I wonder how many of my readers know what a magnet is. I suppose many of you have seen the strange little piece of steel that can pick up another piece of steel or iron and hold it tight to itself. Very often we see magnets shaped like little horse shoes, and how intresting they are to play with! But today I want to tell you about a much bier one, a big round one, as big as a wagon wheel. Besides little pieces of steel or iron, this one can lift great big pieces—pieces far bigger than any man could lift.
A few months ago some men had to move a very big pile of little tiny pieces of steel, some no bigger than your little finger nail, and yet the pile was as big as a house. They shoveled all the top part of the pile into railway cars and took them away. When they got down to the boom of the pile, they could not do this, as they shoveled too much dirt up with the steel or else left much of the steel behind.
At last someone thought of this big magnet I was telling you about. They brought it over to the place where the pieces of steel were lying and moved it about in the air a little above the steel, and, O! children, it was wonderful to see all hose little pieces of steel come out from under the dirt and go up to meet the manget in the air.
They were all caught up by the magnet. None were left behind. Bright, shining pieces—old, dirty, rusty pieces, the magnet drew them all up to itself in the air. But none of the dirt went up to meet the magnet. It was every bit left behind.
I am, sure this reminds you, as it did me, of a far more wonderful time, when, instead of little pieces of steel being caught up to meet a magnet, boys and girls an men and women, whose sins are washed away in the precious blood of Christ, will be caught up to meet the Lord in the air. It makes us think of that time when the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first; then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord. 1 Thess. 4:16, 1716For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: 17Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. (1 Thessalonians 4:16‑17).
Just as every bit of true steel was attracted by the magnet from the midst of all the dirt around, so every one, who is a true believer in the Lord Jesus, will be attracted by His power, to HIMSELF, and when He gives that shout, each one will rise off this sad old earth to meet the Lord in the air.
O, dear reader, will you be caught up to meet the Lord in the air, when He comes for His own, or—awful thought—will you, like the dirt, be left behind?
“Shall we gather at His coming,
When the dead in Christ arise?
Shall we hear the Saviour’s summons
To His home beyond the skies?
Yes, we’ll gather at His coming,
His glorious, His glorious coming,
Gather with His saints at His coming
If washed in the Saviour’s blood.”
ML 08/29/1943