RESTLESSNESS by Eliza H. Morton

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jan 30, 1879

RESTLESSNESS

By Eliza H. Morton

It is a noticeable fact that a spirit of restlessness seems to characterize the present age. People are hurrying “to and fro” all over the world. The steam-cars and steamboats are daily crowded with human beings, and change and novelty seem the object of life. Those who have not the means to travel are uneasy, and are constantly changing their places of abode. Riches do not satisfy, fame does not quench the heart-longings, and power does not give peace. This, perhaps, has ever been so; but now more than ever all nations are looking for some great event, and the hearts of the people are growing faint. Well may the world “be restless, like the waves of the sea,” for a change is soon to take place. Vague, shadowy omens of coming woe, like dark clouds, hang over the people. Man seems to lose confidence in man, and business stagnates. The crust of the earth heaves with earthquakes, volcanoes, and tornadoes.

All this is but the trembling of earth over its final doom,—one of the signs that foretell its dissolution. Not many years can come and go before an awful blackness will cover the earth, and a terrible despair settle upon the ungodly. The restlessness of the children of men will soon reach its climax, and the gathering storm burst in all its fury.

The sad lamentation, “too late! too late!” will re-echo from pole to pole, and Heaven’s gates will forever close to the unrighteous.

O restless heart of man! cease thy striving for worldly honor; reach up and grasp the golden cord of mercy which for a little season hangs over the human race, and thus secure eternal rest. ELIZA H. MORTON.