"Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning; and ye yourselves like unto men that
wait for their lord, when he will return from the wedding; that when he cometh and knocketh,
they may open unto him immediately. Blessed are those servants, whom the lord when he cometh
shall find watching" (Luke 12:35-37).

Here is the proper attitude of the Christian. Is it yours? He Himself is the test beyond all else. It
is not consistent with faith to be concerned with anxiety about the things that perish. It is well to
be of good cheer, knowing His love and His purpose of glory for the little flock, tried and exposed
as it now is. But to be like men that wait for their own lord is a still more positive and decisive
test. It presupposes in a personal way faith working by love. Their treasure is in the heavens
where He is. They love Him because He first loved them. They do not forget Him in His absence;
they are not merely occupied with their work, for indeed their loins were girt about and their
lamps burning, but themselves are awaiting their own Lord. Nor again were they discussing dates,
nor were they on the lookout for political change, nor did they have their eyes fixed on signs in
the sun, moon, and stars. The Christian watches for Christ. Christ, the believer’s life, his
righteousness, his Saviour, his Lord, is gone with the promise of coming to receive him to
Himself. We know not how soon this will be, but we have His last message which proclaims that
He is coming quickly (Rev. 22:20).

Therefore, we would not doubt, but wait, content with the Word of Him who is the Truth and the
Faithful and True Witness. Long as it may seem, He is not slack concerning His promise, as some
count slackness, "but is longsuffering towards you, not willing that any should perish, but that all
should come to repentance" (2 Peter 3:9 JND). As He is waiting, so should we be waiting; and
thus we keep the word of His patience and assure our hearts in the bright hope. Is He not worthy?
is not the hope well worth the while? and is it not deep consolation that meanwhile many hear His
voice, believe in His name, and thus join us in waiting for Him?

O my reader, if it be not so with you, where are you, and what are you doing? You well know
whether you are waiting for the Lord Jesus; surely others, even the world, can accurately judge
whether this is your habitual attitude. The Lord recognizes no other object of hope in His own.
This is also the chief responsibility as His bondmen. Be assured that other duties will be done all
the better, because this has the first and constant place. Read all the New Testament and see if this
hope be not bound up with every joy and sorrow, with the walk and work and worship of the
Christian, who found in Him the Object of faith when he was a lost sinner, and now as a saint has
none other as his Hope. If you believe in Him, be not untrue to Him as your Hope, but judge
yourself in every thing that hinders your waiting for Him day by day.

(From The Bible Treasury, Vol. 1, New Series, page 292.)

FRAGMENT
How long, O heavenly Bridegroom,
How long wilt Thou delay?
And yet how few are grieving

That Thou dost absent stay!
O may our lamps be burning,
Our loins well girded be,
Each longing heart preparing
With joy Thy face to see!

"For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things
done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad" (2 Cor. 5:10).

This is clearly applicable to either a believer or an unbeliever.* An unbeliever has nothing but
what is bad, nothing but unmingled evil to his record. He who despises the name and precious
blood of Christ is judged and cast into the lake of fire.

*Ed. Note:For the unbeliever, this will be the judgment of the great white throne (Rev. 20:11),
which will occur a thousand years after the manifestation of believers at the judgment seat of
Christ.

In the believer, on the other hand, there is both good and bad. The Lord will fully own and reward
whatever has been the fruit of the Holy Spirit working in the believer’s soul and in his ways. But
as to the bad, it will be the believer’s own deep and thankful satisfaction, not merely to know it
blotted out as a matter of guilt against his soul, but to find himself brought into perfect communion
with the Lord about it. He will thoroughly see and judge according to God concerning it all. If
there has been a single thing offensive to God which self-love or haste or will has blinded him to
in this life, he will then know it even as he is known. So far from causing a single waver in his
affections, so far from raising any doubt or question of God’s perfect grace to his soul, it would
be positive loss if the believer were not thus brought into oneness with

God’s mind and judgment about all that he has done here. Even in this life we know something
analogous. No doubt all of us who have passed any time in the Lord’s paths have experienced
what it is to be laid aside for a season_to have the Lord speaking to us and calling up before our
souls that which we had too lightly thought of, or wholly passed by. Surely there is a great deal
of unjudged and unsuspected fleshliness and worldliness in the ways and testimony of those that
love the Lord. Now, would it be for the Lord’s glory if these things were not noticed by Him at
any time? Even in this life He often sends circumstances of sorrow, want, sickness, or
disappointment in order to raise needed questions concerning the health of the soul.

The judgment seat of Christ is a part of God’s necessary ways with His children. Its principle is
true even now, for we are expressly told by the apostle Peter that the Father judges now. Is this
opposed to His love? Surely not! Neither will it be so then. Perfect love will have brought us into
that plate, for in what condition shall we stand there? Before we are manifested at the judgment
seat of Christ, He will have come for us and presented us in His Father’s house in pure, simple,
absolute grace. We shall appear there already glorified, and as our bodies will be like that of
Christ, we shall be incapable of that natural shame which might be a pain to us here in this life.
We shall then feel entirely with Christ, and consequently be thoroughly above that which will be
disclosed there. All will justify His ways, though it be humbling to us; but we shall only rejoice
in Him and exalt Him.

