Be in Earnest by John Matteson

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jan 17, 1884

Be in Earnest.

By John Matteson

It is wonderful how many calls there are for laborers, and yet the laborers are so few. How important that all who love the truth should become laborers to some extent. Sabbath-keepers, above all others, should be in union with Christ, and in earnest about seeking eternal life. The keeping of the Sabbath is a sign of loyalty toward God. It becomes us to be more humble, zealous, godly, and self-sacrificing, than any other class of professed Christians. And moreover, believing as we do in the soon coming and kingdom of our blessed Lord, how careful we ought to live, that we may not be stumbling-blocks to other people, but be an honor to the truth, and a blessing to the cause which we love, and to our fellow-men living about us. How sad if they should rise up against us in the Judgment to condemnation; but how joyful to bring some of them with us as sheaves into the heavenly garner.

Could we only more fully realize the final issue, how much more we would be in earnest. How carefully we would watch and pray. It is life and death that is set before us. We will either gain a crown of everlasting glory; or shame and contempt will be our miserable portion in the lake of fire, where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. We will have an abundant entrance into the heavenly city of our God, or be found outside of the city with the whoremongers and liars.

What a dangerous time we are living in! What stupor Satan and the world will throw over us! How strong and numerous are the temptations of these last days! What persevering efforts are needed to keep alive in the Lord! But the crown is worth all this, and a thousand times more. We can well afford to pray, and toil, and suffer, if we can only at last obtain that far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.

Cheer up, dear brethren and sisters. Cry earnestly to God, that you may be made free in the Lord. Let no day pass by without seeking the Lord. And if you are sometimes overcome, do not stop there. Try, try again. Keep trying. As long as you struggle on, there is hope. But when you cease to strive, your light goes out. Oh! that the angel of the Lord may point you to the crown of glory, and the Spirit of the Lord kindle within you such love for Jesus, and longings for his coming and kingdom, that you may be victorious in the great day of the Lord, and that we may meet on the shores of the heavenly Canaan, to sing the sweet praises of God and the Lamb forever.

JOHN MATTESON.