Preparing for Mount Zion
By Benjamin Farnham
BRO. SMITH: I wish to say to the friends through the Review that I feel thankful to God for the truths of the Third Angel's Message as far as I understand them. The clear light now shining gives me to see the frailties of my nature. I see what I have to overcome in order to stand on Mount Zion with the Lamb. I wish to make clean work in this day of judgment. It is high time to wake out of sleep, put on the whole armor and be prepared to stand in the day of the battle of the Lord. Time appears to me to be near its close. We have but a little longer in which to work. O my brethren, let us gird up the loins of our mind and address ourselves with new vigor to the journey. Mount Zion is just before us; the new earth with all its Eden loveliness opens to our view. What a contrast there will be between the new earth and the old one. We are now subject to disease and every evil, but there all will bloom in eternal health and vigor. There will be no more growing old nor dying, no more parting with friends, no more tempting Devil. The wicked cease from troubling, the tongue of slander forever silent, the weary forever at rest. O glorious thought! I long to be there, and be forever at rest. Dear brethren, I feel that heaven is a good place. It is worth our while to sell all and buy the field. We feel that the testimony for the church is about to be revived here. The shaking has commenced that we think will separate the precious from the vile. We pray, Lord spare thy people and give them another year. May we all bestir ourselves, and sacrifice for God. Those who make a covenant by sacrifice will be hid in the day of his wrath. Yours in hope.
BENJ. FARNHAM.
Caledonia, Aug. 28th, 1858.