"THE WORLD IS A STAGE"

     Long ago Shakespeare wrote, "The world is a stage." Perhaps he said more than he knew, but he was exactly right. This world is a stage for action, a scaffold upon which God does his work, and a place for graves in which the bodies of sleeping saints are laid to rest in hope of the resurrection. When the human race shall have performed their various predestined parts, when the Building of mercy (the Church of God) is complete, when the appointed day of resurrection has come, time shall be no more. That will bring on the long-awaited midnight cry, "Behold, the Bridegroom cometh!" (Matt. 25:6). Then this stage shall come down. The scaffolding will be put away. All that "sleep in their graves shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to everlasting shame and contempt" (Dan. 12:2). At last, when all that must be has been, the Sun of Righteousness shall arise! His glorious beams shall bring on the blessed morning of that great, eternal day, "in which the upright shall surely have dominion" (Psa. 49:14). In that day, when the Son of God makes all things new, the wicked, the unbelieving, who seem always to prosper in this world, shall be turned into hell; and the righteous, the believing, who seem always to suffer, "shall inherit all things" (Rev. 21:5-7).

The very last thing that shall be done, the very last act of Christ as the Savior of his people shall be the deliverance of his Church and Kingdom up to the Father, perfect, complete, and glorious, without spot or wrinkle, "that God may be all in all" (I Cor. 15:24-28).

Donald S. Fortner, Pastor

GRACE BAPTIST CHURCH OF DANVILLE

2734 Old Stanford Road

Danville, Kentucky 40422

236-8235