God's Present Dealings with His People.
By Editor
Seventh-day Adventists have for years believed that the testimony to the seventh and last church, Rev. iii, 14–22, applied to us as a people. This message, like all the preceding messages, is addressed to the angel of the church. By the angel of the church, we understand the ministry of the church, or the true ministers of God, during the period covered by that church. The message to the Laodiceans is therefore addressed to the ministers of that church; not that it has exclusive reference to them personally, but it is designed to be given through them to the people. Whatever special dealings, therefore, God should intimate that he would have with the last, or any of the seven churches, we might expect the ministers to be the ones chiefly concerned therein, they standing as a representative of the church. In the message to the Laodiceans, the time must somewhere come when what is intimated in verse 19, will have its fulfillment: "As many as I love I rebuke and chasten." As the ministers are the representative of the church, might we not expect it would be especially manifested through them? These thoughts have been suggested by the peculiar condition of our ministers at the present time. That God is touching us in a remarkable and especial manner, the careful observer cannot have failed to perceive. One year ago when in answer to the prayers of the church, the winds were so signally stayed according to Rev. vii, 2, 3, we expected to see an immediate rise in the message, an increase of laborers qualified to sound the last message of mercy, the unmistakable manifestations of God's providence with his people, and in behalf of his truth, the progress of the work in power, until in due time, having accomplished its purpose, it should close in the triumph and deliverance of God's people. From these glowing anticipations, how much and what has been realized? Instead of a special rise in the message, the progress of the truth the past year, has been no more than ordinary; and instead of an increase of laborers, many of the more efficient ones then in the field, have been either entirely prostrated, or afflicted in some way calculated to dishearten or cripple them. And as in times of prosperity it is proper to enumerate our blessings, so now in this time of adversity and humiliation let us enumerate our calamities: 1. Bro. White, unable to labor since August last. 2. Bro. Loughborough incapable of being in the field, during the same period. 3. Bro. D. T. Bourdeau, lost to the cause through feeble health, since last Conference. 4. Bro. Hutchins obliged to rest a great proportion of the past year. 5. Bro. Frisbie severely afflicted with sickness, and kept for months from the field. 6. Bro. Byington more or less crippled with poor health and some severe sickness the past year. 7. Bro. C. O. Taylor written childless, in the loss of all three of his interesting children. 8. Bro. R. J. Lawrence of Mich., afflicted in the loss of a son, in his absence from home. 9. Bro. Bates, the day before he expected his only son to arrive at home, learns by letter of his death and burial in the ocean, on his homeward passage from Europe. 10. Bro. Andrews, laboring far away from his family, is occasioned weeks of distress and anxiety by the sickness and death of an infant daughter. 11. Bro. Fuller had a son attacked with measles; the disease so affecting the brain as to leave him insane, without much prospect of recovery, a constant source of care and anxiety. 12. Bro. John Bostwick of Minn., deceased. 13. The Gen. Conf. Committee, and the Mich. State Conf. Committee unable to act on account, in each case, of the sickness of two out of their three members. Other cases might be mentioned, but are not these sufficient? All this has intervened since our last Conference; and what is the meaning of it all? If God is by these things designing to teach us an important lesson, we should not be slow to learn it. This is not an affliction upon the preachers merely. No greater affliction could come upon the church than to have her messengers disabled; and all who are in sympathy with the body will feel it such. As already remarked, the ministers are the representatives of the church; and when they are touched, the whole cause is affected. But there is no occasion in this for discouragement. It is not an evidence that God is casting us off; but on the contrary, his testimony is, "As many as I love I rebuke and chasten." It is designed to bring us into a right relation to himself, where he can come into our hearts, and sup with us and we with him. As a people, we are now called upon to humble ourselves under his mighty hand. In view of these things, the present state of the cause, and our need of immediate help from God, it has seemed good to us to appoint the following Season of Fasting and Prayer.
We cannot believe but that God signally heard the prayers of his people one year since, and restrained the winds of war and strife in behalf of his cause. The prophecy asserts that the winds are held, that the servants of God might be sealed. But there has as yet appeared no change for the better in the progress of this sealing work. It appears to us therefore that we should feel as deeply over our present spiritual condition, as we did one year since over the temporal evils that then seemed to threaten us, and that there is now as much occasion for a season of fasting and prayer as there was then. We therefore recommend and request that four days, commencing Wednesday, May 9, and continuing till the close of the following Sabbath, be set apart as special days of humiliation, fasting and prayer on the part of the church. Let business be suspended, and the churches meet at one o'clock on the afternoon of each week day and twice on the Sabbath, to pour out their supplications before God. These meetings should be free from anything like discussions, and be characterized by humiliation, confessions, prayers for light and truth, and efforts for a fresh and individual experience in the things of God. During these days of prayer we recommend on the part of all a very abstemious and simple diet, Dan. x, 1; while some may more or less abstain from food as their health may permit, or their feelings prompt. Let us cry to the Lord to revive his cause, remove his rebuke from off his people, restore his servants, and lead on the message to its destined victory. We shall expect that all who have the interest of the message at heart, will enter willingly and heartily into this matter. We have reached a crisis in which it seems that the Lord alone can save us; and may we not stand still and see of his salvation. We believe he will be inquired of at our hand, and once more make bare his arm in behalf of his people.