Duties of the Present Time by Stephen Nelson Haskell

Seventh-Day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jan 31, 1884

FromThe Signs of the Times, Vol. 10, No. 5

Duties of the Present Time.

By Stephen Nelson Haskell

THERE never was so important a time as the present. The destiny of thousands of souls hangs in the balance, and God has done for us everything that he could do to impress the mind with the importance of the hour. By prophecy he has lifted the vail and revealed to us what is about to take place. There is before us a conflict such as has never been experienced by any people living upon the face of the earth. For thirty years we have looked forward to the time when, in this land of liberty, men would be persecuted because of their religious faith, and already some are being imprisoned because they conscientiously keep the commandments of God. A brother writes from the South: “Bro. Mitchell served thirty days in prison in this county for no crime but working on the first day of the week to honestly provide bread for his family, after he had faithfully worshiped and served God on the Sabbath.” Earthquakes, tornadoes, and cyclones are sure precursors of a terrible storm that is about to burst upon the shelterless heads of the wicked. A short time more and the time for laboring for the salvation of souls is over.

Our brethren in California, and in some other portions of the country, have done well in putting forth efforts to establish institutions of learning, and to provide means for missions, and place our publications before those unacquainted with our faith. We say have done well, when we compare it with years previous and with some other denominations, but when our zeal and our efforts are compared with the zealous labors of the apostles we as yet are far behind. Who is there that will follow apostolic example in giving their lives for the promulgation of the truth we profess, or are even willing to take joyfully the spoiling of their goods, knowing that in heaven they have a better and a more enduring substance? Who would glory in infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon them, and take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake, and labor in weariness and painfulness, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness?

Are there any who have done for the cause of truth as Zaccheus, who was rich but gave half his goods to the poor? Who will even

sell their possessions at a sacrifice to advance the cause of truth in this time, or will leave their farms and their merchandise and enter the work of God, as has been done in the history of the past? If we wait until the Lord opens the way before us, without our making a special effort, we shall wait until the Judgment. If we expect that Satan will not present obstacles before us, we shall be greatly mistaken. He is on the track of every one who has the cause of God at heart, and who is desirous to do something to advance its interests.

Men are wanted and women are wanted to enter the great harvest-field, and that immediately. Men who have made a success of life, and are capable of managing large farms, or carrying on large business successfully, are wanted to take responsibilities connected with the cause. Who will do this at the present hour, and step into the vacant places and say, Here I am, send me? Missions are to be opened in Australia, New Zealand, and other portions of the earth. They should be opened immediately. And are there not financial men, as well as ministers, who will volunteer to go and manage the financial interests? There are men among us who could open a mission and carry it forward with the aid they might receive in the mission, did they make their circumstances bend to the cause of Christ. When as much earnestness is put forth to dispose of what some men have, and give themselves to God, as they have put forth to accumulate what they possess, then we shall see God work as we have never seen him in the past.

It is men like Joseph of Arimathea, who are ready to come to the front in a time of great perplexity, that are wanted now. The disciples who had followed the Saviour in his travels in Judea, did not have influence with Pilate to give the body of the Saviour a decent burial; but Joseph stepped in and fulfilled an important prophecy, “He made his grave with the rich.” His name and that act were enrolled by angels and preserved in the archives of Heaven. It is a no less important work which God has committed to his people at the present time. It is not only men that say, “I go, sir,” that are wanted, but men that go. Men whom God has called for an important work, and then wait for the way to open and difficulties to be removed before they move forward, will wait until it will be forever too late. We had better do a little at the time when that little is needed than wait to do a great deal and never do anything. The field is white already to harvest, and where are the laborers? There seems to be a power to stupefy and paralyze the best energies of the soul upon many who profess the solemn truth for this time. God has laid upon his people the responsibility of giving the truth to others, and the blood of souls will be found upon the skirts of many garments unless we arouse to a state of activity, and put forth every effort in our power to advance the interests of the cause. S. N. HASKELL.