Pressing Onward to the Kingdom
By I. O. Thompson
BRO. WHITE: I take this opportunity to say a few words to the scattered brethren and sisters through the Review. I feel to praise God for his continued mercies to me and mine. God has strengthened me to stand up under past afflictions. I feel to say with the poet, “This world is all a wilderness,
This world is not my home.” Though sorely afflicted, and oppressed with cares and troubles of this world, yet I am determined to press my way onward and upward. I feel to praise God that he has permitted me to hear the sound of the third angel’s message, and gave me a heart willing to obey him in keeping all of his commandments and the faith of Jesus. Hear what the voice of Heaven proclaims,
For all the pious dead;
Sweet is the savor of their names,
And soft their sleeping bed. They die in Jesus and are blessed,
How sweet their slumbers are!
From suffering and from sin released,
And freed from every snare. Saved from this world of toil and strife,
They’re resting in their Lord;
The trials of their mortal life,
End in a rich reward. Chesaning, Mich., Sept. 17, 1865.