PREPARE YE THE WAY by Christian

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Sep 21, 1876

PREPARE YE THE WAY.

By Christian

You cannot well build a house on top of a brush-heap, nor can you lay a good foundation upon rolling stones, rotting logs, or loose lumber. And it is just as difficult to have a real revival of God’s work on top of the world, the flesh, and the devil, even though they are all baptized and in good and regular standing in the church. If you would build a house, you must lay a foundation; and if you would have it safe when the storm comes, you must dig deep and build it on a rock.

Many people are waiting for God to come and bless them in their churches and in their families, and they expect he will do it on top of all their pride, covetousness, worldliness, strife, and sin. They expect him to overlook unsettled quarrels that have been smouldering for years; wrongs that date back to the time the very foundation of the church was laid; hypocrisies that have never been confessed and put away; sins that are hidden, but not repented of; Babylonish garments and wedges of gold which ungodly Achans have secreted in their tents; and pride and sectarianism, which have been fostered, nursed, and cherished, until God cannot bless or revive such a church without dishonoring his own truth, approving wrong, and justifying them in sin and ungodliness.

If you want a revival of God’s work, go to the bottom of things. Break up the fallow ground. Let the gospel plow go deep into the soil, no matter what it turns up. Repent of sin. Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God. Confess your faults. Settle your old quarrels. Lay a good foundation. Purge out the old leaven. Stone the Achans. Hew the Agags in pieces before the Lord. Make straight paths for your feet. Take away the stumbling-blocks. Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. Do this, and you shall not wait long for his coming, his blessing, and his salvation.—Christian.