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Be Ye Also Ready

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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Feb 26, 1914

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 91, No. 9.

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“Be Ye Also Ready”

By D. T. Shireman

D. T. SHIREMAN
“Take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares. For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth.” Luke 21:34, 35.
In Matt. 24:37-39 we read: “But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.”
The generation which was destroyed by the flood was warned by faithful Noah for one hundred and twenty years. He gave full evidence of his belief in the message he preached, by preparing an ark to the saving of himself and his family. To others his warning was but “an idle tale,” and they “laughed him to scorn,” continuing to eat and drink and to make merry.
The Saviour is now calling the attention of this generation to the dangers before them. The signs foretold in Matthew 24 and Luke 21 are fast fulfilling, and conditions obtain in the world as foretold by prophecy. However, instead of one family being left to sound the note of warning, hundreds are giving it with a loud voice; and the pen and the printed page are also proclaiming the joyful news that this generation shall witness the return of the Saviour.
God has given to the world his Word—the Bible—in many different languages, that men may read for themselves of this “blessed hope.” But they do not take time to read the warning contained in this Word, nor will they listen readily to the living preacher of this truth. We must take heed to ourselves, for there is danger that we shall become “overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and the cares of this life, and so that day come” on us unawares. We are bidden: “Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man.” We are living in a “fast age,” and surely this instruction is timely.
The warnings “take heed to yourselves,” “watch,” and “pray,” include the admonition to do all we can toward sounding forth the message. Often the daily life will preach louder than words. We should live as if we believe with our whole hearts that the Lord is soon coming, and thus all who come in contact with us will know that we are really in earnest, and will be without excuse. Paul says, in 1 Thess. 5:4-8: “But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness. . . . But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation.” Shall we not take this admonition to “be sober”?
The end of all things is just before us. “Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness; and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith.”
As I write these lines, a feeling of sadness comes over me; for from the same Holy Book I read that some servants will say, “My Lord delayeth his coming.”