A Vision of the Latter-Day Glories — C.H. Spurgeon

The Prince of Preachers Charles Haddon Spurgeon has been called England's greatest contribution to the spread of the gospel in the 19th century. One of his contemporaries said that the chief secret of Spurgeon's attractiveness was the fact that in every sermon, no matter what the text or the occasion, he explained the way of salvation in simple terms.

Spurgeon's messages remain one of the great treasure houses of Christian literature, still bringing the light of the gospel and the comfort of the scriptures to hungry souls long after the preacher has passed into glory.

This is Charles Kelsch inviting you to listen to a message from the Prince of Preachers. C .H. Spurgeon preached this message on April 24, 1859, in the Music Hall of the Royal Surrey Gardens. It is entitled, A Vision of the Latter Day Glories.

The Prophetic Vision of Zion's Future Glory

The text is found in two passages, Isaiah 2 .2 and Micah 4 .1. And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills, and all nations shall flow unto it.

The prophets of God were anciently called seers, for they had a supernatural sight which could pierce through the gloom of the future, and behold the things which are not seen as yet, but which God hath ordained for the last times.

They frequently described what they saw with spiritual eyes, after the form or fashion of something which could be seen by the eye of nature. The vision was so substantial that they could picture it in words, so that we may also behold in open vision the glorious things which they beheld after a supernatural sort.

Let us imagine Isaiah as he stood upon Mount Zion. He looked about him, and there were the mountains that are round about Jerusalem, far outvying it in height, but yielding to Zion in glory. Dearer to his soul than even the snow-capped glories of Lebanon, which glittered afar off, was that little hill of Zion.

For there upon its summit stood the temple, the shrine of the living God, the place of His delight, the home of song, the house of sacrifice, the great gathering place, whither the tribes went up, the tribes of the Lord, to serve Jehovah, the God of Abraham.

Standing at the gate of that glorious temple which had been piled by the matchless art of Solomon, he looked into the future, and he saw with tearful eye the structure burned with fire. He beheld it cast down, and the plough driven over its foundations.

He saw the people carried away into Babylon, and the nation cast off for a season. Looking once more through the glass, he beheld the temple rising from its ashes, with glory outwardly diminished, but really increased.

He saw on till he beheld Messiah Himself in the form of a little babe carried into the second temple. He saw Him there, and he rejoiced. But ere he had time for gladness, his eye glanced onward to the cross.

He saw Messiah nailed to the tree. He beheld His back ploughed and mangled with the whip. Surely He hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, said the prophet. And he paused a while to bemoan the bleeding prince of the house of David.

His eye was now doomed to a long and bitter weeping, for he saw the invading hosts of the Romans setting up the standard of desolation in the city. He saw the holy city burned with fire and utterly destroyed.

His spirit was almost melted in him. But once more he flew through time with eagle wing and scanned futurity with eagle eye. He soared aloft in imagination and began to sing of the last days, the end of dispensations and of time.

He saw Messiah once again on earth. He saw that little hill of Zion rising to the clouds, reaching to heaven itself. He beheld the new Jerusalem descending from above, God dwelling among men, and all the nations flowing to the tabernacle of the Most High, where they paid Him holy worship.

We shall not today look through all the dim vista of Zion's tribulations. We will leave the avenue of troubles and of trials through which the church has passed and is to pass. And we will come by faith to the last days.

And may God help us while we indulge in a glorious vision of that which is to be ere long, when the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills, and all nations shall flow unto it.

The Mountain of the Lord's House Exalted

The prophet saw two things in the vision. He saw the mountains exalted, and he beheld the nations flowing to it. Now, will you use your imagination for a moment? For there is a picture here which I can scarcely compare to anything, except one of Martin's magnificent paintings, in which he throws together such masses of light and shade that the imagination is left at liberty to stretch her wings and fly to the utmost height.

