A Midnight Visit From Jesus

Robert Hawker | Added: Jan 29, 2026 | Category: Theology

It was midnight! The clock from a neighbouring church struck twelve. How often, at this hour, have I lain awake to count, one by one, the numbers from the deep-toned iron note of St. Paul’s bell? It has struck me, and not infrequently, that the measurement of time does not relate to the living only, but the dead, too, shall have their hours counted out to them. The living, indeed, at the midnight hour are, for the most part, supposed to be at rest, and unconscious of the lapse of time; and though the dead, under the dome of that building, hear not the sound, yet the measurement to them, and to all, is the same. Every hour, yea, every moment, becomes an answer to that earnest question of the dead sleeping in Jesus, whose souls are said to be under the altar in heaven. How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth? (Revelation 6:9, 10). And no less to the hopeless dead, the passing hour proclaims, that so much of time is past; and by so much, that tremendous day is coming on, when the oath the angel once swore shall take place, and be fulfilled; when, with uplifted hand to heaven, he was seen standing upon the sea, and upon the earth, and swore, that there shall be time no longer (Revelation 10:6).

What a train of the most solemn thoughts, the vast idea awakens in the mind! How inconceivably great the difference between the blessed dead which die in the Lord and those whom the apostle calls, twice dead and plucked up by the roots; and on whom the second death hath full power! (Revelation 14:13, 1 Thessalonians 4:15, Jude 7: Revelation 20:6).

Who shall count the number which every midnight hour marks down, in the world’s bill of mortality, both of the happy and of the hopeless dead? Who shall marshal the troops, which, from the peninsula of time, are momently going off and entering upon the eternal continent? What voice, in equal note, shall describe the first shout of joy in the redeemed; or the first shriek of horror in the unregenerate, on the discovery of their everlasting and unalterable state; when, in the moment of death, they find themselves in the other world, before the forsaken body is cold in this?

The midnight hour is a blessed hour to the Lord’s people, when made so by the Lord’s presence, and they are conscious of it. Sweet is that voice, heard by the ear of faith, and answered in holy joy; Behold, the bridegroom cometh!

Go ye out to meet Him! It is blessed, yea, very blessed, to meet Christ in ordinances, in providences, in the public haunts of His temple, in the private seasons of retirement. To meet Him daily, hourly, in all the walks of life. To meet Him, also, in the midnight watches, in the visits of His grace. Yea, to meet Him in the hour of death. All meetings of the Lord become blessed to the regenerated children of God, made one with Jesus, by the quickening, soul-renewing influences of the Holy Ghost. Who, but Jesus, would the redeemed desire first to meet when entering into the world of spirits, and hastening to join the kindred multitude, before the throne of God and the Lamb? Surely Jesus will be the first to meet and bless His own, when, from the confines of time, they step into eternity!

The midnight hour is truly a blessed hour, if it were only for the occupation of thoughts like these. I love, for my own part, to give indulgence to them. Methinks there is somewhat very refreshing to the spirit, when meditating on eternal things. We appear to be walking as on the borders of the invisible world. We converse, by faith, with the glorious object with whom we are very shortly to dwell. When, in such moments, the soul is raised up by the Holy Ghost to the lively apprehension of the presence of Jesus, and goes forth in acts of faith and love and desire upon His person, there is somewhat every child of God, when renewed in the spirit of his mind, and conscious of his union with Christ, cannot but feel. The blessedness of such interviews surpass every other enjoyment this side heaven.

At such seasons the body, though sleepless, is not suffered to interrupt the soul’s communion. Earthly concerns for a while cease their clamour. Jesus is calling forth the soul, in the sweet exercise of faith, love and joy, upon the person of her Lord, that the highly favoured object of His grace may receive His self-invited visit. When this is the case no hour can be more suited than the midnight hour for the enjoyment of such a guest. There is nothing from within, or from without, to break in and interrupt the blissful meeting. The world, as far as relates to a man’s own heart, is gone to rest. The servant (as the man of Uz remarked upon another occasion, Job 3:19.) is as free as his master. When, therefore, the Holy Ghost calls up the soul to the conscious apprehension of the visit of Jesus; everything is in correspondence to make it blessed. Jesus brings all the provisions with Him for the banquet. He Himself, indeed, is the whole substance of the feast. He spreads the table. He becomes the spiritual repast. We truly feed upon His righteousness with joy and peace in the Holy Ghost. We sup with Him and He with us.

