The Moving Pillar

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D. C. · Feb 16, 1911

The Moving Pillar

WHEN once the people of Israel had cut loose from Egypt, there was no place to settle down until they reached the promised Canaan. Many a heart, no doubt, grew weary with the unsettled, wandering life. But the wilderness was not their home, and no time was given for building permanent foundations in the lands where they were to be but strangers. As the record says:—

“At the commandment of the Lord the children of Israel journeyed, and at the commandment of the Lord they pitched: as long as the cloud abode upon the tabernacle they rested in their tents. . . . And so it was, when the cloud abode from even unto the morning, and that the cloud was taken up in the morning, then they journeyed: whether it was by day or by night that the cloud was taken up, they journeyed. Or whether it were two days, or a month, or a year, that the cloud tarried upon the tabernacle, remaining thereon, the children of Israel abode in their tents, and journeyed not; but when it was taken up, they journeyed. At the commandment of the Lord they rested in the tents, and at the commandment of the Lord they journeyed: they kept the charge of the Lord, at the commandment of the Lord by the hand of Moses.” Num. 9:18, 21-23.

So had it been with Abraham, a life of pilgrimage. Called of God to forsake home and kindred, “he went out, not knowing whither he went.” He did not need to know just where the Lord would lead him, or what the next step might be. He only knew that God had called, and it was for him to follow. Whether he met famine in Canaan, or trouble in Egypt, he believed the promises of God, and counted himself only a pilgrim and a stranger here, while he looked forward to settling down at last in that city “which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.” So was it with all the heirs of the promise; and so may it be with us.

Our work is ever moving on. The pillar of fire and of cloud, the signals of God’s providence and the calls to go forward, never give us time to pause long at any point. We are a people on the march. Thank God it is so, for it means that we are nearing the eternal Canaan. The urgency of the growing work keeps us ever under pressure. One call follows another, and no sooner is there a moment of breathing-space at the accomplishment of some enterprise than new demands arise, and again we are stretching forth to things before. But this is the very condition that cheers every believing heart. It shows that we are in the good old pilgrim pathway leading to home and heaven; and the nearer we get to the end of the way, the more lightly equipped we should be, ready for quick marches and response to sudden calls.

The evangelistic worker who really cuts loose and takes the field knows something about it. A Colorado worker, responding to a call to another State, wrote, the other day: “It is true that we sometimes feel like settling down, but I am glad for the privilege of moving with the cause of God, and for the promise of rest yonder by and by.” Many a family knows how naturally, over the question of the purchase of some needed article of furniture, the question arises as to how long the worker may expect to remain where he is, and how soon the call will come to pass on with the advancing work. As this matter was being discussed recently by a few workers in Europe, one minister of the Latin field remarked that he had moved thirty times in fifteen years. But there is joy in following the call of God in the pathway along which have pressed the feet of the heirs of the promise through all the ages.

Enlistment in the service of this third angel’s message means a call to the pilgrim life. Paul’s exhortation to young Timothy still holds good: “Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier.” 2 Tim. 2:3, 4. This world is merely the place we are passing through, and from now until the coming of the Lord we may know that it is to be battling and marching. But there is victory in every conflict, and joy in every step forward, for we know it brings us nearer to the end. And we sing with glad hearts as we journey:—

“God bids his people on the earth, Before he comes and calls them hence, To live unknit to home and hearth, Like far-bound travelers—in tents.

“He’d have us rear no stately towers, Sink no foundation walls of stone, But camp each night a few short hours, And ere the morrow’s dawn move on.

“O brother, whatsoever chain Binds us to fleshly lust and strife, Here let us rend it in God’s name, And live, henceforth, the pilgrim life.”

Let every plan in life and in our work advertise the fact that we are pilgrims, and do not expect to remain long in this earthly country.