The Time to Favor Zion Is Come.
By Stephen N. Haskell
NOTHING is more evident than that the providence of God has gone out before his people in preparing minds for the reception of the truth. It is also equally evident that the blessing of God in a most marked manner is accompanying the labors of those who are devoting their entire interests to the promulgation of present truth. Times are different from what they were ten years ago, and there never has been a time since the days of the apostles when more zeal should be manifested on the part of God's people than now. A great work is to be accomplished, and the people are few to do it. We have heard nothing but good words from the cause in Australia and New Zealand since the truth was established there. In Melbourne, a city of 350,000 inhabitants, there is a church of over a hundred with a flourishing Sabbath-school. At Ballarat, a city of less size than Melbourne, where the mines are in which the people are anxiously seeking for gold, we have a church established of forty-six members. Elder Corliss's effort at Adelaide, the capital of South Australia, was timely, for a goodly number have already taken their stand on the truth, while many more are interested. There are hundreds of fields in Australia which to all appearances are as good or even better than the fields which have been entered. In fact we know of but one city, judging from outward indications, that would be harder than the cities which have already been entered, and this is Sydney, a city of about the same population as Melbourne. The people are more English in their ways and customs; but yet it is a very important point, and one which should be entered very soon, as it is the greatest shipping center of all Australasia. There is not a part of the world into which ships are not sent from this place. Although comparatively little labor was devoted to New Zealand, no one going there but the writer, and that only for a short time, the work has prospered from its commencement. Since we left the brethren there, they have organized and labored systematically, distributing tracts all through that section of country. They have also subscribed for one hundred copies of the Bible Echo, and use them as our Vigilant Missionary Societies do in America. The donations which they have made to assist the work in Australia have been not less than $75. The last mail brings a donation of $100 to advance the work in America. Including the sums which were donated when we were there, the amount sent out from that country is between two and three hundred dollars. Brother Edward Hare reports a large number of sales of Vol. 4 "Great Controversy," "Home Hand-Book," "Thoughts on Daniel," etc. Since we left them some thirteen members have been added to their number at Kaeo, and a few at Auckland. We can only thank God for the good omens portending a steady growth where the truth has once gained a foothold. Then when we consider the calls coming from Central America, South America, and South Africa, we can only say that the Lord is preparing a people to stand in the coming storm. Some of our people are stirred at the advance the truth is making, and also at the rapid growth of the movement which is to enforce the Sunday law among us. Yet we fear that as they see these things, they will not become sufficiently aroused to make preparation to stand when the Sunday law is enforced in those States where we now have full liberty. From the platform adopted by the Prohibition party of California, in their convention of Oct. 8, 1886, we make the following quotations:681 "We declare that Sunday is an institution so interwoven into our laws, our customs, our civilization, and the very structure of our Government; "And we believe it to be so intricately and beneficently connected with our social, business, and moral life, that we cannot dispense with it, without sacrificing the very best interests of the country, and the highest welfare of the whole people. "So believing, we demand an enactment and enforcement of an intelligent and rational Sunday law. Especially we demand that all saloons or places of business where intoxicating drinks are now licensed to be sold, or permitted to be sold on secular days, shall be absolutely closed on Sunday." From the above it is evident that California is determined not to rest satisfied with the present state of things. The Sunday law may be rigidly enforced even in this State before the people are prepared for it. We cannot make too great haste to get ready for the coming of the Lord. Those who have property in different parts of the country and are holding onto it, to get a higher price, may soon experience greater difficulty in disposing of it than they do at the present time, and be willing erelong to make greater sacrifices if they could only convert their goods into means that would help to support the truth. It is now we should act. It is time that we should prepare in a special sense to do the work that God has already commenced throughout the world. Men and women are wanted who so realize the importance of this that they cannot rest till God's providence opens the way for them to invest what they possess to advance the truth; who will give evidence that the burden of the work is on them; and who will give their lives to carry forward the Third Angel's Message. God is on the giving hand, and he will co-operate with those who will co-operate with him. There will be trials and difficulties in every step we make to advance the work of God; but these difficulties, if we meet them properly, will only tend to strengthen us, and fit us for posts of usefulness in the cause. If we cannot surmount the smaller difficulties, how can we be prepared to stand in the swelling of Jordan? We are upon the verge of trying scenes, and happy are those who can see the storm gathering and prepare for it. There never has been a time when the providence of God called more loudly than at present. Africa has stretched out her hands for help and sent means to pay the expenses of the living preacher to that distant field. Other countries have done the same. Where are our young men to enter the work at the present time? Where are those who will give their entire lives to the advancement of this truth? No doubt there are many who will say, "Here am I, send me;" but while the truth is to spread to these foreign countries, and men are wanted to go to the same, it requires those who have been proved and tried; men who have taken up life's duties right where they are in this country, and have given evidence of consecration and devotion to the work. Should men who have had no experience be sent to these foreign fields, and meet with difficulties far greater than they meet here in America, they would soon become discouraged, and fall in their task. It requires men of nerve and courage; men of stability of character, and those who would rather suffer and undergo the greatest privations than see the cause of God falter. There is room for thousands of such men, and for women who can go out as colporters, Bible-workers, canvassers, or preachers, and co-operate with the Spirit of God in spreading the truths of the Third Angel's Message. The time has come to put on strength and courage, and move forward in the name of the Lord. The faster we move the sooner the work will be over, and the time has come when, "Forward, march," is heard all along the line, and it will be but a short time before the conflict will be past and the victory gained, for those who are faithful in the work.