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The Need of the Hour

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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D.C. · Oct 5, 1905

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 82, No. 40.

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The Need of the Hour

By W. A. SPICER

W. A. SPICER
A FEW scriptures, and extracts from the spirit of prophecy, will set before us the need of this hour as we face the opening of the special missionary campaign.
There is strength in united action on a given plan of campaign. Most is done when altogether we rally at the same time, and bend our energies to the same end. It is written, “One shall chase a thousand.” It shows how strong against forces of evil the Lord is ready to make the one believer. God grant that the “isolated ones” may realize this. One loyal soul can do more for the truth than a thousand can do against it.
But while one can chase a thousand, “two shall put ten thousand to flight.” This shows what multiplied power there is in union in the work. It is a grand thing to think of the whole church of the third angel’s message, of many languages and tribes, stepping forward together, taking hold of a common plan, every one doing his utmost in every way and on every side to “belt the world” with this message. It is to be a reading of the literature ourselves, and a studying of the truth till our hearts are full of the burning message God has givenus. Then, it is to be a scattering of the literature on the right hand and on the left, talking with the people, giving Bible readings, ministering to the physical needs of the suffering, and in every way that the earnest, tactful love of Jesus can suggest, letting all within reach of our effort know that this third angel’s message does us good, makes us kind and helpful, and stirs our souls to go out to prepare others for the great day of God now breaking upon the world. We see the sword coming. Woe be to us if we give not the warning.
There is action and a sound of sturdy conflict in the description that Inspiration gives of the force that brought David to his throne. Of those who came to David’s help we read in the twelfth of First Chronicles: “They were armed with bows, and could use both the right hand and the left in hurling stones and shooting arrows out of a bow.”
Think of a band like that going into action, using both hands, all kinds of weapons, dealing blows right and left! The weapons of our warfare are different, but the Lord would have us turn the hand to anything and everything that helps on the conflict of truth. We are to be “instant in season, out of season,” “by the word of truth, by the power of God, by the armor of righteousness on the right hand and on the left.”
There was not a sluggish, lazy soul among David’s band. They were “men of war fit for the battle, that could handle shield and buckler, whose faces were like the faces of lions, and were as swift as the roes upon the mountains.”
Like Christ we must set our faces like a flint Zionward. We can not drift through the conflict before us and into the kingdom. We must settle it that this cause means warfare against evil, and conflict for the good; and we must overcome our natural timidity and inclination to hold back from personal work for sinners. We must break away from all this. Let us have the same energy and determination and industry and “grit” that pushes men on successfully in business dealing with their fellows, and consecrate it all to God’s service for him to sanctify and use to the salvation of souls. Every face like the face of a lion, every foot swift as the roe upon the mountains—what a missionary campaign that would mean with a force of Seventh-day Adventists seventy-five thousand strong!
Such were the men raised up by the call of the hour in that time of Israel’s crisis, who came day by day unto David “until it was a great host, like the host of God.” There were men who “had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do.” They could all “keep rank; they were not of double heart.” “All these men of war, that could keep rank, came with a perfect heart to Hebron, to make David king.”
It will be the same just before Christ Jesus takes his kingdom. The message that prepares the way is to be borne by a united band, rallying under the message of Revelation 14, until every nation, kindred, tongue, and people hears the warning. We shall learn to step together, and to carry through the plans of campaign formulated, by one united, mighty effort. “Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power.” Says the Testimony:—
“All heaven is represented to me as watching the unfolding of events. A crisis is to be revealed in the great and prolonged controversy in the government of God on earth. Something great and decisive is to take place, and that right early. . . . One word has justice to speak, and there will be terrific representations upon earth of the wrath of God. . . . Every movement in the universe of heaven is to prepare the world for the great crisis. Intensity is taking possession of every earthly element.”
That word was given some years ago, and still it stirs to action, for the intensity of the time has but increased, and we hear not the mutterings only, but the roar of the coming storm. And here is the word from the last volume of the Testimonies, showing how the battlefield appears from heaven’s point of view just now. We are all of us somewhere on the field within the range of this vision of conflict, bearing the standard forward, or lagging in the rear and trailing it in the dust:—
“In vision I saw two armies in terrible conflict. One army was led by banners bearing the world’s insignia; the other was led by the blood-stained banner of Prince Immanuel. Standard after standard was left to trail in the dust as company after company from the Lord’s army joined the foe, and tribe after tribe from the ranks of the enemy united with the commandment-keeping people of God. An angel flying in the midst of heaven put the standard of Immanuel into many hands, while a mighty general cried out with a loud voice: ‘Come into line! Let those who are loyal to the commandments of God and the testimony of Christ now take their position. . . . Let all who will, come up to the help of the Lord, to the help of the Lord against the mighty.’”
“The battle raged. Victory alternated from side to side. Now the soldiers of the cross gave way ‘as when a standard-bearer fainteth.’ Isa. 10:18. But their apparent retreat was but to gain a more advantageous position. Shouts of joy were heard. A song of praise to God went up, and angel voices united in the song, as Christ’s soldiers planted his banner on the walls of fortresses till then held by the enemy. The Captain of our salvation was ordering the battle, and sending support to his soldiers. His power was mightily displayed, encouraging them to press the battle to the gates. He taught them terrible things in righteousness as he led them on step by step, conquering and to conquer.”
“At last the victory was gained. The army following the banner with the inscription, ‘The commandments of God and the faith of Jesus,’ was gloriously triumphant. The soldiers of Christ were close beside the gates of the city, and with joy the city received her King.”
Truly it must be because we are close beside the gates of the eternal city that the conflict deepens now, and that God’s providence sounds as never before for every soul to come into line in these missionary campaigns that are never to cease until the victory is won. This is a people’s war. Every soul must bear the arms of the holy warfare. This same Testimony closes:—
“It is not alone by men in high positions of responsibility, not alone by men holding positions on boards or committees, not alone by the managers of our sanitariums and publishing houses, that the work is to be done which will cause the earth to be filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. This work can be accomplished only by the whole church acting their part under the guidance and in the power of Christ.”
Lord, we hear, and we respond. Let the promise be fulfilled: “Therefore my people shall know my name: therefore they shall know in that day that I am he that doth speak: behold, it is I. How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings; that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth! Thy watchman shall lift up the voice; with the voice together shall they sing: for they shall see eye to eye, when the Lord shall bring again Zion. . . . The Lord hath made bare his holy arm in the eyes of all the nations; and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.” Isa. 52:6-10.