Our hearts are cheered as we see the evidences of God's power working in behalf of this dear people. Within the last two months we have opened two new stations, with a membership of over sixty persons. Among these are two evangelists. Both have had several years' experience in the ministry and give promise of being good, strong helpers in this work of giving the message to the people here.
We now have twelve outstations, besides the main work here in Swatow. At present we have eight evangelists and two teachers. We have strong hopes in the future of twelve boys whom we are now sending to Elder B. L. Anderson's school at Amoy. These boys are our best, and we expect them to come back to us equipped for good, faithful service.
Our hearts were made sad when we had to say good-by to our boys. We have no school here for them, so were thankful that Brother Anderson made room for them. They have to learn another dialect there, and we must get along without them this year, but we are hoping and praying to God that next year we may have them at home.
I have longed for the day to come when I could have a nice company of boys around me, such as Brother Anderson has at Amoy. I think that the most pleasant scene I have looked upon in China was Elder Anderson surrounded by his boys who have been in training for several years. These boys are now entering the ministry, and I know that our brother finds comfort and rest when he turns from the trying and hard work to look upon the boys who are now ready to help him in the work. While I desired greatly to keep our boys with us this year, yet I have nothing to complain of.37
We hope, however, that we may soon be able to open a small school here.
In Swatow we have not been inconvenienced very much by the war. But the enemy has thought to wage war upon us in another way. Portions of D. M. Canright's book have been translated and scattered everywhere; but, as usual, it has only advertised the truth in new regions. So many letters were coming to us daily inquiring concerning these things, that Pastor Ang, our evangelist, could not answer them in detail. He therefore sent out an invitation for the interested ones to come to the chapel to study. As a result, our interest has more than doubled. Several have stepped out into full obedience.
These are from other missions, of course; for it is there that the opposition did its work. We have calls coming from all over our district, and cannot begin to answer them all.
MRS. W. F. HILLS AND THE GIRLS' DAY SCHOOL AT SWATOW, CHINA
The picture of our girls' school, which I am sending, with the one of our boys, which was taken the day before they left for school, will show you what was accomplished the first year the school was operated. Mrs. Hills had studied the language only a short time when she opened this school. We had to trust God fully in this undertaking, and the results were very gratifying. Her two assistants are excellent girls, and this is truly a case where God went before to prepare the way. These girls are loyal Seventh-day Adventists, and one of them we are preparing to send to Shanghai to attend our new school which is to be opened in December. We want her to have a year's training. We are sorry to let her go for so long, but we feel that it will pay.
At our last general meeting we baptized seventeen. Others who desired baptism were asked to study awhile before taking part in that ordinance. We have rented the largest room we could find for our chapel, and have had to turn away about two hundred for lack of room. These were not merely persons who were curious to attend, but were really seekers after truth, and some of them were our own people. We feel sure that when the brethren learn of our real need of a house of worship here, they will lose no time in supplying the necessary funds. As badly as we need a school building, we need the chapel first. At our committee meeting which is soon to convene at Hongkong I hope to see plans laid to supply at least a part of our needs in this particular. Pray for us that we may be faithful, and that God may continue to protect his work, which we are sure he will do if we trust him.
Pioneering in Panama
By B. E. Connerly
B. E. CONNERLY
The missionary in Panama early discovers peculiarities which distinguish this field from all others; but no country is more needy, or more ready to be worked, or more thrilling with interest for the gospel worker. Panama’s romantic past, its unique physical features, its social caste, discriminating economics, and low standard of morality, all combine to create conditions which the gospel alone can counteract.
While the Panamanos are, theoretically, Christian, in practice they come far short of exemplifying the true principles of Christianity. Though they boast of the fact that on the isthmus was erected the first church edifice of the Western Hemisphere, yet after four hundred years of untrammeled freedom in every phase of isthmian ethics, the progeny of that ecclesiastical order know practically nothing of the gospel, and it is only the faintest minority of this people who have ever read from God’s Holy Word.
A full century before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock, Panama was organized into a Roman Catholic diocese by order of Pope Leo X. It is well known that the early Spanish bishops proscribed the Bible, and we testify that the element of time has made no change; the bishop of Panama and all his lieutenants still exercise all possible vigilance to prevent the entrance of the Word of God and of those who promulgate it.
In this report we speak only of our work among the native Panamanos in the interior provinces. While we have always enjoyed our work among the multitudes employed in the work of digging the great canal, our real Pauline experiences have been gained while working in the virgin districts remote from the Canal Zone.
