THE KING’S BUSINESS
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riage a beautiful girl in his church to an officer in the United States army. Very soon after the marriage this officer was sent to a new post where he was not permitted to take his bride with him. As he left her in obedience to the government, he said to comfort her, “ I will come back soon. I do not know how soon. These appointments are often brief. It may be for a day; it may be for a longer time, but not for a very long time.” During his absence, he wrote her many letters telling her o f his love. He sent her beautiful gifts as tokens of his love. One day she sat in the parlor with a letter in her hand that she had just received from him and looking through the box of beautiful gifts he had sent her. Sud denly, she heard a sound at the door, she heard a familiar footstep; looking up, there he stood in the door; she threw down the letter, stumbled over the box, scattered the gifts, ran to him and was clasped to his heart. What did she care for letters and gifts, she had himself. And the day is not very far away when we shall have, not merely those treasured mes sages from Christ that we find in the Bible and when we shall have not merely the many wondrous gifts of His grace, but when we shall have the Lord Himself. Third, Our Lord’s coming again will he bodily and visible. We read in Acts 1 :11, “ This same Jesus which is taken up from you into heaven shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.” Now our Lord went up into heaven before their eyes, visibly and bodily, and so He will come again. I was once on the Council examining a brother minister for installation. The man was thoroughly orthodox on all the fundamental doctrines. In the course of the examination I put to him the question, “Do you believe in the oer-
how any one who really loved the Lord could write these words. It is not merely social improvements that we need and long for, it is not even the messages and gifts o f grace of our Lord that we long for; the one who really loves his Lord longs for the Lord Himself. Suppose when I go East in a few weeks I should say to my wife, “ I am coming back again and I wish you to be watching for my return.” She certainly would be watching for it and longing for it without my telling her to. Every day during my absence I write her a letter full of expressions of my love to her. Now and then I send her some beautiful gift as a token of my remembrance, but all the while she is watching for me. Some day a friend comes in and says to her, “ Is your husband coming back again ?” “ Yes, certainly.” “ When is he com ing back ?” ‘I d o . not know but I trust soon.” “Why do you believe he is coming back?” “ Oh, he said he would.” Then suppose this friend should say “ He did not meah he was coming back personally. . You must not expect him to return personally. Is he not writing you frequent letters, and sending you gifts as tokens of his love now and then?” “ Yes.” “Well, what he meant was that you must ‘see him and be satisfied with him as coming more and more’ in these letters which he is writing vou and these gifts which he is sending you.” What do you think my wife would say ? I know well what she would say. Her eyes would flash with indignation and she would say, “ T do not want his letters and his gifts. I want himself.” And the true believer wants the Lord Himself and it is the Lord Jesus Himself we are going to have. “ The Lord Himself * shall come; “ this very Jesus” will come. The late Dr. James H. Brooks of St. Louis, once united in mar
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