AN IMPORTANT OCCASION by S. H. Lane

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Dec 3, 1901

AN IMPORTANT OCCASION.

By S. H. Lane

The approaching Week of Prayer will be the most important season ever celebrated by us as a people. The occasion means much to every one. All who participate in it will be benefited and abundantly blessed, while he who neglects it will reap darkness and discouragement, and will be farther from the Lord than before the season came.

We are certainly living in the last of the last days; and as the sacred hours of this Week of Prayer approach, we should each be prepared for it, having sought the Lord earnestly for His Holy Spirit. The signs of the times were never more ominous than they are this moment. The nations are getting angry, and preparation for war is going on everywhere. Complications are being formed that no statesman can solve, and which can only be fought out in the great battle of Armageddon. The Eastern question is fast hastening to its consummation, and soon he that is to come will come, and will not tarry. In view of this we should make the most of the Week of Prayer. Let us begin now with prayer, devotion, and consecration to God, and seek that nearness that we must have in order to be prepared for the outpouring of the latter rain. Let consecration and devotion be the watchword of the occasion, and let us adopt that word now. Those who give no thought to the occasion until the season is upon them, will not be prepared to get out of it what the Lord desires we shall as individuals obtain from it.

Our aim should be to secure more faith, devotion, humility, and earnestness, so that we may prosecute the work in the future as never before. This can be done only by consecration and the outpouring of the Spirit of God. The cause at large demands of us our time, talents, and means; but the acquisition of means for the cause of God should not be our first aim. Prayer to God, earnestness, and devotion should be the point at which we should aim, and yet means were never more needed than at the present time.

Our ranks are becoming numerous, the times are prosperous, and there was never before so much money in the country per capita, nor a time when the citizens of the nation were so nearly out of debt. Work has been plentiful, wages good, and almost every one has money, and those that have not have an opportunity for earning it, so our donations this year should be the largest ever known in a week of prayer since the service was first instituted. One hundred thousand dollars as an annual offering is needed this year to press the work into new fields, into the regions beyond, where the light of the message has never gone, and where thousands and millions are going down the broad way for the want of that light and knowledge which our missionaries can impart. Therefore our donations should be liberal. Do not wait until the last moment to decide how much you will give, but make up your mind now to be very liberal, and then plan for the means if you have not the amount on hand which you desire to give. When we were in the world, and lusting after the things of the world, if we desired anything and were not prepared to secure it, we immediately began planning to get it. Shall we not be just as wise in our generation in giving the last message of mercy to a dying world as we were to obtain the perishing things of this life? Who will begin now to secure means for the Lord?

This Week of Prayer means more to us than any in the past has meant. More than a decade of years ago, when the first prayer occasion was celebrated by us as a people, all took part in the services with earnestness. Nearly every one discontinued his work and made a business of attending the meetings, if necessary all day long, and much more was given then in proportion to our membership than is given to-day. When we are fully consecrated to God and His service, it will be a pleasure to pay our tithe, and to make freewill offerings to the Lord to carry on His blessed work.

Will not our church elders and leaders and ministers everywhere plan now to interest every one in the occasion? Who will respond by saying, “Indeed, we will begin the work right now.”

Reader, do not lay this paper down and put the matter off, but let us begin now to pray to God most earnestly for the success of this occasion with our people everywhere. The writer would suggest that the elders plan meetings. The presidents of our Conferences should plan to furnish help for all our churches just as far as possible, and hold before our people everywhere the needs of the various fields throughout the entire world, ever realizing that the commission is, “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.” That this may be done more fully in the year to come than ever before let us all pray and donate during the coming Week of Prayer. S. H. LANE.