EXHORT ONE ANOTHER by Jesse Dorcas

Publishing Committee · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jun 17, 1858

“EXHORT ONE ANOTHER.”

By Jesse Dorcas

“Be ye therefore ready, also.” Ready for what? For the day of trouble, for the breaking through of houses, for the thickening up of the perilous times of the last days, for the vengeance of our God, the seven last plagues, poured out unmixed upon all, indiscriminately, upon whom is found “the mark of the beast,” which will consist in the deliberate (in the forehead) or, indifferent, (in the hand,) keeping of the Papal Sunday in the place or stead of the Sabbath of the Lord our God.

We must be ready also to resist the spirit of the present age; for we are living in the days of the working of the daughters of the mystery of iniquity. The time has come. We live to see the eventful period, that the American churches are married to the American government. They seek each other’s aid, and promote each other’s civil and religious interests! They are, in fact, one, fallen and degenerate as is our great commonwealth, civilly, and religiously considered.

The second house of Israel is now taking her last opiates, and will soon be in a condition for Satan to practice upon her his last great deception. See Isaiah viii; 2 Thess. ii.

As in the case of Judas, when wicked men and seducers have become incurably bad, God will send them strong delusions; so that they will go forward with their work speedily, to their own damnation. The false revivals, which have been shown of God, are becoming more and more prevalent. And it is remarkable, that where these excitements exist, where the Third Angel’s Message has been heard, there is a manifest disposition with those engaged in them, to offset their work against ours, and regard their apparent prosperity as an argument positive against this message being of God. The injunction of inspiration is, “Let no man deceive you with vain words, for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience.” They are vain words that would set aside, or make light of any of God’s commandments, or of any one of the divine ordinances of the church of Christ; therefore, my brethren, let none of us be drawn aside from the plain, narrow path of present truth and duty, by the boisterous or quiet religious excitements around us, let us remember the word of the Lord by Jeremiah, [chap. xv, 19, 20.] “Therefore thus saith the Lord, If thou return, then will I bring thee again, and thou shalt stand before me; and if thou take forth the precious from the vile, thou shalt be as my mouth; let them return unto thee; but return not thou unto them. And I will make thee unto this people a fenced brazen wall, and they shall fight against thee, but they shall not prevail against thee, for I am with thee to save thee, and to deliver thee, saith the Lord.” By reading verse 16 of this chapter, it appears evident that the above has a particular application this side of 1844. The eating of the little book, and disappointment of that time, is a world-wide matter. Christ is no more divided now than in the days of Paul; neither were any of the Advent leaders crucified for us; our salvation comes “through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth.” 2 Thess. ii, 13. And having found the narrow path by which God will lead his people in this dark night of error, out of the great city of Babylon, we need not stagger, though the whole world should be convulsed with fanaticism; there is sufficient light shining from the

prophecies to make duty plain. We must be ready also, for the Lord’s coming. O, that will be a great and glorious event for those that are ready.

The chapter from which our text is taken [Luke xii] abounds with pointed instructions and illustrations, by which we shall certainly be required to govern our conduct, if we are ready to open to our Lord immediately when he shall return from the wedding, whither he went in 1844, and from which he will soon return.

Are we ready? Have we been converted to God? Have we believed the gospel? Have we sought for the remission of our sins, in obedience to the divine command—been baptized, every one of us, for the remission of sins? Acts ii, 38.

If so, does a well ordered life and chaste conversation, coupled with a sweet, kind, tender spirit, give daily evidence that our “first works” have been thoroughly performed? Do we confess Christ in word and deed? Do we seek first of all “the kingdom of God and his righteousness”? If so, having abundance of this world’s goods, more than a competency, have we “sold that we have” and made, and are we making, an enlightened christian disposition of them, in the promotion of the present truth? It will require the act, not the dead, lifeless will, merely. James is clear on this point. James ii, 14–20. Our course of conduct at this point has a strong bearing either one way or the other. If we are vacillating, and double-minded, and are in great fear lest our Lord should tarry long, and on this account hold on to our superabundant property, we are in great danger of being overtaken as a thief.

The Lord being my helper, I intend to avoid this difficulty, and in good season arrange all my matters according to the light that shines for us Americans in Rev. xiii, 16, 17, to enable us to make our way as easy as the Lord intends it should be, for “sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.”

JESSE DORCAS.

Fremont, Ohio.