Will it be said that such seasons are solemn? No doubt they are, yea, very solemn; but sweet withal. What seasons are not solemn in which Jesus and His redeemed commune together? Even in the Lord’s tenderest mercies there must be an holy solemnity, mingled with our joy. While Jesus looks on His redeemed with the smiles of His love, and His people are conscious of it, surely, the soul will be more melted under the sense of undeservings. And the lower Jesus comes down to the infirmities of His people, the lower will they all lay in the dust before God. What a lovely example of this kind hath the Holy Ghost recorded in the instance of Ezra. At a time when Israel had been multiplying transgressions, the Lord was multiplying mercies. The sense of the Lord’s goodness coming in a season so striking, overwhelmed the feelings of Ezra and brake his very heart. The man of God, in token of what passed within him, rent his mantle, fell on his knees and spread out his hands to the Lord, crying; O my God! I am ashamed, and blush to lift up my face to thee my God, for our iniquities are increased over our head, and our trespass is grown up unto the heavens! (Ezra 9:5-9). Shame and blushing of face are sweet tokens of the Lord’s grace in the heart; while the soul is humbled under the deepest sense of unworthiness. And such, more or less, will be in every instance to the Lord’s people, when to the abounding of sin there is discoverable grace yet more abounding (Romans 5:21). Nevertheless, such seasons are blessed, yea, very blessed. The heart, though humbled, is made glad. The child of God, though laying low in the dust before God, conscious of self-worthlessness, feels increasing strength in that grace which is in Christ Jesus!

It should be remarked further, that those visits of Jesus, whether at midnight, or midday, are blessedly preparing the redeemed for Jesus’ last visit, when He will come according to His promise, to take them home to Himself, that where He is, there they shall be also (John 14:3). By means of them, our spirits are familiarised to the presence of the Lord: and after many repeated visits, the final one we look forward to, as a thing of course. Surely, the Lord’s manifestations of Himself, through the whole pilgrimage of life from the first dawn of grace until grace comes to be consummated in glory, are not only preparatory to this great event, but as so many strengthening means, to this greatest of all interviews with Jesus. All ordinances, providences, exercises, are directed to the accomplishment of this purpose. In them Jesus converseth with the souls of His redeemed and they with Him. The oftener they are repeated, the more intimate and familiar they become, so as to take off all shyness, and make the Lord Jesus the nearest, dearest and most intimate of all friends and acquaintances.

It was thus of old. The saints, under the Old Testament dispensation walked with God in the believing views they had of the person of Christ. In their firm dependence upon the work and offices of Christ they had their conversation with Him in this world before their translation to the other. The Holy Ghost hath recorded the triumphs of their faith, that before their translation, they had this testimony, that they pleased God (Hebrews 11:5). Agreeable to this, we read concerning them, that when going out of time into eternity, they sung their love-songs to the praise of divine faithfulness. They waited the Lord’s coming in the full assurance of faith. As the hour approached they recounted to themselves and to those around them, the many precious seasons of their past communion with the Lord, as so many pledges and earnests of what they were looking to receive when the Lord should come to take them home. Hence, Jacob, when a-dying, sat up on the bed and related to his sons of the Lord’s first appearance to him at Luz, and how the Lord had fed him all his life long; of the angel that redeemed him from all evil (Genesis 48:2-16). Moses, in his last hours dwelt with rapture on the Lord’s first revelation to him at the bush so that the children of Isaac might learn in his testimony what consolations a living hour opened to a dying hour, from the assured testimonies of God, (Deuteronomy 33:16). To the same amount Joshua’s last moments were dedicated, when going as he said he was, the way of all the earth, that the people might learn in his history that not one thing had failed of all the great things the Lord had promised concerning His people (Joshua 23:14).

