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THE WEEK OF PRAYER

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Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Dec 18, 1900

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 77, No. 51.

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THE WEEK OF PRAYER

By George A. Irwin

This will be the last issue of the Review before the beginning of this important gathering of God’s people; and while much has already been said on the subject, I feel constrained to add a little more.
The Week of Prayer, from the time of the beginning of its observance by us as a people, has been an important occasion; and the influence it has exerted for good, both on the lives of individuals and on the cause of God in general, will not be known until the mists clear away, and we know even as we are known.
Each succeeding year may very properly be termed a crisis; but there are times when, by the culmination of a series of events, both from without and from within, we are brought to face a special crisis, upon the outcome of which has hung the destiny of the cause of God in the earth. The fact that we have successfully turned these points hitherto, is no assurance that we shall be equally successful in those of the present or future; and to fail in the one that last comes to us is equivalent to having failed in all that have gone before.
The present is pre-eminently a time of crisis. The nations of earth—our own included—are rapidly preparing armament and marshaling their forces for the final conflict. Riots, lynchings, murders, and robberies are everyday occurrences. Ten thousand murders were officially reported in the United States alone the last year. Embezzlements and defalcations of immense sums of money are so common that they fail to elicit more than a passing comment. A multiplicity of trusts and trades unions control to a large degree both the capital and the labor of the nation. The poor are becoming poorer; and while they suffer from the effects of their poverty, they see the rich becoming richer, and hatred that is destined to burst in a storm of fury, is cherished against the rich. On the other hand, the rich are becoming more oppressive and less regardful of the rights and claims of the poor. Intemperance, with the vices that are connected with it and that follow in its wake, is openly practiced, with only an occasional voice lifted in remonstrance. Men in high positions of authority and trust, who should be examples of purity and integrity, and guardians of the rights and interests of those over whom they have been placed to protect them from the vicious and vile, are themselves conniving with vice and crime for gain, and to further their own wicked schemes.
Strong religious organizations are admitting their inability to cope single-handed with the influences both without and within their ranks, and are forming federations and alliances, enlisting the aid and co-operation of government officials, in the vain hope of being able thereby to turn back the great tide of iniquity that is sweeping over the land.
From the foregoing facts, which are patent to the most casual observer, we may know that the world’s measure of iniquity is about full, and that as it was before the flood and in the days of Sodom and Gomorrah, so it soon will be in the world of to-day.
While the enemy is thus active in producing in the world the condition just described, he is no less active against the remnant people of God; for we have been told that the dragon was wroth with the woman, and would make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. Every energy of Satan’s gigantic mind, which has been used to invent subtle schemes to entice persons away from God, coupled with his extensive experience of six thousand years, will be used against the remnant church in these closing days of the conflict. To some, he will present doubt as to the cardinal points of our faith; to others, skepticism in regard to the Spirit of Prophecy and the exercise of this gift among us. “My Lord delayeth His coming,” and there are many years before us yet, will be used to lull others to sleep. To yet others, a desire to do and be like the nations around, will be made to appear right. A personal, selfish ambition to do something independently of the body or the counsel of brethren, will be encouraged in some. Covetousness will be stimulated in many,—a desire not only to hold on to what they already have, but to add to it. A speculative desire will also be encouraged, and business methods that are questionable even in the world, will be made to appear right, because the speculator vows, if successful, to give liberally to the Lord. Others will be tempted to believe that they are so good that there is no danger in their case, and hence they have no special need of seeking the Lord; while efforts will be made to so overwhelm others with a sense of their guilt and unworthiness, that they will give up in despair, feeling that there is no possible hope.
All of these schemes, and many more that might be enumerated, will at this time be employed by the enemy to draw away those that have been recognized and acknowledged as God’s remnant people. We may be nearer the border line of being entrapped in some of these ways than we suppose; for the heart of man “is deceitful above all things.” This very season of prayer may mean a crisis in our life, the outcome of which will settle our destiny for both time and eternity.
He who is intensely interested in the future welfare of every one, would have us at this time call a halt upon the busy activities of everyday life, and seriously inquire of ourselves, in the light of God’s truth and its obligations upon us, Is it well with my soul? The principles and motives that have prompted our acts should receive careful scrutiny.
These special seasons of prayer are as milestones along our Christian journey. They will either mark a time when our feet are turned more perfectly and securely into that strait and narrow path which will terminate in eternal life in its fullness, or they will mark a time when we diverge more and more into that broad way which leads to destruction. Not only will this season of prayer mark a turning-point in our individual lives, but it will mark a turning-point in our institutions and general business policy. The successful turn of the latter, however, will depend upon the former. If we are so earnest in seeking God that selfishness and covetousness are put out of our lives, we shall be constrained to give liberally of that which the Lord has intrusted to us as stewards, to help forward His cause in the earth.
The present is a time of crisis to some of our institutions; and in these the honor not only of the institution and the men having immediate charge, but of the cause of God, is at stake. The Lord is testing us through the appeals that have come to us in the little leaflet sent out to all our churches. Our opportunities to show our loyalty to, and faith in, the Third Angel’s Message will very soon be past. Influences are rapidly crystallizing that will bring about the time foretold when we can neither buy nor sell. How we shall regret it if, when that time comes, because of our covetousness and lack of faith now, we have in our hands property which should have gone to sustain the Lord’s cause, but which will be confiscated by the enemy!
May the Lord incline us first to give ourselves to Him; and then to our power, or even beyond, may we be willing to give for the support of His cause!
GEO. A. IRWIN.