Come Quickly by J. Sawyer

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · May 21, 1872

Come Quickly.

By J. Sawyer

A CHILD strayed from its home along a steep bank, down the side of which were briers and thorns. As it ran along and plucked the flowers that grew on the edge of the precipice, there was a beautiful one which it much desired. Again and again it reached its tiny hand forth to obtain it, but failed. A greater effort was made, and the flower was reached; but the balance of the child was lost, and it fell far below among the briers and thorns. It screamed. The heart-stricken mother on hearing the cries ran instantly to the place, where she beheld her darling child suffering from the sharp thorns and prickly briers. She could not get to the child. And as she stood thinking what to do, it cried out, O mother, come quickly! The mother had to leave the child there to go away for help. She went quickly. Nevertheless all the time the burden of the child's heart was, Mother, come quickly!

A youth, unwilling to heed advice of parents, left his home. He wandered from place to place. He hired to a man who rebuked him for doing wrong. This was offensive to him, and he went to another place. Here he found trouble. He reduced himself to want trying to have his own way. His clothes became shabby, and beggary stared him in the face. Being tempted, he stole. The thief was found out. The trial for his crime came on, sentence passed, and to prison he must go. Sorrow seized upon the young man, and he wrote to his father to come to him, for he was soon to be put in a cell for two long years. Said he, Father, come quickly! for may be you can do some good, if you come while the governor is here. The burden of this young man's mind was, Come quickly! Unless the father came quickly, his source of pardon might be gone, and then to prison he must certainly go.

Another youth with appetite for dainties, seeking constantly the ways of ease and fun, indulging in the use of tobacco and liquors, thought he was having a fine time of it. To steady, daily employment he was averse. He had learned to think that labor was degrading. He was supplied with spending money when he wanted it, for his parents were wealthy. He was witty and pert. His voice often caused shouts of laughter, and his scorn added reproach to slander. But the day of retribution came. Overtaxed mental powers gave out. The moral organs yielded to the animal propensities, and he could no longer control his appetite. He now found himself a slave to his appetite. But it was too late. Horror fills his mind after his revelries. He wishes he never was born, and rushes madly for the poisoned bowl to drown his thoughts. Delirium seizes him. So constantly unhappy he often thinks of destroying his own life. He lives a maniac. Death to him is more preferable than life. In a fit of frenzy, he exclaims, Oh, for some hand to rid me of my life! O Death, come quickly, and relieve me of this torment!

The wrecked mariner, as he finds himself clinging to a plank in the midst of the sea, spies a vessel in the distance, and as his life-pulses fast give out, in anguish he exclaims, Oh! that some kind angel would turn that ship's course this way! Unless it is done quickly, I shall sink in these waters. It is quick relief we need in the hour of peril.

We are living in perilous times. Dangers thicken on every hand. The very elements are at war with each other. Pestilence, earthquakes, violence, and fire, are warning men of the awful future before us.

Do we realize any of the feelings of the apostle in his lonely banishment on Patmos as he there viewed these terrible plagues upon the wicked in the last days? At times his soul was overwhelmed at the consequences. Once we find him weeping because no one was able to open the book of seven seals. Again, in closing up the testimony to the seven churches, he saw the trouble of the righteous, and the hopeless state of the wicked—the unjust to remain unjust and the filthy to remain filthy—and the feeling which the remnant people will have, was his feeling then.

Six times before had Jesus told the evangelist, “I come quickly.” As he there reiterates the consequence of adding to, or detracting from, his testimony, he again exclaims with emphasis, “Surely, I come quickly.” No doubt with feelings of gratitude John exclaims, “Even so, come, Lord Jesus.” Come quickly, was the beloved apostle’s last request. Come quickly, is the wish of the remnant people of God.

Is that the language of my heart? Do I long for a sight of the holy retinue, the choir of angels, the sea of glass, the freedom of my brethren whose blood has been so long crying from the ground? Do I long for a crown of righteousness which the Lord will give to them who love his appearing? The Lord owns the harvest. He will gather his wheat into the garner. Where have I gleaned to-day, will be his reckoning with me to-night. To-day must be labor, and to-morrow, and so on, till the harvest is ended. The Master is coming quickly. Let the real wish of my heart be, “Even so, come, Lord Jesus.”

J. SAWYER.