Rejoice, all ye believers,
And let your lights appear!
The evening is advancing
And darker night is near.
The Bridegroom is arising,
And soon will He draw nigh.
Up! pray, and watch, and wrestle-
At midnight comes the cry!

The watchers on the mountain
Proclaim the Bridegroom near;
Go meet Him as He cometh,
With hallelujahs clear.
The marriage feast is waiting,
The gates wide open stand;
Up, up, ye heirs of glory;
The Bridegroom is at hand!

Ye saints, who here in patience
Your cross and sufferings bore,
Shall live and reign for ever,
When sorrow is no more.
Around the throne of glory
The Lamb ye shall behold,
In triumph cast before Him
Your diadems of gold!

Our Hope and Expectation,
O Jesus, now appear;
Arise, Thou Sun so longed for,
O’er this benighted sphere!
With hearts and hands uplifted,
We plead, O Lord, to see
The day of earth’s redemption,
That brings us unto Thee!
    Laurentius Laurenti
    Tr Sarah Borthwick Findlater


He which testifieth these things  saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.  Rev. 22:20

The rose is surest in being, in beauty, on its own stalk and root:  let life and sap be eternally in the stalk and root, and the rose keep its first union with the root, and it shall never wither, never cast its blossom nor greenness of beauty.  It is violence for a gracious soul to be out of his stalk and root; union here is life and happiness; therefore the Church's last prayer in canonic Scripture is for union, (Rev. 22:20) "Even so, come, Lord Jesus."  It shall not be well till the Father, and Christ the prime heir, and all the weeping children, be under one roof in the palace royal.  It is a sort of mystical lameness, that the head wanteth an arm or a finger; and it is a violent and forced condition, for arm and finger to be separated from the head.  The saints are little pieces of mystical Christ, sick of love for union.  The wife of youth, that wants her husband some years, and expects he shall return to her from over-sea lands, is often on the shore; every ship coming near shore is her new joy; her heart loves the wind that shall bring him home.  She asks at even passenger news:  "Oh! saw ye my husband?  What is he doing?  When shall he come?  Is he shipped for a return?"  Every ship that carrieth not her husband, is the breaking of her heart.  What desires hath the Spirit and Bride to hear, when the husband Christ shall say to the mighty angels, "Make you ready for the journey; let us go down and divide the skies, and bow the heaven:  I will gather my prisoners of hope unto me; I can want my Rachel and her weeping children no longer.  Behold, I come quickly to judge the nations.".....Yea, she loveth that quarter of the sky, that being rent asunder and cloven, shall yield to her Husband, when he shall put through his glorious hand, and shall come riding on the rainbow and clouds to receive her to himself.
                                                                                                                              Samuel Rutherford