“Behold He cometh with the clouds!” A heavy shadow falls before,

Men’s hearts are failing them for fear, foreboding judgments at the door.

Behold He cometh with the clouds! For His beloved dawns the day;

They lift their heads and look aloft and take new courage on the way.

 

“Behold He cometh with the clouds” -­ From Heav’n descending with a shout,

With angel’s voice, and trump of God His hidden ones to gather out.

Caught up they meet Him in the air, theirs not to taste the wrath below,

Their lately tear-stained faces now reflecting Christ in radiance glow.

 

Well are they paid for all their pain, forgotten now the thorns, the cross,

Forever with and like their Lord, for whom they counted all but dross.

“Behold He cometh with the clouds”-­ The careless dwellers on the earth

Are overtaken with a snare, seized as with sudden pangs of birth.

 

“Behold He cometh with the clouds”-­ What is the message to my soul?

Is it of terror and dismay or joy that views the longed for goal?

Be thou prepared, 0 my heart, that that morn may no darkness bring!

“Behold He cometh with the clouds”-­ The lost shall wail, the saved shall sing.

 

Reprint from Word and Work Magazine

_ R. H. Boll (1875-1956), was   Editor of  “Word & Work” 1916-1956 and   preached at Portland Ave Church of Christ in Louisville, KY  from 1904-1956