I AM A STRANGER AND SOJOURNER.

 
JUNE 7.
 
I am a stranger and sojourner.
Psalm 39:12
 

WE come into the world strangers to its origin,
  nature, character, customs, duties, and doom; and
  we scarcely become acquainted with them before
    we are called away.
 
This is not our rest.
 
Here we have no continuing city.
 
We are intended for another state.
 
Our journey lies through the world,
  but our home is beyond it.
 
We are here for a time to do good, and
  to prepare for another and a better state.
 
Let us not then attempt to settle down as children at home,
  or say as Job did, “I shall die in my nest.”
 
But let us daily move on,
  keeping the eye steadily fixed on

   the things which are eternal.
 
Nor let us wonder if we are annoyed, opposed, and tried;
  what can strangers expect?
 
What should travelers look for?
 
Certainly not to have everything smooth and easy.
 
Let us keep at a proper distance from
  the customs, pleasures, and practices of the world;
  and beware lest its politics, speculations, and schemes,
    swallow us up.
 
We are not placed here to amass of fortune, or gain a name;
  but to glorify our Father which is in heaven.
 

Nothing on earth I call my own;

A stranger to the world unknown,

I all their goods despise;

I trample on their whole delight,

And seek a country out of sight,--

A country in the skies.

 
James Smith 1849