p. 171 | A NAIL TO DRIVE by A. Smith

The Seventh-Day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · November 27, 1879

FromThe Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, Vol. 54, No. 22

A NAIL TO DRIVE.

By A. Smith

RECENTLY I had a dream, which, unlike that of Bunyan, was all a dream. I seemed to be engaged in repairing an old and very high building. The fascia of the cornice had become loosened by the drawing of the nails, and several men had been stationed side by side, each, at a motion of command, to drive his nail. I signaled C. to drive, but, thinking I meant B., he looked to see him drive his nail. The signal was repeated, and he turned to D., and wondered that he did not drive. Once more the order was given; and, quickly glancing up and down the line of men, he chanced to think that himself was intended, when he looked at his own nail, and found it more drawn than any other; then with a few strokes of the hammer he drove it to the head.

The lesson, though clad in the fantasies of a dream, points a moral:—

When the word of God is explained by the ambassadors of Christ, and sins are pointed out, Bro. C. looks at A., B., or D., expecting to hear them confess, or to see them melted to tears of penitence, and not until he looks within his own heart does he see his own sins, and make a personal application of the truth. Reader, have you a nail to drive?

A. SMITH.