A Day of Prayer for Missions
By Editor
We hope that the resolution which was adopted at the late session of the California Conference, to make Wednesday of each week a day of special prayer for missions and missionary workers, both home and foreign, will not be forgotten by any of our brethren. It is not expected that the whole day should be devoted to prayer, to the exclusion of business, nor that public meetings for prayer will be held unless it is convenient, but that the burden of all the prayers, both secret, and in the family, and in public, shall be for those who are actively engaged in any part of the work of the Third Angel's Message, even mentioning them by name as far as possible. These united prayers, offered in humble faith, cannot fail to strengthen the workers, and at the same time the minds of the petitioners will be enlarged as they contemplate the vastness of the work. And let none forget the injunction: “Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth laborers into his harvest.” In this connection, the following paragraph from “Testimony No. 31” is pertinent:— “Brethren and sisters, have you forgotten that your prayers should go out, like sharp sickles, with the laborers in the great harvest field? As young men go forth to preach the truth, you should have seasons of prayer for them. Pray that God will connect them with himself, and give them wisdom, grace, and knowledge. Pray that they may be guarded from the snares of Satan, and kept pure in thought and holy in heart. I entreat you who fear the Lord to waste no time in unprofitable talk or in needless labor to gratify pride or to indulge the appetite. Let the time thus gained be spent in wrestling with God for your ministers. Hold up their hands as did Aaron and Hur the hands of Moses.” There was much disappointment at the camp-meeting because we were deprived of the labors of Elder Butler. His illness prevented him from coming. It is hoped that by another camp-meeting, at least, we may be favored with his presence. Elder Haskell was feeling quite poorly when he arrived, but hard labor seemed to revive him, and by the close of the meeting he was in good spirits. He tried every means in his power to be released from office, but the brethren in California appreciate his labors and counsel too highly to listen for a moment to any such reasoning. The report on another page gives some of the main facts of the meeting, but the spirit of the meeting cannot be expressed in words. It is our prayer that none who were present will rest satisfied with the blessing they received, or allow Satan to deprive them of it. God blesses us that we may be a blessing to others. A MEMBER of a Seventh-day Adventist Sabbath-school asks: “Is it as great a sin to break the Sabbath as to murder?” The first thought that comes to our mind is, What difference does it make which is the greater sin? Does the questioner design to commit one or the other of the sins, if he can ascertain which is the lesser? We don’t believe that he does. Both Sabbath-breaking and murder are sins, and are both to be avoided. “All unrighteousness is sin,” and “the wages of sin is death.” Therefore since we are to avoid even the appearance of evil, all we have to do is to ascertain by the word of God what sin is. No matter if a sin is very small; the one who commits it will as surely be punished as though it were a very large one. But to answer the question directly. We don’t know; and we don’t know of anybody on earth who does know. If we could tell, then we should be judges of the law. But God alone is judge, and all we are called to do is to obey. Even Christ, when he was called upon to say which is the greatest commandment in the law, would not specify any one, but quoted the two great commandments which comprehend the whole. It should be sufficient for us to know that the commandments are “holy, and just, and good,” and that implicit obedience is to be rendered to every one of them.