The effect of our manifestation before the judgment seat of Christ will be to produce within us an
infinitely deep appreciation of the grace of God and a profound delight in all His ways and

ends_and above all in Himself. It will also give us a deep sense of what our lives on earth have
really been in His sight_the various ways and degrees in which self has wrought here below. God
forbid that any one should count such a manifestation a loss, grief, or danger to be dreaded. Even
here in this present life we know the measure of it to be gain; what will it be then and there?

(From Lectures on the Second Coming of the Lord.)

"Let us be glad and rejoice and give honor to Him:for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and His
wife hath made herself ready" (Rev. 19:7). This great event is the consummation of joy to Christ
as Man. It is not called the marriage of the bride, but the marriage of the Lord. It is His joy that
is especially in view, not ours. The marriage, of which no details are given, takes place in heaven
and on the eve of the Lord’s return in power, several years subsequent to the rapture (1 Thess.
4; John 14:3). The marriage is the disclosed secret of Ephesians 5:32. Not Israel, nor a remnant
thereof, but the Church of the New Testament is the bride.

We read in Ephesians 5:25-27 that Christ has loved the Church with a deathless and unchangeable
love, a love ever active and knowing no cessation till He presents her in glory to Himself. The
Church has weathered many a storm, has longed for her heavenly Bridegroom through cloud and
sunshine, has in conjunction with the Spirit on earth often cried to Him, the Bright and Morning
Star, saying, "Come" (Rev. 22:16,17). We who have had our place in the Father’s house,
according to John 14:3, are about to be displayed in the kingdom as the bride and wife of the
Lamb. What a moment of joy! His glory and joy exceedeth. More of the oil of gladness is poured
upon His head than upon ours (Heb. 1:9). Our place, our blessing, our gladness are wrapped up
in His. "The marriage of the Lamb is come." Then shall He who died "see of the travail of His
soul and … be satisfied" (Isaiah 53:11).

"His wife hath made herself ready." There are two sorts of fitness, and the Church is the subject
of both. First, God in the exercise of His sovereign grace makes one fit for heavenly glory, as we
read, "Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance
of the saints in light" (Col. 1:12). Second, believers have to make them-selves ready before they
enter on their eternal glory:that is, the story of our lives on earth has to be gone over again in the
presence of Him who is Light. Our lives have to be reviewed at the judgment seat of Christ (2
Cor. 5:10). The light of the throne will be cast over and upon every moment of our lives,
discovering the hidden, and bringing out the true character of every act, word, and service. From
the judgment seat with its searching light we shall then pass into the loved presence of the Lamb
as His bride and wife for ever.

(From Exposition of the Revelation of Jesus Christ.)

"And it came to pass in the four hundred and eightieth year after the children of Israel were come
out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon’s reign over Israel, in the month Zif,
which is the second month, that he began to build the house of the Lord" (1 Kings 6:1).

There can be no mistake in the understanding of this statement. It is very clear. However, when
we look at other Scriptures in the Books of Acts and 1 Kings, we discover that from Egypt to
Solomon there are not 480 but 573 years. Let us read these verses and examine this apparent
contradiction, for 1 believe we shall find blessing in looking into the matter.

In Acts 13:17-22 we read:"The God of this people of Israel chose our fathers, and exalted the
people when they dwelt as strangers in the land of Egypt, and with an high arm brought He them
out of it. And about the time of forty years suffered He their manners in the wilderness. . . . And
after that He gave unto them judges about the space of four hundred and fifty years, until Samuel
the prophet. And afterward they desired a king:and God gave unto them Saul the son of Cis, a
man of the tribe of Benjamin, by the space of forty years. And when He had removed him, He
raised up unto them David to be their king." This passage shows that a total of 530 (40 + 450 +
40) years elapsed between the exodus from Egypt and the completion of King Saul’s reign. Adding
to this the forty-year reign of King David (1 Kings 2:11) and the three years completed in
Solomon’s reign at the time of 1 Kings 6:1, we have a total of 573 years.

According to the inspired Word of God, there are 573 years between the departure of Israel from
Egypt to the fourth year of Solomon’s reign. Yet we have seen in that same inspired record that
there are 480 years. Where are we going to get light about the 93 years difference?

Let us read several passages in the Book of Judges:"And the children of Israel did evil in the sight
of the Lord, and forgot the Lord their God, and served Baalim and the groves. Therefore the
anger of the Lord was hot against Israel, and He sold them into the hand of Chushan-rishathaim
king of Mesopotamia:and the children of Israel served Chushan-rishathaim eight years" (Judges
3:7,8).

"And the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the Lord:and the Lord strengthened
Eglon the king of Moab against Israel, because they had done evil in the sight of the Lord. And
he gathered unto him the children of Ammon and Amalek, and went and smote Israel, and
possessed the city of palm trees. So the children of Israel served Eglon the king of Moab eighteen
years" (Judges 3:12-14).

