Vol. 2 Timely
Greetings No. 44
THE ONLY
PEACE OF MIND
Volume 2
Number 44
Copyright, 1950 Reprint
All rights reserved
V.T. HOUTEFF
THE SIGNS
OF CHRIST'S SECOND COMING
OR THE SIGNS
OF THE KINGDOM--WHICH?
TEXT OF ADDRESS BY V.T. HOUTEFF,
MINISTER OF DAVIDIAN 7TH-DAY
ADVENTISTS SABBATH,
MT.
We as students and gospel teachers have for
years dwelt heavily on the signs of Christ's second coming, but not at all on
the signs of the Kingdom. As a result of
this, Christendom has theoretically merged the signs of the Kingdom with the
signs of the second Advent.
Something similar to this is what the Jews
of old did when they were expecting the Messiah's first appearing. According to their private understanding they
deeply studied the signs of the restoration of the Kingdom, but not so much of
the signs of the Messiah's coming. Thus
it was that when they were told that the Messiah had come but not the time to
restore the Kingdom, the leaders of the Jews, taking for granted that their
private (uninspired) interpretation of the Scriptures was infallible, rejected
the message of that day. Then in an attempt
to safeguard their influence upon the common people and to subjugate them to
their way of thinking, they crucified the Lord, their Saviour
and King as they did also kill the prophets who went before Him. Their insistence that the Kingdom be restored
in their day, though, profited them nothing.
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The fact that Christendom itself is divided
and confused, one believing one thing and another something else, is in itself
sufficient evidence that besides being in total darkness of the signs of the Kingdom
because of private interpretation of the Scriptures, Christendom must be in
darkness of many other things as well.
In such a confused state of faith, Christendom is definitely no more led
by the Spirit of Truth than were the rebellious Jews. Past experience teaches, however, that to try
to convince the multitude of this fact would be as formidable a task as to
convince the Jews even to this day that Christ is the Messiah that was to
come. The difficulty, of course, lies in
the fact that hardly a theologian allows for the possibility that his
understanding of the Bible might be at least in a measure erroneous, and that
Inspiration might almost at any moment manifest Itself anew, unroll the scroll
and bring forth timely Truth, "meat in due season," and thus expose
their private concoctions of so-called truth.
Now with all respect and sincerity, by the
authority of the Scriptures and by virtue of the facts before me, I say that it
would be easier for a chicken to find its roost in the blackest of the night
than for uninspired mind to unveil the prophecies and the parables. The difference between the two is that the
chicken realizes the futility of trying to find her roost after sunset, but the
self-willed man does not realize that he cannot unveil Truth at his own will
and without light from above.
We as Christians have obviously failed to
note that if the secret things of God, matter not how simple, were
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No. 44 30
to be unsealed at anytime by anyone, Inspiration would
never in the first place have concealed them in symbols and parables. Christendom is still blind to the fact that
to attempt to break into the mysteries of God would be to attempt to defeat His
purposes; yes, to try to break into the Divine code,
is to try the impossible. For example,
even when the time did come for the Book sealed with seven seals to be unsealed
(Rev. 4 and 5), no one in heaven or on earth was able to do so, but only
"the Lion of the tribe of
2 Pet. 1:19-21 -- "We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well
that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a
dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts: knowing
this first, that no prophecy of the Scripture is of any private
interpretation. For the prophecy came
not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake
as they were moved by the Holy Ghost."
No one, say the Scriptures, can privately
(without Inspiration) unfold the prophecies, for, reasons the Apostle, as
prophecy came not by private effort -- not by the will of men, but by holy men
and the Spirit -- neither can it therefore be of private interpretation, but
only by holy men led by the Holy Spirit.
Moreover, even
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after prophecy is thus interpreted, only to the righteous
(the penitent) is given the gift of understanding it (Dan.
Since we as a people know some of the signs
of Christ's second coming, and none of the signs of the Kingdom, we had better
now concentrate on the signs of the latter.
Matt. 13:24-30 -- "Another parable put He forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of
heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field: but while men
slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way. But when the blade was sprung up, and brought
forth fruit, then appeared the tares also.
So the servants of the Householder came and said unto Him, Sir, didst
not Thou sow good seed in Thy field? from whence then hath it tares? He said unto them, An
enemy hath done this. The servants said
unto Him, Wilt Thou then that we go and gather them up? But He said, Nay;
lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest: and
in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the
tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into My barn."
