Steering by the Landmarks
By W. A. S.
WHOSE heart was not quickened by the words in a recent REVIEW from a familiar pen, “I feel as if I must cry that aloud, ‘Homeward bound!’” The cry thrills round the world, and is echoed from every mission station. The good ship is making the port at last. Across the wide seas the sailor steers by chart and compass. His daily reckoning shows the progress of the voyage. But when the misty headlands come in sight, and the signal beacons appear, he steers by the landmarks into the harbor, and the voyage is done. Now the signs that we are getting into the long-desired haven are multiplying all about us. We can, as it were, steer by the heavenly landmarks. There are rocks and shoals, but the Pilot is at the helm, and the beacon lights of heaven shine across the narrow way. In the words of Watts’s good old hymn, we may sing,— “Thy winged troops, O God of hosts,
Wait on thy wandering church below;
Here we are sailing to thy coasts,
Let angels be our convoy too.”
Convoyed by the angels, the ship will make the harbor in this our day. Let every soul abide in the ship, and take up the glad cry, “Homeward bound!” “land ahead!” W. A. S.