We always have good experiences in our trips through the country. We carry Bibles, Testaments, Gospels, “Coming King,” “Steps to Christ,” “Christ Our Saviour,” hymn books, and tracts, all in Spanish. The country districts are too sparsely settled to work, so we travel from city to city on horseback or in ox-carts. The roads in the dry season are passable, but in the wet season they are beyond description.
Recent earthquakes on the isthmus have done more to open the way for the Bible and Bible workers than has our missionary strategy for half a score of years. The people are poor, illiterate, and superstitious, but they are ready to talk of the Bible and to purchase it and other religious books when opportunity affords.
SWATOW MISSION WORKERS
Elder W. F. Hills of the Swatow (China) Mission, an evangelist, and boys who are in training for ministerial work.
The priests oppose our work everywhere and spoil an otherwise ideal field for missionary work. They do all in their power to prevent the purchase of religious books, or if purchased, will cause the books to be burned, or to be returned with the request that the money be refunded. The presence of the Word of God among them sometimes excites their most intense anger and animates their worst passions. Their magistrates have lamented in our hearing the impotency of the laws, forced upon them by the North Americans, to deal with us as they think we deserve. One mayor regretted that their old-time laws were not now in force whereby Protestant books could be confiscated and publicly burned. He advised all who had purchased books to return them, and promised that if we did not at once return the money we should be imprisoned. In two different places the priests claimed as a base of their opposition to the Bible that it taught the seventh-day Sabbath, which the church had changed to Sunday, and that they did not want the people confused. Such opposition has most naturally brought us to the plainest teaching of the advent message and the Sabbath truth. Latin America must hear the truth, and the dawning of a better day for her peoples is at hand.
A New Conference
By Guy Dail
GUY DAIL.
THIS year's conference session for the Roumanian field convened here in Bukharest Nov. 13-16, 1913. It was the largest and in all respects the best meeting we ever had in this interesting and from rapidly developing land.
Great thoroughness and much care were used in preparing the way for the conference, and our brethren were successful in securing legal permission for holding three public lectures, the first permission of this sort ever granted us in Roumania.
The conference was remarkable for the spirit of brotherly love and unity manifested in all business transactions, for the missionary zeal shown in the accomplishment of the work before us, and for the liberality displayed in supporting the message in the “regions beyond.”
A two days’ workers and church officers’ institute led up to the conference proper. The instruction of J. T. Boettcher, J. F. Huenergardt, and H. Boex, the visiting brethren, was very timely and much appreciated. Church organization and finance and our tract society and colporteur work received attention.
On November 13, the thirteen churches of the field were organized into the Roumanian Conference, with a membership of four hundred and fifteen. Brother P. R. Paulini was unanimously chosen president. The Roumanian brethren have loyally supported the cause, and constitute the strongest field, financially, in the Danube Union. The conference bids fair to be self-supporting from the first, and the steady growth shown in the face of much persecution gives reason for encouragement as to the future development of the cause in this land.
Friday morning, in the business meeting, the attention of the delegation was directed especially to the ten-cent-a-week plan for the support of foreign missions, and in a short time about fourteen hundred francs in cash and pledges was raised, and the work was completed at the close of the Sabbath when the sum was increased to over seventeen hundred, while the Sabbath school donations for missions amounted to one hundred and fifty-one francs.
The services of the Sabbath were especially blessed of God. At the close of Brother Boettcher’s sermon in the forenoon, thirty-six came forward, giving themselves to the Lord for the first time, and expressing their desire to become fellow pilgrims with us to the heavenly city. In the afternoon Brother S. Demetrescu was ordained to the ministry, and a church elder and a deacon were set apart to their offices for the Ployeschi church. The occasion was one of solemnity and great blessing. This gives us now three ordained Roumanian ministers here.
We have three churches in the city of Bukharest,—the North, the Central, and the South (or German church),—each with its own place of meeting. The workers’ and conference meetings were held in the North and in the Central church halls, while the Sabbath and the Sunday forenoon, as well as the Thursday, Friday, and Sabbath evening services (lectures for the public), were in the beautiful Transylvania Hall, near the center of the city.
These lectures for the general public were illustrated with lantern slides, and the hall, which would accommodate about six hundred, was packed to overflowing by interested listeners, some of whom were men high in civil and ecclesiastical life. The doorkeepers were two brightly uniformed gendarmes sent by the city government to preserve order. The first two lectures were delivered by Brethren Paulini and Demetrescu in the language of the country, while Brother Boettcher delivered the third in German, it being interpreted into Roumanian by Brother Paulini.
