Reasons Why Every Believer Should Observe the Week of Prayer
By C. McReynolds
First, it must be clear to every observing believer that we are approaching very near to the close of human probation. Second, we have the greatest, the most important message to give to the world that was ever committed to men, even the last warning, the truth which is designed to prepare a people to go directly from this world, with its vice and evil, into the pure and holy society of heaven. And while, in view of this, we should be all ablaze with sacred zeal, it is a sad, undeniable fact that we are asleep. But our Lord bids us, “Awake, awake; put on thy strength, O Zion; put on thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, . . . shake thyself from the dust.” Isa. 52: 1, 2. We are wretched and miserable; but the Lord says, “Comfort ye, comfort ye my people. . . . The crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain: and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.” We are poor, yet we read: “Though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich.” “I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich.” “Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat, . . . without money and without price.” We are blind. “Anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.” Being spiritually blind, we do not see the hundreds of opportunities that are daily presented. The eyesalve is the Spirit of God, “the Holy Spirit of promise,” “which is the earnest [or portion] of our inheritance.” “Ask, and it shall be given you.” “If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children; how much more will your Heavenly11Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him.” Our love for souls is weak, and we show but little interest for those who are perishing in sin. If we had the love, the interest, it would be manifested. That love is one of our greatest needs. “The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.” “Seek, and ye shall find.” We see our neighbors, our friends, even our children, going rapidly downward in sin, with the close of probation just upon us; yet we are too lifeless to raise the warning cry with an earnestness which would carry conviction to the soul. O, how much we need to seek the Lord with all the heart and with all the soul! This is the “shaking time,” toward which we have been looking with dread for many years. The lifeless indifference so prevalent among us, the spirit of speculation and worldliness which has swept in upon us and driven out the spirit of personal labor for souls and of co-operation in carrying the message to all nations, which has caused hundreds of canvassers to leave the field, and many ministers to turn to secular pursuits, is sufficient evidence that this statement is true. But that is not all. Just as you might find it necessary to say to those who are physically blind, “It is now night,” when darkness had come on, so the Lord has sent us the statement in a recent Testimony: “This is the time of test and trial, this is the shaking time.” Every believer should now read the description of that time as recorded in “Early Writings,” pages 131-134. The victory there described is deliverance from the bondage which holds us, which causes our blindness, and closes our mouths, and causes the deathlike stillness and unaccountable dullness seen and felt so universally. This victory fills us with gratitude and holy, sacred joy. Then all are seen moving in exact order, like a company of soldiers, and the loud cry of the third angel’s message is heard. The call of the hour is victory and service, and victory in service. These are only a few of the great reasons why every believer of the message in every State and nation, town, hamlet, and country place, should—yea, must, if he would not be left behind in darkness—participate in the devotions of the coming week of prayer, beginning December 12. May the Holy Spirit woo and win us till from every lonely home as well as from every church the same earnest prayers ascend, and result in the same glorious victory. Then will the missionary campaign continue, not the present winter only, but till the work is closed in glorious triumph.