Significant Items by R. C. Porter

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · May 19, 1903

Significant Items

By R. C. Porter

R. C. PORTER

Two things have recently attracted my attention to which I wish to refer briefly in this article: first, the calls from all parts of the world, during the recent General Conference, for laborers speedily to enter new fields where open doors await their coming with the message which is to close the gospel commission and usher in the reign of the King of kings and Lord of lords. Calls from China, India, Africa, Mexico, the European field, Australasia, and many of the islands of the sea strongly suggest the fact that God’s providence has opened the world for the message. Even iron-clad

Russia has proclaimed liberty for all classes of Christians to declare the gospel. In view of these facts, we are deeply stirred with a sense of the increased responsibility of this people. Why has God opened the doors of every nation at this time to the gospel? Every intelligent Seventh-day Adventist can readily answer. A commission was given long ago that at the close of the gospel day “this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.”

All signs indicate that we are in the evening shades of the gospel age. The Lord’s commission to any work always includes the possibility of the accomplishment of that work. So now as we stand on the threshold of the close of time and the finishing of the mission of the gospel, the nations of the world throw open the doors to the message. God by his providence now appeals to this people to enter the fields at once for the closing work. The Lord never opens the field too soon. If we could but view with eyes of faith the possibilities of the present, we would not hesitate on the threshold of these open doors of the nations, but enter them at once, and the Master, who is the author of the commission, would move upon the hearts of those who have means, to sustain the workers in these distant lands. If our hearts have a tendency to shrink from the undertaking on account of the expense, let us pray as did the disciples of old, “Lord, increase our faith.”

The other item is the recent visit of King Edward and Emperor William to the city of Rome, the seat of the papacy. And at about the same time, the president of the United States witnessed the “Grand Act” in a Catholic university, seated by the side of Cardinal Gibbons, of Baltimore. The “Grand Act” is a defense of the Catholic faith by a father of the Catholic Church against all the objections that can be raised against it by leading priests and professors of the same faith. This was the third occasion where it had been successfully accomplished. The next day the same cardinal who sat with the president witnessing this act, sat with the president at the opening of the dedicatory services of the World’s Fair in St. Louis, and offered the opening invocation upon that occasion.

Thus the Catholic Church and the state, the world over, are becoming more closely allied in their relations; and who that reads Revelation 13 in the light of present-day history, can fail to see the significance of all these movements?

If there ever was a people who should be awake to their opportunities, it is this people at the present time. Who will see these things in their true significance?—They who have their eyes anointed with the eyesalve of spiritual discernment. The world is blinded by the love of money, love of official station, fame, or social position. The church of Christ has but one ambition; that ambition is the saving of lost men at the sacrifice of all earthly gains. While men of the world are striving for worldly renown, the true Christian is seeking to make known Christ and him crucified as the only hope of the world’s escape from the impending ruin that is to devastate the earth and spoil all it now holds dear when the Saviour comes to take his people home.

Soon the times of peace in which to do this work will be past. Are we doing our utmost now? May the Lord enlighten our eyes that we may see our day of opportunity, and so awaken us that we shall be actively engaged in our work, and be true to our trusts until the Master comes. “Blessed is that servant, whom his Lord when he cometh shall find so doing.”