Twenty Years and Seventy Years
By Uriah Smith
BEFORE this number of the REVIEW reaches the majority of its readers, the writer of these lines will have passed an important milestone on his life journey. It is the passing of that period which Moses, the man of God, in the ninetieth Psalm, specifies as the ordinary limit of a man's natural life. He says,4in verse 10: “The days of our years are three-score years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labor and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.” Born the 2d day of May, 1832, on the 2d day of May, 1902, we shall have filled out the full measure of the specified period of three-score years and ten; and as we look back over these years, we see many occasions that call for thanksgiving and gratitude to God for his intervening providences and sparing mercies. Even life itself, in these days, this culmination of the world's history, can be attributed alone to God's mercy. The old hymn expresses sentiments dear to every true Adventist heart:— “I do rejoice that life was given
In these last days to me,
That, deathless, I may rise to heaven,
And my Redeemer see.” But next to life itself, we prize the privilege of being called to a knowledge of the truth which God is sending forth to the world in these last days, and having the opportunity of acting some humble part therein. Over fifty years have been spent in this relation; but, alas! how far short of the standard have they been! May 1, 1902, completes fifty years of connection with the Review Office. As our mind runs back over these fifty years, how many shortcomings and failures appear all along the way! These might fill many a chapter. But shall we dwell on these things? A stanza of hymn 538 duly mingles regret and hope in this connection:— “Much of my time has run to waste,
And I, perhaps, am near my home;
But he forgives my follies past,
And gives me strength for days to come.” The fifty years of service on the REVIEW, has been a great privilege. As our life has been bound up in it, our interest has been centered there. We have rejoiced in its prosperity. We see many shortcomings, defects, and failures to regret, but the hope which it has tried to defend is still bright; and the truth for which it has stood, remains firm and unshaken. All the storms it has encountered have not shaken its firm pillars, or dimmed its glory. “We have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” 2 Peter 1:16. While the apostle enjoins “forgetting those things which are behind,” he also counsels “reaching forth unto those things which are before.” Phil. 3:13. There is nothing behind to which look back to, nor to go back to. All our hope is before. “We are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul.” Heb. 10:38, 39. We are loving the appearing of Christ, and longing for him, that day. 2 Tim. 4:8. All our sympathies are with Christ, in his gracious work for the redemption of a lost world. And we hope to be among the company, when he shall see the travail of his soul, and be satisfied. Isa. 53:11.