The Week of Prayer in Battle Creek by Arthur Grosvenor Daniells

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jan 6, 1903

The Week of Prayer in Battle Creek

By Arthur Grosvenor Daniells

The week of prayer, Bible study, and personal consecration to God for 1902 will long be remembered by many in the Battle Creek church. At the beginning of the week, the weather was quite unfavorable, and the attendance was small. It looked as though the occasion would prove very ordinary, but in this we were mistaken. For two or three weeks preceding the week of prayer, Professor Prescott, by request of the employees in the Review Office, and many in the Battle Creek church, had been conducting a series of Bible studies on the basic truths of the third angel's message. These studies, though conducted in a quiet, calm manner, made a very deep impression upon the minds of those who attended them. So when the week of prayer opened, many were prepared to respond to the Holy Spirit's leading.

The interest in the meetings during the week of prayer increased from the beginning to the close. Many sought the Lord for a new life, and for definite victory over sin. One of the most precious meetings of the week was held in the Review Office chapel, Christmas day. The attendance was not especially large, nor was the service in any way exciting, but upon some hearts a powerful impression was made. To the writer, this meeting was the beginning of a new line of thought regarding the final and glorious triumph of the third angel's message.

But the series of meetings reached a climax the last Sabbath of the week of prayer. The signal blessing of God rested upon Brother Prescott as he spoke to the church, Sabbath forenoon, on the solemn work of the judgment hour, and the preparation required to enable us to have “boldness in the day of judgment.” It was clearly shown that the hour of God's judgment has come, that the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, but that the righteous may have boldness, or confidence, in the day of judgment. At the close of the sermon, a call was given to any one who knew that he was unprepared for the test, and who desired an entire change of heart. The call was given especially to the unconverted and the backslidden. Nearly two hundred persons responded to the invitation. The majority of these were young men, youth, and children. This was a very solemn and touching occasion. Many were in tears as they saw young men and women pressing their way from the galleries, from the choir, and from the rear of the auditorium to the seats made vacant in the body of the building. Fathers and mothers and aged saints of God wept for joy.

At one o'clock the meeting was dismissed until three in the afternoon, when nearly every one of these earnest seekers for a new life returned to the seats to which they had come from different parts of the building to signify their determination to serve the Lord, and to join themselves to him and to his people. Heartfelt testimonies and earnest prayers were offered in behalf of these penitent souls, that all their sins should be wiped away, that they should become a new creation in Christ.

There was such a free spirit in the congregation, and such a strong desire on the part of all to take part in the praise service, that the large congregation easily and naturally fell into sections, so that several could bear testimony at the same time without confusion. Many of the old veterans in the cause testified that this was a revival of the experiences in the early days of the advent message. Why should not this experience be renewed? We believe that when the advent message is truly revived among this people, we shall not only have revivals of the early experiences of this people, but we shall share in larger blessings and greater manifestations of God's presence and leadership in this cause. May the Lord hasten this blessed revival. A. G. Daniells.