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GREETINGS FOR THE NEW YEAR

Beloved readers, it is with hearts full of thankfulness that we acknowledge the divine favors of the year just closed. The Twenty-Third Psalm voices our sentiments. The Lord has graciously continued his gentle leading of his sheep beside still waters and into the fresh green pastures of his truth. Our table he has supplied with viands of grace and knowledge, bountifully, even in the presence of our enemies, who sometimes have been those near and dear to us—enemies to the truth because of the blinding of the great adversary, Satan. And we know from your precious letters received during the year that this, our experience, has been yours.

Now, in the dawn of a new year, we feel that we can apply to ourselves and to all God’s consecrated ones the words of the last verse of this Psalm: “Surely goodness and mercy shall attend me all the days of my life; and I shall dwell forever in the house of the Lord.” Let us, beloved, not only appreciate the bounties of our “table,” but more and more feed upon the precious truth; and let us seek more and more to make use of the strength this food imparts, laboring in Christ’s service, that we may become more and more “strong in the Lord and in the power of his might.”

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— January, 1890 —