Watchman, What of the Night?
By Editor
Our first-page cover scene is a parable from ancient history. The people of the land have taken a watchman and set him upon the watch-tower to note the approach of danger and to answer the earnest inquiries of those below. Ezekiel 33. Judging from the intent strong face and figure, he is a worthy man. He looks out upon a world filled with turmoil, bloodshed, and battle. There are occasional spots of quiet, far from the great centers of strife, but over all rises the smoke of universal war. By the side of the old watchman, invisible perhaps to him, is a messenger from God, clothed in white, directing the watchman's attention to the gray dawn breaking beyond earth's tumult and darkness. It lights up the face of the old watchman; and in response to the anxious cry from the inhabitant below, "Watchman, what of the night?" he responds with gladness, "The morning cometh." The scene before the watchman fitly represents this dark world at the close of the nineteenth century, with here and there gleams of the white light of truth, but over which in general hangs the heavy smoke from the pits of error and war. Yet over and beyond all the scene, God's watchman, directed by His messenger, illuminated by His Spirit through His Word, can see the morning breaking, the morning of the everlasting day, which shall know no strife or war or death or night.