The Week of Prayer by Arthur G. Daniells

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D.C. · Nov 12, 1903

The Week of Prayer

By Arthur G. Daniells

THE week of prayer for 1903 was appointed by the recent council in Washington, to be held December 12-19.

Much can and will be said before this season of devotion closes regarding its many important features. It can truthfully be said, as it has been said each year in the past, that we have never faced conditions in our history that called more loudly for earnest prayer than we do at this time.

There is not a doubt that the last year of human history will be the most wonderful, thrilling, and terrible of the whole history of this world. And the fact that we are in the time of the end, the hour of God's judgment, the days of the finishing of the gospel, warrants us in stating that each year from now until the last and worst will be more strange and dangerous than any preceding it. Who can not see that this is the way affairs have been going within the years of our short experience? Who has not felt almost terrified with the down-grade speed of the last year? The perils are surely thickening around us, and as they do, we need more than ever the blessings of seasons of earnest prayer.

In this first brief announcement of the week of prayer for this year, there are but two points which I can mention.

One is that the week of prayer this year should be thought about, planned for, not prayed over, and observed with the earnestness and solemnity that the time in which we live, and the message we are commissioned to give to the world, demand. The other point is that this year our alms should, like those of Cornelius, accompany our prayers in a most signal manner. The week-of-prayer offerings for 1903 ought to reach fifty thousand dollars. This statement is not a bit of sentiment. It is the sober truth. In a subsequent number of the REVIEW the facts and data upon which it is based will all be placed clearly before our people. The Lord has opened the fields, and begun the work that calls for this amount, and, praise his name, he has given his people the prosperity that enables them to place this amount in his treasury.

In closing, let me bespeak for the articles that may be contributed by our brethren regarding the coming week of prayer, the most earnest and prayerful consideration.

A. G. DANIELLS.