Our Present Position and Work
ANY one who has become well informed concerning the course of this advent movement since its rise more than seventy years ago will certainly recognize the fact that our present position is one of great interest, and of equally great significance. A brief glance at some of the more important lines of prophecy will show that we are far down the stream of time, and almost to the limit of this world's allotted course. The prominent prophetic landmarks, which indicate the onward march of the centuries toward the great consummation, have all been passed by, as prediction after prediction has met its fulfilment. The dream of Nebuchadnezzar is no longer merely a dream; it is history. The four beasts of Daniel's vision “in the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon” have come up one after another, and have done what the prophet saw them do in vision. So also the vision which appeared unto Daniel “in the third year of the reign of King Belshazzar” has become fact: the ram with the two horns has “magnified himself;” the he-goat has “magnified himself exceedingly;” and the little horn has “waxed exceeding great,” and has “cast down truth to the ground.” The prophetic periods made known to the prophet Daniel are now wholly in the past. The terminus of the “time and times and half a time” was reached more than a century ago, and marked the year 1798 as “the time of the end.” Those who were young when the “two thousand and three hundred days [years]” came to a close in 1844, are now white-haired with age, and for threescore years we have been in the period of the judgment hour, the time of the cleansing of the sanctuary. If we turn to our Lord's great prophecy concerning the signs of his coming and of the end of the world, we shall4find that the sun has been darkened, the moon did refuse to give her light, and the stars did fall from heaven, and the next things to look for are the shaking of the powers of the heavens and the appearing of “the sign of the Son of man in heaven.” If we read Paul's prediction of “the falling away” and the coming of “the man of sin,” it is plain that “the unsparing hand of inspiration has stripped it [the papacy], and left it standing upon the stage of history deformed and naked, a dark emanation from the pit, blood-stained and blasphemous, blindly struggling in the concentrated rays of celestial recognition, amid the premonitory thunders and lightnings of its fast-approaching doom.” This is “the mystery of iniquity,” which the Lord Jesus will soon “bring to naught by the manifestation of his coming.” The book of Revelation has now almost wholly been written as history. We live in the seventh and last stage of the church, under the sixth seal, when the great day of the wrath of the Lamb is revealed, and under the seventh trumpet, when the mystery of God is to be finished. The great red dragon, the beast from the sea, and the two-horned beast are familiar in the records of the remote and the recent past, and the specifications of the prophecy have nearly all been fulfilled. The persecution under the image of the beast and the decree of death, the final experiences, are involved in what is now being done in the vain effort to stay the tide of evil which is already setting so strongly. The next general view is that of “the Lamb standing on the Mount Zion, and with him a hundred and forty and four thousand, having his name, and the name of his Father, written on their foreheads.” These and other special prophecies have largely been written into the records of the nations of the earth, and they speak in no uncertain tones of the nearness of the end of the age. Not simply one prophet says it, but the voices of all the prophets, in a clear and strong chorus, unite in saying, “The great day of the Lord is near, it is near, and hasteth greatly.” A brief review of the development and progress of the movement to give to the world the threefold message of Revelation 14 shows that since its inception in great weakness and under most forbidding circumstances after the bitter disappointment of 1844, there has been a steady growth, but that the last decade has witnessed an increase equal to all that had been gained in the previous years. This is well stated in the following paragraph from the recent leaflet written by Elder A. G. Daniells:— Few realize that this cause has made as great progress during the last ten years as it did during the entire fifty years preceding. But this is true. From the disappointment in 1844 to Dec. 31, 1893, a period of forty-nine years, there had been developed thirty-four local conferences and eleven missions. Ten years later, in 1903, there were seventy-eight conferences and forty-eight missions. In 1893 there were 34,404 Sabbath-keepers and 1,151 churches. In 1903, ten years later, there were 77,554 Sabbath-keepers and 2,180 churches. In 1893 there were 460 ministers. Ten years later there were 960. The tithes for 1893 were $350,690.56, and in 1903 they were $684,030.50. In 1893 the annual offerings to missions amounted to $108,572.11, while in 1903 they had reached $216,342.98. Mere increase in numbers and wealth is not a reliable proof that the work is of heaven, but a work which is of heaven ought to grow, and that is what this movement has done. A beacon light of truth has been kindled in almost every country of the globe, and in our past history, wherever a foothold has been obtained, the ground has been held, and the message has taken root permanently. So it will be. There is a power in this truth, and a vitality in this cause, which mean constant progress. But now at the beginning of another decade what is the condition which confronts us? It is really startling. The Macedonian calls have risen to a chorus. The doors are open in all lands. In some long-neglected fields the reaper almost overtakes the sower, so ready is the response to the proclamation of the message. The opening providences of God in this work now constitute nothing less than a divine summons to this people to go forward with rapid and decided moves. The next decade, if time shall last so long, will surely witness such an expansion in this movement as will baffle any attempt to express it adequately in words or figures. It will be pervasive, powerful, and transforming. It will be the ingathering harvest after many years of patient toil. Such is our present position. Here is where we are after sixty years in the advent movement. The sure word of prophecy marks the time with great certainty, and the history of our own work deepens the conviction that God is marshalling his forces for the closing conflict. We face the end. Our position determines our work. We have passed a turning point in our experience in this message. During the last three years the advent spirit has been in a measure revived and strengthened, the missionary zeal has been increased, and the providence of God has been removing some of the things which were robbing the message of point and power. We are now called upon by voices in the past and voices in the present to give God's warning message for this generation with a loud cry. It must and will be done. The hour has struck. “There shall be delay no longer.” It behooves each one to seek a part in this work as we go forward to finish it as quickly as possible under the inspiration and power of our all-conquering Captain of the host. Soon those who make excuses will be permanently excused. The time will come when there will be money enough and workers enough, and those who persist in taking their ease in Zion while the conflict is pressing sore will no more be disturbed by urgent pleas for funds and volunteers. But alas for those who are thus left to the consequences of their hesitating, halting, grasping policy! Their “sometime” when they plan to give themselves and their means to God's cause will never come. In the bankruptcy of the world they will meet with eternal failure. They can not redeem themselves in that day. We may well take courage as we contemplate our present position and work. “We have not followed cunningly devised fables.” The fundamental truths of this message which first called out this people and indicated their position and work are the truths for this time. “Such subjects as the sanctuary, in connection with the twenty-three hundred days, the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus, are perfectly calculated to explain the past advent movement, and show what our present position is, establish the faith of the doubting, and give certainty to the glorious future.” Let us go forward to victory. Soon our position will be with Jesus on the throne, and our work will evermore be to sound his praises. Homeward bound!