"Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh" (James 5:8).

"He shall not be afraid of evil tidings: his heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord" (Psalm 112:7).

There are two things that constitute the joy of a Christian which are his strength on the road and the object constantly before his heart. First, present communion and fellowship with God the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. Second, the hope of the coming of the Lord. These two cannot be separated without loss to our souls, for we cannot have all the profit without both of them.

If we are not looking for the coming of the Lord, nothing else can separate us in the same way from this present evil world. Christ will not Himself be so much the object before the soul, nor yet shall we be able, in the same measure, to apprehend the mind and counsel of God about the world if there be not this waiting for His Son from Heaven.

Again, if this hope is looked at apart from present communion and fellowship with God, we shall not have present power. The heart will be enfeebled by the mind being too much occupied and overborne by the evil around.

We cannot be really looking for God's Son from heaven without at the same time seeing the world's utter rejection of Him. We see that the world itself is going wrong, its wise men have no wisdom—all is going on to judgment, the principles of evil are loosening all bands. The soul thus becomes oppressed and the heart sad; but if through grace the Christian is in present communion and fellowship with God, his soul stands steady and is calm and happy before God because there is a fund of blessing in Him which no circumstance can ever touch or change.

—J.N. Darby