Page 230 - Maranatha (1976)

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High Time to Awake!, July 31
And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of
sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The
night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the
works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light.
Romans 13:11, 12
.
The great controversy is nearing its end. Every report of calamity by
sea or land is a testimony to the fact that the end of all things is at hand.
Wars and rumors of wars declare it. Is there a Christian whose pulse does
not beat with quickened action as he anticipates the great events opening
before us? The Lord is coming. We hear the footsteps of an approaching
God.
This knowledge of the nearness of Christ’s coming should not be al-
lowed to lose its force, and we become careless and inattentive, and fall
into slumber—into an insensibility and indifference to realities. In slumber
we are in an unreal world, and not sensible of the things which are taking
place around us....
There are those who have the blazing light of truth shining all around
them, and yet are insensible to it. They are enchanted by the enemy, held
under a spell by his bewitching power. They are not preparing for that great
day which is soon to come to our world. They seem utterly insensible to
religious truth.
Are there not some youth who are awake? Those who see that the night
cometh, and also the morning, should work with untiring energy to arouse
their sleeping associates. Can they not feel their peril, pray for them, and
show them by their own life and character that they believe themselves that
Christ is soon to come? ... The rapidly diminishing space of time between
us and eternity should more deeply impress us. Every day that passes makes
one less left us to complete our work of perfecting character....
As long as there are many asleep, many sporting away the precious
hours in careless indifference, as it were, upon the very brink of the eternal
world, those who do believe must be sober, must be awake, must be earnest
and diligent, and watch unto prayer....
Have you, dear youth, your lamps trimmed and burning?
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