"Are you ready, waiting for the Lord?
See, the signs proclaim him near;
In the awful thunders of his Word,
Now his coming steps we hear.
"Now are many running to and fro,
Spreading holiness around;
And the evening light begins to glow,
Soon we'll hear the trumpet's sound.
"Hark! the solemn warning unto all,
Judgment's coming, oh, how soon!
Flee, O man, at Mercy's final call,
Heaven trembles at your doom.
"Christ is coming, oh, the heavenly sight!
Our Beloved can't delay,
For his bride is robed in snowy white,
Ready for the marriage-day."
Amen. "Even so come, Lord Jesus." Then will appear the great "Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending." In the beginning he "created the heaven and the earth." In the end, John said, "I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea." In the beginning Satan entered the domain of God's people to deceive and destroy. In the end he is cast out, and will deceive the nations no more. In the beginning sickness, pain, sorrow, and wretchedness found entrance to the world. In the end "God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away." In the beginning the people of earth were placed under the iron hand of death, who has claimed his teeming millions. In the end, "I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God.... And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them ... and death and hell were cast into the lake of fire." In the beginning was a blooming garden containing the tree of immortal life. In the end we find the tree of life again "in the midst of the Paradise of God." In the beginning a curse was placed upon this earth. In the world to come "there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it." In the beginning the first Adam lost his universal dominion over the earth. In the end we find Jesus Christ, the second Adam, crowned King of kings and Lord of lords, and reigning in triumph and glory forever. In the beginning man was barred from the tree of life and driven from the garden of Eden. In the end, "Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city."