REALITIES by J. E. Lloyd.

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jun 17, 1880

REALITIES.

By J. E. Lloyd.

We are. Life is a dream only in its fleeting nature. We wonder at its brevity and long for something enduring. But death is no poetical fancy either dark or light. It is. The law of God is a complete reality. Firm and strong it stands before us—the will of Him who has all wisdom and power. Obedience to its requirements causes peace “like a river and righteousness as the waves of the sea.” Transgression brings evils so real that earth groans with their burden. Not one point can be changed or evaded. The fourth command is as the finger of the Eternal Law-giver wrote it. And so the Sabbath is a fact and it still commemorates the handiwork of the Almighty. “All the gods of the nations are idols, but the Lord made the heavens.” The stars in their brightness show forth his praise.

“Forever singing as they shine, The hand that made us is divine.”

The earth with all its beautiful things bids us stop our toil each seventh day and worship the Maker. We look at the lily of the valley and long with adequate words to praise the Fashioner of such sweet, pure loveliness. And when we remember that He sowed the seeds “in the beginning,” we are glad that the fulfilling of the fourth command has so long honored and glorified Him.

Our tears and anguish and heart-aches testify that God’s law has been broken. Oh, is the remedy as much a reality as is the woe? Did Christ because of the sin of the world, really die? Did he live again? Does he love us? Will he say to every one who has loved him “Come, ye blessed of my father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you”? Will God’s love fill that Home of rest? Then let our preparation be real.

J. E. LLOYD.