THE CLOSE by Editor

Publishing Committee · Battle Creek, Mich. · Nov 18, 1858

THE CLOSE.

By Editor

TIME in its rapid flight brings the close of another volume of the REVIEW. Thus another waymark is set up in our history; we pass as it were another milestone on our way to the land of promise—that good land of which the Lord has said, I will give it you. What feelings does it excite within you, reader, and what emotions, as you see the sands in time's great hour glass so near run out, and so swiftly falling? what feelings, as you behold the lines of prophecy which span earth's existence in its present state, converging to a common center just before you? what feelings, as you think of the allotted days of time growing less and less continually, and the approaching end—your day of deliverance, or your day of doom—drawing near and more near with every rising and setting sun? Is the revelation of the Lord Jesus in flaming fire the great waymark before you? Or are you putting far away the evil day? Are you becoming somewhat attached to this wilderness state, tarrying in your pilgrimage, and building your hopes in a region like this? Or are you laying up treasure above, centering your affections on things around the throne, and pressing onward to enjoy them there? Can you adopt from day to day the language of the poet,

"One sweetly solemn thought Comes to me o'er and o'er, I'm nearer my home to-day, Than ever I've been before?"

Or are you seeking

"a home below Which flames devour, and waves o'erflow?"

The danger of worldliness, covetousness, carelessness, pride, indifference, and lukewarmness, different writers have endeavored faithfully to set forth in the REVIEW during the past volume. How far they shall be heeded, remains for each to say, not in word only, but in the daily walks of life also. Admonitions and exhortations have enough been given to produce, if heeded, a living church, with loins girded and lamps burning, waiting for the coming of their Lord. We are responsible, brethren, for all these.

The evidences we have had during the past twenty-six weeks of the spread and triumph of the truth in different places, has been a source of no small comfort and encouragement. The leaven of truth is still working. The cause is still onward. We know its destiny, and that of all those who stand stiffly in its defense.

Let us keep on board the old ship Zion which the Lord has piloted through all the perils of the sea of time for six thousand years. Many have entered false crafts, and the worldly churches have taken to the huge raft of popularity and worldly honor, which Satan has towed along by its side, to lure the mariner from the only ark of safety, by promising him a better or an easier passage to his desired haven. Floods of Jehovah's wrath will swamp and swallow up all these ere long. But the bark of truth will safely anchor in the harbor of eternal safety.

"We've looked astern and many toils, The Lord has brought us through; We're looking now ahead, and lo! The land appears in view."