GOD'S SECRET by Elder L. D. Santee

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Dec 25, 1900

GOD'S SECRET

By Elder L. D. Santee

ELDER L. D. SANTEE

“But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father.”

There's a story that's heard when the gentle dews weep; 'Tis told in the play of the fountain; 'Tis sung by the stars when the flowers are asleep; 'Tis breathed by the winds to the mountain; 'Tis heard when the sea, with tempestuous roar, Lifts its hands in a wrathful commotion; 'Tis whispered by billows that lap on the shore; 'Tis breathed by the murmuring ocean;

'Tis chanted by song-birds that soar to the skies, In the beautiful glow of the morning; 'Tis breathed by the flowers that in beauty arise, All the hills and the valleys adorning. Oh, can you not feel, when the sun's in the west, Or in spring when the leaf-buds are swelling, Or the pale moon looks forth like a smile from the blest, That a wonderful story is telling?

These wonderful tidings I'll tell unto you; My lips love to frame the glad story; And the best of it all is the story is true,— Our Lord will appear in His glory. Then sing it, ye winds! and repeat it, ye waves! While the stars chant the wondrous evangel That Christ, the “Anointed,” the “Mighty to Save,” Will come in the clouds with His angels.

But the wonderful secret that man never knew— No tongue of the seer has revealed it; For God in His purpose, exalted and true, In His own loving heart has concealed it. In the song of the birds it has never been told, Nor heard in the bees' drowsy humming,— The “hour” of Christ's leaving the city of gold, The “day” of His glorious coming!