_Would_ that we more constantly lived under the realising power of this elevating thought--"Soon my Lord will come!" "Of the times and the seasons ye need not that I write unto you." It is not for us to dogmatize on the unrevealed period of the "glorious appearing." The millennial trumpet may in all probability sound over our slumbering dust--the millennial sun shine on the turf which may for centuries have covered our graves!--But _who_, on the other hand, dare venture to question the _possibility_ of the nearer alternative?--that the Judge may be "standing before the door"--the shadow of the Advent Throne even now projected on an unthinking and unbelieving world! "He that _shall_ come _will_ come, and will not tarry!"--Although it be true that eighteen hundred years have elapsed since that utterance was made, and still no gleam of the coming morning streaks the horizon--although the calculations and longing expectations of the Church have hitherto only issued in successive disappointments, yet the hour _is_ nearing! As grain by grain drops in Time's sand-glass, it gives new significance and truthfulness to the Divine monition--"Behold, I come quickly!" Ah! if He _may_ come _soon_--if He MUST come at some time, how shall I meet Him? Will it be with joy? Am I shaping my course in life--my plans--my schemes--my wishes with what I feel would be in accordance with His will? Am I conscious of doing nothing that would lead me to be ashamed before Him at His coming? It would save many a perplexity--it would soothe many a heart-ache, and dry many a tear--if we were to make this great culminating event in the world's history, with all its elevating motives, more our guide and regulator than we do;--living each day, and _all_ our days, as if _possibly_ the very next hour might disclose "the sign of the Son of Man in the midst of the Heavens!" Not building our nests too fondly here--not too anxious to nestle in creature comforts, but occupying faithfully the talents to be traded on which He has committed to our stewardship; straining the eye of faith, like the mother of Sisera, for His approaching chariot; and amid our griefs, and separations, and sorrows, listening to the sublime inspired antidote--"Stablish your hearts, FOR _the coming of the Lord draweth nigh_."