1904—The Keynote—Our Schools
By E. C.
TIME rolls swiftly on. It has been rolling on just as swiftly for six thousand years; but its end is at hand. Time is soon to become eternity. How soon we do not know, except that it is to be in this generation: this we do know; “for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.” Are you looking for him, at the moment of whose appearing time is to be changed to eternity? If so, to you he will come with joy; for to those, and to those only, “that look for him, shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.” All such will hail his coming with joy. The year 1903, with its burden of successes and failures, joys and griefs, has forever gone. The year 1904, with its opportunities,—and there were never greater,—is here. These opportunities are responsibilities. As there were never greater opportunities, so there were never greater responsibilities. What are these opportunities?—They are solely those of hastening the coming of this Prince of Peace in this generation. The work of God is to increase in strength as the end draws near. But this will not be accomplished until the believers in this coming King definitely and forcefully proclaim his return. This proclamation is the keynote of our message. The harmony and effectiveness of a piece of music depend upon its keynote. If there is no keynote, or if it is not used as a basis of harmony to which all other sounds recur, all is discord. Just so it is in our work. When all that is thought, said, and done, finds its dependence upon this keynote,—the return of our Saviour,—then all is success, progress, victory. “When the true keynote is struck, God will reveal himself as a God of mercy and love.” The keynote is our opportunity; to sound it is our responsibility. Seventh-day Adventists, the professed sounders of this keynote, have thousands of children and youth in our schools. What an army of workers these students may make. But they can not make an effective army unless they are well organized and drilled. And there is no note of organization but this same keynote. It must be struck in the schools with a greatly increasing force and regularity. But it must be correspondingly struck in the homes. Every child of every believer in the advent should be22continually under the sound of this keynote. If this is true, as it certainly is, there will be an especial effort on the part of every believer to place his children in those schools where the coming of the Saviour is the central, and indeed the all-absorbing theme. The teachers in these schools will have all the facts of knowledge to be taught set in their proper relation to this event—the greatest event, and indeed the desire of all ages. The year 1904 means nothing to our schools if it does not mean the sounding of the keynote in its harmonious setting, and the sounding of nothing else.