In the present instance, you will not be able to outstrip the reality, however high you may endeavor to soar, for that which is in our text will certainly be greater than that which the preacher can utter or that which you may be able to conceive.

Transport yourselves for a moment to the foot of Mount Zion. As you stand there, you observe that it is but a very little hill. Bashan is far loftier, and Carmel and Sharon outvy it. As for Lebanon, Zion is but a little hillock compared with it.

If you think for a moment of the Alps, or of the loftier Andes, or of the yet mightier Himalayas, this Mount Zion seems to be a very little hill, a mere molehill, insignificant, despicable, and obscure.

Stand there for a moment until the Spirit of God touches your eye, and you shall see this hill begin to grow. Up it mounts, with the temple on its summit, till it reaches Tabor. Onward it grows, till Carmel, with its perpetual green, is left behind, and Salmon, with its everlasting snow, sinks before it.

Onward still it grows, till the snowy peaks of Lebanon are eclipsed. Still onward mounts the hill, drawing with its mighty roots other mountains and hills into its fabric. And onward it rises, till, piercing the clouds, it reaches above the Alps.

And onward still, till the Himalayas seem to be sucked into its bowels, and the greatest mountains of the earth appear to be but as the roots that strike out from the side of the eternal hill. And there it rises, till you can scarcely see the top, as infinitely above all the higher mountains of the world as they are above the valleys.

Have you caught the idea, and do you see there, far off upon the lofty top, not everlasting snows, but a pure crystal table land, crowned with a gorgeous city, the metropolis of God, the royal palace of Jesus the King?

The sun is eclipsed by the light which shines from the top of this mountain. The moon ceases from her brightness, for there is now no night. But this one hill, lifted up on high, illuminates the atmosphere, and the nations of them that are saved are walking in the light thereof.

The hill of Zion hath now outsoared all others, and all the mountains and hills of the earth are become as nothing before her. This is a magnificent picture of the text. I do not know that in all the compass of poetry there is an idea so massive and stupendous as this.

A mountain heaving, expanding, swelling, growing, till all the high hills become absorbed, and that which was but a little rising ground before becomes a hill the top whereof reacheth to the seventh heaven.

The Church's Growth from Small Beginnings

Now we have here a picture of what the church is to be. Of old the church was like Mount Zion, a very little hill. What saw the nations of the earth when they looked upon it? A humble man with twelve disciples.

But that little hill grew, and some thousands were baptized in the name of Christ. It grew again and became mighty. The stone cut out of the mountain without hands began to break in pieces kingdoms, and now at this day the hill of Zion stands a lofty hill.

But still, compared with the colossal systems of idolatry, she is but small. The Hindu and the Chinese turn to our religion and say, It is an infant of yesterday. Ours is the religion of ages. The Easterns compare Christianity to some miasma that creeps along the fenny lowlands.

For their systems they imagine to be like the Alps, out-soaring the heavens in height. Ah, but we reply to this, Your mountain crumbles, and your hill dissolves, but our hill of Zion has been growing, and strange to say, it has life within its bowels, and grow on it shall, grow on it must, till all the systems of idolatry shall become less than nothing before it, till false gods being cast down, mighty systems of idolatry being overthrown, this mountain shall rise above them all, and on and on and on shall this Christian religion grow, until converting into its mass all the deluded followers of the heresies and idolatries of man, the hill shall reach to heaven, and God in Christ shall be all in all.

Such is the destiny of our church. She is to be an all-conquering church, rising above every competitor. We may more fully explain this in two or three ways. The church will be like a high mountain, for she will be pre-eminently conspicuous.

Christianity's Increasing Conspicuousness Among the Nations

I believe that at this period the thoughts of men are more engaged upon the religion of Christ than upon any other. It is true, and there be few that will deny it, that every other system is growing old.

Gray hairs are scattered here and there, although the followers of these religions know it. As for Mohammed, has he not become now effete with gray old age? And the saber, once so sharp to slay the unbeliever, has it not been blunted with time and rusted into its scabbard?

