There is no statement, it seems to us, more calculated to stir and thrill our hearts than the statement that we are now living on borrowed time. And what is meant by living on borrowed time?—It is meant that the time now passing was not designed to be used as it is now being used, but was designed for something else, and was allotted to other purposes. It appears from authority which none of us question that it was our privilege years ago to enter really and literally and physically, not in a mere spiritual sense, into the kingdom of God, and that we might now be in the enjoyment of the indescribable felicities of that place and condition, but for our own failures and shortcomings. Here are the statements:— “If all who had labored unitedly in the work in 1884 had received the Third Angel's Message, and proclaimed it in the power of the Holy Spirit, the Lord would have wrought mightily with their efforts. A flood of light would have been shed upon the world. Years ago the inhabitants of the earth would have been warned, the closing work would have been completed, and Christ would have come for the redemption of His people.”—“Great Controversy,” p. 458. “Had the purpose of God been carried out by His people in giving to the world the message of mercy, Christ would, ere this, have come to the earth, and the saints would have received their welcome into the city of God.”—“Testimonies for the Church,” Vol. VI, page 450. “Had the Church of Christ done her appointed work as the Lord ordained, the whole world would before this have been warned, and the Lord Jesus would have come to our earth in power and great glory.”—“The Desire of Ages,” page 634. “Ye churches of the living God, study this promise, and consider how your lack of faith, of spirituality, of divine power, is hindering the coming of the kingdom of God. If you would go forth to do Christ's work, angels of God would open the way before you, preparing hearts to receive the gospel. Were every one of you a living missionary, the message for this time would speedily be proclaimed in all countries, to every people and nation and tongue. This is the work that must be done before Christ shall come in power and great glory.”—“Testimonies for the Church,” Vol. VI, page 438. This position is taken from a plain statement of Scripture, from which but one conclusion can be drawn: The scripture is 2 Peter 3:11, 12: “Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, looking for and hasting [see margin] the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?” This plainly represents that Christians by being such manner of persons as they ought to be in all holy conversation and godliness, may hasten the coming of the day of God, and shorten the time between any given epoch in their experience and that day. Now it follows that the statements from “Great Controversy,” are true, that the world would have been warned, and the work closed up years ago if the Church had stood in the light, and done her duty. Then what becomes of all the temptations pressed upon us to say, My Lord delayeth His coming? Does any one feel like saying that?—We reply, Brother, we are living in the very time even now when we ought to be in the kingdom. We ought to be beyond the time when the Lord should have come, and we should have been basking in the delights of the immortal state. It is our own fault that we are not there. We are living on borrowed time, time borrowed from that during which we ought to have been in the kingdom. Let none sink down in discouragement with the thought that the Lord has delayed His work and His coming. It is not here now, only because we have not hastened it. It ought to make any one ashamed to be complaining that the Lord delays His coming, when he thinks that he ought to be in the kingdom here and now.