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The Golden Door On the base of the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbour is chiselled these lines from the "New Colossus," a sonnet by Emma Lazarus, who saw this monument as the "mother of exiles" speaking to ancient lands.
That was the welcome America set out to give to the oppressed and down‑trodden of the Old World. What an apt symbol is that of the welcome that will be extended to all mankind when the gates of the Millennial Age are opened to them, and the voice of the King is heard saying "Whosoever will may come." "Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation" shouts Isaiah triumphantly. (Isa.12:3) And we who in these last days of the old world of sin and death are trying to maintain a witness to that new Kingdom, surely we can stand and say, as does that symbolic figure over there in the waters of New York harbour, "I lift my lamp beside the golden door." That might be a very good watchword for our continuing witness; though men may take little heed of what we say, though faith and hope in the Kingdom seems to be confined to only a few—yet—day in, day out, as year succeeds to year and decade to decade, we who see the glories of that coming Day and know that it must surely come can well proclaim without ever growing weary "I lift my lamp beside the golden door." AOH |
"Give me your tired, your poor,