`The Goodly `Land

JANUARY 1, 1976 4-1 ADVENT REVIEW AND SABBATH HERALD ♦ GENERAL CHURCH PAPER OF THE SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTISTS THE GOODLY LAND! I can bloom of eternal youth and ever- hardly forbear, before I close, lasting health. I see every limb casting a glance forward to that `The lithe and strong. I see the lame heavenly inheritance that is the man leaping as an hart. I see the objective point of all our strug- blind gazing with rapture on the gles, our toils, and our desires. I Goodly celestial glory. I see the deaf lis- see there a land which stands out tening enchanted to the heavenly in wonderful contrast to this. As melody. I see the dumb joining the hymn says— with loud voice in the anthems of praise. I see the mother clasping "Oh! how unlike the present world, `Land to her bosom the children she had Will be the one to come!" lost awhile in the land of the en- I see fields smiling in living By URIAH SMITH emy, but now recovered forever. I green, trees majestic in their wealth see long-parted friends meet in Uriah Smith included these thoughts in a sermon preached of verdure, flowers dazzling with on Sabbath, October 26, 1889, during a General Confer- eternal reunion. I see a river so their rainbow hues, and on neither ence session held in Battle Creek, Michigan. The sermon was published in the REVIEW AND HERALD EXTRA Of Oc- pure and clear, so charged with field nor tree nor flower do I see tober 29, 1889. Elder Smith (1832-1903), editor and author, every element of refreshment, the touch of frost or the pale hand gave 50 years of service to the Seventh-day Adventist cause. and life, that it is called "the river of decay. I see no footprints of the of life." I see a tree overarching curse, no scars of sin. I see no all, so healing in its leaves, so vivi- pestilence walking in darkness, nor fying in its fruits, that it is called destruction wasting at noonday. I "the tree of life." I see a great see no forms distorted with pain, white throne in whose effulgence nor brows furrowed with anxiety there is no need of moon or sun to and care. I see no mournful shafts give us light. I hear a voice saying telling where weary forms and sad to that victorious company, "This and broken hearts have gone down is your rest forever; and you shall into dust and darkness. I see no no more be acquainted with grief; painful messages passing over that for there shall be no more pain or land, as two days ago we received death, and sorrow and mourning one here, telling that a friend, a have forever fled away." And in brother, a fellow laborer, had fallen all the universe I then see no trace beneath the cruel stroke of a re- of sin or suffering, but I hear from lentless foe. I see no darkened every world and from every crea- room where the tide of a precious ture, a joyous anthem, like the life is ebbing slowly away. I see no sound of many waters, going up to bosoms heaving with anguish, no God; and they say, "Blessing, and badges of mourning, no funeral honour, and glory, and power, be trains, no yawning, insatiate unto him that sitteth upon the grave. But on the other hand, I see throne, and unto the Lamb for a glorious company who bear ever and ever." bright palms of victory over death Such is the goodly land we may and the grave. I see, as one of our go up and possess. Such is the land hymns says, that that awaits every laborer who is "the glory of God, like a molten faithful to the end. The Spirit and sea, the Bride say, Come; and whoso- Bathes the immortal company." ever will, may come. If any here I see every eye sparkling with have not yet turned their feet Zion- the fullness of the joy that reigns ward, let me say, "Come . with within. I see on every cheek the us, and we will do thee good." ❑ Editorial Correspondence stone must have felt when he first came upon this breath- Places and People taking sight as the Zambesi River plunges about 200 feet to the channel below. Matandani, Malawi On Friday afternoon the Virgil Robinsons met us in My last report was written from Blantyre, Malawi. Bulawayo and drove us to Solusi College, about 30 miles And since the present one also is from Malawi, you away. The Robinsons are in Africa for two years as SOS might think we (my wife and I) have been somewhat (Sustentation Overseas Service) workers. Africa is stationary in the meantime. hardly new to them, for they spent many years on this Not so. We spent a week in Rhodesia, and only yester- continent. His father (D. E.) and grandfather (A. T.) day returned