As for the old idolatries, the religion of Confucius or of Buddha, where are their missionaries? Where are the old activities that made minor idolatries bow before them? They are now content to be confined within their own limit.

They feel that their hour has come, that they can grow no further, for their strong man is declining into old age. But the Christian religion has become more conspicuous now than ever it was. In every part of the world all people are thinking of it.

The very gates of Japan, once fast closed, are now open to it, and soon shall the trumpet voice of the gospel be heard there, and the name of Jesus, the Son of the Highest, shall there be proclaimed by the lips of His chosen servants.

The hill is already growing, and, mark you, it is to grow higher yet. It is to be so conspicuous that in every hamlet of the world the name of Christ shall be known and feared. There shall not be a Bedouin in his tent, there shall not be a Hottentot in his crawl, there shall not be a Laplander in the midst of his eternal snow, or an African in that great continent of thirst that shall not have heard of Christ.

Rising higher and higher and higher, from north to south, from east to west, this mountain shall be beheld. Not like the star of the north, which cannot be seen in the south, nor like the cross of the south, which must give way before the bear of the north, this mountain, strange to say it, contrary to nature, shall be visible from every land.

Far off islands of the sea shall behold it, and they that are near shall worship at the foot thereof. It shall be preeminently conspicuous in clear cloudless radiance, gladdening the people of the earth.

This, I think, is one meaning of the text, when the prophet declares that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in the top of the mountains and shall be exalted above the hills. This, however, is but a small part of the meaning.

The Church's Venerable Grandeur

He means that the church of Christ shall become awful and venerable in her grandeur. It has never been my privilege to be able to leave this country for any time, to stand at the foot of the loftier mountains of Europe.

But even the little hills of Scotland, where halfway up the mist is slumbering, struck me with some degree of awe. These are some of God's old works, high and lofty, talking to the stars, lifting up their heads above the clouds, as though they were ambassadors from earth, ordained to speak to God in silence far aloft.

But poets tell us, and travelers who have but little poetry say the same, that standing at the foot of some of the stupendous mountains of Europe and of Asia, the soul is subdued with the grandeur of the scene.

There upon the father of mountains lie the eternal snows glittering in the sunlight, and the spirit wanders to see such mighty things as these, such massive ramparts garrisoned with storms. We seem to be but as insects crawling at their base, while they appear to stand like cherubims before the throne of God, sometimes covering their face with clouds or mist, or at other times lifting up their white heads and singing their silent and eternal hymn before the throne of the Most High.

There is something awfully grand in a mountain, but how much more so in such a mountain as is described in our text, which is to be exalted above all hills and above all the highest mountains of the earth.

The church is to be awful in her grandeur. Ah, now she is despised! The infidel barketh at her. It is all he can do. The followers of old superstitions as yet pay her but little veneration. The religion of Christ, albeit that it has to us all the veneration of eternity about it, for His goings forth were of old, even from everlasting.

Yet to men who know Him not, Christianity seems to be but a young upstart, audaciously contending with hoary-headed systems of religion. Ay, but the day shall come when men shall bow before the name of Christ, when the cross shall command universal homage, when the name of Jesus shall stay the wandering Arab and make Him prostrate His knee at the hour of prayer, when the voice of the minister of Christ shall be as mighty as that of a king, when the bishops of Christ's church shall be as princes in our midst, and when the sons and daughters of Zion shall be every man of them a prince and every daughter a queen.

The hour cometh. Yea, and now draweth nigh when the mountain of the Lord's house, in her awful grandeur, shall be established on the top of the mountains. There is yet, however, a deeper and larger meaning.

The Church's Final Supremacy Over Every Rival

It is just this, that the day is coming when the church of God shall have absolute supremacy. The church of Christ now has to fight for her existence. She hath many foes, and mighty ones, too, who would snatch the chaplet from her brow, blunt her sword, and stain her banners in the dust.