This parable of the Kingdom, you note,
contains three periods of time: First, the period of sowing the seed -- the
time of Christ's ministry; second, the period of growing -- the time from the
ascension of Christ to the harvest; third, the time of harvest -- a short
period of
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time "at the end of the world" (Matt.
The work of the harvest, very obviously, is
synonymous with the Judgment that decides who are tares and who are wheat--who
are to be burned and destroyed as noxious weeds, and who are as precious wheat
to be admitted into "the barn," the Kingdom. Thus it is that the Judgment is the cleansing
of the sanctuary (Dan.
Mal. 3:1-3, 5 -- "Behold, I will send My messenger, and he
shall prepare the way before Me: and the Lord, Whom ye seek, shall suddenly
come to His temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in:
behold, he shall come, saith the Lord of hosts. But who may abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand
when he appeareth?
for he is like a refiner's fire, and like fullers' soap: and he shall
sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and he shall purify the sons of Levi,
and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an
offering in righteousness.... And I will come near to you to judgment; and I
will be a swift
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witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers,
and against false swearers, and against those that oppress
the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and that turn aside
the stranger from his right, and fear not Me, saith
the Lord of hosts."
How many yields of fruit is the harvest to
give? -- If the 144,000 are the "first fruits" (Rev. 14:4), then
there must be "second fruits," for where there is no second there can
be no first. The word "firstfruits" absolutely necessitates second fruits.
Where do the first fruits come from, and
where do the second fruits come from? -- We are plainly told that the first
fruits are Israelites -- all from the twelve tribes of
1 Pet.
Now, then, if the Judgment begins first in
the "house of God," in the church, then it will end in the world,
outside the church circles. The parable
of the "net"
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and the Revelation of John very briefly and concisely
bring this truth still better to the surface.
Matt. 13:47-50 -- "Again, the Kingdom of heaven is like unto a net, that was cast
into the sea, and gathered of every kind: which, when it was full, they drew to
shore, and sat down, and gathered the good into vessels, but cast the bad away. So shall it be at the end of the world: the
angels shall come forth, and sever the wicked from among the just, and shall
cast them into the furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of
teeth."
Clearly, the net represents the gospel
church into which are caught both hypocrite and saint. Accordingly, in the time of the firstfruit harvest (the Judgment "in the house of
God") "at the end of the world" (Matt.
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comes to us in these words:
Isa. 66:15, 16, 19, 20 -- "For, behold, the Lord will come with fire, and
with His chariots like a whirlwind, to render His anger with fury, and His
rebuke with flames of fire. For by fire
and by His sword will the Lord plead with all flesh: and the slain of the Lord
shall be many....And I will set a sign among them, and I will send those that
escape of them unto the nations, to Tarshish, Pul, and Lud, that draw the bow,
to Tubal, and Javan, to the
isles afar off, that have not heard My fame, neither have seen My glory; and
they shall declare My glory among the Gentiles.
And they shall bring all your brethren for an offering unto the Lord out
of all nations upon horses, and in chariots, and in litters, and upon mules,
and upon swift beasts, to My holy mountain
Again we here see that those who escape the
slaying of the Lord "in the house of God" (obviously the firstfruits, "the servants of God"), are sent to
the nations who know not God, and from there they bring all their brethren (the
second fruits) to the purified house of God where there is neither sin nor
sinner, and where the plagues of Babylon therefore do not fall.
We have now positively seen that there are
first and second fruits: one from the church -- the 144,000 sons of Jacob; and
one from all nations -- the great multitude which no man can number (Rev. 7:9).
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Who gathers the firstfruits
if the firstfruits gather the second fruits? -- Let
us find our answer by reading--
Rev. 14:14-19 -- "And I looked, and behold a white cloud, and upon the cloud One
sat like unto the Son of man, having on His head a golden crown, and in His
hand a sharp sickle. And another angel
came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to Him that sat on the cloud,
Thrust in Thy sickle, and reap: for the time is come
for Thee to reap; for the harvest of the earth is ripe. And He that sat on the cloud thrust in His
sickle on the earth; and the earth was reaped.
And another angel came out of the temple which is in heaven, he also
having a sharp sickle. And another angel
came out from the altar, which had power over fire; and cried with a loud cry
to Him that had the sharp sickle, saying, Thrust in
Thy sharp sickle, and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth; for her
grapes are fully ripe. And the angel
thrust in His sickle into the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth, and
cast it into the great winepress of the wrath of God."
