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The Present Crisis

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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · May 31, 1906

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 83, No. 22.

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The Present Crisis

THE faith of Seventh-day Adventists is being tested. They are learning whether they are established in the present truth, or whether their confidence has been in men. It is necessary that this experience should come in one way or another. 'Only those are prepared for translation who have been perfected in trial. “These are they that come out of the great tribulation, and they washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore are they before the throne of God; and they serve him day and night in his temple.”
With diabolical cunning Satan is using the defection from the truth on the part of some and the shocking inconsistency of others as arguments against the message itself, and is causing doubt and discouragement in some minds. All this may mean a brighter experience to those who hold fast to their confidence in God and his work. “The trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.”
The situation foretold many years ago through the spirit of prophecy is now here. “Every one must now search the Bible for himself upon his knees before God, with the humble, teachable heart of a child, if he would know what the Lord requires of him. However high any minister may have stood in the favor of God, if he neglects to follow out the light given him of God, if he refuses to be taught as a little child, he will go into darkness and satanic delusions, and will lead others in the same path. . . . O for living, active faith! We need it; we must have it, or we shall faint and fail in the day of trial. The darkness that will then rest upon our path must not discourage us, or drive us to despair. It is the veil with which God covers his glory when he comes to impart rich blessings. We should know this by our past experience. In that day when God has a controversy with his people, this experience will be a source of comfort and hope.” The present crisis will doubtless reveal some things now hidden which may come as a surprise, but it will not destroy the foundation of the truth. Those who build upon this foundation will pass safely through this crisis, and others yet to come.