There is a very definite feeling amongst the people of God that the day of grace is about to close. In the words of the prophet we may say. "The day goeth away, for the shadows of the evening are stretched out." For the Christian, we may add, in the words of the Apostle "The night is far spent, the day is at hand".

Even men of the world have a vague uneasy feeling that some great crisis is approaching. What form it will take, and how to meet it they know not. Christians, however, with the Bible in their hands, Christ in the heart, and the Holy Spirit to guide, are not left in darkness. They know that Christ is coming, and that His coming is very near. We realise in some measure the deep need of this sad world, and we know that all the efforts of men to meet that need will be in vain. Kings and Dictators, Parliaments and Committees, may for a time and in some limited measure, relieve local distress, but they cannot remove the universal misery of a world under sin and death. Neither conferences and leagues, nor treaties and pacts, will end the sorrows of the Jew, the misgovernment of the Gentile, nor the corruptions of Christendom.

There is only One who can deal with all the evil, end the sorrows of the earth, hush creation's groan maintain the glory of God, and bring in universal blessing for man. Whether realised or not, the great need of the Jew, the Gentile, and the Church, is the coming of Christ

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These are the stages on our way to glory. First the meeting with the Lord in the air; then to pass in to the joys of the Father's house; lastly to come with Christ to share His Kingdom and His throne.

This then is the blessed hope that lies before us; The joy of the Lord's presence. The fulness of the Father's house, and The glory of the everlasting kingdom.

We may add, in the great eternity beyond there lies the eternal state in the new heaven and the new earth where God will be all in all.

Seeing then that we wait for these coming glories, we may well say, "What manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God."