Sunday forenoon was given to the young people’s society, and we must confess that we were never in a more interesting youth’s meeting. The participants gave ample evidence of hard work, of developed talent, and of a real missionary spirit. Among the singers were several members of a Seventh-day Adventist gypsy family, for whom the message has done much. They were also in the choir that sang at the beginning and at the close of each lecture,—a choir which harmoniously did its work without any visible leadership. As the large hall was otherwise occupied, we held the Sunday evening meetings in our local church halls, which were well filled.
We shall never forget the kind hospitality of the brethren, and we trust that the coming year may prove by far the best they have ever had. We feel that our people in all parts of the world will be pleased to remember in prayer this most recently organized European conference, with its seven million inhabitants, who must hear the gospel of the kingdom before Matt. 24:14 can be fulfilled.
Teach Me to Pray
By Mrs. Mary H. Williams
MRS. MARY H. WILLIAMS
As Christ’s disciples to him came,
Were taught to ask in his dear name,
The loving Father’s care to claim;
So longingly my heart doth say,
“Teach me, O Lord, to pray.”
Help me to seek, with humble heart,
To find in secret place apart,
Or e’en in city’s crowded mart,
A Bethel by the way;
There teach me how to pray.
Help me to bring an off’ring meet,—
A contrite heart, with love replete
For all mankind. Forgiveness sweet
I know doth pave the way,
And make it possible to pray.
Help me to ask aright, to gain
A firmer trust. I would attain
To nobler heights, else all in vain
The victory of today.
In perfect faith teach me to pray.
Help me another’s needs to see,
And plead with importunity
That I thine almoner may be
To cheer the fainting on their way.
With greater love teach me to pray.
As harvest fields more golden grow,
Thy Spirit, Lord, on me bestow.
May thy compassion through me flow
With burning zeal for souls. Today,
Lord of the harvest, help me pray.
Teach me to say, “Not as I will;”
With patience wait on thee. Instill
This lesson in my heart until
My all at thy dear feet I lay;
Then shall I learn to pray.
Charles City, Iowa.
Quackery and How to Avoid It
By J. E. Froom
J. E. FROOM, M. D.
We do not fully appreciate the blessings intrusted to this people in the various phases of Bible truth which we have espoused. Take, for instance, the tithing system, with its equal and universal distribution of burdens, adapted as it is to the feeblest beginnings, and perfectly meeting the needs of every degree of growth and expansion. The Bible system of finance, with its attendant spiritual blessings, is a delight to its adherents and a marvel to onlookers. Another illustration is the system of Christian education, with its benefits resulting in absolute proportion to the extent that we engage in it, throwing about our youth many and greatly needed safeguards. And there is the publishing and colporteur work, by which this denomination does a larger volume of aggressive missionary work than any other church in existence. Then one of our most conspicuous blessings is embraced in the system of healthful living. Our observance of the simple laws of health is bearing fruit in the greatly improved rising generation. It would offer a most interesting field for calculation to estimate the amount of debility, sickness, suffering, and expense which we as a denomination escape by dressing simply; by appreciating the importance of physiological exercise, ventilation, wholesome diet, and the care of the skin; by excluding the use of coffee, tea, tobacco, alcoholic drinks, patent medicines, and questionable amusements. Perhaps we ourselves can hardly believe the total amount of cash saved annually by this people as the direct result of our adopting the better ways of living taught by the Seventh-day Adventists. Certainly these things have an important bearing on the constant and ever-increasing contributions which we willingly make toward evangelistic work. It is a fact of no small significance that this small and not wealthy denomination, without any special or undue effort, contributed over $2,700,000 cash during the last year for evangelistic and missionary work. While these facts are very encouraging, we are sure that the benefits will aggregate far more as we more generally and intelligently adopt the plan of simple living.
We are not likely to overestimate the importance of healthful living; the danger is rather that its fundamentals will be overlooked because of their being inexpensive and simple.