But the day shall come when all her enemies shall die. There shall not be a dog to move his tongue against her. She shall be so mighty that there shall be naught left to compete with her. As for Rome, you shall seek, but find it not.

It shall be hurled like a millstone in the flood. As for Mohammed's lustful superstition, they shall ask for it, but the imposter shall not be found. As for false gods, talk to the bittern and to the owl, to the mole and to the bat, and they shall tell you where they shall be discovered.

The church of Christ at that time shall not have kings of the earth to bind her and to control her as if she were but a puny thing, nor shall she have them to persecute her and lift up their iron arm to crush her.

But she then shall be the queen and empress of all nations. She shall reign over all kings. They shall bow down and lift the dust of her feet. Her golden sandals shall tread upon their necks. She, with her scepter, with her rod of iron, shall break empires in pieces like earthen vessels.

She shall say, overturn, overturn, overturn, until he come whose right it is, and I will give it him. The destiny of the church is universal monarchy. What Alexander fought for, what Caesar died to obtain, what Napoleon wasted all his life to achieve, that Christ shall have.

The universal monarchy of the broad acres of the earth. The sea is His, and He made it, and His hands formed the dry land. The whole earth shall come and worship and bow down and kneel before the Lord our Maker.

For every knee shall bow, and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. You have now, I think, the meaning of the text. The church growing and rising up till she becomes conspicuous, venerable and supreme.

The Means of the Church's Growth

And now let me pause here a moment to ask how this is to be done. How is this to be done? I reply, there are three things which will ensure the growth of the church. The first is the individual exertion of every Christian.

Every Christian's Personal Labor for the Gospel

I do not think that all the exertions of the church of Christ will ever be able to reach the climax of our text. I think we shall see something more than natural agency, even though employed by the Spirit, before the church of Christ shall be exalted to that supremacy of which I have spoken.

But nevertheless, this is to contribute to it. In the olden times, when men raised cairns to the memory of departed kings, it was usual to put a heap of stones over the tomb, and every passer-by threw another stone.

In the course of ages, these mounds grew into small hills. Now the church of Christ in the present day is growing something in that way. Each Christian converted to Christ throws his stone. We each do our measure.

By the grace of God, let us each make sure of one stone being deposited there, and strive to add another by laboring to be the instruments of bringing someone else to Christ. In this way, the church will grow.

And as year after year rolls on, each Christian serving his master, the church will increase. And it shall come to pass in the last times that even by the efforts of Christ's people, owned by God the Holy Spirit, this mountain shall be highly exalted in the midst of the hills.

This, however, although all that we can do, is not, I think, all that we have to expect. We can do no more, but we may expect more. Besides, the church of Christ differs from all other mountains in this, that she has within her a living influence.

Christ's Living Power Within the Church

The ancients fabled that under Mount Etna, Vulcan was buried. Some great giant, they thought, lay there entombed, and when he rolled over and over, the earth began to tremble, and the mountain shook, and fire poured forth.

We believe not the fable, but the church of God verily is like this living mountain. Christ seems to be buried within her, and when he moves himself, his church rises with him. Once he was prostrate in the garden, then Zion was but a little hill.

Then he rose, and day by day as he is lifted up, his church rises with him. And in the day when he shall stand on Mount Zion, then shall his church be elevated to her utmost height. The fact is that the church, though a mountain, is a volcano, not one that spouts fire, but that hath fire within her.

And this inward fire of living truth and living grace makes her bulge out, expands her side, and lifts her crest. And onward she must tower, for truth is mighty, and it must prevail. Grace is mighty and must conquer.

Christ is mighty, and he must be King of kings. Thus you see that there is something more than the individual exertions of the church. There is a something within her that must make her expand and grow till she overtops the highest mountains.

