The Call to Prayer by W. W. Prescott

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Nov 12, 1901

The Call to Prayer.

By W. W. Prescott

ANNUAL SEASON FOR 1901, DECEMBER 21-28.

No mere formal appointment or formal observance of a stated time for religious meeting will meet the demands of the present hour. There is a more weighty reason than custom for calling all the people to a special time of prayer and consecration. We face a situation and a work which demand a new experience. If we accept God’s call to give “the Advent message to the world in this generation,” we must accept the power through which alone this great commission can be fulfilled. That power is the same as was bestowed upon the early Church for the accomplishment of a similar work in one generation. “Ye shall receive power, when the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be my witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.” Men filled with this Pentecostal gift went forth in the power of the Spirit to preach repentance and remission of sins in His name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. Multitudes of those who heard the simple story of the death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus of Nazareth were, according to the promise, convicted of sin, and cried out, “Men and brethren, what shall we do?” The number of believers grew rapidly, and the work spread to new fields. Those who were scattered abroad through persecution “went everywhere preaching the word.” Saul, the bitter opponent of the truth of the gospel, was converted into Paul, the zealous preacher of “the faith which he once destroyed.” As the apostle to the Gentiles he was mightily used of God to carry the good tidings to “the regions beyond,” until he was able to write to the church at Colosse of “the truth of the gospel, which is come unto you, as it is in all the world;” and to speak of “the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven.” Thus in one generation a message was given to all the world. But this was accomplished solely through the direct agency of the Holy Ghost, the Spirit of the Father speaking in men. To-day we are called to do a similar work with the assurance of the renewal of the same wondrous gift. Over a territory much more widely extended, and to a people much greater in number, we are now being aroused to give the message of the power and glory of the coming of the Lord in a single generation. Every facility for reaching the people in all parts of the world is at our command for this final ministry of the truth, but nothing will take the place of the anointing of the Holy Ghost. The machinery is here; more power is needed. The wheels are here; we need the spirit of life in the wheels. “Ask, and it shall be given you. . . . If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? . . . If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him?” We must prove the promise.

In calling attention to the appointed time for prayer and religious awakening, which has been set this year for December 21-28, we wish to direct the minds of all to a definite purpose. It is a time of opportunity. A great blessing is offered as a preparation for a great work. Asking for the blessing should mean consecration for the work. Let there be a united concert of prayer, and all directed to one end—the power of the Spirit for service. A faith that believes for great things, inditing a petition which asks for great things, will bring great things. Who will set his heart to seek the Lord? Who will unite for a time of blessed revival? Who will make a new consecration for service? Who will begin to pray now that this annual occasion may bring a new experience of living power into all hearts through the baptism of the Holy Spirit, and thus be a mighty stimulus for the rapid spread of the message in all the earth? Think, believe, act. W. W. PRESCOTT.