The medical profession has made wonderful strides in gaining a knowledge of the structure of the human body, the chemistry of foods, the subject of nutrition, and the causes of disease, both bacterial and functional; the exact information concerning the blood, its circulation, and the means by which the white blood cells combat disease; the pathological changes made in the organs and tissues by disease; the recognition of various germs, their mode of attack, and the characteristic diseases produced by different germs; the exhaustive and exact methods of diagnosis; and the wonderful achievements of modern surgery,—all this information tends to make medicine an exact science. The practice of medicine as it is now carried on lessens the superstitious regard for physicians, and gives more protection from the false and conceited claims of quacks. The medical profession demands diagnostic ability of its members, and surely the laity who pay for medical services have a right to expect a fair degree of skill to discover what ails a patient before a self-asserted healer begins to treat a sick person and to demand pay for his services.
It is certainly not proceeding intelligently to decide that a person has kidney trouble merely because he has a pain in his back, or appendicitis because he has a pain in his front, or bladder trouble because the urine is irritating. It is necessary and entirely possible to decide whether the trouble is with the bladder or with the kidneys; and if the latter, to know which kidney is diseased, or whether both of them are involved. With all the ability that physicians may acquire by study and by experience, intelligent patients go to them realizing their limitations. But what shall we conclude of persons who have one cure for every ailment? And by the way, that is one test by which you may tell a quack. Be afraid of a person who claims to cure all diseases, from cancer to corns. Look out for your pocketbook and for your life when you talk with one who undertakes to treat all sick persons alike. It does not make any difference what the remedy is, whether it is fasting and work, or feeding and rest, or sweats, herbs, some Chinese medicine, or a secret recipe for a salve, or whether he treats by absent treatment or by reading Mrs. Eddy's book to you.
Your health is more under your own control than it is under the control of any doctor in the world. You should eat well-prepared and properly combined wholesome food at regular hours; drink plenty of good water; dress healthfully; have good ventilation; practice deep breathing; get plenty of sunshine; exercise and bathe regularly; practice temperance (i. e., real, intelligent moderation in your work and in your private life as well as in eating and drinking); and maintain unlimited confidence in God's love and care for you and yours. These simple and inexpensive rules and practices should be carried out intelligently. They will do more to keep you in health than barrels of drugs. And if through inheritance, accident, or abuses you have caused injury to any of your organs or disturbed their function, surgical or remedial help from a physician may be necessary to start you on the road to health. Then the use of natural means which God has placed within our reach will prove to be the most permanent aids in restoring you to the best degree of health that it is possible for you to secure. Take hold of these things hopefully, and ask God's blessing on your use of them.
If you have an ailment which will not yield to your efforts nor the efforts of an intelligent physician, I consider it your privilege to follow the instruction in the fifth chapter of James, and ask God to glorify his name by doing for you what you and human skill cannot do. But some one asks, Why not ask God in the first place to heal the sick?—Because if God should heal us promptly every time we asked it, most of us would become careless in regard to the relation of cause and effect to the law of sowing39and reaping. The Scripture says that “by the sadness of the countenance the heart is made better.” Many times I think that pain and sickness help us to think straight and to have more respect for God's laws.
Some may ask why I practice medicine when I hold such views. In the first place, caring for the sick affords a splendid chance to direct the minds of individuals to Christ as one tries to relieve their suffering. It affords splendid opportunity to educate persons concerning God's laws, and to dissipate superstition by showing them how to cooperate with God in maintaining a pure quality of blood and by using natural agencies to increase the elimination of waste matter from the blood and to improve the circulation. Do not be afraid to lend your influence in this way. God's blessing will attend your efforts, and “in watering others, your own souls will be watered.”
Maryland and Delaware
By Roscoe T. Baer
As the year draws to a close, it seems perfectly natural to look back over the past to see what has been accomplished. In a few paragraphs I shall state some evidences of progress which has come through the Spirit of God using faithful workers both of the conference and of the churches (for there are those who are not in the employ of the conference whom we are pleased to recognize as workers) as instruments for bringing light and blessing to those living in the territory of the Chesapeake Conference.
During the past year evangelistic efforts were conducted in the cities of Baltimore, Wilmington, and Frederick, some of our largest cities, and meetings have been held in halls in Cumberland, Hagerstown, and Smithsburg, and in cities and towns where we have church buildings. The Lord has blessed his servants in the presentation of the word, so that fully one hundred have been converted and are now walking in the light. Most of these have been baptized, and are giving of their means to help extend the work. One new church has been organized at Frederick, where Elder S. T. Shadel took up the work last July. Sister Carrol, a Bible worker, and Elder Shadel and his family compose the working force there.
