Chapter 364—Look Up!
Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Speak ye
comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is
accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned.
Isaiah 40:1, 2
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In the darkest days of her long conflict with evil, the church of God has
been given revelations of the eternal purpose of Jehovah. His people have
been permitted to look beyond the trials of the present to the triumphs of the
future, when, the warfare having been accomplished, the redeemed will enter
into possession of the promised land. These visions of future glory, scenes
pictured by the hand of God, should be dear to His church today, when the
controversy of the ages is rapidly closing and the promised blessings are
soon to be realized in all their fullness.
To us who are standing on the very verge of their fulfillment, of what
deep moment, what living interest, are these delineations of the things to
come—events for which, since our first parents turned their steps from Eden,
God’s children have watched and waited, longed and prayed!
Fellow pilgrim, we are still amid the shadows and turmoil of earthly
activities; but soon our Saviour is to appear to bring deliverance and rest. Let
us by faith behold the blessed hereafter as pictured by the hand of God. He
who died for the sins of the world is opening wide the gates of Paradise to all
who believe on Him. Soon the battle will have been fought, the victory won.
Soon we shall see Him in whom our hopes of eternal life are centered. And
in His presence the trials and sufferings of this life will seem as nothingness.
The former things “shall not be remembered, nor come into mind.” “Cast not
away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompense of reward. For
ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might
receive the promise. For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come,
and will not tarry.” “Israel shall be saved ... with an everlasting salvation: ye
shall not be ashamed nor confounded world without end.”
Look up, look up, and let your faith continually increase. Let this faith
guide you along the narrow path that leads through the gates of the city
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