Resting and Praying by GEO. O. STATES.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D. C. · Mar 23, 1905

Resting and Praying

By GEO. O. STATES.

It is nearly one year since, on account of nervous breakdown, I was obliged to cease from public labor, and it is several months since I went to my little farm to rest. While my health is slowly improving, yet it is very hard for me to content myself with not laboring to advance the cause that lies so near to my heart.

One day while looking over some things in the cellar, I found an old copy of the REVIEW, and in looking it through I saw an article entitled “An Answered Prayer,” which related how an old man who had always been very active in church work had a long spell of sickness. When he recovered, he had dropped out of the procession, and all looked upon his breakdown as a sign that his days of work were over. It looked to him as if all he could do was to stay at home and pray; he could do nothing to answer his prayers. One morning after breakfast the aged couple read a chapter and knelt down according to their custom, and prayed. A carpenter who had come to repair the roof ascended a few rounds on a ladder, and heard the old man pray for the scattered members of his family and for God’s blessing on the work which others were doing, and in which he no longer had a part. The carpenter retired a little way, and reflected over the past, how he once had praying parents, and how they never failed, while they lived, to pray for an absent son. A few months after, the carpenter came and told the aged couple how that prayer followed him until he gave himself to the Lord.

As I read that article, tears came to my eyes, and I felt that while I am not able to go out in active work, yet I can pray for God’s blessing to rest upon those who are actively engaged in the proclamation of the message. I know that this message will gather out a people for the coming of the Lord. While for a time I am not able to preach the message, yet I thank the Lord I feel a deep interest in the advancement of the work, and can pray for God’s blessing upon its various branches.

I know that God is leading this people, and I am praying that the coming General Conference will mark a new era in the advancement of the work, and that plans may be laid which will result in speeding that glad day when this truth shall enlighten the whole earth. I have firmly believed this truth for over fifty years, and although at the first we believed the Lord would come long before this, yet I have not lost confidence in the final triumph of the work. One hundred and forty-four thousand are to stand upon the sea of glass. Brethren, I have faith to believe that I shall yet have a part in swelling the loud cry of the message.

In “Early Writings,” page 10, we have an account of the Lord’s people in traveling to the city, and they are represented as high above the world.

“Some grew weary, and said the city was a great way off, and they expected to have entered it before.” I have felt sad to learn of some who have known this truth for many years losing their interest in the message. The Lord has given this people great light, and it is only by earnest prayer, study of the Word, and of the Testimonies which God has placed in this church from the very beginning of the message, that we shall be kept from losing our hold upon God. My brethren, let us take courage in the Lord; for soon this message will triumph, and we with it if we remain faithful.

GEO. O. STATES.