THE RELIEF OF THE SCHOOLS by P. T. Magan

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Aug 28, 1900

THE RELIEF OF THE SCHOOLS.

By P. T. Magan

The Practical Application of the Call to the Supper.

“A CERTAIN man made a great supper, and bade many.” There is a time, then, in the life of many when they are bidden to the supper of the great God. There is a time when we get our first invitation to be in attendance at that event. This invitation is a separate, distinct, and prominent event in our lives. It comes in the form of God’s call to us to give our hearts to him. If we accept the invitation, it marks that experience in life which is called conversion.

“And sent his servant at supper time to say to them that were bidden, Come; for all things are now ready.” The call to come is not given until “supper time.” It is not given until all things are ready. This call to come is given only to those who were bidden, and it is a separate and distinct experience from the invitation. It comes later on in life. As it comes at supper time, and when all things are ready, it is clearly a dangerous thing to parley with it, or to put off obeying its mandates.

“And they all with one consent began TO MAKE EXCUSE.” Seventh-day Adventists have been warned in the Scriptures and through the Spirit of Prophecy that many will apostatize from the faith, and again identify themselves with the world before the end shall come. God does not wish us to do this. He has not told us that these things will be, to frighten and unnerve us. They have not been recited in the Bible for the purpose of making us downhearted or discouraged. But they are put there that we may draw life and power from them, and be saved from the things against which they warn us.

The great majority of people who give up the Third Angel’s Message do not turn their backs upon it in a moment of time. They do not openly declare that it is all a fraud and a lie, and that they want nothing more to do with it. No, people leave the Third Angel’s Message in a far different way from this. They simply ask to be excused.

After men and women have been converted, and have accepted the faith of the soon coming of the Lord, God sends them messages that demand a reform in their lives. A message may come calling for a more healthful mode of living, calling for the giving up of certain articles of diet, not the most healthful, such as meat. And then how often is heard the answer: Well, I am a Seventh-day Adventist. I believe the Sabbath and the soon coming of the Saviour. But I don’t know that it is necessary for me to be so very particular on this thing. I don’t believe that a bit of meat hurts me very much anyway. In other words, this one simply says, “Lord, please excuse me.”

Later on, a message comes in regard to work necessary to be done in the large cities for either rich or poor. This is followed by an appeal for church schools. But these both alike are waived aside with a request to be excused. The same course is pursued in regard to gifts and offerings, and so on with every practical reform or work that comes along.

How much do such persons have of the Third Angel’s Message? How much of that message is there left for practical exercise in their lives after they have asked to be excused on all these things? —Verily, nothing except the condition of do nothing on Saturday; for such persons can not in the true sense of the word be termed Sabbath-keepers. The things that have come to such as practical tests have been avoided, and they have asked to be excused from the doing of them. And when the Sabbath becomes a real test, when persecution, torture, and death stare the keepers of it in the face, then these who have all along rejected every practical test that has come to them, will ask to be excused from this test too.

It is all-important, therefore, that every test as it comes be successfully met and passed. Each temptation and test is either a stepping-stone to greater heights or it is a stumbling-block to lower depths.

But the test brought to view as a last great test, is a test over the sale of our property and worldly possessions.

“The first said unto him, I have bought a piece of ground, and I must needs go and see it: I pray thee have me excused. And another said, I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to prove them: I pray thee have me excused.”

The call to come to the supper was to these men a call to sell their land and their cattle. They asked to be excused from selling what they had. In asking this, they asked to be excused from attending the supper. They were really asking to be left out of heaven.

The call to the supper is, according to these scriptures, a call to sell. And this matter is now becoming a practical test among us as Seventh-day Adventists. The needs of the cause compel the call. The cause is in great need of money just now, and God is pleading with men and women to relieve this need. Eternal life or eternal death is wrapped up in the scene in which we are now being called upon to take a part. Come along, brethren, let us wake up, and dispose of some of our God-given means, that the cause of God may be relieved, and that we may have a place at the SUPPER of THE LAMB.

Here are the names of those who have contributed to THE RELIEF OF THE SCHOOLS since we last reported:—


D. W. C. McNett, Lena, Ill.	$ 10 00	Geo. Wallace, Payette, Idaho	25 00
H. McChesney, Dane, Wis.	10 00	W. Stephenson, London, England	10 35
Geo. Houck, Corona, S. D.	100 00	Mrs. M. J. Parkhurst, Wacousta, Mich.	50 00
Mr. and Mrs. Mac. E. Avery, Morrice, Mich.	1 00	South Dakota camp-meeting	29 75
Thomas Hurd	100 00	M. E. and E. C. Boutelle, Aztalan, Wis.	50 00
M. G. Gorham, Spirit Lake, Iowa	5 00	James Johnson, Everly, Iowa	50 00
Mrs. H. D. Hare, Vergennes, Vt.	10 00

Send all money for THE RELIEF OF THE SCHOOLS to A. G. Adams, Review and Herald, Battle Creek, Mich. P. T. MAGAN.