"This same Jesus shall so come in like manner as He went into heaven" (Acts 1:9-11).

There is no question that when the bride is all complete the Bridegroom will return and receive her to himself; and what we have to do, is to comfort ourselves with the hope that our Lord will surely come again. And in the full assurance that the day of the manifestation of the sons of God is coming, we are patiently to bear the cross now. We should comfort ourselves with the certainty that "He that shall come will come, and will not tarry;" and if He tarry yet a little longer, to hold fast what the Lord has taught us, and lay out ourselves to win souls for Christ, remembering that it is through long suffering to the perishing that He tarries.

Some may say, "Why make so much of the coming of the Lord?" Is not death the same thing, for it is our going to Him?" I once thought so myself; but I was led to see that there is a vast difference between the two. The hope of the Church is not death, but the return of the Lord. If I am taken out of the world by death, I myself shall be happy so far as regards the soul, but I shall not yet have my glorified, my redeemed body. But when the Lord comes, the whole family is brought into happiness and blessedness-the whole family gathered home! Then will be "the resurrection of the just," "the first resurrection;" then the whole elect family will receive their glorified bodies. Death has to do with partial happiness of the individual believer; but the coming of the Lord has to do with the complete happiness of the whole redeemed family.

So you see there is a vast difference between the two events as to the hope connected with them; and we must not yield to statements that are made to the contrary. We must be guided by the Word of God, and not frame our own notions about these things, nor follow the notions of even good people around, if their thoughts are not according to the Word of God. "The morning cometh"- "a morning without clouds," of a day which will never end, in which the whole heavenly family will share together eternal happiness.
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