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Our Times

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Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Sep 1, 1874

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 44, No. 11.

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Our Times

By Jos. Clarke

Our lot is cast to live in a period of time which, from the best light we can get, is one of marked importance and solemnity. Prophets and wise men have pointed to this century as the closing one for earth, and we, in 1874, are truly near its close.
At this time, events passing and events recorded, all proclaim, with fearful certainty, the truth of prophecy, and the nearness of the great day to which all devout minds, in ages past, have looked, and for which they have longed with solemn delight.
Scoffers everywhere lift up their unconsecrated voices and deride the doctrine of the advent, and slander and ridicule its advocates, thus fulfilling the word of God, that such should arise in the last days. Perilous times have arrived; the sixth seal opening with the great earthquake and closing with the rolling up of the heavens as a scroll, and the wail of the lost, has been spread out in all its clearness. This seal was first broken in 1755.
Only a few short years remain, and shall we remain secure? Shall we sleep on? Shall we bury our talents? Is this a time to roll up wealth and heap up treasure on the earth? Is this a time to build and improve for future generations? Is this a time to neglect God and his salvation? Is this a time to ignore the prophecies and to reject the testimony of Jesus? Shall we shut up the vision now, as Daniel was told to shut it up more than two thousand years ago?
About eighteen centuries since, the apostle John was commanded not to seal the sayings of the prophecy; for the time was at hand. Have eighteen centuries so changed the order that the prophecy is now sealed, and so mysterious that no one is to understand?
Is this a time to become skeptical? Is this a time to go on in sin? Is it a time to neglect prayer and watchfulness, and to backslide from God? Is it a time to forget God, and to love this present world? Is this a proper time to bury the one talent, or to be found beating the fellow-servant and eating and drinking with the drunken?
Christian, shall we now, just as the last day approaches, with all its wonderful realities, neglect to fill our lamps and trim them? No, no. Let us all be in readiness for the wedding.
Jos. CLARKE.