It is evident there is some difference between loving Christ and loving his appearing. It is one thing to love Christ as a Divine Being and personal Savior, and a slightly different thing to have the heart set with longing affection on the personal appearing of Christ in glory to gather his elect and set up his kingdom on the earth, just as there is a difference between having Christ’s kingdom set up in a few hearts and having that kingdom set up over all the world. The one is the love of a Person, the other is the love of an act or public manifestation of that Person.

The Apostle Paul, in his last words just before martyrdom, mentions a distinct form of love for Jesus when he speaks of a crown of righteousness which the Lord would not only give to him in the day of his coming, “but unto all them also that love his appearing.”

 There are thousands of believers who profess to love Christ, yet are not assured that they love him with their whole heart.

And then again, there are many who testify to loving him with all the heart, who express no particular love for his personal appearing back to this world.

It is both Scriptural and experimental, that there are a great many degrees of love for Jesus.

There is no such thing as a dead level of love and devotion among believers. To love Jesus as our Savior, then to love him as our Sanctifier, then to love him with increasing degrees of personal attachment as our constant Friend, our spiritual Bridegroom, to love every relationship he sustains to us, to love his Divinity and Humanity, to love every attribute of his Being and every quality of his matchless character, to love his glory and coming kingdom, and then to piningly and vehemently love his precious appearing in the clouds of heaven—this is the high-water mark of the love mentioned by Paul just before he was beheaded.

 Unless a believer has reached the experience of a definite, passionate affection for the personal appearing of Jesus, his love is not up to the full measure of love as set forth in the Songs of Solomon, the Epistles, and the Revelation.

It is a singular fact that throughout the New Testament we are not taught to fasten our eyes on the grave, but on the coming of Jesus.

“As oft as ye do this, ye do show forth the Lord’s Death”—not until you die—but “until he comes.” “Occupy”—not until you die, but “till I come.” And again, “Hold fast”—not till you die, but “till I come.” Over and over again we are told that we are to serve the Irving and true God, and to wait, not for the grave, but “to wait for his Son from heaven.” 1 Thessalonians 1:10.

It is true many generations have died and the present generation may die before the Lord comes, but the Scriptures always speak of the Lord’s coming as “at hand;” and every successive generation of saints have been commanded to keep their eyes on the coming of Jesus and to lovingly and longingly wait for his appearing.

But how many thousands of good people there are, even many who have heart purity, who if they should at this moment be compelled to honestly answer the question at once, “Do you now love the appearing of the Lord Jesus—is your heart set on it; would you be glad to see him riding down on a bright cloud; can your whole heart say, ‘Return, return, O Shunamite; return, return, that we may look upon thee?’ “who would find it very difficult to give a prompt answer in the affirmative. The ardent love of our Lord’s appearing is a form of experience which gives great vividness to the personality of Christ. It gives a distinctness to heavenly things which otherwise seem so far away as to be almost unreal. And as a telescope does not create heavenly bodies or multiply the objects on their surfaces, but simply draws them closer to us and renders them far more real and impressive, so this particular form of love for Christ’s appearing pierces the misty veil that hangs over heavenly things and events and draws them close to us in spiritual apprehension and gives them a Scriptural reality.

This degree of love brings us into more conscious fellowship with the humanity of Jesus and works sweet and wondrous transformations in our minds, preparatory to actually seeing him as he is.

It also makes Christ more emphatically our last end. It strangely focalizes all the currents of our life upon him.

There are many portions of Scripture which have a vague, misty meaning in them, like the dreamy outline of undistinguished mountains until the appearing of Christ becomes a blessed reality to our faith and our hearts leap with the hope of seeing him appear; and then that immense, gauze-like veil, that mantled so many Scriptures, is at once lifted and whole regiments of texts wheel into the line of clear interpretation.

Christ’s personal reign on the earth, the gathering together of the Jews, the Apostles sitting on twelve thrones, the glory of God filling the earth as the waters cover the sea, and many similar prophecies, assume a common-sense, practical form.

There are many who say they never bother themselves about the coming of Jesus—that the main thing is to be ready.

Very true; but according to the New Testament no one is really ready for the coming of Christ who is not in the heart attitude of waiting for him and who does not love his appearing. When we really love to see Christ come it will be no bother to us. If we do not love the appearing of Jesus we are just that much short of a full New Testament life.