THE THIRD ANGEL'S MESSAGE.
By James White
A MISSIONARY spirit should be cherished by those who profess the Message. Not to send the gospel to the heathen; but to extend the solemn warning throughout the realms of corrupted Christianity. “Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain.” Joel ii, 1. “Cry aloud and spare not; lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew my people their transgressions, and the house of Jacob their sins.” Isa. lviii, 1. Show the professed people of God in Christian lands that they are each week violating, and trampling in the dust, one of Jehovah's immutable commandments, and in doing this are honoring an institution of the Papacy. We say a missionary spirit is wanted to raise the cry more extensively in new fields, and sound the alarm throughout christendom. There is yet, no doubt, much work to be done in each State where the Message has been given; but not in those towns where the alarm has been given, and the few who had ears to hear and hearts to obey have been gathered out. The West is evidently the most successful field of labor at present, yet those who enter new fields, East or West, find good success. And to continue operations on old ground, and go the rounds over and over with very little success, looks as unwise as for the harvest man, after he has harvested a portion of his fields, to glean them over and over again, and have a portion of his grain to perish. But shall our preachers enter new fields, and leave our little churches to perish? No, not to perish; but leave them when fully established, with God and the Message, to pray for missionaries who are breaking new ground, and to honor God with their substance, in sending them forth to the lost and scattered sheep. In doing their duty our churches will prosper far better without ministerial aid than they will with it, while living in neglect of duty. If the Message will not hold them, while doing their duty, nothing will save them. And for laborers to move off into new fields would probably stir up the churches more than anything else, to pray to the Lord of the harvest to raise up, qualify, and send forth more laborers into the harvest. Let the laborers in the Lord's harvest move out in the great work by faith; then let every brother and sister feel that a portion of the responsibility of sustaining the servants of the Lord in their arduous work, rests on them. The churches thus acting up to their duty would share the sustaining grace and power of God, and would be greatly cheered by reports of the advance of the cause in new fields. It is a generally admitted fact that our preachers do not enjoy as much freedom in old fields of labor as in new ones. And, of course, the churches feel this lack of freedom, and sink in spirituality under it. And for want of faith and courage, and the necessary means, some of our preachers have been kept from new fields of labor, and have gone the old ground over and over. God could not especially bless a wrong course, and the lack of the Spirit of God has been felt, both by preachers and people. Some have felt much discouraged in regard to the advance of the Message, because the Spirit of God has not moved upon them, and given them a Spirit of labor in their own neighborhoods and towns where the Message has been set before the people, and they have inquired, What shall be done? We take the liberty to answer, Work where work may be done to profit. Send the Message abroad throughout christendom. Let our preachers go forth and labor where God can especially approve and sustain them by his power, and let the churches with their means and their prayers thrust them out. Then God will bless those who stay by the stuff, equally with those who go out to battle. Remember, dear brethren, that this is the Third call to the Lord's great supper. Luke xiv. “Go out into the highways and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled.” Yes, “Go out.” Go forth from town to town, from county to county, and from state to state, fitly represented by the “highways and hedges,” and give the third and last call which has compelling power in it. And nothing as yet has looked more like obeying this mandate to “Go out into the highways and hedges,” than to see Tent companies moving out into new fields, among strangers, and pitching their Tents, and posting their hand-bills, to call out the people. The first call to the supper was to those who had been bidden to the gospel feast, to the professed church of Christ. The second was to those in the streets and lanes of the city. These answer to the first and second Messages in the past. It is said of those who offered their excuses, and slighted these calls, “None of those men which were bidden shall taste of my supper.” How vain, then, to labor for such. Those churches which rejected the first message cannot be moved. How fruitless have been our labors in the streets and lanes of those cities where the former messages have been given. How sure is our success if we go out into the highways and hedges. God help us to keep pace with his truth and opening providence. We now inquire, Is it time to form colonies of Sabbath-keepers? To huddle together for the sake of the society of those of like faith? Do not such hide their light beneath a bushel? If we judge correctly, God does not approbate the course of such by the outpouring of his Spirit on them. Is this the time to improve large farms in the West? Take care, brethren, lest the work of God in the Message as it moves forward, leave you behind. A missionary spirit is lacking, and must be in the church in order for the Third call to move out in the order of God. This call is now to Sabbath-keepers. “Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in.” Those of whom it is said, “None of those men shall taste of my supper,” were prevented by their land, their oxen and their wives. The voice of God is to us, “Go out,” &c., and will the brethren let these very things keep them from their duty in sending the Third Message forth? If they do, will they taste of the Lord's supper? With this view of the present duty of Sabbath-keepers, it seems more in the providence of God for them to scatter abroad, than to collect together. That God has laid the duty on some in New England to move into the great West, we do not doubt. He has placed them in the midst of the most successful field of labor, not to bury themselves up deeper in the cares of this life, but to devote their lives to the cause of the Third Message. And it seems in harmony with the work of the last ripening Message for many of those in the East who have borne their testimony to their neighbors and townsmen, and have faithfully lived out the truth before them, to move into the West where there is hope of benefitting many, by a faithful testimony and holy life. Beware, brethren, of settling down, and burying yourselves up in the cares of this life, of adding house to house, and land to land. O the deceitfulness of riches! Remember that but one of the four classes of hearers brought forth fruit. Matt. xiii. One class understood not the word. The second soon with joy, received the word; but when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word, they are offended. This seems wonderfully true where a whole community becomes interested by a course of lectures, and afterwards, with few exceptions, are hardened and set against the word by the professed ministers of Christ. The third class are thus described: “He also that received seed among the thorns is he that heareth the word; and the care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word, and he becometh unfruitful.” God grant, dear brethren, that you may be of the fourth class of whom it is said, “But he that received seed into the good ground is he that heareth the word and understandeth it; which also beareth fruit, and bringeth forth, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.” J. W.