The glorious hope of the Christian is the return of the Lord Jesus. "If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto Myself; that where I am, there ye may be also." This was His comforting promise. And it will have its fulfilment "in its own time."

So we are called to endurance "in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ" (Rev. 1:9). Our God is "the God of patience," and it is He who directs His own into His love and into the patience of Christ, while we wait for His coming again.

We are creatures of such brief life here, that we are apt to be impatient. But God is "the unhurried God." Everything serves His purpose, all is under His control and He will carry out His bright designs and work His sovereign will according to His own purposes of grace.

On the last page of our Bible we hear our Lord speaking of His sure and swift return. "Behold, I come quickly" (ver. 7); "Behold, I come quickly" (ver. 12), "Surely I come quickly" (ver. 20). In the first of these promises He speaks of our responsibility to keep His sayings. In the second He speaks of reward for service. In the last He speaks of Himself alone. As if answering the cry of the Spirit and the Bride of ver. 17, He says, "Yea, I come quickly." Then the answer springs from the hearts of His loved ones, "Yea! Come, Lord Jesus."

As we think of our responsibility or of reward, we cannot but feel how little we have answered to all that has been conferred upon us of blessing and privilege. Thus there is no answering cry in verses 7 and 12. But when He Himself alone is before the heart in glory and in grace, "the Root and Offspring of David, and the Bright and Morning Star," then the believer, jubilant in expectation, cries, "Even so, come, Lord Jesus."

This is our blessed ultimate, Himself, His presence, His return, and this truth is interwoven in all that concerns the Christian's course. It may be for profit to recall some of the instances where the Lord Himself speaks of His coming back and of the conduct which befits us in view of it.

In John 21, we are in company with the risen Son of God. He is about to leave His own and go to the Father. They are to remain awhile in the world where He has been rejected. He tells Peter of what his privilege will be, to suffer for His sake, and signifies what death he will die.

Peter, seeing John following, asks, "Lord, and what shall this man do?" "If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? Follow thou Me," was our Lord's reply. What John would do was the Lord's business. Peter's business was to follow.

FOLLOWING TILL HE COME

was what was to engage Peter in his life and pathway- and well he seems to have carried out this exhortation.

And are we not in danger of troubling ourselves about "the other man," and what course he will take. Our chief concern should be to see that we ourselves follow our Master's steps, as Peter, himself, tells us to do. "Take heed to thyself," echoes this injunction. The Lord will care for and direct the other man. We need not burden our thoughts concerning him, or curiously enquire as to what his service may be. It is ours patiently, persistently, to go on with our eye fixed upon Him "who has marked out the path that we tread."

The Gospel of John opens with followers. The Baptist's disciples leave him to follow Jesus upon whom they had looked "as He walked." The Lord knew what they were doing, and "turned and saw them following," and took them to abide with Him.

May it be so with us that we may be seen following until He call us to "Come and see" where He dwells in the Father's house, where His own presence has prepared the place for us. "If any man serve Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there shall also My servant be:if any man serve Me, him will My Father honor" (John 12:26). Blessed pathway ! Blessed prospect ! Blessed promise! Inglis Fleming

To be concluded (D.V.),by"Occupying,""Holding Fast," "Showing His Death Till He Come."