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KEEP AWAKE

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The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Feb 25, 1868

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 31, No. 11.

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KEEP AWAKE.

By R. F. COTTRELL

[BRO. SMITH: I don't know how long since the following excellent little piece appeared in the Review, but I think it good enough to be read every week. It is some time since I cut it out, and placed it in my Bible, and I think I have read it about every week since, and always with a desire that all who are not firmly established and settled in the faith could read it too. If you think best, please give it another insertion. M. P. STILES.]
To the traveler struggling with the snow and cold, wearied with toil, and feeling an almost irresistible drowsiness coming over him, it is necessary to make the greatest efforts, to keep awake. If he sink down and fall asleep, he will never awake; but the benumbing cold will still creep on, chilling the blood, till the heart shall cease to beat and life become extinct. So it is with us, brethren and sisters in the Lord. If we do not strive against the chilling, freezing influence of this evil world, we shall be overcome and sink down to spiritual sleep, never more to awake. We are looking for the outpouring of the Spirit, and for the closing work of the last message. It will surely come—the word of God will not fail. But let us not rest from our exertions and fall asleep. Now is the time to strive against drowsiness; now is the time to labor. Now is the time to prepare ourselves to share the blessing of God, that we may be so highly honored and promoted of Heaven as to share in the closing work of probation, and then be translated to Mount Zion, to take a part in the song of triumph. Now is the most favorable time we shall have; now is the only time. The chilling blasts of this arctic region will not abate—the times will be more and more perilous—all is depending on keeping awake now, a daily victory over sin; else what ground have we to hope that we shall finally overcome? If we are making no progress in the journey, how can we hope ever to see the end?
The drifting snow is deep, the winds are chilling, the night is dark, the way is rough, and the labor demands all our strength. But take courage; there is a light ahead! Struggle on. Keep awake one hour. In a little while the toils of the way will be forgotten in the sweet rest that awaits us at the end of the journey. The stormy blasts and the piercing cold will be superseded by the gentle, balmy breezes, and the genial clime of Paradise.
“No chilling winds nor poisonous breath Can reach that healthful shore, Sickness and sorrow, pain and death, Are felt and feared no more.”
“Awake, O awake! now to life and to duty, Faint not by the way till our labor is done; For quickly the King will descend in his beauty, The warfare be ended, the victory won.”
R. F. COTTRELL.