Are not the same assurances in the interest of the saints under the New Testament dispensation? Doth not the Lord Jesus, from the first manifestations of grace, through all the after stages of His love to His people, intend the establishment of their minds in the same faith once delivered to the saints? Doth not the Lord, as much in the present time as in the days of old, visit His redeemed and make Himself known to them in ordinances, by promises, with providences so as to make manifest His affection to them, and call forth their affection to Him. Does He not in every way and by every means make sure that glorious charter: I will say, it is my people: and they shall say, the Lord is my God? (Zechariah 13:9). Will it not undeniably follow that all these love visits of our Lord, while sweetening life by the way, are intended to soften death in the end; yea, to induce an holy longing for, and as the Apostle calls it, hastening to the coming of the day of God? (2 Peter 3:12). Surely, the last visit will be the best visit. The believing soul having been gathering up, from time to time, the numberless sweet testimonies of divine love, will finally bring the whole into one view and when the Lord at length comes, in confidence like the dying Patriarch, the soul goes forth to meet him, crying out in words like his: I have waited for thy salvation, O Lord (Genesis 49:18).

I blush to think with what vehement longings of soul those holy men of old who lived and talked and died, as they had lived so triumphant, manifested the stedfastness of their faith. Who can read the account given of them in scripture but must take shame in the comparison with ourselves, when we behold them at the call of God, leaving friends, and home, and all that was dear to them in nature and going forth in faith, not knowing whither they went? I blush, if possible still more, to behold with what confidence men of no religion have braved the dangers of the deep sea, and, trusting in the properties of a mere stone for guidance, venture out of sight of land, in quest of unknown countries, the very existence of which, in many instances, they are unconscious, or if existing, when discovered can yield them nothing of permanent good. I blush, I say, at the relation of such things, while I behold many of God’s dear children, in whose hearts a saving change by grace hath been wrought, yet shrinking at the prospect of death, though assured, both by the word and oath, of a faithful, covenant God in Christ, that the departure must be blessed.

From whence this effect but from the weakness of faith arising from the want of personal acquaintance and communion with the Lord? If the love calls of Jesus be not regarded, His visits not watched for, and if there be no goings forth of the soul upon the person, blood, and righteousness of the Lord Jesus; is it to be wondered at that when our correspondence be so slender, our confidence in Him should be slender also? Though habits of grace be formed in the soul, yet if there be no exercise of grace in personal communion with the Lord from day to day; what enjoyment can there be in believing?

Will the reader suffer me to ask, what correspondence there is in his view with this statement? It is to be apprehended, by what appears in the world, that there is great leanness of soul in the midst of plentiful ordinances in the present day of the church. The apprehension of faith, is, for the most part, considered the whole of faith and here men rest. What follows, in what is called a life of exercise, passing between hope and fear, is not only made the whole substance of godliness, but all beyond it, is concluded to be wrong. This is not being established in grace. It is truly astonishing how any who profess to be taught of God the Holy Ghost can rest satisfied in such attainments.

The church at Ephesus was sound in the faith, and could, and did, oppose the heresies of the day. So the Lord Jesus bore them testimony. Yet the Lord charged them with having left their first love (Revelation 2:1-4). Love they still had, for they were truly called, as their history shows, but coldness had crept in. Self, and not the Lord Jesus, formed the standard of their desires.

Such is it but too common with the church in the present day. Men calculate their state by their experiences. They think more of what their views are than of what Christ is. Effects are made causes. The fruit of faith is made more than the great object of faith.

Precious Lord Jesus, be it my portion to live wholly upon Thee. May I have grace to make Thee, in my esteem, what the scriptures of God teach me Thou art in Jehovah’s esteem. And since I plainly see, that Thou art enough to fill and satisfy God’s vast thoughts, and God’s vast love, let me have grace that I may mingle nothing with my views of Jesus to satisfy and fill mine also. Let Thy midnight, and midday visits, yea, seven times a day, and seventy times seven, keep my soul constantly alive to wait Thy coming. Oh for communion with my Lord, and such rich personal knowledge and enjoyment of my Lord, as shall cause me to live down all comfort from creature attainments by living up to the sweet enjoyment of union with Jesus, and dependence upon Jesus. Shortly my Lord will take me home to Himself. The midnight of death will be followed with the opening of that everlasting morning of eternal life, where the full manifestation of my Lord will arise upon my soul to continue forever.

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