Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect. Matthew 24:44.
To us has been given the message of Christ's soon coming. At the ascension of our Lord, angels stood beside the disciples and with them watched the Savior as He passed into the heavens. Then they turned to the disciples with the words, “This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.” ...
Only the covering which Christ Himself has provided can make us meet [fit] to appear in God's presence. This covering, the robe of His own righteousness, Christ will put upon every repenting, believing soul....
This robe, woven in the loom of heaven, has in it not one thread of human devising. Christ in His humanity wrought out a perfect character, and this character He offers to impart to us. “All our righteousnesses are as filthy rags.” Everything that we of ourselves can do is defiled by sin....
By His perfect obedience, He has made it possible for every human being to obey God's commandments. When we submit ourselves to Christ, the heart is united with His heart; the will is merged in His will; the mind becomes one with His mind; the thoughts are brought into captivity to Him; we live His life. This is what it means to be clothed with the garment of His righteousness. Then, as the Lord looks upon us, He sees, not the fig-leaf garment, not the nakedness and deformity of sin, but His own robe of righteousness, which is perfect obedience to the law of Jehovah....
There will be no second probation in which to prepare for eternity. It is in this life that we are to put on the robe of Christ's righteousness. This is our only opportunity to form characters for the home which Christ has made ready for those who obey His commandments.
The days of our probation are fast closing. The end is near. Solemnly there come down to us through the centuries the warning words of our Lord from the Mount of Olives, “Take heed to yourselves, lest ... that day come upon you unawares.” ... “Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man.”—Signs of the Times, November 22, 1905.
From From the Heart - Page 313
From the Heart