Untitled article by Sarah J. Wakeling

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · September 3, 1867

FromAdvent Review and Sabbath Herald, Vol. XXX, No. 12

THE WORD OF GOD.

By Sarah J. Wakeling

Miserable indeed would be the condition of man, depraved, and fallen as he is, had he not knowledge of the precious Bible. Those nations most in ignorance of that book which brings life and immortality to light, are the most degraded, and sunk to the lowest depths of barbarism.

Every one should love the word of God; for by it we learn of the greatness, power, and glory of the Most High, the creator of the heavens and the earth, his boundless love and tender mercy toward the creatures of his hand, the gracious blessings and reward of those who do his will, and the awfulness of his fierce anger, with which the wicked shall be destroyed.

From this book we learn of the law of God, and of the awful majesty and glory attendant upon the giving of it, when the Lord of hosts descended in sublimest grandeur upon the trembling mountain; and we may judge therefrom of the importance of that law which is holy, just and good, and endureth forever. Ps. cxix, 160.

In the same word is brought into prophetic view, the Man of Sin, who should think to change times and laws, and who has done it so far as to cause nearly all the inhabitants of the earth to yield observance to a Sabbath of his institution instead of that given in the law of God.

It tells us too of the Saviour, who came, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief, rejected of men, pressed by poverty, not having where to lay his head, but full of loving compassion, bestowing the rich gifts of forgiveness of sins and healing all manner of diseases, doing good to all, yet mocked and scourged, hated for his very goodness, crowned with cruel thorns, reviled, spit upon, yet offering not a word of rebuke, led away fainting beneath the heavy burden, to suffer the dreadful death of the cross. They pierce his side and there flows forth a crimson tide. Oh! the agony of that hour! Yet all this for man's transgression, guilty, rebellious man, not for friends, but enemies; and with his dying breath he prayed, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.” What heart is proof against appeals of love such as this? And he has given us the Bible, that we may, through it, learn of his wondrous condescension and love, and by looking in it behold our sinful state, and come to the Father, pleading the merits of his spilled blood, that we may have our sins forgiven.

Nor is this all. The same word tells us a few things which are to come in the last time. Wicked men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, until their cup of iniquity shall be full, and also there shall be a remnant left who shall exalt the standard, having truth inscribed upon their banners, and who keep the law of God and have the testimony of Jesus. This little company pass along amid fiery trials and the bitter rage of their enemies. They are not of the world, therefore the world hates them, even as it did their dear Lord before them. But soon will their sorrow be changed into joy. Their Saviour will come to deliver them and punish their enemies. They will meet their glorious reward, even life eternal, while those who so lately were their oppressors will be crying for rocks and mountains to hide them from the fierce wrath of the coming One.

Then let us love the word, for the blessed promises it contains, and take new courage.

“Soon shall end our earthly mission, Soon shall pass our pilgrim days; Hope shall change to glad fruition, Faith to sight, and prayer to praise.”

SARAH J. WAKELING.

Memphis, Mich.