AN ILLUSTRATION by M. W. H.

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Nov 16, 1869

AN ILLUSTRATION.

By M. W. H.

Who has not at some time stood gazing at a swollen stream, bearing in its fast-rushing waters the driftwood accumulated in its onward sweep? Sometimes, perhaps, a boom farther up the stream has given way, and timber and logs, designed for a more leisurely descent, are hastening onward, mingling with the accumulating debris, and sharing the same fate.

‘Not unlike the current of worldly human life is this swift rushing stream—shoving, pushing, jostling, as the current of circumstances or of man's ambition hurries along; even like the waters, terrible in their gigantic proportions, seeming almost to rejoice in their merciless power. In either case, whether it be the current of human affairs, or the sweeping waters, how relentlessly all seems borne on, save when some obstruction is met, and, as it were, a counter-current is formed, when the floating object (animate or inanimate as it be the current of life, or of the water), swings round the diverting cause. Sometimes, even, borne backward again, eddying around the nucleus, till caught again in the on-going current. Again it may circle around the attraction, and be dashed upon the shore, or again, mingling with the moving masses, speed onward upon the stream.

The comparison will be equally true, if in human affairs we call the current good or evil influences. If good, we would speak of being stranded upon the shore, by errors or wrong habits;—if evil, then “the rescue,” would be the fitting expression. M. W. H.

Malone, N. Y.