The Second Advent as the Church's Great Hope

But mark you, the great hope of the church, although it is reckoned madness by some to say it, is the second advent of Christ. When he shall come, then shall the mountain of the Lord's house be exalted above the hills.

We know not when Jesus may come. All the prophets of modern times have only been prophets from the fact that they have made profit by their speculations. But with the solitary exception of that pun upon the word, I believe they have not the slightest claim upon your credit.

Not even men who are doctors of divinity who can spoil an abundance of paper with their prophecies of second adventism. Of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of God. Christ may come this morning.

While I am addressing you, Christ may suddenly appear in the clouds of heaven. He may not come for many a weary age, but come he must. In the last days he must appear. And when Christ shall come, he will make short work of that which is so long a labor to his church.

His appearance will immediately convert the Jews. They have looked for Messiah, a king. There he is, in more than regal splendor. They shall see him. They shall believe on him. He will then tell them that he is the Messiah whom their fathers crucified.

Then will they look on him whom they have pierced. And they will mourn for their sin. And gathering round their great Messiah in glorious march, they shall enter and be settled in their own land. They shall once more become a great and mighty nation.

Nay, a Jew shall become a very prince among men, first born in the church of God. Then shall the fullness of the Gentiles be converted, and all kindreds and peoples shall serve the son of David. Mark, the church is to rise first.

And when the church has risen to eminence and greatness, the nations will flow unto her. Her rising will not be owing to the nations, but to the advent of Christ. And after she has become great, conspicuous and supreme, then will the nations flow to her.

Christ's Coming Victory in the Battle of the Church

I am looking for the advent of Christ. It is this that cheers me in the battle of life, the battle and cause of Christ. I look for Christ to come, somewhat as John Bunyan described the battle of Captain Credence with Diabolus.

The inhabitants of the town of Mansoul fought hard to protect their city from the prince of darkness. And at last a pitched battle was fought outside the walls. The captains and the brave men of arms fought all day till their swords were knitted to their hands with blood.

Many and many a weary hour did they seek to drive back the Diabolians. The battle seemed to waver in the balance. Sometimes victory was on the side of faith, and anon triumph seemed to hover over the crest of the prince of hell.

But just as the sun was setting, trumpets were heard in the distance. Prince Emmanuel was coming, with trumpets sounding and with banners flying. And while the men of Mansoul pressed onward, sword in hand, Emmanuel attacked their foes in the rear, and getting the enemy between them twain, they went on, driving their enemies at the sword's point, till at last, trampling over their dead bodies, they met.

And hand to hand the victorious church saluted its victorious Lord. Even so must it be. We must fight on day by day and hour by hour, and when we think the battle is almost decided against us, we shall hear the trump of the archangel and the voice of God, and He shall come, the Prince of the kings of the earth.

At His name, with terror, they shall melt, and like snow driven before the wind from the bare side of Salmon, shall they fly away, and we, the church militant, trampling over them, shall salute our Lord, shouting, Hallelujah!

Hallelujah! Hallelujah! The Lord God omnipotent reigneth. Thus then have I explained the first part of the text. The second part of the text, we have to consider, is this sentence, and all nations shall flow unto it.

All Nations Flowing to Worship the Living God

Here is a figure, perhaps not so sublime, but quite as beautiful as the first. Still endeavor to retain in your minds the picture of this stupendous mountain reaching above the clouds, seen by all mankind in either hemisphere, a wonder of nature which could not be accomplished by the ordinary rules of art, but which divine wisdom will be able to perform.

Well, wonder of wonders, you see all the nations of the earth converging to this great mountain as to a common center. Once in the year all the people of Israel were wont to go to the little hill of Zion, and now once for all you see not Israel, but all the nations of the earth coming to this great hill of Zion to worship the Most High God.

The white sails are on the Atlantic, and the ships are flying before the wind even as the bird flitteth through the sky. What bear they? What is their noble cargo? Lo, they come from far, bringing the sons and daughters of Zion from the ends of the earth.

