A SPECIAL WORK by Charles P. Whitford

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Aug 24, 1876

A SPECIAL WORK.

By Charles P. Whitford

Seventh-day Adventists profess to believe that God has a special work for these last days, the object and design of which is to prepare a people for translation when the Lord shall come. They believe that this message must go to “peoples, nations, tongues and kings,” in fulfillment of Rev. 10:11. They believe, from the fulfillment of promised signs, that the time for the proclamation of this warning message, Rev. 14:9-12, has come. They reason that if the time for its proclamation has come, it is already in the world; and if so, it is none other than this work in which Seventh-day Adventists are engaged at the present time.

The prophecies in general prove that we are in the last days; therefore it is time to expect the last warning promised in the word of God. The best additional evidence is that the message is actually being proclaimed, and now I wish to say a word to my brethren. It seems to me there are some solemn considerations connected with this subject. If God has placed upon us the responsibility of proclaiming to the world this last message of warning, upon which the salvation or condemnation of its teeming millions depends; we should be the most zealous people existing on the earth, or that has existed for eighteen centuries.

But how does our zeal compare with that of the apostolic church? They sold their farms and made themselves poor, and even sacrificed life itself, for the purpose of helping forward the work of God. Who now would think they could bear stripes, imprisonment, stoning, or crucifixion, as the early Christians sometimes did? And can any man give a good reason why Seventh-day Adventists, with the faith they hold, should not be as zealous as the apostolic church? They had a lifetime before them in which to do their work. Time was to continue many centuries. But how different now! Soon the trump of God will sound and probation’s hours be forever closed. Soon our property will be destroyed, and ourselves with it, if our treasure is here. And it certainly will be here unless we transfer it to the other world by noble acts of sacrifice in God’s cause before that day shall burst upon us.

A world lying in wickedness is rapidly drifting toward the vortex of eternal destruction. Shall we sound an alarm and warn people of their danger? Shall we make earnest efforts to save them? Or shall we devote our energies to accumulating the perishing treasures of this earth, and leave our fellow-men to go down to ruin? Will not God hold us accountable for the talents he has given us, and the use we make of the precious truths which he has so graciously permitted to shine upon our pathway? Dear brethren, it seems to me that every consideration proves that we should be as earnest as the apostles themselves. But oh, how far short of it we come!

We are so apt to compare ourselves with the churches around us, and flatter ourselves we are pretty well off if doing as well or a little better than they, that we are in great danger of being rejected. How much better to compare ourselves with some church which we know God has accepted. Our lukewarm state, as brought to view in the message to the Laodicean church of Rev. 3, would then be more apparent. While we should be the most zealous people existing on the earth, many of us who profess to believe that the last days are actually here yet seem as if almost asleep. If we do not arouse from our slumbering condition, we shall certainly be spewed out of the mouth of the faithful and true Witness.

This is a great crisis, and many are blind to it, as the Jews were in the days of John the Baptist. Things are rapidly shaping to bring about results upon which the eternal destinies of millions will turn. And does any one suppose that the cause of present truth is going to accomplish the work the Lord has said it should, without money and effort? Did not the first proclamation of the gospel cost these, and has not the truth in every age? Our faith if it does not embrace these means amounts to very little. It is by just such things that its character is determined. I believe that God will bless us in proportion to the amount of active, intelligent faith which we possess. Fault-finders will of course have much to say. Our feelings toward them should be those of pity and sorrow. They are in danger of eternal ruin. All the grumblers in the world cannot stop the third angel’s message in its present state of development, but it will go on until the world is thoroughly warned. Dear brethren, let us awake out of sleep, consecrate ourselves to God, and thus be prepared to engage heartily in the closing work of the third angel’s message.

CHARLES P. WHITFORD.