The way has opened for the erection of several church buildings this year, and five have already been dedicated to the cause of the third angel's message. The work has steadily advanced in cities where these memorials for the truth have been erected, and the erection of these memorials, I believe, figures to quite an extent in the great problem of getting our message before the masses in our large cities. Of course we are to use good judgment and plan wisely so as not to incur indebtedness, which tends to discouragement.
With all the burdens of providing houses of worship, our people have given nobly to the cause, both in tithes and in offerings. The tithe for 1912 was $9,282.20; and for 1913, $10,550, a gain of $1,267.80. The mission offerings have been the best in the history of the work in this field. We are hoping that when the returns are all in, we shall find that we have met our share of the Twenty-cent-a-week Fund. The book sales have increased over the previous year to the amount of $1,221.80. An institute for canvassers will soon be in progress, when we expect to gather recruits for a greater missionary campaign.
Owing to the increased race prejudice, we have been compelled to conduct our camp meetings and conference sessions separately. Our white brethren and sisters attend the camp meetings, and then during the year a special meeting for the colored brethren is held in some central place where all can come together. At this meeting the policy of the conference and resolutions are considered and adopted, so that there is harmony among all, and the most earnest desire on the part of all to see the work move forward. The work among the colored people is onward, and we have three growing churches, one of which paid into the conference more than six hundred dollars, which is more than was given by all the colored constituency of the conference three years ago.
The week of prayer proved a great blessing to our people here. The Lord wrought mightily in the hearts of many. In one of our meetings on the last Sabbath of the week of prayer, ten persons gave themselves to the Lord and requested baptism. This good news reached our office by telephone, and we all rejoiced to see the workings of the power of God.
Many other items of interest could be mentioned concerning the work here in the East which I may give some other time. We are of good courage in the Lord; and while we see a great need, we also see the Lord going before us, and this helps when the battle goes hard. We have our problems and are not without trials, but with the help of the Lord we hope to come off more than conquerors. God's hand is in this movement; he is “able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think.” We desire to prove faithful and see the work close in triumph.
Roscoe T. Baer.
A Blessed Experience
By L. A. Hoopes
The Week of Prayer at Graysville, Tenn.
We have long talked about the “latter rain,” the “refreshing.” For years we have been saying that God would visit his people with mighty power. It has been likened to Pentecost, only it would be with a greater manifestation of the Holy Spirit. No one could foresee just how he would come, but there was an inward consciousness that there was need of a mighty revival of power in our own lives, and that if we kept abreast with God’s opening providences for the dissemination of the last message of mercy, this revival must not long be delayed. “May not this present week of prayer be the expected time?”
Preparation for the Visit
There were a number of things which, combined, showed that the Spirit of God and holy angels were making preparation and arrangements for the most glorious visitation of mercy that had ever been witnessed in Graysville. The conference president and church officials planned a definite revival in connection with the church and the school. The young people formed a number of prayer bands. The question of prayer bands extended to the adults, then the small16children took it up. Special hours for the readings and for prayer were set apart, and services held in the church each evening, and in the school chapel each day.
The Visit
At last the set time for the visit came. Through the preaching of the word was the announcement that he had come. The heavenly Visitor had come, and what a benediction it was! Unworthy though we were, yet we did not wish to flee, for he had come with such tender mercy and compassion. The Week of Prayer Readings were well timed for such a visitation. They all breathed forth the necessity of a consecration of every faculty of mind and body and means. Everything in the universe foretells a mighty work to be accomplished by his living agencies. Another, a mightier Pentecost, is soon to fall on God’s people.
The conviction of the Holy Spirit had more to do in moving hearts than all else. It was this life-giving agency of the all-powerful Word that stirred even the hardest heart. No one could doubt his presence. “The Comforter has come,” was uttered by more than one. He actually had come to visit his people. There was no mistaking this fact. A heavenly Guest had come. Some of the last work of the judgment was about to be unfolded so that we could see ourselves as we really are before it is forever too late.
How We Were Affected
When the straight message was sounded in our ears, we were pricked to our hearts. It was the best evidence that the Comforter had come, for we were convicted of sin. This is the first work of the Comforter, the Holy Spirit. All were affected, some one way, and some another way. Some, at first, felt rebellious, their hearts seemed to get hard and unimpressible; then the tender, subduing influence of the Spirit would soften and tender their hearts, and lead them to yield to his earnest entreaties. The experience was an unutterable longing to extend the invitation to others. Miracles of grace were wrought. Most unlikely subjects were immediately transformed into active missionaries to win their associates to Christ. The prayer bands became like just so many life-saving crews on a stormy sea. Not one was satisfied until the last soul was rescued. Never in the history of Graysville has there been such an experience. Hour after hour and day after day this pleading was continued until the soul yielded to the entreaties of the Spirit. Just as soon as one would yield, he, too, would join the ranks of earnest workers.
