Strangers and Pilgrims
By L. A. S.
THE attitude of one who counts himself a stranger and pilgrim in the land is quite different from that of a settled inhabitant. The two have different hopes and different aims. Their time, energies, and means are expended in different channels. We, as Christians, are to count ourselves strangers and pilgrims in this world, and on our practise in this respect will depend our attitude toward the work of God.5 It is one thing to hold a mere denominational belief in the coming of that kingdom to which Abraham and the other ancient men of faith looked forward, and quite another thing to live the life of a stranger and pilgrim in this world. There are many whose profession in this respect is denied by their works. Of the worthy men of old who died in faith, not having received the promises, it is recorded that they saw them “afar off;” but though they understood that their fulfilment was centuries in the future, having them in view by the eye of faith and desiring to make manifest their faith, they “confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.” How appropriate, then, that God’s people to-day, living in the very generation to which these ancient servants of God looked forward, and with the fulfilment of the promises right at hand, should likewise make manifest that they count themselves strangers and pilgrims in this world. If we would be identified with these ancient worthies in receiving the promises, we must be identified with them in the faith which separated them from the world. It must be made manifest in our lives that we seek here no continuing city, no abiding place, but that we are merely passing through this land, with our faces set toward a better country and a city whose builder and maker is God. There are many of us who need to become strangers and pilgrims.