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FAST-DAY IN OAKLAND

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Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Oct 28, 1880

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 6, No. 40.

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FAST-DAY IN OAKLAND.

By J. D. Rice

LAST Sabbath was a good day for the church in Oakland. At the usual hour for preaching, a special prayer and social meeting was held. The objects for which the day had been set apart for fasting and prayer, were first stated by the Leader. This was succeeded by the reading of Dan. 9:3-16, as recommended in the appointment; and in the prayers that followed, and the testimonies that were borne, these objects were not forgotten.
As our hearts were drawn out to acknowledge God's righteousness, his justice, and his mercies, and to confess our sins as individuals, as a church and as a people, and seek for his pardon and blessing, the Spirit of the Lord came into our midst abundantly, and our hearts were solemn because of His presence. We were constrained to renew our covenant with Him, and to apply our hearts to seek for a deep and thorough consecration of all that we have and are to God.
We believe that the Lord is well pleased with every effort on the part of his people to return unto him, and that our prayers, confessions, and vows, were heard and recorded in Heaven, and that if we are humble, and consecrated to his work, God will answer us, by restoring his feeble ministers to health and activity, and clothing us all with power from on high.
If in returning to Him, we as individuals show our appreciation of what God has done for us, by "walking in the light" which he has presented to us, through his servants, and by performing those duties, which, if left undone, bring His curse and not His blessing (Mal. 3:9, 10), and will obey his command, which says to every one, "Son, go work to-day in my vineyard," by joining those who are engaged actively in the missionary work,—then may we reasonably expect the heavenly anointing, to fit us for the great work of being "laborers together with God."
Who will prove that they are on the Lord's side, and that they really love the prosperity of his cause, and appreciate his blessings, by nobly coming up at once to perform those things which God requires, in order to remove the curse and receive his blessing? Who will? J. D. RICE.