"And the children of Israel again did evil in the sight of the Lord, when Ehud was dead. And the
Lord sold them into the hand of Jabin king of Canaan, that reigned in Hazor; . . . and twenty years
he mightily oppressed the children of Israel" (Judges 4:1-3).

"And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord:and the Lord delivered them into the
hand of Midian seven years" (Judges 6:1).

"And the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the Lord; and the Lord delivered them
into the hand of the Philistines forty years" (Judges 13:1).

Summing up these five captivities, we find a total of exactly 93 years!

Job says, "Doth not He see my ways, and count all my steps?" (Job 31:4). God goes over the
whole history_573 years_and finds 93 years altogether in which his people were away from
Him. He would not count the time when His people were out of their right place, and therefore
in 1 Kings 6:1 the total of 480 years is given. What a solemn lesson for us all!

The lesson reminds us that at the judgment seat of Christ our whole life history will be reviewed.
All of the time in which we have walked at a distance from the Lord will be deducted from our
account at the judgment seat.

A brother said to me once, "1 see now, as 1 have never seen it before that the judgment seat of
Christ is going to be pay day for believers. 1 had been absent from my work two weeks and on
the monthly pay day 1 went down to get my wages. They handed me the slip and there were just
two weeks of time. There was not a word said about the two weeks 1 was away from my right
place. 1 see now that at the judgment seat of Christ it is pay day for the believer."

Every day, every hour, every moment that is spent out of communion with the Lord, He is going
to deduct from your time and you will get no reward for it. How much of our time, dear brethren,
is being spent in the presence of the Lord and to His honor and glory?

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.)

"I come quickly" is announced by the Lord three times in Revelation 22. But different words of
warning and encouragement accompany this voice.

1."Behold I come quickly:blessed is he that keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this
book"(verse 7). This warns us that, while we are waiting for Him, we must do so with watchful,
obedient, observant minds, heedful of His words.

2. "Behold, I come quickly; and My reward is with Me, to give every man according as his work
shall be" (verse 12). This encourages to diligence, telling us that by the occupation of our talents
now during His absence, on the promised and expected return He will have honors to impart to
us.

3. "Surely I come quickly" (verse 20). This is a simple promise. It is neither a warning nor an
encouragement. Nothing accompanies the announcement, as in the other cases. It is, simply a
promise that He Himself is coming again. But it is the highest and the dearest thing. The heart may
be silent before a warning and before an encouragement; such words may get their audience in
secret from the conscience. But this promise of the simple personal return of Christ gets its answer
from the saints:"Amen. Even so, come Lord Jesus" (verse 20).

Thus the Lord’s own voice, in these different and striking announcements, encourages the saints
to maintain the attitude of waiting for Him.

(From The Bible Treasury, Vol. 15, page 142.)

A recent University of Maryland newsletter described a section of Baltimore known as Little
Lithuania. Lithuanians are known for their love of their native land (part of the Soviet Union since
World War II) and their desire for its independence. One couple was mentioned in the newsletter
"who buy food on a day-to-day basis, awaiting word that Lithuania has been freed."

This couple reminds us in several ways of the attitude which should characterize Christians who
are awaiting their Lord’s return. First, they are ready to leave at a moment’s notice. They have
arranged their lives so that there will be nothing to detain them when the good news arrives. We
are not advocating buying food on a day-to-day basis, but we do think Christians should examine
their way of life in view of the hope of the Lord’s imminent return. Are we accumulating earthly
treasure at the expense of the heavenly? Would our sudden departure cause others to suffer loss,
financially or otherwise? Are we "redeeming the time" so that we can leave quickly without
regret? Would we be leaving behind any unfinished work due to procrastination, such as giving
a gospel tract to an unsaved acquaintance, or confessing and making restitution for an offense
toward a neighbor?

Second, the Lithuanian couple evidently have made no emotional commitment to this country.
Their heart is still in Lithuania. No doubt they obey the laws and pay their taxes, but they are not
worried about the future of the United States nor are their interests involved in the activities going
on here. Surely we should live in this world as "strangers and pilgrims" (Heb. 11:13), honoring
the authorities, but not actively getting involved in directing the worldly course of events. Our
hearts should be in heaven where we long to be as soon as the Lord wills.

Finally, their hope has never wavered although it has been deferred many years. No doubt, many
have said to this couple, "You know it will be many years before Lithuania is free, if ever. Why
don’t you relax and enjoy yourselves?" Perhaps even some of their fellow expatriates consider
them eccentric. Many in the world today are saying that the Lord’s coming is wishful thinking.
Even some professed Christians have given up this hope or say that He will not come until certain
events have occurred. Many of those who say they believe in the Lord’s coming live as if they do
not. We should guard diligently against being influenced by these attitudes. Let us not waver in
our hope nor in the practical expression of this hope in our lives.