Here we are again told that there are two reapings, one by the Son of Man, and another by an
angel. The reaping by the Son of Man
precedes the reaping by the angel.
"Son of Man," therefore, gathers the firstfruits,
and the angel gathers the second fruits.
(The vines, not the fully ripe grapes, he casts in the wine press.) The
Son of Man Himself obviously reaps the firstfruits
because His servants (figuratively the angel of the church of the Laodiceans) are in no condition to do such a work, for they
themselves are "wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and
naked," and know it not (Rev. 3:14-18).
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Looking down to this very time, the Spirit
of Prophecy in Isaiah's day said:
Isa. 63:5 -- "And I looked, and there was none to help; and
I wondered that there was none to uphold: therefore Mine
own arm brought salvation unto Me; and My fury, it upheld Me."
Here you note that when the time came there
was not even one among His servants "to uphold" the work of the
harvest, and consequently the Lord Himself did the work without them.
For the second reaping, however, He uses His
guileless "servants," the "firstfruits,"
the 144,000, as prefigured by the angel with the sharp sickle (Rev. 14:17,
18). And just as there are two fruits
and two reapings from two different places, the
church and the world, there are, as shown before, also two ways of harvesting:
at first the bad are cast from among the good, and at last the good are called
out from among the bad.
These are some of the signs and events that
precede the Kingdom of glory, the second coming of Christ. Then, too, there are other signs, the first
of which is seen from the parable of Matthew 25.
Matt. 25:1-12 -- "Then shall the Kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins,
which took their lamps, and
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went forth to meet the Bridegroom. And five of them were wise, and five were
foolish. They that were foolish took
their lamps, and took no oil with them: but the wise took oil in their vessels
with their lamps. While the Bridegroom
tarried, they all slumbered and slept.
And at
In this parable it is seen that the church
is likened to ten virgins, five of whom do not avail themselves
of extra oil -- special Truth for this time, that is, these five do not give
heed to the truth of the Judgment of the living, the separation or purification
of the church. When the cry is made,
"Behold, the Bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet Him," all ten
virgins see that the light of their lamps is going out; they see that the
message of the Judgment of the dead is passing.
Quickly then, the five wise virgins refill their lamps with the extra
oil which they have stored in their vessels, and go on to meet the
Bridegroom. But the five foolish
virgins, those who thought there was no need for extra oil, no need for an
extra message, the message of the Judgment
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of the living, find themselves in gross darkness. Yes, they find themselves without the light
which the message of the Judgment of the living unfolds. Upon discovering their foolish neglect, they
rush to obtain oil, light on the subject, but in the meantime the door has been
shut (probationary time for the virgins, the church, has closed). When they call for admission they are
politely told by the Lord Himself, "I know you not."
The sign of the coming Kingdom which this
parable brings forth, is obviously the special message (the extra oil) which
announces the Judgment of the living, the message which awakens the
open-hearted Truth seekers, and which dooms its opposers,
the hypocrites and lukewarm in the church -- those who are satisfied and think
themselves rich and increased with goods, in need of nothing (in need of no
timely Truth), those who never awake to the fact that they are absolutely
destitute. Mind you, these are not my
words, read what the Lord says to
Rev. 3:14-18 -- "And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans
write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and
true Witness, the beginning of the creation of God; I know thy works, that thou
art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and
neither cold nor hot, I will spue
thee out of My mouth. Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need
of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched,
and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked: I counsel thee to buy of Me gold
tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and
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white raiment, that thou mayest
be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that
thou mayest see."
Another view of this tragic truth is given
in--
Luke 14:16-24 -- "Then said He unto him, A certain man made a great supper, and
bade many: and sent His servant at supper time to say to them that were bidden,
Come; for all things are now ready. And
they all with one consent began to make excuse. The
first said unto him, I have bought a piece of ground, and I must needs go and
see it: I pray thee have me excused. And
another said, I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I
go to prove them: I pray thee have me excused.
And another said, I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come. So that servant came, and shewed
his Lord these things. Then the Master of the house being angry said to His
servant, Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in
hither the poor, and the maimed, and the halt, and the blind. And the servant said, Lord, it is done as
Thou hast commanded, and yet there is room.
