The Church Triumphant by Mrs. L. D. Avery-Stuttle

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Mar 1, 1910

The Church Triumphant

By Mrs. L. D. Avery-Stuttle

By Mrs. L. D. Avery-Stuttle

Methought I stood one summer night Upon a hoary mountainside. I'd journeyed far, on wings of light, A heavenly messenger my guide. Like favored seer, whose mortal sense Had gazed on mysteries sublime, With heaven-anointed eyes I looked Adown the changing stream of time.

Methought I saw the church of Christ Adrift upon the whelming flood; The hosts of hell beset her path, Her streaming banners dripped with blood, The fiery lightning hissed o'erhead, The noise of strife was in the air; Dark sin his poisonous arrows sped, And thunders drowned the voice of prayer.

And through the ages drear and long, I heard her sad and mournful cry, As 'mid the hosts of sin and wrong, She bore her blood-stained banners high, O church of Christ, why weepest thou Among the shadows dim and gray? “The night of sin is long,” she said, “And my Belov'd has gone away.”

“And still I hold, with aching grasp, Emmanuel's banner in my hand, And strain my weary eyes to catch The radiance of fair Beulah land. But still, but still He cometh not,— My long delayed and absent King. My streaming eyes are dim and hot, My trembling lips refuse to sing.”

I looked again; the scene had changed. I saw the church of Christ once more. A diadem was on her brow, A robe of righteousness she wore; Her cruel foes, no longer proud, Have fallen beneath her conquering feet; Fair as the sun she stands arrayed, Her triumph and her joy complete.

The din of war I hear no more,— Instead, fair Zion's glorious notes; The song of Moses and the Lamb, Through heaven's arches sweetly floats. Behold, the marriage feast is spread; I see the Bridegroom blest and fair; His church, in royal dress arrayed, An honored guest, is seated there.

Then loud and long, through endless space, Angelic heralds bear the word, Where suns and systems blaze and race, Till vast immensity has heard: “Lo! here are they who've spotless come Through tribulation's crimson flood, Who've washed their robes and made them clean And pure and white in Jesus' blood!” And through the ceaseless ages long, They shout redemption's wondrous song.

Battle Creek, Mich.