See you there the camel and the dromedary, the great caravan passing over the pathless desert? What are these, and what is their costly freight? Lo, they are bringing the daughters of God and the sons of Zion up to the Most High God to worship Him.

From all parts of the earth you see them coming, from the freezing cold and from the burning heat, from the far-off islands of the sea and from the barren sands they come. They come, all converging towards the great center of their high and holy worship.

This we are not to understand, of course, literally, but as a figure of the great spiritual fact that all the souls of men shall tend to Christ and to union with His church. Again, I beg you carefully to observe the figure.

It does not say they shall come to it, but they shall flow unto it. It implies first their number. Now, when our churches are increased, converts drop into the churches. Drop after drop the pool is filled.

But in those days they shall flow into it. Now it is but the pouring out of water from the bucket. Then it shall be as the rolling of the cataract from the hillside. It shall flow into it. Now our converts, however numerous, are comparatively few.

But then a nation shall be born in a day. The people shall renounce their gods at once. Whole nations shall of a sudden, by an irresistible impulse, flow into the church, not one by one, but in one vast mass.

The power of God shall be seen in bringing whole nations into the church of God. You have seen the river flowing onward to the sea with its banks all swollen, bearing its enormous contribution to the boundless ocean.

So shall it be in the last days. Each nation shall be like a river rolling towards the foot of this great mountain, the church of the living God. Happy, happy day, when India and China with their teeming myriads and all the nations of the earth with their multitude of tongues shall flow into the mountain of God.

The Spontaneous Flow of Willing Converts

But the text conveys the idea not only of numbers, but of spontaneity. That was the word I wanted to use. But wherefore should we use big words when we might find little ones? They are to come willingly to Christ, not to be driven, not to be pumped up, not to be forced to it, but to be brought up by the word of the Lord, to pay Him willing homage.

They are to flow to it. Just as the river naturally flows downhill by no other force than that which is its nature, so shall the grace of God be so mightily given to the sons of men that no acts of parliament, no state churches, no armies will be used to make forced conversions.

The nations shall flow unto it. Of themselves made willing in the day of God's power, they shall flow to it. Whenever the church of God is increased by unwilling converts, it loses strength. Whenever men join the church because of oppression which would drive them to make a profession of religion, they do not flow.

The church is weakened and not strengthened. But in those days, the convert shall be voluntarily won, shall come in willingly by divine grace. They shall flow unto it. But yet again, this represents the power of the work of conversion.

The Irresistible Power of Conversion

They shall flow to it. Imagine an idiot endeavoring to stop the river Thames. He gets for himself a boat, and there he stands, endeavoring to push back the stream. He objects to it flowing towards the sea, and with his hands he tries to put it back.

Would you not soon hear laughter along the banks? Ah, fool to attempt to stop the stream! Now the word flow here conveys just the idea. The nations shall flow unto it. The secularists may rise up and say, Oh, why be converted to this fanatical religion?

Look to the things of time. The false priests may rouse themselves with all their anger to defy Christ and endeavor to keep their slaves. But all their attempts to stop conversion will be like an idiot seeking to drive back a mighty stream with his puny hands.

All nations shall flow unto it. What an idea it is! Oh, take your stand today, like prophets of the Lord, and look into the future. Today the church appears like the dry bed of a torrent. Here I stand, and I see a little water flowing in a secret and threadlike stream amongst the stones.

So little is it that I can scarcely detect it. But I take the glass of prophecy. I look far onward, and I see a rolling mass of water such as is sometimes seen in the rapid rivers of Africa. And there it is, coming with thundering sound.

Wait for a few more years, and that torrent, like Chisholm's mighty river, sweeping all before it, shall fill this dry bed and swell on and on and on with tumultuous waves of joy till it meets the ocean of Christ's universal reign and loses itself in God.

