THOS. J. KENNEDY by Thos. J. Kennedy

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D.C. · Apr 5, 1906

THOS. J. KENNEDY

By Thos. J. Kennedy

Jamaica

THOS. J. KENNEDY

“Then answered Peter and said unto him, Behold, we have forsaken all, and followed thee; what shall we have therefore?” Matt. 19:27. Many in the ranks of Seventh-day Adventists to-day are asking this same question—“What shall we have therefore?”—when those that have never heard the sound of the third angel’s message are dying at their very doors. Although in this, our beautiful little island of Jamaica, the gospel message of a soon-coming Saviour has been heralded, yet there is still much to be done. In the interior of the island there are those who are living in secluded places, down in the valleys, and on the mountain tops, who have never heard of this great threefold message of salvation, and yet we who profess to have the truths for this time, and are living almost in the midst of these careless ones, are asking the question, “What shall we have therefore?” How can we sit with folded arms when the enemy is rallying his forces to the front, and expect the few ordained ministers alone to combat with this terrible foe? We can not expect this. Their hands are already filled with their portion of the work, and the burden is very heavy on them—trying to encourage and keep close together those that have been already brought into the fold.

The burden of our work should be the salvation of souls. We should be anxious to see all saved in the everlasting kingdom of God. How gloomy is the thought that comes to us when sometimes we think of those we once loved and still love, but who are separated from us by death or distance! but greater still will be our sorrow to know that souls whom Jesus loves and died to save will be eternally separated from him and us, when we had the opportunity of saving them from eternal ruin. If the fourteen hundred and forty-two Sabbath-keepers in this island would awake to a sense of their duty, and go out into the highways and the hedges with the open Bible, what a mighty work would be done! Soon the warning message would be sounded in the very remotest parts of our island home. God is now preparing the hearts of men and women for the reception of his invitation; and as we go among the people, this is our experience. Let us all arise to our responsibilities, brethren, and instead of asking, “What shall we have therefore?” take for our consolation the twenty-eighth verse of Matthew 19: “And Jesus said unto them, Verily I say unto you, That ye which have followed me, in the regeneration when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.”

Warsop, Jamaica.