August 25

The trumpet shall sound, and the dead, shall be raised. - 1 Corinthians 15:52.

ERE long shall be heard the voice of the archangel and the trump of God. “For the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised.” Oh that we now could realize that awful scene! When the dead are slumbering in their graves, and the living are regardless of eternity; while the scoffer asks, “Where is the promise of his coming?” when there is no more appearance of its approach than there was of the destruction of Sodom, or of the general deluge; when many are asleep in their beds, dreaming of happiness and peace; while some are forming plans of avarice, and others parties of pleasure; while some are marrying and given in marriage, and others have just sat down to the card-table; when one has just taken up a pen to write to a friend, the pen drops, the hand becomes immortalized, the clangor of the trump of God, louder than ten thousand trumpets, announces that God himself has come! Ah, he is come, then!

Some rejoice at the sound, but all must hear it. Oh, if we could realize this scene now! What manner of persons should we then be, in all holy conversation and godliness looking for and hastening unto the coming of the day of the Lord, “when the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also, and all the works that are therein, shall be burnt up.” He that will then be on a throne of wrath is now on a throne of mercy. “Blessed are our eyes, for they see; and our ears, for they hear.” Some have heard the sound of the jubilee-trumpet, and have come: they have dedicated themselves to God; they have found,-

“There is no joy compared to this,

To serve and please the Lord.”

What are they doing? Surely they are giving thanks unto him who hath called them out of darkness into light, who hath made them meet to be partakers with the saints in light. Surely they are endeavouring to bring others into the same condition. They know what the meaning of distance from God is, seeing they were once in that state and ready to perish. They know what it is to come to God by Jesus Christ. They, therefore, are the people to whom we look. They can speak with confidence, with feeling, with effect. Surely they will speak. “Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good.”

“Oh, ’tis a godlike privilege to save.”

And the Apostle James says, “If any of you do err from the truth, and one convert him, let him know that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins.”