God’s Greetings

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Oct 18, 1870

God’s Greetings.

God greets many a one who never thanks him for it. When, for instance, his sun wakes thee early to the enjoyment of another day of life and health, it is as if he said to thee, “Good morning!” and when at eventide thine eyes close in peaceful slumber, it is because God hath bidden thee “Good night!” and when thou sittest down to a well-spread board with a good appetite, it is God’s gift for thy good.

When again thou art enabled timely to discover some threatened danger, what is it but God saying to thee, “Take heed, my child, and turn back before it be too late”?

When on some early summer morning, thou walkest about amid the blossoming flowers and the singing birds, and thy heart feels light and joyful, is not God saying to thee “Welcome, heartily welcome, to thy palace garden”?

And when, all of a sudden, perhaps without thy knowing how or why, thy heart is moved to good thoughts, and thou beginnest to feel sorrow for having done wrong, and a desire to do better, is not thy Heavenly Father saying to thee, “Oh! grieve not my Holy Spirit, which now stirs within thee”?

Or when thou passest by a new-made grave, and a sudden shudder of anxious foreboding runs cold through thy frame, is not God greeting thee with the fatherly admonition, “Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh in which thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them; for there is neither wisdom nor device in the grave, whither thou art fast hastening”?

Oh! yes, these are God’s greetings, “whether we will hear or whether we will forbear.” But if we hail them not with pleasure now, we shall remember them with vain regrets in the future.—From the German.