Here, you see, then, you have more than your imagination can grasp. This stupendous mountain and all the nations of the earth, vast numbers with immense force, spontaneously coming up to the house of the living God.

The Blessing of Coming to God's Holy Mountain

Now I shall close by a practical address, very brief, and, I trust, very earnest. Is it not a great subject for praise that the nations of the earth may flow to the hill of God and to His house? If I were to tell you that all the nations of Europe were climbing the sides of the Alps, you would ask me, and what benefit do they gain thereby?

They must pass over the slippery fields of ice, and they may lose their lives in the midst of the bottomless chasms that are overhung by the mighty precipices. They may suddenly be overwhelmed and buried in the all-destroying avalanche, and should they reach the summit, they must fall down exhausted.

What is there there that men should covet in those barren heights? Rarefied air and cold would soon destroy them should they attempt to exist there. Ah, but it is not so with God's hill. There shall be no snow upon its summit, but the warmth and light of Jehovah's love.

There shall be no chasms in its side wherein souls may be destroyed, for there shall be a way and a highway the unclean shall not pass over it, a way so easy that the wayfaring man shall not err therein.

The mountains of which we read in Scripture were some of them such that if they were accessible, no one would desire to climb them. There were bounds set round about Sinai, but had there been no bounds, who would have wished to ascend it?

A mountain that burned with fire, and upon which there was a sound as of a trumpet waxing, exceeding loud and long. No, brethren, we are not come to a mountain like Sinai with its supernatural funders.

We are not come to a hill bare and barren and bleak and difficult to climb like the mountains of earth. But the hill of God, though it is a high hill, is a hill up which on hands and knees the humble penitent may readily ascend.

Ye are come to a mountain which is not forbidden to you. There are no bounds set about it to keep you off, but you are freely bidden and freely invited to come to it. And the God who invited you will give you grace to come.

The Urgent Call to Repentance and Faith in Christ

If He has given you the will to come, He will give you the grace to climb the sides of the hill till you reach its upper glories and stand on its summit transported with delight. While I am talking about the nations that will flow to Christ, might we not weep to think that there are so many in this congregation that are not flowing to Christ, but are going from Him?

Ah, soul, what are the splendors of the millennium to thee if thou art His enemy? For when He tramples His foes in His hot displeasure, thy blood shall stain His garments, even as the garments of the winepressers are stained with the blood of the grape.

Tremble, sinner, for the advent of Christ must be thy destruction, though it shall be the church's joy and comfort. Ye say, Come quickly! Know ye not that to you the day of the Lord is darkness and not light?

For that day burneth as an oven, and they that are proud and do wickedly shall be a stubble, and the fire shall consume them with burning heat. O ye people that today hear the words of Jesus, ye are now this day invited to come to the mountain of His church on which stands His cross and His throne.

Ye weary, heavy-laden, sin-destroyed, sin-ruined souls, ye that know and feel your need of Jesus, ye that weep because of sin, ye are bidden to come now to Christ's cross, to look to Him who shed His blood for the ungodly, and looking to Him you shall find peace and rest, so that when He cometh with rainbow wreath and robes of storm, you shall be able to see Him not with alarm and terror, but with joy and gladness.

For you shall say, Here He is, the man who died for me has come to claim me. He who bought me has come to receive me. My Judge is my Redeemer, and I will rejoice in Him. O turn ye, turn ye ye English heathens, turn ye unto God, ye inhabitants of London, some of you as vile as the inhabitants of Sodom, turn ye, turn ye to God.

O Lord Jesus, by Thy grace, turn every one of us to Thyself. Bring in Thine elect, let Thy redeemed rejoice in Thee, and then let the fullness of the nations flow unto Thee, and Thine shall be the glory forever and ever.

This message, A Vision of the Latter Day Glories, was preached by Charles Haddon Spurgeon on April 24, 1859. This is Charles Kelsch inviting you to join me again for another message from The Prince of Preachers.