The Three Messages of Warning
conflict with the powers of darkness, and for complete and final victory. These special messages of warning are some of the good things which the Lord has promised. The first of these was to announce the end of prophetic time—the hour of judgment come. Has he fulfilled this promise? He has. The message has sounded loudly through the earth: “The hour of his judgment is come.” Unbelief doubts and dishonors God; but faith gives him credit for what he has done. The second message promised was a proclamation of the fall of Babylon. Has it been heard? It has. This is a fact that cannot be erased from the page of history. The third and last solemn message of warning promised, was to complete the work of reformation from papal traditions, and develop the true church, characterized as those that “keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus,” thus ripening them for the “harvest of the earth,” which is to follow. Has this message come? It has; it is a present truth. These are joyful and welcome messages to the people of God. They bring everlasting good news to those who love Christ’s appearing. These then are some of the good things that the Lord has promised us here in these last days. He is faithful in fulfilling these promises; not one thing has failed thereof. We are in the time of expectation; the perils of the last days are thickening around us. Oh, that we had special help from Heaven to guide us through the gathering gloom! Had God promised us the aid of those special teachings of his Spirit which he granted to the primitive church, it would certainly be a “good thing.” Could we be taught and led as God led Israel by Moses and Joshua, how gladly would we accept the hand reached down from Heaven to lead us. Has the Lord promised us such a thing? He has. When Jesus conferred the gifts of the Spirit upon his disciples, and assigned them their work during his personal absence till he should come again at the end of the world, he said, “And lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.” The end has not yet come, and the promise still stands good. The church reformed and restored to primitive faith and practice, will enjoy the gifts then given, and realize the fulfillment of the gracious promise. Besides, we are plainly informed concerning the remnant of the seed of the woman—that portion of the church who are to pass through the last persecution—a persecution against those that keep the commandments in obedience to the third and last message—that they not only “keep the commandments of God,” but “have the testimony of Jesus Christ.” Rev. xii, 17. The inspired definition of “the testimony of Jesus” is the “spirit of prophecy.” Rev. xix, 10, xxii, 9. God then has promised his people who obey the last message and keep the commandments of God, as the primitive church did, the spirit of prophecy for their comfort and guidance. He has promised this precious gift to guide his people through the perils of the last days, and to sustain them amid the fiery trial of their final persecution. Truly this is a good thing the Lord has promised us. Has he failed in fulfilling it? Has one good thing failed? Not at all. Had this one promise failed, we should be left in doubt; but not one thing has failed of all the good things the Lord has promised us. The crowning promise then will be fulfilled—the Lord will come to those that look for him, and eternal life and an everlasting kingdom will be their reward. But as the promises are sure, so the wrath threatened upon the unbelieving and disobedient will surely be executed. The message the Lord has called us as a people to proclaim is from Heaven; and whether we are saved by its warning, or sink under its threatened wrath, God has been faithful and will be. May we, my friends, see and acknowledge God’s faithfulness in his promises fulfilled, obey him in all that he now requires, and in the ceaseless ages of eternity rejoice in the fact that not one thing failed of all the good things which the Lord in his great mercy and abounding goodness promised us; but that the Red Sea and the Desert have been past, and we are forever safe in the land of our promised inheritance.