The Week of Prayer by Editor

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Nov 13, 1913

The Week of Prayer

By Editor

Editorial

The Week of Prayer

Another week of prayer! Surely this occasion is needed by every member of the church. It is well that we pause in the midst of life's busy activities and take a little time for retrospection and serious consideration. What have the last twelve months brought to us? Where do we stand in the sight of heaven? What is our relationship to God, to his work in the earth, to our families, to our brethren and sisters?

A Period of Great Danger

The church of Christ confronts today greater danger than ever before in her history. It is the time of the last great conflict between truth and error. The controversies of the ages are revived. Satan is making his last supreme effort to destroy faith out of the earth. To his insidious attacks we see thousands in the great Christian world succumbing. The old-time simplicity of Christian faith and practise is well-nigh lost.

The mission of Seventh-day Adventists today is to stem this rising tide, to contend for the faith once delivered to the saints, to set an example to all the world of the power of vital godliness operating in the life. Is the Seventh-day Adventist Church today meeting its divine mission? Perhaps the question should be made more personal. Are the members of the Seventh-day Adventist Church today fulfilling God's great purpose in giving to the world a knowledge of his truth? Are we indeed standard-bearers and heralds of gospel light and saving grace, or are we, like many professed Christians in the great church around us, succumbing to the deadly influences operating in the world?

Important Considerations

To what extent have we lost the simplicity which once characterized the believers in this message, and which we are glad to say characterizes many of them today? To what extent is the spirit of worldliness and formalism entering our lives? Are we being carried away by the spirit of commercialism and the strife after riches for riches' sake?

Does the hypnotic power of worldly pleasure which is leading so many to forget God, and which is declared by the apostle to be a prominent feature of present-day Christianity, control our lives? Unconsciously and little by little is there coming into our experience a disregard for sacred things, leading us continually to minimize the difference between the holy and the profane? Do we keep the Sabbath of the Lord as Sunday is generally observed? Are we returning conscientiously to God our tithes and offerings? Has our faith become dimmed? Are the increasing signs on every side, which show the coming of the Lord to be near, becoming commonplace, leading us to say in our hearts, “My Lord delayeth his coming”? Is the spirit which we manifest in the home or in the church one of impatience, harshness, gossip, or criticism? Are we failing to apply in our lives the principles of true temperance and healthful living? Do we neglect secret prayer, family worship, or Bible study?

These great evils are manifest everywhere in the world around us, and are sapping the spiritual life of the great Christian church. Through them the enemy is making strong appeal to the members of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Some, we fear, are succumbing to their deadly influences. In the light of God's Spirit shall we not pause and take time to think, and to determine if there is in us “an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God?” The apostle admonishes us to “exhort one another daily, while it is called Today; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end.” Heb. 3: 13, 14.

“Turn Ye, for Why Will Ye Die?”

Wherein we find that sin has separated us from God let us make haste to return to our Father's house. “Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear.” Isa. 59: 1. He is waiting today to be gracious. To his wandering children he says: “O Israel, return unto the Lord thy God; for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity.” Hosea 14: 1. He not only invites us to return, but he puts in our mouth the very words we are to use as we come back to the Father's house: “Take with you words, and turn to the Lord: say unto him, Take away all iniquity, and receive us graciously: so will we render the calves of our lips. Asshur shall not save us; we will not ride upon horses: neither will we say any more to the work of our hands, Ye are our gods: for in thee the fatherless findeth mercy.” Verses 2, 3.

How many times in the past have we sought help of Asshur. We have looked to men instead of to God. We have had faith that there was power in the work of our own hands, but have been forced to admit, through repeated failures, that we of ourselves could do nothing. To this seeking on the part of his children God graciously responds. His promise is: “I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely: for mine anger is turned away from him.” Verse 4.

Confession of Sin

Oftentimes sin against God is sin against our fellows. The sins of the heart, the evil motives and purposes which have possessed us, and the sinful thoughts in which we have indulged,—the confession of these, as a rule, belongs to God alone. But wherein these evil purposes have been expressed in the life, wherein the wrong thoughts have borne fruitage in words and deeds, and have brought injury to our fellows or placed before them an evil example,—the confession of these outward sins belongs to our fellows as well as to God. A safe rule is that the confession should be as broad as the knowledge of the sin. Impatience and harshness in the home should be confessed at the family altar, to our loved ones and to God. An injury to a brother, such as taking advantage in a business deal, should be confessed to him and to others who may know of the injury wrought. Public sins, such as violation of the Sabbath and an evil example in the community, should be confessed to the church.

God's Mighty Working

And perhaps the very confession of these wrongs in the home, or to a brother, or in the church, may open the way for God to work marvelously during

this season in behalf of his church and of his work in the earth. We must remove from the pathway of others the stones of stumbling in order that the way of the King may be prepared, so that he may come in and do his mighty work in every heart. A confession of our wrong to our children will prepare the way for God to work for their salvation. Let us make straight paths for our feet that those who are lame may not be turned aside nor caused to stumble.

Having made wrongs right, it is our blessed privilege to believe that God accepts us, not for anything that we have done, nor for anything that we may do, but on account of the “great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins.” Eph. 2: 4, 5. Receiving ourselves his divine forgiveness, and rejoicing in his love, we may go forth to labor effectually for those who know him not. We may give with drawing power the invitation, “Come and see.” O, how much of this labor is needed even in this church!

How many of our brethren are struggling with some fierce temptation! how many are well-nigh discouraged and ready to draw back and give up the conflict! how many of our young people are drifting into a state of carelessness and worldliness! And then there are those who have once been associated with us in church fellowship, but have wandered away and become separated from this movement. Our hearts may go out after them, and our prayers ascend to God for their conversion. Working as we pray, and believing as we work, we shall become colaborers with God in the great work of restoration.

Our Great Need

Our great need as a people today is for more of God. No formal profession will save us. We cannot purchase the riches of heaven by offerings of gold or silver or any material service. “There is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4: 12); there is but one power which can transform our lives, and that is the power of the risen Saviour. There are many in Israel today who are blind and naked and wretched and miserable, and know it not. Truly it is high time for us who know the times and seasons, and who realize that the coming of the Lord draws nigh, to “awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light.”

“Come, and let us return unto the Lord: for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and he will bind us up.” “Sow to yourselves in righteousness , reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground: for it is time to seek the Lord, till he come and rain righteousness upon you.” “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.” “Today if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts.”

F. M. W.