Morning, October 15, edited from Spurgeon’s Morning and Evening

“But who can endure the day of His coming?” — Malachi 3:2

His first coming was without external pageantry or show of power, and yet in truth there were few who could abide its mighty testing. Herod and all Jerusalem with him were stirred at the news of the wondrous birth. Those who supposed themselves to be waiting for him, showed the fallacy of their allegiance by rejecting him when he came. His life on earth was a winnowing fan, which tried the great seed pile of religious profession, and few could stand the process. But what will his second arrival be? What sinner can endure to think of it? “He will strike the earth with the rod of His mouth, and with the breath of His lips He will slay the wicked.” When in his humiliation he only said to the soldiers, “I am he,” they fell backward; what will be the terror of his enemies when he shall more fully reveal himself as the great “I am?” His death shook earth and darkened heaven, what shall be the dreadful splendor of that day in which as the living Savior, he shall summon the living and dead before him? O that the terrors of the Lord would persuade men to forsake their sins and give worship to the Son, that He not become angry! Though a lamb, he is even still the lion of the tribe of Judah, rending the prey in pieces; and though he does not break the bruised reed, he will break his enemies with a rod of iron, and dash them in pieces like a piece of pottery. None of his foes shall bear up before the storm of his wrath, or hide themselves from the sweeping hail of his indignation; but his beloved blood-washed people look for his appearing with joy, and hope to accept it without fear; to them he sits as a refiner even now, and when he has tried them they shall come forth as gold. Let us search ourselves this morning and make sure of our calling and election, so that the coming of the Lord may cause no dark premonitions in our mind. O for grace to cast away all hypocrisy, and to be found of him sincere and without reproach in the day of his appearing.