A Time for Earnest Work by G. B. Thompson

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Feb 18, 1909

A Time for Earnest Work

By G. B. Thompson

G. B. THOMPSON

The close of probation! What an awful hour is that when the destiny of a world is decided! When we stop to think that this long-looked-for, yet awful, hour is near, how it ought to move the hearts of those who believe this solemn truth! The last plagues are at hand. When we pause to think that in a few brief years, at most, earth’s millions, our unsaved friends and neighbors, will be in the grip of the seven last plagues, from which there will be no deliverance, it should arouse us to work for souls perishing in their sins.

Our inaction is appalling in view of the lost millions around us. We should

awake to our responsibility. It is related of Rowland Hill, who was noted for his energy and eccentricity, that once, while speaking, he was carried away by the impetuous rush of his feelings, and exclaimed:—

“Beware! I am in earnest; men call me an enthusiast, but I am not: mine are words of truth and soberness. When I first came into this part of the country, I was walking on yonder hill; I saw a gravel pit fall in, and bury three human beings alive. I lifted up my voice for help so loudly that I was heard in the town below, a distance of a mile: help came and rescued two of the poor sufferers. No one called me an enthusiast then. When I see eternal destruction ready to fall upon poor sinners, and about to entomb them irrecoverably in an eternal mass of woe, and call on them to escape by repentance and fleeing to Christ, shall I be called an enthusiast?”

Our efforts are far too feeble when compared with the terribly solemn message with which we are entrusted, and the remnant of time which remains in which to finish the work. We should awake from the stupor which rests upon us, and throw all our power and energy into the finishing of the work. Let us work as if we really believed God’s truth for this time.

Takoma Park, D. C.