This Week of Prayer and the Great Revival Movement Planned For by Arthur Grosvenor Daniells

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Dec 7, 1911

This Week of Prayer and the Great Revival Movement Planned For

By Arthur Grosvenor Daniells

At the recent fall meeting of the General Conference Committee it was decided that during the coming winter there ought to be carried forward in all our conferences in North America an earnest revival movement among our churches. The object of this movement is to increase the zeal and courage of the faithful, to reclaim those whose feet may be slipping, and to lead all the unconverted young people in our ranks to surrender their lives to their Lord and Master. It is to bring a great revival of spiritual life, devotion, and power to all our people.

Such a movement must surely appeal to our conference officers, ministers, and brethren and sisters generally. We love our Lord and Saviour, who has given us so much of the light of his glorious gospel; we love the cause of the third angel's message, and desire to do all we can to hasten it forward to its final triumph; yet we are all conscious of a great need of a deeper religious life. We need a larger measure of the love of Christ for a lost world; we need greater power to win personal victories over sin; and we must have greater success in our soul-winning efforts.

It is to bring to all our people these great blessings that this general revival work is to be carried on this winter. This movement should begin in every conference and in as many churches as possible the first Sabbath of the week of prayer, and it should continue until every church receives the help it needs and desires. All who want the blessing of a great spiritual revival should begin at once to pray for this movement. God loves his people whom he has gathered together by the threefold message of Revelation 14. He wants to make them a truly spiritual, victorious people. He knows that only his grace and power can do this, and he will give us sufficient help as soon as we sense our need, and seek him with all our hearts.

There seems to be a strong conviction in the minds of many of our most earnest brethren and sisters that the time has come for God to give us a great spiritual blessing. For many years we have been working the best we knew how to provide facilities of every kind for the advancement of our cause. We have built up printing-houses, and have provided a large variety of valuable literature. At the same time we have thoroughly organized our publishing department, and we now have a splendid army of young men and women trained for that particular line of work. We have also established schools, trained teachers, and gathered thousands of young people into these institutions of learning to prepare them for rendering efficient service in all departments of the cause. During the last ten years special attention has been given to the reorganization of our administrative department. We have organized local and union conferences and mission fields in all parts of the world. Hundreds of men and women have been called to places of responsibility in the administrative affairs of the cause. Missionaries have been located in nearly all the countries of the world.

But all these are of little avail without the power of the Holy Spirit. We need the Spirit of God to take possession of all these workers and facilities, and sound the loud cry of the third angel's message. Nothing less than a great revival of spiritual life and power is called for by the earnest appeal that has come through the spirit of prophecy in behalf of the great masses located in our cities. While we have been developing plans and facilities for efficient work, we have reached many thousands in the towns, villages, and rural districts of the United States; but we have hardly begun our work in behalf of the masses located in the populous cities of our Eastern States and in other lands. As we now enter upon that important and difficult undertaking, we need special help from God. The call to work the cities of the world seems like the call to arms in the closing struggle of the conflict. In order to achieve the success that must attend our efforts in finishing the work in this generation, we must all be endowed with the power of the Holy Spirit.

The revival of new consecration and spiritual life has already begun with our ministers and Bible workers in the ministerial institutes that have been held. That is where it should begin, and it must continue until they are fully consecrated to the great work God has given them to do, and are endowed with the divine power they need to win the lost to Christ. But it is not enough for this revival of consecration and spiritual power to come to the workers in our cause. It must come to all the people. Every one must experience this; then every one will be aroused and impelled to do all in his power to hasten forward this work. When all stand in this relation to Jehovah and his cause, the power of God will make our efforts effective, and thousands will be constrained to take their stand for the truth; and so the earth will be lightened with the glory of God, and the Lord will come.

In view of these considerations, the coming week of prayer should surely be a season of earnest, importunate, prevailing prayer. It should mark the beginning of a great spiritual revival. This it will do if it is observed as conscientiously and whole-heartedly as it should be. May the love of Christ constrain us to do our part at this time.

A. G. DANIELLS.