p. 51 | Wake Up by M. Wood

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jul 28, 1874

Wake Up.

By M. Wood

“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. 15:12. These words ought to rouse us to a sense of the importance of the time in which we live and of the message which we profess to be giving. If God’s words mean anything, they mean everything. And as he has declared in his holy word, a speedy riddance will the Lord make of all them that dwell in the land, Zeph. 1:18; Rom. 9:28, how important that we lay aside all our trifling, murmuring, fault-finding ways, which cling so tenaciously to us, and seek God as for all eternity. Soon it will be too late.

We are not always to have an intercessor with the Father. Soon probationary time will cease. Christ will lay off his priestly robes, and we must then stand upon the characters which we are now forming. Believing as we do that the great chains of prophecy reaching down to the last days have had their fulfillment, and soon the stone which was cut out of the mountain without hands, Dan. 2:34, 45, will smite the image upon its feet, what manner of persons ought we to be? The sin and iniquity which now envelop the earth must soon give way to the Sun of Righteousness, which shall rise with healing in his wings, Mal. 4:2, and God’s faithful, waiting ones shall no longer see through a glass darkly. The Creator and creature shall stand face to face. They shall see as they have been seen. They shall know as they have been known. There will be no outward cloak to cover inward sins. All will be pure and holy. Every heart shall beat in unison with God’s holy law. And while the tried and afflicted ones, who have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb, find shelter under the shadow of the Almighty from his unmingled wrath, the transgressor of God’s law shall find his portion with that wicked one whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming. 2 Thess. 2:8.

The glories of the eternal world are just before us, the night is far spent, and the day that is to usher in Christ’s everlasting kingdom is just breaking. Do we believe it? Do our actions prove to our neighbors, that we believe the truths which we profess with our lips? Have we carefully weighed the words of the apostle which head this article? Have we cast off the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light? Are we trying to lay aside everything in our lives and habits which will not bear the closest scrutiny of an all-seeing God? Do we make the soon coming of Christ a living reality? Do we make it a principle of conscience to do nothing we would be ashamed of when Jesus comes to raise the sleeping saints and change the living righteous from mortal to immortality?

We are living in a searching, testing time. God is proving his people. We must soon stand before the great Jehovah and render an account to God. If we have been faithful stewards to our absent Master, we shall receive a faithful steward’s reward. God has given us a true pattern to follow. Half right, nearly right, or about right, will avail nothing in the Judgment. If we ever stand before the throne of God, it will be because we are without fault and blameless. Each one must prove his own works. Each one must set up assize within himself. Oh, for a heart to deal fairly with God and man. Let us gird up our loins and labor to wear the armor of light, the girdle of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the helmet of hope, and the sword of the Spirit. Eph. 6:14-17. M. WOOD.