And the Lord said unto the servant, Go out into the highways and hedges,
and compel them to come in, that My house may be
filled. For I say unto you, That none of those men which were bidden shall taste of My
supper."
In this parable are seen two periods of
time. The first period is while the
gospel has "bade many" (Luke
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God sends to His people, the
time all things are "ready."
The next period is the time in which His last servant served (Luke
But what happens? -- They excuse themselves
from having anything to do with the banquet just then. Some lay the blame on their professions,
while others blame having to make a living for the family. Whereupon the Master of the house angrily
sends His servant to the poor and to the afflicted, to those who are hungry and
not too busy to take heed, to those who are not so encumbered with business and
home that they cannot answer His call.
This very thing takes place in the "city" proper -- the
church. The poor, those who realize that
they are not "rich and increased with goods," come in, but still
there is room for more.
Then it is that the Lord of that servant
commands that he should go after those who are on the highways and hedges --
those outside the church circles, even to the ends of the earth (the
"hedges"). But before the
servant goes to the highways and hedges on his last
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mission, the Master
emphatically informs him that those who had been bidden and who excused themselves
from coming in, are to be entirely excluded from the banquet; that none of them
will be permitted even to taste of His supper; that by turning a deaf ear to
the call these have closed their own probationary time, and that there is now
nothing that can alter the situation.
After this the servant's compelling cry goes out to the nations and the
Master's house is filled, the wedding takes place, and the Bridegroom serves
all that are in the house, but none others.
This same event is again given from another
point of view. This time by the gospel
prophet:
Isa. 52:1, 2 -- "Awake, awake; put on thy strength, O Zion; put
on thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city: for henceforth there
shall no more come into thee the uncircumcised and the unclean. Shake thyself from the dust; arise, and sit
down, O Jerusalem: loose thyself from the bands of thy neck, O captive daughter
of
This particular prophecy discloses that
while the church, Jerusalem and Zion, is asleep and naked with the unclean in
her midst, and in captivity among the Gentiles (away from her own land), an
awakening cry, a message, comes urging her to arise and put on her beautiful
garments, for the wicked, declares the cry, will no more come into her, for
they are to be utterly cut off.
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The signs of the Kingdom, you see, are even
more important for one to observe than are the signs of Christ's coming. If one should miss the signs of the Kingdom,
then the knowledge of the signs of Christ's coming would profit nothing, for
all such will be frightened at His appearing and say "to the mountains and
rocks. Fall on us, and hide us from the
face of Him that sitteth on the throne, and from the
wrath of the Lamb; for the great day of His wrath is come; and who shall be
able to stand?" Rev. 6:16, 17.
Are the efforts to set up the pre-millennial
Kingdom -- the purified church -- accompanied by great signs and wonders, by
noise and pomp? To this question the
Lord answers--
Matt.
Zech. 4:6 --
"Not by might, nor by power, but by My spirit, saith the Lord of hosts."
Not a blast or a boom, and not a bust
either, but the plain, quiet Truth, Brothers, Sisters, is what saves you and
brings the Kingdom into being.
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What is this pre-millennial Kingdom
like? And what other signs precede its
establishment? The answer to this
question comes through Ezekiel--
Ezek. 36:23-28 -- "And I will sanctify My great name, which was profaned among the
heathen, which ye have profaned in the midst of them; and the heathen shall
know that I am the Lord, saith the Lord God, when I
shall be sanctified in you before their eyes.
For I will take you from among the heathen, and gather you out of all
countries, and will bring you into your own land. Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you,
and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will
I cleanse you. A new heart also will I
give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony
heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart
of flesh. And I will put My spirit within you, and cause you to walk in My statutes,
and ye shall keep My judgments, and do them.
And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and ye shall
be My people, and I will be your God."
Here are additional signs, signs which are
displayed within and without the man himself: the scars and defects which sin
has written upon the bodies of God's people are washed away; also the sin-hardened
heart is carved out of them and a new, tender heart that delights in keeping
God's statutes and judgments, is set in.
When does this take place? -- After God
takes His saints "from among the heathen," "out of all
countries,"
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and brings them into their "own land," say the
Scriptures. Thus shall they dwell in the
land that God anciently gave to their fathers, and thus shall they be His
people and He their God. Here you see
that no one can meet God face to face and live with Him eternally without first
having this body-cleansing and heart-changing experience.
