Trumpet call

Spurgeon

There shall ring out upon the

midnight air a trumpet call that shall be loud enough to be heard east and

west, and south and north; it shall startle all the sleepers, and than that, it

shall arouse the dead; at its sound the sepulcher shall vomit forth its prey,

and they that are rocked in slumber beneath the waves of ocean shall hear

that trumpet call and rise, the whole mass of Adam’s family, the myriads of

all our race. Oh, what an assembly will that be! The motley throng within

these walls is but as a grain of sand, compared with the sea-shore, to the

multitudes that will then be congregated. Gather ye! gather ye! ye that have

been dead these six thousand years. Gather ye! gather ye! ye that were

drowned in Noah’s flood. Gather ye! gather ye! all ye hosts of Egypt, and

ye myriads of Chaldea, and of Babylon, of Persia, and of Greece. Gather

ye! ye legions of Rome! ye myriads of the middle ages! ye countless

millions of China and of swarthy Hindostan, and you of the world across

the sea! Gather ye! gather ye! men of every skin and every tongue! For ye

must gather, and there in the midst of you all shall be the cloud sailing

through the air, and on it the great white throne of him whose spotless

justice is mirrored in it. There will you stand, and if you have not looked at

Christ on the cross, you will have to look at the Christ upon the throne;

and if ye have never trusted him, ye will then have to tremble at him. Hark,

how the trumpet sounds

What trumpet call can be more

startling, what arousing voice can be more awakening than this news to the

careless sinner that there is a life hereafter, that men must stand before the

judgment-seat of Christ t

Many of those whom Christ

will thus raise will have been buried so long that all trace of them will have

disappeared; they will have melted back into the common dust of earth, so

that if their bones were searched for not a vestige of them could be found,

nor could the keenest searcher after human remains detect a single particle.

They have slept in quiet through long ages in their lonely graves, till they

have become absorbed into the soil as part and parcel of mother earth. No,

there is not a bone, nor a piece of a bone left; their bodies are as much one

with earth as the drop of rain which fell upon the wave is one with the sea:

yet shall they be raised. The trumpet call shall fetch them back from the

dust with which they have mingled, and dust to dust, bone to bone, the

anatomy shall be rebuilded and then refashioned. Does your wonder grow?

does not your faith accept with joy the marvel, and yet feel it to be a

marvel none the less?

Son of man, I will lead thee into an inner chamber more full of wonder yet.

There are many thousands of God’s people to whom a quiet slumber in the

grave was denied; they were cut off by martyrdom, were sawn asunder, or

cast to the dogs. Tens of thousands of the precious bodies of the saints

have perished by fire, their limbs have been blown in clouds of smoke to

the four winds of heaven, and even the handful of ashes which remained at

the foot of the stake their relentless persecutors have thrown into rivers to

be carried to the ocean, and divided to every shore. Some of the children of

the resurrection were devoured by wild beasts in the Roman ampitheatres

or left a prey to kites and ravens on the gibbet. In all sorts of ways have the

saints’ bodies been hacked and hewn, and, as a consequence, the particles

of those bodies have no doubt been absorbed into various vegetable

growths, and having been eaten by animals have mingled with the flesh of

beasts; but what of that? “What of that?” say you, how can these bodies be

refashioned? By what possibility can the selfsame bodies be raised again? I

answer it needs a miracle to make any of these dry bones live, and a

miracle being granted, impossibility vanishes. He who formed each atom

from nothing can gather each particle again from confusion. The

omniscient Lord of providence tracks each molecule of matter, and knows

its position and history as a shepherd knows his sheep; and if it be needful

to constitute the identity of the body, to regather every atom, he can do it.

It may not, however, be needful at all, and I do not assert that it will be, for

and yet above all

other sounds a trumpet-call shall thunder forth, most dreadful to the ears of

ungodly men. Louder than ten thousand thunders shall it peal o’er earth

and sea, and none shall be able to resist the summons. Then, in his descent,

the Judge shall pass into the region of the clouds upon a great white throne

shall he sit, and every eye shall see him, and they also which crucified him.

His coming will be with great pomp of angelic splendor, fit for the state of

such a King and for the solemnity of such a day.

That judgment will be very searching, for the apostle Paul tells us in ‘2

Corinthians 5:10 that we shall give an account for the deeds done in the

body, each one according to that he hath done, whether it be good or

whether it be bad; and our Savior, in Matthew 12:36, informs us that for

every idle word that man shall speak he must give account in the day of

judgment; words, therefore, will be put in evidence as well as actions. Yea,

and there will be an account taken in that day of things which never

reached the publicity of words, for you know how Solomon closed up the

book of Ecclesiastes by saying that “God will bring every work into

judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good or whether it be

evil.” Paul also says, “God will judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ

according to my gospel.” Such things as were never known by our fellowcreatures,

and were forgotten by ourselves, shall be revealed and judged.

Imaginations, lustings, and desires of the soul, secret thoughts and

passions, and murmuring, shall be laid open before all men, and before God

“Stand up! Stand up for Jesus!

Ye soldiers of the cross!

Lift high his royal banner;

It must not suffer loss:

From victory unto victory

His army shall he lead,

Till every foe is vanquish’d,

And Christ is Lord indeed.

“Stand up! Stand up for Jesus!

The trumpet-call obey;

Forth to the mighty conflict,

In this his glorious day;

Ye that are men, now serve him,

Against unnumber’d foes;

Your courage rise with danger,

And strength to strength oppose.”