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Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Nov 4, 1873

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 42, No. 21.

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How Long?

By N. Orcutt

INFINITE goodness, and mercy, and love, have been abundantly manifest in God's dealings with his people in all their pilgrimage; never more so than with the last or Laodicean church. For years, since the warning to that church has been given, his long-suffering has proved their salvation. The admonitions and invitations of the faithful and True Witness have been extended, counseling to buy gold, white raiment, and eye-salve. The remnant have been rebuked and chastened, admonished to be zealous and repent. The threatened judgment, impending, has been stayed; the lukewarm have not been spewed out of his mouth. There is yet space for repentance. That judgment may be averted.
But how long will mercy's voice be heard? How long will the sword of justice be stayed? How long will the remnant, at ease in Zion, be reproved, admonished, and entreated, and be permitted to go on in carelessness and indifference, ere the light that is in them becomes darkness? If we are not zealous in the work of repentance, how long will God bear with us?
Dear brethren and sisters, when the Lord speaks, as he is now speaking to his people, it is time for us to listen and, hearing, to obey. “A short work will the Lord make upon the earth.” His work will prosper, but shall we prosper with it? It will prove a success, but will our feeble efforts, poor, and blind, and naked as we are, be crowned with success?
Oh! what importance attaches to the present hour! Eternal interests at stake, and the moment rapidly approaching—almost here—that will decide our destiny for weal or woe; for life in the kingdom of God, or everlasting destruction from his presence. And we are saying, “I am rich and increased in goods,” while we know not that we are “wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked.” Murmuring at chastening and rebuke, we have failed to heed the counsel in mercy given, our love has grown cold, our faith weak. And still the “faithful and True Witness” speaks to us. But, Oh! how long can we hope for mercy, how long expect the threatened judgment to be deferred, if we heed not the warning now being given? “How long?” N. ORCUTT.