Very evidently none who remain ignorant of
these signs of the coming Kingdom will have this experience and consequently
shall never enter into it, never be fitted to live and
reign with Christ.
Since these signs are so vital to salvation,
they should no longer be overlooked, but should receive first consideration if
we expect Christ's second coming to be for our good, not to our damnation. Indeed, for this obvious reason it is at this
late hour this important message is brought to our attention.
This great Truth is again foretold in the
words of Zechariah--
Zech. 12:5-14; 13:1-5 -- "And the governors of
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"In that day shall the Lord defend the
inhabitants of
"In that day shall there be a great
mourning in
"In that day there shall be a fountain
opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of
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more be remembered: and also I will cause the prophets
and the unclean spirit to pass out of the land.
And it shall come to pass, that when any shall yet prophesy, then his
father and his mother that begat him shall say unto him, Thou shalt not live; for thou speakest
lies in the name of the Lord: and his father and his mother that begat him
shall thrust him through when he prophesieth. And it shall come to pass in that day, that the prophets shall be ashamed every one of his
vision, when he hath prophesied; neither shall they wear a rough garment to
deceive: but he shall say, I am no prophet, I am an husbandman; for man taught
me to keep cattle from my youth."
The revival and reformation herein presented
-- mourning and heart searching caused by appreciativeness of God's great mercy
and goodness -- shall be in the day the governors of Judah say, "The
inhabitants of Jerusalem shall be my strength," in the day the Lord makes
even the most feeble among them as David, and the house of David as God, as the
angel of the Lord.
When this thorough reformation takes place
then the cleansing fountain shall be opened to the whole house of David. In that day the wicked shall be cut off and
kept out of the house of David, and the false teachers, "prophets,"
shall feel ashamed of having ever taught their private interpretations of the
Scriptures. Then shall men fully realize
that though they could be taught by men to keep cattle, yet no man could teach
them to prophesy; that this office is restricted to the Spirit of Prophecy, that no prophecy of the Scriptures is of
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private interpretation.
Is this cleansing, heaven-fitting
pre-millennium Kingdom, set up in probationary time? -- To find our answer we
shall turn to the prophecy of Micah--
Micah 3:12; 4:1, 2 -- "Therefore shall Zion for your sake be plowed
as a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house as
the high places of the forest.... But in the last days it shall come to pass,
that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established in the top of
the mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills; and people shall flow
unto it. And many nations shall come,
and say, Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house
of the God of Jacob; and He will teach us of His ways, and we will walk in His
paths: for the law shall go forth of Zion, and the Word of the Lord from
Jerusalem."
Here we are told that in the latter days, in
our time, the ancient Kingdom that was destroyed will be reestablished and
exalted above all other Kingdoms. Then
people shall "flow into it" because "the law shall go forth of
This is what the Bible says, and certain it
is that
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this is what is to be, for not even the Devil can defeat
God's plans or cheat His people. Oh,
yes, the Devil will try to explain away what these Scriptures say, but he can
never make them say something other than what they do say. Besides, anyone taking the Devil's word in
preference to God's, deserves the Devil's reward, and
I am sure he will not be cheated out of it.
Since these signs of the times, in addition
to others, are of far greater importance than the "Lisbon
earthquake," "the dark day," and "the falling stars,"
we had better awake to the demand which they impose upon us, and which are
bound to fit us for the second coming of Christ and for a home in His Kingdom
if heeded. But if these signs cannot
awaken us, then it is positive that they will cause us to slide down into the
bottomless pit while dreaming of being rich and increased with goods, in need
of nothing, supposedly on the way to the glory land. What a disappointment and what weeping and
gnashing of teeth that would be!
Who is to drive the Gentiles out of the
land? -- The answer is in
Zech. 1:14-17, 20, 21 -- "So the angel that communed with me said unto
me, Cry thou, saying, Thus saith
the Lord of hosts; I am jealous for
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hosts, and a line shall be stretched forth upon
Obviously one part of the Gentile nations
shall come against the part that is in the Holy Land, and chase them out to
make room for God's people. Then will
the Lord's feet stand on
This truth, you see, supersedes all truths,
for without it your other truths will not profit you, will not take you into
the Kingdom. It is the last mile of all
the miles of our faith through life that takes us Home. We have gone this long; let us, therefore,
keep on going right on to glory land, which is no longer beyond the
horizon. The mile ahead is indeed the
last mile that will take us Home.
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