December 8

Watch, therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come. — Matt 24:42

The command to watch rings out continually in the Bible. We are bidden to watch against temptation, for sin’s approaches are insidious. Here, however, the watching is to be in readiness for a stupendous event – the coming of Christ. His coming will be unannounced. The only way, therefore, to be ready when the event occurs, is to be always ready. If there is an hour when we relax our diligence and cease to watch, that may be the hour when He will come.

There is a legend of a man who waited a thousand years before the gates of Paradise, watching for them to open. At last he slept for but one hour. Yet during that hour the gates opened and were closed again, and thus he missed his one opportunity of entering.

The second coming of Christ will be so sudden that no preparation can be made for it after He appears. We must live so that there will not be a moment when we would be ashamed to have Christ come into our place of business and find us as we are.