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THE CHURCH

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Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jun 11, 1901

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 78, No. 24.

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THE CHURCH.

In speaking of the Church of Christ under her various circumstances, William Miller said:—
“In tracing her history from the patriarch Abraham to the present day, we find her variable as the wind and changeable as the weather.
“To-day, she is coming up out of the wilderness, leaning on the arm of her Beloved; to-morrow, like a young doe, leaping upon the mountains, and skipping upon the hills.
“Now she is seen among the trees of the woods, next in a palace of silver, inclosed in boards of cedar.
“There we saw her in the clefts of the rocks; here we behold her in the broad way, in the streets of the great city.
“Again we find her among the foxes of the desert; and anon we perceive her seeking Him whom her soul loveth.
“She is asleep on her bed by night; and the same night the watch finds her in the city.
“Behold her Lord knocking at the door for admittance while she is too indolent to arise and let Him in. The next moment, she is opening to her Beloved, but He has withdrawn himself. At one time, the voice of her Beloved, sounding over the hills and echoing among the mountains, like the roar of distant thunder, has no impression; next, the soft whisper of love gains all her attention.
“Here blows the rough north wind and the strong south wind upon her spices, yet they put forth no fragrance. And there the lightest breeze makes her roses blossom, and all the air is perfume.
“See her countenance to-day, black as the tents of Kedar; and to-morrow, comely as the daughters of Jerusalem, and fair as the purple curtains of Solomon. To-day she is ‘a garden barred, a spring shut up, a fountain sealed;’ to-morrow, ‘a garden open, a well of living waters, and streams from Lebanon.’ Now she is weak as a babe; a single watchman can ‘smite, wound, and take away her veil;’ and then she is courageous and valiant,—‘terrible as an army with banners.’ To-day she is made to keep another’s vineyard; to-morrow she is realizing a thousand pieces of silver from her own. She is truly a changeable being, carried about by the slightest circumstances.”