Editorial by Editor

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Oct 20, 1910

Editorial

By Editor

Marked Through

“AND he brought us out from thence,” said Moses, “that he might bring us in, to give us the land which he sware unto our fathers.” Deut. 6:23.

“In the fourth generation they shall come hither again,” had been the promise to Abraham. And when that time of the promise came, not all the power of Egypt nor of the evil one could hold back the exodus movement.

And that movement was marked through from Egypt to Canaan by the “sure word of prophecy.” “They shall come hither again,” the Lord had said; and when at last the Israel of God were led through Jordan and into Canaan, every living soul that had clung by faith to his place in the exodus movement, went in with it into the promised land. Every one knows that it is good in traveling to find a passenger coach marked through to the destination. For instance, the traveler leaving Brussels for Switzerland passes over a bewildering network of railways. But he has found a car marked through to Basel, with no change. Passengers come and go, and all through the night, voices cry, Change for this place, and change for that; but our traveler settles securely down in his corner of the compartment, knowing that his particular coach is marked through to the end of the journey. And now and then, as the confusing voices cry, he looks again with assurance at the sign that tells where his car is going, thankful that he can read its destination plainly there. He is bound to come through, if he but holds to his place.

Now, the exodus movement was a figure, a type, of the advent movement. The story of that deliverance from Egypt and bondage is written especially “for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.” 1 Cor. 10:11. As surely as the promise of God marked that exodus movement, in spite of all difficulties and delays, to go from Egypt into Canaan, just so surely the word of prophecy has marked this advent movement to go through to the eternal Canaan.

In vision on the Isle of Patmos, the prophet of God saw the rise of the advent movement as the hour of God’s judgment came, in 1844. He beheld it spreading forth to every nation and tongue, bringing out a people everywhere keeping “the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.” As the vision showed this movement reaching out at last to every people and land, the next thing, the prophet says, he “looked, and behold a white cloud, and upon the cloud one sat like unto the Son of man.” Rev. 14:6-14. Then, with the next view of the movement, he was shown the people of the prophecy standing victorious on the sea of glass.

The same movement that the prophet saw beginning as the hour of God’s judgment came, he saw sweeping triumphant into the kingdom. It is one advent movement from 1844 to the end. The Lord led the movement out, that he might bring it in. It is marked by the “sure word of prophecy” to go through to the kingdom.

Voices may cry in the darkness, Lo here, and lo there. Murmurers may turn aside, and urge us to do likewise. Unsteady elements may lead off sympathizers after themselves. But we read the clear directions in the sure word, and stay by the ever-widening advent movement, and press forward with the advent people.

The certainty of the triumph of the movement, however, ministers to no one’s easy self-satisfaction. Only as we are kept a very part of it by the advent spirit and the advent hope, can we cling to it. No mere formal relationship will do. Everything that is not of it will be shaken out from it in the testing time already begun. But the advent movement, the same that came out of the Egypt of this world in 1844, will go through to the land of promise. “Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering (for he is faithful that promised).” Heb. 10:23.

W. A. S.