T. C. HARRIS by T. C. Harris

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jul 16, 1872

T. C. HARRIS

By T. C. Harris

Eternity.

SUPPOSE a person to count one in every second of time, day and night, without cessation, it would take him more than thirty-one thousand years to count a trillion. And a trillion can be easily represented by a line of figures one inch in length.

If it take so long to count the years in a line of figures one inch in length, how long will it take to count the years in a line one mile in length? ten miles? a hundred miles? a million of miles? And with the same degree of computation, how long will it take to count the years contained in an area of figures a million miles square?

And if it takes so long just simply to count those years, how long will it take to live them?

But the life of the righteous, beyond the confines of the grave, in that beautiful region of light which shall be prepared for them, where there will be no fading of summer flowers, nor falling of autumn leaves, and where the great destroyer can never enter to mar its glory with the footprints of decay, will reach unto the last year contained in this great multitude of figures. But that is not all. It is no nearer ending than when it first commenced.

Now while we are walking upon the uncertain sands of life, our days of probation are gliding swiftly away. Each changing season and passing year, beautiful summer morning, and glorious sunset, leaves the number less before us that we shall behold here on the shores of mortality. As the sun in the morning riseth, lighting up the heavens and the earth, sending forth its rays of light on pleasant landscapes and palatial mansions, dense and populous cities, wandering streams and crystal fountains, flowing rivers and lovely valleys, rising hills and lofty mountains, just so sure also are the moments of this transitory life, surely, silently, and swiftly departing. Let us then bow down before that omnipotent Being who guides the starry worlds in their courses, and worship him in Spirit and in truth, so that when the trumpet sounds and the long-expected resurrection morning appears, and the ransomed millions are gathered from the uttermost parts of the earth, we may be also ready, and enter that beautiful, glorious, and eternal, world of immortality.