p. 9 | Untitled article by Walter E. Gillis

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Nov 15, 1905

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 31, No. 46.

BY HILL AND VINEYARD.

By Walter E. Gillis

BY WALTER E. GILLIS.

How checkered the life of man proves ever; Filled with passionate longing to sever The cords that bind him to sin's dullest pleasure; That, freed from the curse, he might serve only God.

It was with the sense of such a conflict destroying the peace of my soul that I wandered out to quiet the troubled waters, and if possible draw a new inspiration from the visible tokens of God's power and favor in the hills that declare His strength, and the valleys that proclaim His loving gentleness.

Thus meditating, I wandered on and chanced upon an olive farm and a vineyard side by side. Grapes and olives had alike been garnered. However, in the utmost branches a few olives still clung to the trees; in the vineyard a few gleanings remained,—"not worth enough to bother with;" "undesirable for market." Such the thought of the harvesters. Right here a precious thought from God.

"The earth mourneth and fadeth away, the world languisheth and fadeth away, the haughty people of the earth do languish. The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant. Therefore hath the curse devoured the earth, and they that dwell therein are desolate. . . . When thus it shall be in the midst of the land among the people, there shall be as the shaking of an olive tree, and as the gleaning grapes when the vintage is done. They shall lift up their voice, they shall sing for the majesty of the Lord, they shall cry aloud from the sea." Isa. 24 : 4-14.

Of not much worth to man this "nation not desired," but O, of how much worth to Him who reads the heart and builds for all eternity! "For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called; but God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise." 1 Cor. 1 : 26, 27. In these last days of measured time how precious in God's sight are the separate ones. "Come out from among them, and be ye separate," saith the Lord. Out from the lodges, the unions, the trusts, the partnerships, the theaters, and all those forms and fashions in which atheist and professed follower of Christ are so commonly found mingling on equal

terms; and of how few of these it can be said, "Surely thou also art one of them; for thy speech betrayeth thee." Matt. 26 : 73.

To be or not to be no longer troubles me. The goal is set; the pathway marked by holy blood. Darker and yet more dark the moral sphere of man becomes. But Jehovah's light the brighter shines as the crisis fast approaches. Why halt? Portentous signs and omens no longer mark the centuries, but days, weeks, months, and years alike bear testimony to the final doom. Arouse, my brother, "flee for thy life, tarry not in all the plain." God would save you; why not now?

Mountain View, Cal.