All Things Are Now Ready
By T. M. French
[SINCE this article was written, the writer of it, as we learn by cable, has been called to lay away his companion, on the African West Coast.—ED.] “A great work is before us,—the closing work of this world's history. Solemn indeed is the time in which we are living, and heavy are the responsibilities resting upon us as a people. The third angel's message is now to be proclaimed, not only in far-off lands, but in neglected places close by, where multitudes dwell unwarned and unsaved. Our cities everywhere are calling for earnest, whole-hearted labor from the servants of God.” These words recently sent to us through the spirit of prophecy seem to indicate that we are nearing the close of the proclamation of the message: “Come, for all things are now ready.” Luke 14:17. This call to enter the “cities everywhere” and the “neglected places” is but the culmination of the great invitation to the marriage supper of the Lamb. For more than half a century the invitation has been proclaimed throughout Christendom, and the guests bidden to the great supper; but “they all with one consent began to make excuse.” Business enterprises have stood in the way of some, social relations have hindered others, until the supper is unfurnished with guests. Nor have Seventh-day Adventists been wholly free from these hindrances. Worldly ambition and secular enterprises have often had the first place in the hearts of the specially bidden guests, and worldly pleasures have many times darkened the eternal hope, until many have said in their hearts, “I pray thee have me excused.” But the divine plan of God is not to be thus baffled. The message comes: “Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in hither the poor, and the maimed, and the halt, and the blind;” and again: “Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled.” This last commission to enter the cities and highways and hedges is to be a quick work. We are admonished to “go out quickly.” The fact that all things are now ready, and that those who were bidden refused to come, gives the work at this time a compelling nature. We have not now years in which to finish our work. We are on the borders of the eternal world. All heaven is now waiting to co-operate with human agencies in the closing work. May the Lord give us grace to turn from the many allurements of this world, and consecrate ourselves, our means, our all, to the giving of the message: “Come, for all things are now ready.” Axim, Gold Coast, West Africa.