AGITATE! AGITATE! by George W. Amadon

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Aug 20, 1861

AGITATE! AGITATE!

By George W. Amadon

We live in a period of the agitation of Bible truth. Bible questions now have to pass through the ordeal of scriptural investigation. A class of investigators have arisen who will not be satisfied with assertions, though they do come from learned men. One "thus saith the Lord" with them is of more weight than ten thousand ipse dixits from the lips of the learned, the popular, the great. The shackles of superstition are being torn off from the minds of the public, and they begin to understand it is no sin to investigate.

How important, how grand the hour in which we live! Creeds are being shaken, systems overturned, thrones totter, governments are distracted,—in short, everything shakes, or soon will be shaken that is not established on God's immutable truth. Every moment now is fraught with eternal interests. We are soon to place our feet on the blissful shores of immortality. The Devil is enraged, the dragon is angry, the truth is going, angels visit the people while the test-message is sounding through the land. It is a time of political as well as religious excitement. The deep, pent-up thunders in the distance show the nations are angry. The war cannons begin to rattle, the clash of arms is heard, and bodies of men harnessed for the conflict are marching to the scenes of battle. And amid all this military commotion, this tumult of civilians, and the angry attitude of the nations, the servants of the living God, faithful to their trust, are crying, "Here is the patience of the saints; here are they that keep the commandments of God, and have the faith of Jesus"—Who will be on the Lord's side—WHO?

G. W. AMADON.