Lord, we comfort ourselves with the prospect of a future

    when every evil and infirmity will cease.

We know who said, “Surely I come quickly.”

    And do not our hearts echo to your words?

    Do not the Spirit and the bride agree?

Yes! Amen!

 

Even so, come Lord Jesus.

Come and put an end to our fears and failings.

Come and deliver us from this scene of strife and confusion.

We are weary of living in the tents of this brutal world.

We are weary of ourselves.

 

Oh! We can hardly bear to pass day after day 

    with such faint, unworthy glimpses 

    of your beauty and your goodness.

We are weary and ashamed of our holy things.

So much coldness and wandering in prayer,

    in reading the word, in your public ordinances,

    that we cannot help but say,

“Of that I had wings like a dove,

    that I might fly far away from this vain ensnaring world!”

 

When will this conflict cease?

When will all our tears be wiped away?

When will we see as you are,

    and be formed to resemble you more completely?

 

The time is short, and passing away quickly.

We hold out a little longer, in faith and patience.

You will come and not delay.

In the meantime, may we have grace to improve the present,

    as the only opportunity we can have of glorifying you,

    our Lord and Savior, in a sinful world.

 

When we get safely home, 

    we will not think we have done and suffered to much on the way.

 

I am yours.

Amen.

 

John Newton, 1725 – 1807, English slave trader, then abolitionist and hymn writer

 

____________________________

 

 

He who testifies to these things says, 

    “Surely I am coming soon.” 

Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!