Your ShelfYour Projects

Our Refuge

11%

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Oct 10, 1907

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 84, No. 41.

Read the full edition

Our Refuge

By GEO. O. STATES

GEO. O. STATES
As I read the frequent accounts of earthquakes and other disasters in various parts of the earth, my mind has been many times called to our refuge spoken of in Heb. 6:19.
Those of us who passed through that terrible experience in California in 1906 know that it looked as if everything was going to pieces. Our hope was then appreciated as never before.
One Sabbath soon after the earthquake, just as we were assembled for Sabbath-school in San Jose, there was quite a shock, which caused some excitement, and the superintendent stood up and read the forty-sixth Psalm, which quieted all, as God’s protecting care over his people was brought to view.
In speaking of what is before God’s people, the servant of the Lord says: “There was a mighty earthquake. Buildings were shaken down on every side. I then heard a triumphant shout of victory, loud, musical, and clear. I looked upon the company, who, a short time before, were in such distress and bondage. Their captivity was turned. A glorious light shone upon them. How beautiful they then looked! All marks of care and weariness were gone, and health and beauty were seen in every countenance. Their enemies, the heathen around them, fell like dead men; they could not endure the light that shone upon the delivered, holy ones. This light and glory remained upon them, until Jesus was seen in the clouds of heaven, and the faithful, tried company were changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, from glory to glory. The graves were opened, and the saints came forth, clothed with immortality, crying, ‘Victory over death and the grave,’ and together with the living saints they were caught up to meet their Lord in the air, while rich, musical shouts of glory and victory were upon every immortal tongue.”
“I saw that God will in a wonderful manner preserve his people through the time of trouble. As Jesus poured out his soul in agony in the garden, they will earnestly cry and agonize day and night for deliverance. . . . The foundations of the earth shake; buildings totter and fall with a terrible crash. The sea boils like a pot, and the whole earth is in terrible commotion. The captivity of the righteous is turned, and with sweet and solemn whisperings they say to one another, ‘We are delivered. It is the voice of God.’ With solemn awe they listen to the words of God. They fear and tremble, while the saints rejoice. Satan and his angels, and wicked men, who had been exulting that the people of God were in their power, that they might destroy them from off the earth, witness the glory conferred upon those who have honored the holy law of God. They behold the faces of the righteous lighted up and reflecting the image of Jesus. Those who were so eager to destroy the saints can not endure the glory resting upon the delivered ones, and they fall like dead men to the earth. Satan and evil angels fall from the presence of the saints glorified. Their power to annoy them is gone forever.”
It seems to me that we should appreciate the counsel given us as never before, for the Lord has given us light above all people on the earth.
Cedaredge, Colo.