Awake and Arise by William Warren Prescott

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Mar 11, 1902

Awake and Arise

By William Warren Prescott

“Let me not die before I’ve done for Thee My earthly work, whatever it may be; Call me not hence with mission unfulfilled, Let me not leave my space of ground untilled. Impress this truth upon me—that not one Can do my portion that I leave undone; For each one in thy vineyard hath a spot To labor in for life, and weary not.”

“AWAKE, awake; put on thy strength, O Zion.”

“Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee.”

This is the Lord’s call to His people; and there is both reproof and encouragement in the call. Only those who have been asleep can properly be called upon to awake. Only those who have failed to give out the light as they should can properly be told to shine.

There is great meaning in the providential circumstances which are now taking shape in connection with the Lord’s work. It is a testing time for all. Many of the so-called “workers” had ceased to be workers. The funds from the Lord’s treasury were being absorbed without any adequate results. The power of the Holy Spirit was largely lacking in the ministry. It was high time for a change.

The Lord himself had His own eye upon all this, and He has adopted His own means for revealing this situation in its true light, and for bringing in a better condition of things. His reproof always means help. It is the token of His love. “As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten.” As many as listen to His reproof and counsel will receive rich gifts to be ministered to others, and will themselves be blessed in this ministry. “He that watereth shall be watered also himself.” God’s way of blessing a man is to make him a blessing to another man. He who becomes the connecting channel between the sinner and the Saviour receives the full benefit from the current of life which passes through the channel.

Those who fail to respond now to the Lord’s call will suffer great, and perhaps irreparable, loss. It is a time of privilege and a time of peril. Destruction came upon Jerusalem because she knew not the time of her visitation. Our situation is in many respects like that of the Jews when Christ came the first time. They had the form of knowledge and of truth in the law, but they lacked that love which is itself “the fulfilling of the law.” O how much we need to have the love of God shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost! But the Lord’s call to awake and to shine is the assurance that He will supply all our need. Our response to His call will bring the blessing of Abraham upon us, just as Abraham’s response brought the blessing upon him. And this means the successful accomplishment of the work which is undertaken. “They went forth to go into the land of Canaan; and into the land of Canaan they came.” When we start in the way of God’s leading, He will bring us to the end of the journey. The main thing is to start. When the prodigal son said, “I will arise and go to my father,” the whole case was settled; “and he arose, and came to his father.” The Lord is now calling upon His workers to be workers indeed, “laborers together with God.” He is calling upon His people to come up to His help against the mighty. It is really the call to the experience necessary to personal salvation, for a lack of interest in the salvation of other souls shows the lack of the experience of real salvation in our own souls. How dwells the love of God in one who sees his brother in need, and does not seek to minister to him? “If any man have not the spirit of Christ, he is none of His.” Come, brethren, come, sisters, come, all the people, let us heartily respond to the present call to the service of love for the Master. Do something, and do it now. Begin to-day. W. W. P.