The Third Angel’s Message.
By Mary Stratton
It is one thing to believe that this message has been given away back in ages past, or will be in some future time, and quite another thing to believe that we have come to the time in the history of the world when it is due. The first and second have been given, and the third, in regular succession, is now going to the world. I have been reading and also thinking of the magnitude of this work. It is to warn the whole world. If nations of other languages are benefited, obstacles must be surmounted, and they must be faithfully warned, or the work will not be accomplished. Well may God’s messengers now say, We are about a great work, and cannot come down. Why should the work cease while we leave it to come down? I have noticed that those who firmly believe this message and all that pertains to it, grow in grace and in the knowledge of the truth, while those who take the Sabbath and reject the rest, are dwarfed. They appear like a bird with unfledged wings. They rise a little way, and then fall back, till discouragement comes over them and they sink down and give up the whole. It is no use to make an effort to go in this direction unless we have confidence in the leaders—those who have borne the burdens in the heat of the day, and with the help of the Lord have carried this work forward successfully till it has become a great work indeed. And the reforms that have come just in time and place to fit up a people for the coming of the Lord and translation, how can they be rejected with impunity? I am convinced beyond a doubt that those who amount to anything in this cause will have to be whole-hearted. The fearful and unbelieving will certainly go back. Oh! that all Sabbath-keepers would give up their prepossessed opinions and idols, and come into the churches, and take hold of the work with earnestness. And some of us in the churches must have a deeper work, or we shall be left behind, and others will be raised up to take our places. The Lord help us to do so before it is too late.