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Awake, Awake, Awake

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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D. C. · Jul 14, 1904

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 81, No. 28.

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Awake, Awake, Awake

By Editor

Editorial

Awake, Awake, Awake

We face a cunning foe, and the deceitfulness of sin is very great. We are not safe merely because we acknowledge the meaning of the tokens of the great day, which are now so abundant. There is the greatest danger lest we should be overcome by the seductive influences of the hour, and fall asleep on Satan’s enchanted ground. “Awake, awake, put on thy strength, O Zion.” “Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall shine upon thee.” “It is time for you to awake out of sleep: for now is salvation nearer to us than when we first believed.” “Could the curtain be rolled back, could you discern the purposes of God and the judgments that are about to fall upon a doomed world, could you see your own attitude, you would fear and tremble for your own souls and for the souls of your fellow men. Earnest prayers of heart-rending anguish would go up to heaven. You would weep between the porch and the altar, confessing your spiritual blindness and backsliding.” Awake, Awake, Awake.

Uninterrupted Communion

Although we can not now behold Jesus in the flesh, yet he has promised to be with us “always, even unto the end of the world,” and it is our privilege to maintain daily fellowship with him. Nearer than the most intimate friend is the presence of him who dwells in the heart by faith. When we lie down, and when we rise up; when we remain in the home, and when we walk by the way; when joy holds sway, or when sorrow casts its shadow,—at all times and under all circumstances we may know the blessing of uninterrupted communion with Christ our living Head. “If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanseth us from all sin.”
“What a fellowship, what a joy divine, Leaning on the everlasting arms; What a blessedness, what a peace is mine, Leaning on the everlasting arms.”

Comfort in Sorrow

The shadow of death is in our homes, and the weight of a great sorrow rests upon our hearts, and the way seems dark and lonely. A deep and terrible anguish seizes upon us, and seems to penetrate to the very depths of our being, and dark despair comes forward to take possession of our lives. A loved companion has been taken from us, and now when we are wounded and weak, the enemy comes in like a flood. How cruel he is! With what hellish cunning he goads our troubled spirits, and aggravates the pain which his own rebellion has brought into the world. How relentlessly he magnifies our sorrow, and with what malignant subtlety he suggests that we ought to have been spared this blow. In contrast with all this how comforting is the blessed hope. If we will but listen a moment, we shall hear messages of consolation, and we shall find that nearer than the boisterous enemy who speaks from without is the Comforter who dwells within. He who has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows invites us to lean upon him in our weakness, and to call upon him in the day of our trouble. He truly sympathizes with us—suffers with us, and offers himself as the balm for our wounds. And the stroke which was permitted to come, and which he will turn to our good, although the enemy meant it not so, was really aimed at him; for the real controversy is between Christ and Satan. Then let not a complaining and rebellious heart be a witness against the character of God. When the mind is too weak and the heart too sore to grapple with the problem, then be still and rest in the everlasting arms which are always underneath. With quietness will come confidence and soon the light of his countenance will break through the darkness, and the way will appear above the clouds.
“A few more days, and we shall meet The loved whose toil is o’er, And plant with joy our bounding feet On Canaan’s radiant shore, Where, free from all earth’s cares and fears, We’ll part no more through endless years.”

The Only Answer

The growing list of terrible disasters by land and sea, the frequent outbursts of the spirit of violence which is taking possession of so many hearts, and the increase of crimes of every kind are compelling men to ask, with an intense interest, “What do these things mean?” The same question is suggested by the perversions of the truth of God and the substitution of human speculation and scientific theories for the plain teaching of the Word of God. There is only one satisfactory answer to this question. We have come to the closing years of the last generation. The prophecies which relate to this time are being fulfilled. “The great day of the Lord is near, it is near, and hasteth greatly.” The fruits of the determined rejection of light and truth are now appearing, and the full harvest is not far away. The days of Noah were typical of the last days, and then “the earth was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.” Every evil passion is being stimulated, and the barriers against sin are being broken down even by those who ought to be most diligent in building them up. It is only in the light of the message for this time that these things can be understood, and it is only by the power of this message that the incoming tide of evil can be resisted. No mere profession of the truth will be sufficient, while its vital principles are being ignored in the life. And it is not enough to know theoretically the meaning of the signs of these times. Lives of zeal for the spread of the warning message for this generation, a separation from the present current of worldliness and unbelief, a character and purpose easily distinguished from the ordinary standard of self-seeking, an intelligent consecration of talents and means to the service of the comingKing,—this is the answer which the people of God to-day ought to make to the inquiry, “What do these things mean?” Let the answer be an emphatic one.