The Wants of Our Times.
By Eld. H. Ziegenfuss
TRULY we are living in an age of remarkable and thrilling developments, but in all the various departments of mortal life and activity, great wants are felt. And foremost of all is the want of men who are not for sale; men who are honest, true to the heart's core; men who will condemn wrong and error in friend or foe, in themselves as well as others; men whose consciences are free from guilt, and as steady as a needle to the pole; men who stand in defense of truth and right, though the heavens totter and pass away, and the earth reels to and fro in its dissolution struggles; men who can and will tell the truth, and look the devil out of countenance, and look a frowning and scoffing world squarely in the eye; men that neither flag nor flinch; men that have godly courage, inspired from the courts of high Heaven, without carnal ambition; men in whom the glorious currents of everlasting life runs still, deep, and strong; men who do not make long prayers, long speeches, and put on a sad countenance, to be seen and heard of men; but who will not fail in the most trying circumstances, nor be discouraged, till judgment be set in the earth and the powers of darkness be vanished and the victory won—till the song of eternal triumph and everlasting peace is sung on the other shore. Men are wanted who know their message and are not afraid to tell it, though demons rage, and principalities and powers threaten; men who know their places and fill them to the glory of God and the benefit of mankind; men who will not lie, who are not too lazy to work, but who eat their bread in the sweat of their faces; men willing to eat what they have earned, and wear what they have paid for. Such men are in demand, and are a sample of what the true principles of Bible Christianity will produce. If such are the fruits, then surely the tree cannot be bad. Dark, dismal, and terrible has been the long conflict between truth and error; the light of the life to come, and the powers of darkness; while the shadow of the second death covers its multitudes, and few seek the entrance to that good and 'narrow way,' to walk in the light of life beyond the mystical Jordan, where eternal beauties and never ending felicities await us; where spontaneous productions and eternal sunshine shall prevail from pole to pole, and from zone to zone; and the dark waves of oblivion shall forever roll over all antagonistic forces of whatsoever nature, and grandeur unseen by mortal eye shall be once more and forever stamped upon creation's brow—a world lost in sin, redeemed by grace; and immortal saints in full possession. Amen!—Eld. H. Ziegenfuss, in Bible Banner.