The Week of Prayer by R. C. Porter

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D.C. · Dec 10, 1903

The Week of Prayer

By R. C. Porter

R. C. PORTER

The times are perilous. Every day brings its tests of faith to the child of God, and along with the test of our faith the news of the strife between capital and labor, terrible train wrecks, storms, earthquakes, pestilence, or other fulfilments of the prophetic word which declare that the coming of the Lord draws nigh.

One special feature of the last days is the spirit of worldliness that shall so insidiously creep in that it will take men unawares, and they will be found eating and drinking, planting and building, just before the coming of the Son of man, as they were in the days of Noah and of Lot. There is danger that this condition of things in the world may steal in upon the church so that they will become indifferent to the times in which they live, to the dangers of the hour, and the important work to which God has called them. “Rich, and increased with goods,” and having “need of nothing,” are the words used by the True Witness in speaking of the condition in which the church just before the Master’s coming regards herself. Overcharged “with the cares of this life,” “lukewarm,” “neither cold nor hot,” “wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked,” is the true condition of Christ’s professed church when his coming is at the door, and he is making his final appeal through it to save the world from the seven last plagues, and the awful calamities that attend his coming. How pitiful the sight!—Christ who came from all the endearments of heaven to save a lost world, animated during his entire life with the one all-absorbing

thought of living to save the lost, his life to be henceforth the example of his people, and now, in the very closing call of the great missionary plan which he set on foot to save the world, he finds this terrible apathy settling down upon his people, through whom alone he can work in making his final plea to a lost world.

How pathetically he pleads for a reformation: “I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth. . . . I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent. Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me. To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.” In this last rallying call to preparation for service before we are invited to sit with Christ in his throne, how full of meaning is that plea: “If any man hear my voice.” The entire professed church of the last days will not hear it. We can not look one to another for an example in these days of lukewarmness. Every soul must come directly to Jesus, and in loving submission repent and be clothed for service, or be spewed out of his mouth. This solemn and decisive call is an evidence of the deepest love. Nothing less than this will save his people. Their eyes must be anointed that they may see the needs of their own hearts and repent, or they will be lost.

They will, if spiritual, see the needs of foreign fields, and hear the cry of the millions in the darkness of heathen lands, which the third angel’s message alone can enlighten. Every soul is now on trial. The Lord is giving us financial prosperity,—not that we may acquire money or property for the troublous times before us when we can not use it, or for the fires of the last days, but for the advancement of his work. “Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.” The adversary will deceive if possible the very elect.

Do we not need the benefit of a week of prayer at this time to consider our personal needs, and consecrate ourselves, our talents, our means, and all there is of us to the work of the message, which is on the very eve of final triumph? We can not afford to sacrifice sufficiently formally to accept the message and not surrender all for Christ, and so fail at last. Let us be wise and heed the instruction and counsel of the Faithful and True Witness, awake to the call to service, and at last as overcomers sit down with the Master in the enjoyment of the dominion of universal “peace, good will toward men.”

“Seek ye the Lord, all ye meek of the earth, which have wrought his judgment; seek righteousness, seek meekness: it may be ye shall be hid in the day of the Lord’s anger.”