Untitled article by H. A. St. John

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Third-day, October 8, 1867

A HAPPY CHANGE.

By H. A. St. John

I SAW a beautiful flower fade upon the stalk, and its green leaves were scattered upon the cold ground. I looked again, it had come forth in more than former glory, and shed its beauties round.

I saw the glorious sun sink beneath the western wave, and the sable curtain of night was dropped upon the earth and pinned with a star. I looked again, and the same sun, in all its resplendent beauty, emerged from the horizon, rejoicing in the brightness of its course.

I saw a worm, cold and motionless, enclosed in its narrow cell, with every sign of life extinguished. Again I looked, and behold! it spread its gorgeous wings, and floated in the balmy air, apparently rejoicing in its new being.

I have seen the children of God, in youth, in middle age, in gray hairs, cut down by the relentless hand of death, and laid away in the cold, silent, and cheerless grave. By faith, strengthened by the unfailing word

of God, I can behold them with glorified, immortal bodies, basking in the lambent flame of God's glory, and roaming amid the amaranthine bowers of Paradise restored.

Praise God for this blessed hope, soon to be realized! Reader will you be there?

H. A. ST. JOHN.