Panorama of Life | AdventAI

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · Nov 21, 1878

Panorama of Life.

THERE are words, deeds, and actions, engraved in letters of living fire on that panorama which is now passing before our minds. There are lost opportunities, broken promises, and crushed hopes all the way down the pathway of life. Good intentions and noble resolutions lie torn at our feet. Heart-aches, heart struggles, and sorrow, lie buried deep down in the heart, there to await the final resurrection. The book of life contains many things we would blot from its pages if it were possible. This will be the experience of many as they retrospect the past. But amid all this there are bright sides to the picture, sunny spots, fresh in memory, we would not forego. They are the kind acts, kind words, and pleasant smiles we have scattered by the wayside, that have taken root and sprung up, and become pearls in memory's casket. We would not erase from memory's tablet childhood's happy hours. The little prayer our infant lips were taught to utter, "Now I lay me down to sleep," old familiar scenes and dearly-cherished faces, the mother's prayers and a father's blessings, Sabbath schools and their beautiful lessons,—these are joys that cluster around those associations, that can never be forgotten. They have left an echo, an image within that can never fade away. They ever go to make up jewels, and are more precious than are gold or silver to the miser. Life is made up of bitter and sweet, joy and sorrow. Changes have come to some; the heart-joy has been dipped in sadness. The little white dress that was so carefully laid away has been brought and unfolded, and the little form is enrobed for the last time on earth ready for its little casket. "Baby's gone to sleep." A vacant spot and a little mound in the graveyard are all that remain to mark these bruises on the human heart. Some hearts have been made glad, and in their joy have almost forgotten the sorrow of others.

Life is like a tree. It starts from the ground, its slender roots scarcely discernible; but ere long, by the aid of the beautiful sun, warm rains, and cooling dews, it emerges into a fine sapling, later developing into a hardy tree, capable of withstanding the fiercest of winds and storms, standing a giant of the forest for years. So it is with you, dear boys and girls, as you emerge, step by step, from infancy to manhood and womanhood. As you are a boy, so you will be a man. As you are a girl, so you will be a woman. "As the twig is bent, so the tree's inclined." The lessons you now learn and the early impressions you receive will tell on you in after-life. You are now cultivating and forming principles that will cling to you and influence your future steps in life. Life is yours until the great Redeemer calls; and it behooves you to improve each golden moment while it is passing, ever grasping after beautiful truths as they present themselves one by one. Then be honest and upright, noble and true in your youth for the future peace and reward it will bring. The pathway to honor is narrow but it leads to a blissful abode.

Life is indeed a reality made up of fearful responsibilities, the discharge of which will alone qualify us for the great hereafter. Everything around us and all that is with us demands earnestness on our part. Happiness, glory, and eternal life are at stake. Fellowship with loved ones in the "sweet by and by" is in the balance; and if we fail we shall lose all. Lives of great men all tell us we can make our lives sublime. Then let us fashion our lives after those who have lived before us and have left "foot-prints on the sands of time;" and above all let us ever endeavor to imitate and follow the example of the purest of all, that great teacher, Jesus Christ, who laid down his life that we might inherit eternal life. Let us sympathize with the sorrowful, lift up the fallen, and speak kind words to the erring ones. God only knows what made them so. Words are but little things; but what joy they often bring. Life is fast fleeing away. We have all launched our frail bark and are floating down the stream of time, drifting along with the tide, little dreaming that every hour, every day brings us one day nearer the great unknown. Soon our life-work and all its burdens will be laid down. The last good by and the last God bless you will be said, and we shall stand before the judgment, there to render a strict account of our stewardship here on earth. The great ledger will be opened, and the balance-sheet will be either for or against us. There will be windows to our hearts then, and we shall see each other as God now sees us, shall know each other as we are known. All will be uncovered. Then let us fulfill our mission here below, and do with all our might what our hands find to do, that our lives may not be weighed in the balance and found wanting, but that we may receive the welcome plaudit, "Well done, good and faithful servant, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord."—Sel.