LAND! LAND! by JOHN MATTESON

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Aug 17, 1869

LAND! LAND!

By JOHN MATTESON

In the great West, is what the attention of many Sabbath-keepers is called to, in common with other people of this age. There is a great deal of moving forward and backward. “Many shall run to and fro.” I do not say that this is all wrong. There are cases where the Lord can be honored and his cause advanced by moving. But there are many more cases where the cause is injured, and the persons who move lose in spirituality, and gain in worldliness and restlessness.

Some minds are turned to Michigan, others to Minnesota, and others to Missouri. I have been in those different localities, and find that they are all affected very much with the curse, in different ways. And as I walked the other day across a part of Missouri, so much praised up and extolled, it brought sadness to my heart, and tears to my eyes. This is nothing else, thought I, but another patch of the same old, sin-cursed earth that I have been roaming on so long. I longed for a better land, where there is no curse. That is the land, and the only land, that will satisfy all the expectations of those who seek for it, and when they finally get a home there, they will find that half its glory has not been told.

This country, that used to be so rich, hardly produces grass enough this year, on uncultivated soil, to feed the cattle which pasture there. I could not think at first what the reason was. I am now told that it is the grub worm. It not only destroys the grass, but also the corn and grain on new land. I learn that the ravages of the grasshoppers are quite frequent here, as well as in Kansas. Besides this, there are other destructive insects, often disappointing the expectations of the farmer. This winter and spring has been uncommonly wet and cold, and not nearly so healthy as usual.

So it appears that the curse is affecting the old earth more and more. And those who are in pursuit of happiness and rest here, and make the preparation for the kingdom of God secondary, will not only very soon lose every convenience in this world, but they will also lose the eternal weight of glory in the world to come. Brethren! let us beware. Let us never move, except we find that we can thereby glorify God and do good to others, until we can get a passage with Jesus and angels to the New Jerusalem. There is a beautiful home for thee, brother.

Our Saviour was not carried away with earthly glory. Even his followers thought that he ought to notice things more which other people thought so much of. “Master, see what manner of stones and what buildings are here.” Mark, xiii, 1. Why don’t you look at these things, and praise them some? We want a place with you in the kingdom; yet we think a good deal of these “goodly stones and gifts,” also. Master, you might say at least a few words in praise of these things which everybody thinks so much of. But mark his answer: “Verily, I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another that shall not be thrown down.”

Christ saw beyond these things their near destruction. So may also our minds be impressed constantly more and more with the final destruction, which is approaching like a whirlwind. And may our hearts not be deluded by the fading, perishing glory of earth. But may the glories of the world to come open up to our minds more and more, until this earth shall look dark and dreary to us, and we indeed be pilgrims, seeking for a city yet to come. Then shall we be unspeakably happy when, by the grace of God, we obtain that for which we have longed, and prayed, and wept, and toiled.

JOHN MATTESON.