Take Time to Commune With God by E. HILLIARD

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Nov 16, 1916

Take Time to Commune With God

By E. HILLIARD

E. HILLIARD

No other has ever been so overburdened with work as was Christ when he was here among men. The hours of the day, from early morning until the shades of night darkened the earth, were spent in healing and teaching the multitudes. Yet our Saviour found time to commune with his heavenly Father. It was through the channel of prayer that he was enabled to accomplish so much.

Christ might have retired after the day's work was done, and excused himself from spending in prayer the hours needed for rest; but often his burden for souls robbed him of the hours that nature required for sleep. He well knew that without his Father he could do nothing. John 5:30. Before he began his day's work, and long after its close, he communed with God, that he might be a blessing to the poor and afflicted. While those he healed were sleeping soundly, he was pleading with God that their hearts might be melted in gratitude, and that they might accept him as their Saviour.

The Jewish nation had so long and so sedulously followed the traditions of their fathers that their hearts were not prepared to appreciate the Saviour's efforts for the salvation of their souls. Is it not largely so among God's professed people today? Have not theories of human invention taken the place of Bible truth? Preconceived ideas and pride and prejudice are holding many in the bondage of sin. So little time is spent in communion with God that the evil propensities hold sway, and real piety is on the decline.

Some Seventh-day Adventist families have abandoned the family altar. Others have family prayer now and then, as time will permit. The many daily cares and duties that crowd upon the occupants of the home and the farm shut out the angel of peace, and there seems to be no connection with heaven. Of course such do not think that they can accomplish more by rushing to their day's labor without God, but being hurried and overpressed, they seem to forget that much more would be accomplished by spending a little time each morning in the study of God's Word, and in asking his presence to lighten the burdens of the day.

Nothing else is so strengthening as the Spirit of God. It enlightens the mind and imparts physical power, and can be had for the asking. Why should we rush away to the field to save time, and accomplish less by not having God with us? Why should one deny his faith by saying, 'Without Christ I can do nothing,' and then hasten to the plow without him? Why declare to the world that we are followers of him who had not where to lay his head, and then live a prayerless, world-grasping life? If such would candidly reflect on their prayerless, barren life, they would not claim to be Christians.

Trying scenes are just before the people of God. The prophecy recorded in Revelation 12 and 13 is soon to be fulfilled. A universal Sunday law will be enacted and enforced through the union of the religious element with the civil power. The prayerless families that encroach upon the early hours of God's holy Sabbath will yield their faith unless a change is wrought in their lives. Some excuse themselves by saying, 'We have so much to do that we cannot begin or end the Sabbath as we know we ought.' This excuse will never stand in the test before us. We are living in a time when the Saviour's words, “Take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with . . . cares of this life,” have specific application. The Lord through the Spirit of prophecy has said:— “In whatever occupation you may be, whether physicians, merchants, ministers, or men in other walks of life, you have no right to load yourselves down with heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, to be pressed under many and varied responsibilities, until you feel that you have no time to pray, and excuse yourself on the plea that you have so much to do. If you have so much to do, how essential it is that you have the Lord God of Israel to stand by your side, that you may bear the yoke evenly with him who was meek and lowly in heart.”—“Special Testimonies for Our Ministers,” No. 1, p. 59.

When the cares of life are allowed to crowd out family prayer at the beginning or close of the Sabbath, 'you may well be alarmed for your soul.' Sabbath keepers who have large dairies, herds of young stock, sheep and fowls to feed and care for until the sun that marks the beginning of the sacred day has long sunk to rest, are certainly being overcharged with the cares of this life. This can be avoided without pecuniary loss and with great spiritual gain.

“Whenever it is possible, employers should give their workers the hours from Friday noon until the beginning of the Sabbath. Give them time for preparation, that they may welcome the Lord's day with quietness of mind. By such a course you will suffer no loss, even in temporal things.”—“Testimonies for the Church,” Vol. VI, p. 356.

Again we read:—

“Before the setting of the sun, let the members of the family assemble to read God's Word, to sing and pray. There is need of reform here, for many have been remiss. We need to confess to God and to one another. We should begin anew to make special arrangements that every member of the family may be prepared to honor the day which God has blessed and sanctified.”—Ib., pp. 356, 357.

Why not heed this good instruction? Will any of us allow ourselves to be overburdened with the cares of this life to the loss of the soul? 'For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?'

St. Paul, Minn.