Fasting, Prayer, and Immortality
By E. Macomber
Bro. White: I would say for the encouragement of all who set apart the last Sabbath day for fasting and prayer, that with me the time was a very precious season. The Lord was with us by his holy Spirit and approbated the movement, and gave us the satisfactory evidence that our supplications were noticed, and that answers according to our requests would in due time be granted. To his name be everlasting praises given,
Now in this world and at the last in Heaven. Aug. 28, first-day, I listened to a discourse from Eld. F. Berrick on the subject of immortality and our duty to God and our fellow-men. If he had been a Seventh-day Adventist, he would not have been permitted to preach in the house that he occupied for the day; but no S. D. A. messenger could have delivered a more thorough commandment-message than he did. 1. He set forth the cause of man's rejection from the tree of life, namely, through disobedience, by which he lost the blessing of immortality. 2. He showed us from the scriptures how we are to gain access to the tree of life, and quoted Rev. xxii, 14, "Blessed are they that do his commandments that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city." Of course the commandments referred to, are the commandments of God the Father, because it is Jesus his beloved Son speaking to John on this occasion. So I think as the local Baptist minister remarked to me after the sermon, that Bro. Berrick could not dispose of the seventh-day Sabbath while holding to such views as these, and also remarked that the arguments produced by him in his discourse had entangled him in such a manner that he could not extricate himself without keeping God's commandments, the seventh-day Sabbath not excepted. I would that Bro. B. might go on, continue in the good work, get baptized into the third angel's message, and sound the good news to the saints of God, as his gift well qualifies him for the work, with the keeping of the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. Let us be found thus doing, and then when the Lord comes, we shall have right to the tree of life, and gain immortality that was lost or forfeited by disobedience. And then, blessed be the name of the Lord! we shall shout, Victory, victory through Christ our everlasting King. Then the crowns of gold will be ours. Then the harps, that are all in tune, shall be ours, and a knowledge of the use of them also. Oh the harmony! How enrapturing the thought! Heaven's music will far excel anything of earth. Oh that all would obey, and have right to the tree of life.