THE GATHERING CALL by R. F. C.

Publishing Committee · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jul 1, 1858

THE GATHERING CALL.

By R. F. C.

THE last merciful warning, the Third Angel's Message, is now sounding in our ears. It is the gathering message, which God has sent to gather his people into unity of faith; and it will accomplish the object for which it is sent. God has long foretold, by his prophets, that in the time of the end the wise should understand, that the watchmen shall see eye to eye when the Lord shall bring again Zion. And he has laid the plan, and ordained the means to bring out this result. His settled purpose and the means of its accomplishment being clearly revealed in his word, it is folly and infidelity to think that it will fail. And since the last message of the three has come in its order, and is to be followed by unmixed wrath upon the disobedient, we may know of a surety that this glorious result will be consummated by the present message. The word of God is infallible; and the Third Message consequently cannot fail. And it must be fulfilled harmoniously. It cannot be superceded by another message, or revolutionized in its course. The work is onward, onward, because it is the work of God. Men may fail; they may turn away from the truth and be lost, but God's purposes cannot be thwarted, his work cannot be overthrown or impeded in its course.

I have reason to-day to thank God that I learned this lesson a few years since, just in season to save me from the influence of those who attempted to take the work of the Third Message into their own hands and mend it up to suit their own taste. I then saw clearly that their work must fail; and God has signally set them aside from his work, and fixed as it were a great gulf between them and his Sabbath-keeping children.

My heart's desire and prayer to God is, that I may be found in harmony with his work; that I may willingly occupy the humble place which God has assigned me, and that I may be faithful in the discharge of my duty, and thus have a share in the work of the Lord, and finally have a part with the overcomers. The Lord has no need of me to accomplish his work. The work can be accomplished as well without me as with me. But I have great need of him, and earnestly crave a part and a place with his children.

The Lord is gathering his people. Let us gather with him. The great apostasy has done its work of dividing and scattering, and the confusion of sectarianism has been the result. Now the gathering call is sounding. The message has been prepared, the messenger is on his way, and he, who in the beginning spake and it was done, is now addressing his people by the sure word of prophecy, "Gather yourselves together, yea, gather together, O nation not desired; before the decree bring forth, before the day pass as the chaff, before the fierce anger of the Lord come upon you, before the day of the Lord's anger come upon you. Seek ye the Lord, all ye meek of the earth, which have wrought his judgment; seek righteousness, seek meekness; it may be ye shall be hid in the day of the Lord's anger."

The day of the Lord's anger is just before us, and the Third Angel is warning all to prepare who would be saved from it. And when this work is completed God's people will be one. They will have been gathered from their long captivity in Babylon, and from their bitter bondage in Egypt, and can then be easily distinguished from all the rest of mankind. It can then

be said emphatically, Here are they that keep the Commandments of God and the Faith of Jesus.

Dear brethren, let us all be found there. It will be enough to repay us for the loss of all things else. I feel to renew my covenant with you, that, by the grace of God, I will go with you to the end of the race. R. F. C.