Mary, not hidden under lowly accidents as through long centuries upon the altar, but “in great power and majesty,” “the King in His beauty,” revealed to every eye. “_And then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn._”

* * * * *

The awfulness of these words must have struck the Twelve as they sat about Your feet that day on Olivet looking down upon Josaphat, for John re-echoed them from Patmos half a century later: “Behold, He cometh with the clouds, and every eye shall see Him.... And all the tribes of the earth shall bewail themselves because of Him.”[77]

How our hearts would sink within us were it not for those other words equally with these the words of truth: “He shall send His angels to gather together His elect from the four winds, from the uttermost part of the earth, to the uttermost part of heaven.”[78] From every corner of the earth will those blessed ones come trooping in--“a great multitude, which no man can number, of all nations, and tribes, and peoples, and tongues”.[79]

Lord Jesus! Who would not desire with desire to be one of that great multitude, were it only to console Your Heart for the losses of that day! Let this happiness be mine, and that of as many as can be reached by the utmost stretching of Your mercy, the fullest and farthest flowing of Your precious Blood!

Quaerens me sedisti lassus, Redemisti crucem passus: Tantus labor non sit cassus.

Have mercy, O Lord, on all the tribes of earth, that they may not perish, nor bewail themselves because of You when You come to judgment. Have mercy, that when the day of the Lord, that dreadful day shall come, the number of the elect may be multiplied, and the thirst of Your Heart appeased.

[77] Apoc. i.

[78] Mark xiii.

[79] Apoc. vii.