Storming the Last Ramparts by William Ambrose Spicer

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Dec 9, 1902

Storming the Last Ramparts

By William Ambrose Spicer

THIS missionary spirit that is stirring conference after conference to do more, as conferences, in sharing laborers and means with the great mission fields, has deep meaning for those who watch the signs of the times.

The call of the hour is to world-wide missionary service that shall finish the work. God’s own Spirit is sounding the call, and laying the burden upon the hearts of the brethren everywhere.

The forbidding ramparts of Catholicism and heathenism are to be stormed ere the battle is won. Latin Europe, and Latin America, which means all America from the Rio Grande to Cape Horn, and the vast fields of heathen Africa and Asia, loom up before us.

But, thank God! the very last line of the enemy’s redoubt is soon to be carried. “In the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished,” was the pledge of Heaven. The sounding of the seventh angel began in 1844, with the rise of the third angel’s message. Then the books were opened, and the judgment began in heaven. The voices were heard from the throne, saying, “The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.”

Now it is for us to rise up and take possession for God, occupying every stronghold until he come whose right it is to rule. Into every land we are to press, lifting up the standard, “the ensign for the nations,” round which the final gathering of God’s people is to be “from the four corners of the earth.”

Before the final attack upon a fortress, when infantry and artillery have pressed the center of battle to the very citadel, the heavy siege guns are brought up to make the breaches for the final assault.

For years we have been pressing the battle in the fields. By the increasing gifts for missions, year by year, we have been extending the line of advance into every continent. Now God’s own providence sounds the trumpet call to sweep forward unto victory. And God’s Spirit is preparing the forces for the final conflict. The older conferences are stepping forward to throw large contributions of workers and of means into the missionary campaign. Thus the heavy artillery, the siege guns, are being brought into action. The conferences, with thousands of Sabbath keepers, are rallying to make ready for the last charge which is to carry every rampart of the enemy.

Let the people respond by faithfulness in tithe paying and offerings, by readiness to bear the witness at home, by cheering on the advancing line. As conference laborers go forth, others will spring forward to take their places. As the funds are shared with the mission fields, God will open larger resources.

The work can quickly be done as a whole people rise and lay all upon the altar of service. The time has come for the mystery of God to be finished, and “THERE SHALL BE DELAY NO LONGER.”

W. A. S.