The work of the children was specially noticeable. They had their prayer bands. They had long lists of names of the unconverted. Every day they would meet for earnest prayer, that God’s Spirit would move upon these hard hearts. How gratifying it was to them to check name after name of those who had yielded to the earnest entreaties, until the last one on their list had yielded. The almost universal testimony was, “God has answered my prayers.”
We have seen a great many revivals, we have seen entire staffs of institutions moved in a revival; but never had we seen such a fierce conflict with the enemy as has been experienced here, and such a universal turning to the Lord in active service in behalf of the unconverted. Our heavenly Visitant honored our faith.
More than twenty gave their names for baptism, and were baptized on Sabbath afternoon. Others are seriously contemplating this step.
The week of prayer has ended, but the work goes on. The conflict is a fierce one, and many who had a bright experience at the first are having the trial of their lives. But our heavenly Visitor is the captain of our salvation, and is leading us on to still greater victories.
The blessing was recognized by a universal testimony of praise. Many of the adults offered to give up their business and engage in some part of the Lord’s cause. The revival still continues, and as the union conference takes up the work, we expect to see greater victories. We all praise the Lord for what he has done and is doing among us.
L. A. HOOPES.
Which Was the Brute?
On the same day these two stories were printed: Two men were driving along a road. Two racing automobiles came flying abreast down behind. The men in the carriage pulled out to one side, but one of the automobiles struck the carriage, knocked the horse down, threw the men out, killing one and injuring the other. Neither the driver of the automobile nor his companion with whom he was racing stopped to see if any one was hurt, nor to render aid if needed.
The other story was from Great Notch, N. J. A farmer, Mr. Hodgkins, was driving home from Montclair in the evening. When about a half mile from his home the wagon hit an obstruction in the road with such force as to throw the farmer out. Hodgkins's head struck against a small bowlder, and he lost consciousness. About ten o'clock that night Mrs. Hodgkins and her daughter heard the wagon coming into the yard, and ran to the door to greet Hodgkins. The horse did not go toward the barn, but turned around the grassplot in front of the farmhouse and pulled up opposite the front door. Rover, the dog, jumped down from the seat of the wagon, and, jumping on Mrs. Hodgkins, began to bark, running out toward the gate and back again. This he did a number of times.
Taking lanterns, Mrs. Hodgkins and her daughter got in the wagon, trusting to the dog to take them to his master. As they neared the place where he lay, Rover jumped from the wagon. The women found Hodgkins lying on the ground where he had fallen, and beside him was the dog whining and licking a small cut on the farmer's face. The two women put Hodgkins into the wagon and drove home. After restoratives had been administered, Hodgkins was not much the worse for his experience. It is entirely unnecessary to ask the question which is at the head of this article.—Watchman.
Looking Forward
By L. D. Santee
L. D. SANTEE
The shining skies blaze as a sea of glory,
The bending heavens seem to beckon me.
With sin and storms the earth is wan and hoary,
With wars and crimes untold her fields are gory;
The serpent leaves his trail on land and sea;
And evermore the whole creation groaneth,
Waiting the coming glory yet to be.
O that some white-winged angel from the highest
Would fold his pinions in our lower sphere,
And teach us that the ones to God the highest,
Each faithful one that in his closet sighest,
Shall have reward when Jesus shall appear;
That even now the dawn of life immortal
That ushers in the endless day is near;
That Christ shall come in clouds of untold splendor,
Surrounded by the shining angel throng;
That with a love most catholic and tender,
For every cross a recompense will render,
And bear his own up to the land of song,
Who wait a surcease of all earthly sorrow,
A sweet forgetfulness of pain and wrong.
Sweeter than islands in some tropic ocean,
The headlands bright of paradise shall gleam;
My faith looks up, and with a deep emotion
My heart ascends to God with prayer's devotion,
And of my glad new home rejoices and dreams,
Where friends enjoy a sweet communion ever,
And love flows on in one eternal stream.
O shining stars in midnight's concave swinging,
Soon through your midst shall come the saints' Desire!
The righteous will ascend with joy and singing,
Taken by angels where sweet harps are ringing,
While earth melts in her crucible of fire.
Our faith, our love, is to his promise clinging;
Only to do his will do we aspire.