to Malawi. At the close of this report I shall were long-time, pioneer workers here. Until "retire- tell you a bit about the mission station here in Matandani. ment" a year ago he served on the staff of the Home But first let me give you a quick rundown on a few of the Study Institute in Washington, D.C., as director of happenings of the past week. studies. We flew out of Blantyre, heading for Bulawayo, Rho- Solusi College is an excellent coed institution founded desia, about 550 air miles southwest. En route we in 1894. It receives strong support from the division, and stopped for a day at Salisbury, the headquarters of the is being steadily upgraded. On its campus are a primary Trans-Africa Division. At Salisbury we were met by Dr. school and a secondary school of good quality. And as a Albert Burns, an oral surgeon from California who is on reminder of the sacrifices of those who have helped a salaried, regular-worker basis (a six-year term). In less found and build up the college, a replica of the simple than two years he has made a substantial impact on the mud-and-thatch home in which pioneer missionary W. H. community. (I say "substantial" because the security Anderson lived has been erected on the campus. We officer who checked me at the airport asked whether I visited this memorial briefly, then spent some time in the knew Dr. Burns. When I said I did—and proved it by Pioneers' Graveyard. As we noted the tombstones—of a providing his first name—the officer promptly waved me father and little son who died only a few months apart, through.) At the airport, also, was student missionary of an overworked wife who had given a lifetime of serv- Lolita Neufeld, a daughter of REVIEW associate editor ice to Africa, of a cherished husband—we were im- Don F. Neufeld. Lolita is teaching in the Salisbury pressed anew with the fact that the spread of the three church school, but will soon be transferring to Gwelo angels' messages throughout the world has been paid for the remainder of her one-year stint. for not merely by financial sacrifices but by the sacrifice One of the big dividends in visiting various parts of the of life itself. world is meeting old friends and making new ones. It has At the Friday night youth meeting the speaker was the become a hackneyed expression, but it is abundantly author of the REVIEW column "When You're Young." true, that "the Adventist family is a good family to be- On Sabbath morning I spoke, my message being trans- long to." In Salisbury we met the Petries (he's on the lated into the Nbele language. The service was held in staff of the Trans-Africa Division) and Mrs. Dunbar the 2,000-seat A-frame church. To me one novel feature Smith (her husband is the division health department of the morning was an announcement that two young director who had been with us at the division council in people were planning to be married. The speaker con- Blantyre). At noon we had lunch with these good people cluded by saying, "This is the first reading." Upon in- and others at the Burnses' pleasant home. quiry I discovered that it is customary to announce a forthcoming marriage on three consecutive Sabbaths. A Spectacular Natural Wonder This provides ample opportunity for "friends" and Later that day we flew to Bulawayo, headquarters of others to object. the Zambesi Union. The manager of the Adventist Book After a well-planned but hastily eaten potluck din- Center (Centre, as the sign says on the outside of the ner, which afforded us opportunity to meet members of building), Mervyn Mason, met us. It was a rewarding the faculty and their families, we hurried back to Bula- experience to visit Wankie National Park and Victoria wayo (courtesy of the Robinsons) for a three-thirty Falls with him and his gracious, efficient wife, Eunice. meeting in the evangelistic center. When we arrived the We shall not soon forget the experience of seeing endless church already was full, with about 1,000 people in at- numbers of animals in the wild—elephants, giraffes, tendance. In addition to standees, four rows of children wildebeests, impalas, sable antelopes, stembucks, water- were seated on the floor in front of the platform. Here, bucks, buffaloes, wart hogs, kudus, et cetera—and of as at Solusi, my sermon was translated into Nbele. Al- beating an ignominious and hasty retreat when threat- though I have preached through translators on almost ened by an angry (or was it mischievous?), enormous ele- every continent, I still find it difficult to reduce a sermon phant.

Load more