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pleased rather to be absent from the body and present with

the Lord”. There was nothing in him that he knew of that was

left unsettled. He was looking forward to being with the Lord;

the judgment-seat of Christ was an up-to-date matter with him;

he was “zealous, whether present or absent, to be agreeable

to him”.

In 2 Timothy 4 Paul is looking for the appearing. He speaks of

“all who love his appearing”.

What a day that will be, dear brethren, what a day! Do you

long for it? Tomorrow morning, if the Lord will, we shall

remember Him in the Supper. I like to think as I remember Him

at the Supper of His appearing. When He appears the whole

scene will change. Do you not long, beloved, to see Him

honoured? He will appear to a world whose last words were.

Away with Him; crucify Him; we will not have this Man! Ah! as

He appears the whole world will be subject to Him; indeed

there is the suggestion that the whole scene will arise in tribute

to Him, the Lamb that had been slain. We long for His public

vindication.

We long that that One who has done so much, that One who is

so great, may be publicly adored. It says, “all who love his

appearing”; we bear the rebuffs for the moment; the Lord

bears them; how He feels them! Paul is speaking here of what

will be in that day in the way of reward “to all who love his

appearing”.

May the bearing of these things affect us practically in our

circumstances here. Peter was affected by them. He had

already seen the Lord in His glory. He speaks in chapter 1 of

some “having been eyewitnesses of his majesty” (2 Peter 1:

16). He saw something of that glorious One. It says His

garments became white, and as he speaks about it in his

epistle Peter says, We have not followed cleverly imagined

fables. We are tested as to the substantiality of these things,

beloved. How substantial are they to me—the rapture—the