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The Awakening

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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D. C. · Feb 1, 1906

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 83, No. 5.

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The Awakening

By W. A. S.

THOSE who are out in the field, east, west, north, or south, report a quickening of interest among the ranks of believers. There is a revival among those who have watched God’s providences in this advent movement. In our general offices the correspondence from laborers, conference officers, and people bears witness to the same fact.
There is the sound of a stirring in the camp. There is abroad a deepening conviction that the Lord, who has led this people out in this great advent movement, is guiding the marching hosts into the short way to the promised land, and that his voice is calling for all to come into line and get ready for the last things in the closing conflict.
In a Testimony, dated Sept. 2, 1902, the opening words were:—
Day by day I am impressed by the Holy Spirit that the very last messages of warning are now to be given to our people.
The Lord truly has been dealing with his church in these times, calling on men and women to make definite decisions. And all the time we have seen his providences leading the work forward in the mission fields as never before. Never were conferences and people more earnest in stepping in to urge the work onward as the great fields call for help. On every hand we hear those who move about among the churches and conferences bearing witness to this. It is an awakening and a reviving from the Lord.
“If were conferences and people more earnest in stepping in to urge the work onward as the great fields call for help.”
At the sound of the alarm in the camp of Israel, all the hosts of God were to move forward toward the land of promise. Numbers 10. God himself has been sounding the trumpet of alarm in Zion, and, thank God, there is a moving in the camp. And the revival at home reaches to the ends of the earth. From away inland in China, Dr. Selmon writes:—
Looked at from this distance, it seems to us that our people in the States are rousing themselves to push the work, and we are glad of the evidence that God is stirring us up. The East, and especially our old China, is being aroused to the very depth.
The awakening is coming within and without. We are not to be forever marching and never getting to the end of the journey. The last things are being done. The last messages of warning are surely being given to us.
Sin is to be put away from our own hearts. The heart must be circumcised from worldliness and lethargy; for, as Zion awakes and puts on its beautiful garments, it is written, “Henceforth there shall no more come into thee the uncircumcised and the unclean.” Isa. 52:1. Then it is that “all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.” Verse 10.
The events in the world, and the stirring of new life in the church, are signs to us that the Lord has set his hand to finish the work. It is to us what that “sound of a going in the tops of the mulberry trees” was to David’s band. It is as the “sound of abundance of rain” which Elijah heard by faith, as he prayed to God on Carmel. Well may we be of good cheer, and speak the word of courage to others. And still, as never before, there is need of seeking God in one world-wide prayer circle, for the fulness of blessing that shall fit this church of the advent truth to quickly bear the message to all the earth.
“Go yet again in prayer, O church, and gaze Eastward and westward where the nations thirst, By sin and falsehood parched, and the hot rays Of war and strife and gain; scorched, withered, cursed! From Thee, Desire of nations, Life’s streams burst; Come, Holy Ghost, through the reviving ground, Like music thine abundant blessing sound.”
W. A. S.