High Time to Awake out of Sleep.
By Chas. B. Reynolds
“And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light.” Rom. 13:11, 12. Oh! it is high time to wake out of sleep; the night is indeed far spent. Alas! that so many should be heedless of the sure signs, multiplying on every side. By many we are told the third message must go with a loud cry, ere the great and eventful day of the coming of the Lord; that the messengers of the truth are very few in number, and some of them feeble, lukewarm, or idle; that able messengers ripen to the work, very slowly, are raised up only at long intervals, and therefore there can be no immediate need of exertion, no present cause of alarm. Satan rocks them in the cradle of delusion, sings to them this false lullaby of peace and safety, and they compose themselves to slumber on in dreamy content that the coming of the Lord is farther off than when they believed. Yet nearly every issue alike of the religious and secular press gives indication that the two-horned beast, while feigning lamb-like simplicity and innocence, betrays the dragon-like character. The present murmurings of its dragon voice will rapidly increase to angry and aggressive roarings. Read the following specimen from among the leading articles of the Examiner and Chronicle of Dec. 21: “The right of the people to their Sabbath—a right which the vast majority of American39citizens, whether professedly religious or not, cherish with the warmest regard—should be zealously guarded from the machinations of those who hate it, and desire its abrogation. These are questions which the next Legislature should consider with conscientious care.” This question of a “Sunday law” is rapidly assuming great political importance. A thorough sifting of the evidence in regard to the Sabbath is inevitable. God rules and reigns by the wondrous power of the Holy Spirit, illumining the mind of God’s faithful servants. The fraud, falsehood, and sophisms of the opponents of truth have been most effectively and thoroughly exposed, the absurdity and untenableness of the positions of the first-day advocates fully demonstrated, and just at this critical juncture the means of disseminating the evidences for the truth thus brought out have been miraculously provided. The record of the prosperity of the Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association during the last twenty-nine months would be declared wild exaggeration, a monstrous fable, would really be incredible but for the glorious self-evident facts and the known veracity of its president, God’s tried servant, under whose Heaven-directed efforts such important results have been achieved. Actuated by the desire to uphold creed or advance the interests of party, an eager and very general searching of God’s word will result in the truth being impressed on honest hearts, which, by the ministration of the Holy Spirit, must eventuate in conviction, conversion. Thus thousands from every station and position of life will become proclaimers of present truth, and the third angel’s message go forth with a mighty cry, a loud voice. Faith! faith is needed, a sure, abiding, cultivated faith, to be able to stand in the time of trouble and real persecution immediately to follow. Now! now! this very day, we should make a new, a real, an entire consecration of all to God. The trial of our faith is just before us. If we hesitate, we are lost; if we delay, the hour of preparation so swiftly passing can never be recalled. Awake! awake! Be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. “Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all to stand.” Eph. 6:13.