p. 11 | The Week of Prayer by R. C. PORTER

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D. C. · Nov 17, 1904

The Week of Prayer

By R. C. PORTER

R. C. PORTER

For a number of years this people have set apart one week in the early part of the winter for the purpose of prayer, meditation, and study with reference to the times in which we live, the nearness of the coming of Christ, and a personal preparation for that event. This year the date for this period is December 10-17.

Taking a brief review of the experience of these periods appointed for this purpose, I am reminded of many very precious experiences, and I recall a number of persons who were reclaimed from a backslidden condition, and many who, having sought and found the Saviour, date their Christian experience from one of these occasions.

One special feature of the readings during the week of prayer has ever been a review of the evidences of the nearness of the coming of Christ, as shown in the fulfilment of prophecy. Another prominent feature of the readings has been a review of our work in foreign fields, to see how we are progressing in the proclamation of the third angel’s message. The advancement that has been seen from year to year in sending out missionaries, and establishing the work in new fields in distant lands has been most cheering. Many a time we have been led to say, “This is the Lord’s doing; it is marvelous in our eyes.”

This extension of the work has necessarily made greater demands upon our conferences in the home fields. I have noticed, however, that a call for means to extend the work in distant lands is always received joyfully by our brethren and sisters in the older conferences. Many a time I have seen the tears of joy stream from their eyes as these calls have come, and I have heard them say, from full hearts, “This begins to look as if we are nearing home.”

The increasing calls for workers and means to hasten the message in all the world on its closing mission, is the strongest evidence that this people is fulfilling the prophecy of Revelation 14.

Elder James White was reviewing the signs of the second coming of Christ in one of the last meetings in which I met him before his death. After reviewing the prophecies of the second, seventh, eighth, and ninth chapters of Daniel, the twenty-fourth chapter of Matthew, and the twelfth of Revelation, he paused as if in deep reflection, and said, in substance: “But after all, my signs of the times are, How are they getting along with the movement to enforce Sunday laws? and how are we getting along with the work of carrying the message of warning against that movement to the world? and what advancement are we making in raising the standard of the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus before the people?” These questions left an indelible impression upon my mind. These are the very issues that in all the world are to come to a crisis the very hour that Christ is seen coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.

The report of Elder Conradi in the REVIEW of September 1, of the persecutions in the Middle Russian Mission, together with the report of the mob in Virginia that took down the tent in which a course of lectures setting forth the teachings of the Word of God was being given, are the clearest evidences of the progress of the work and the spirit of the movement against the commandments of God.

The Sunday Rest Congress held in connection with the World’s Fair at St. Louis was an additional evidence of the progress of that movement in the fulfilment of prophecy. No one who knew the meaning of Revelation 13 could attend that congress without being greatly stirred with the importance of the definite and speedy giving of the warning message in every nation in the world.

In view of these facts is it a time for men of means among us to be effecting long-time loans of their money, or otherwise tying it up for a long period? We can all see that such a course would be a practical denial of the faith. No; the time has come to sell the surplus, unused property, and let it be doing its work in the advancement of the message. A spirit of sacrifice to spread the truth is the only consistent course for any loyal Seventh-day Adventist at this time.

Every Seventh-day Adventist should determine that the eighty thousand dollars, so much needed to meet the immediate demand of the work in foreign fields, shall not fall short of that amount. It can be raised if each church-member will do his best. Let us respond that it shall be raised.

“The Lord is coming! let this be The herald note of jubilee: And when we meet, and when we part, The salutation from the heart.”