Chapter 54—Great Distress Coming
I saw greater distress in the land than we have yet witnessed. I
heard groans and cries of distress, and saw large companies in active
battle. I heard the booming of the cannon, the clash of arms, the
hand-to-hand fight, and the groans and prayers of the dying. The
ground was covered with the wounded and the dead. I saw desolate,
despairing families, and pinching want in many dwellings. Even now
many families are suffering want, but this will increase. The faces of
many looked haggard, pale, and pinched with hunger.
I was shown that the people of God should be closely united in
the bonds of Christian fellowship and love. God alone can be our
shield and strength in this time of our national calamities. The people
of God should awake. Their opportunities to spread the truth should
be improved, for they will not last long. I was shown distress and
perplexity and famine in the land. Satan is now seeking to hold God’s
people in a state of inactivity, to keep them from acting their part in
spreading the truth, that they may at last be weighed in the balance
and found wanting.
God’s people must take warning and discern the signs of the times.
The signs of Christ’s coming are too plain to be doubted, and in view
of these things everyone who professes the truth should be a living
preacher. God calls upon all, both preachers and people, to awake. All
heaven is astir. The scenes of earth’s history are fast closing. We are
amid the perils of the last days. Greater perils are before us, and yet
we are not awake. This lack of activity and earnestness in the cause
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of God is dreadful. This death stupor is from Satan. He controls the
minds of unconsecrated Sabbathkeepers, and leads them to be jealous
of one another, faultfinding, and censorious. It is his special work to
divide hearts that the influence, strength, and labor of God’s servants
may be kept among unconsecrated Sabbathkeepers and their precious
time be occupied in settling little differences when it should be spent
in proclaiming the truth to unbelievers.
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