p. 155 | Untitled article by Wm. Vanard

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Third-day, February 18, 1868

FromReview and Herald, Vol. XXXI, No. 10

From Bro. Vanard.

By Wm. Vanard

BRO. SMITH: I feel it a duty and also a privilege to express my thanks for the light that the Lord is causing to shine upon his Word. I feel to praise him for the light that I have received on Luke xxiii, 43, through Bro. Canright, in his Sermon in Review, No. 5. I have heard this passage of scripture quoted to prove the conscious state of the dead, but I never could believe that I had a good foundation to base an argument upon until I saw this passage explained by Bro. Canright. I can now ask them to prove that the thief on the cross died on the same day that he was crucified; and how can they prove that? And when they tell me that Christ said to the thief, This day shalt thou be with me in paradise, I will ask them what day Christ meant? If he meant that same day that himself and the thieves were crucified, then I think the thief did not believe him, because it does not look reasonable that the thief expected to die on that day; then again the thief only asked the Saviour to remember him when he came into his kingdom.

Now, dear brethren and sisters, when any of us get into sore trials and lose all hope of receiving any help from the arm of flesh, let us look to Jesus and ask him to remember us when he comes into his kingdom. Will he not give us some precious promise too, to cheer us on through this vale of tears? Yes, he surely will. What more consoling answer could he have given to the poor thief on the cross than to tell him, "This day shalt thou be with me in paradise." Dear brethren and sisters, could we wish for a better promise than this, to be with Jesus when he comes into his kingdom? When we know that we have such a friend as Christ, who when the nails were driven through his tender hands and feet, which fastened him to the rugged tree, could ask his Father to forgive those cruel murderers, for they knew not what they did, why should we be discouraged? Oh, blessed hope! What a consolation to the Christian to know that that same Jesus is still pleading for us in the holy sanctuary in his Father's kingdom. Shall he plead in vain? I feel to answer, no! Blessed Saviour.

Wm. Vanard. Stephenson Co., Ill.