Let us consider briefly the style in which the Lord’s coming for His saints will be effected. We
read in 1 Thessalonians 4:16 that "the Lord Himself shall descend." Why that? Could He not
commit it to others? Could He not speak the word from the throne above and never leave it?
Surely, in one sense, He could have. But how it should stir our poor, slow hearts to see, when the
time of His patience is over, how His heart comes out in the action here. He must come Himself
out of the gate of heaven; and so we rush out, forgetting all slow formality, to greet the approach
of a dear and intimate and long-absent Friend. His voice must greet us first of all; His must be the
shout that breaks the slumber of the grave, and brings out its tenants. All is accomplished in a
moment; delay is at an end. And this is the fitting introduction to the end which alone satisfies
Him whose time has come to see the fruit "of the travail of His soul" (Isa. 53:11). "So shall we
ever be with the Lord" (1 Thess. 4:17).

(From "The First Resurrection and the Body That Shall Be" in Leaves from the Book.)