Work of Purification Needed
349
work for this time, that we may say, “Follow me as I follow Christ.”
Let us humble our souls before God by humiliation, fasting and prayer,
repentance of sin and putting it away.
The voice of the true watchman needs now to be heard all along
the line, “The morning cometh, and also the night” (
Isaiah 21:12
). The
trumpet must give a certain sound for we are in the great day of the
Lord’s preparation.... There are many doctrines current in our world.
There is many a religion current that numbers its thousands and tens
of thousands, but there is but one that bears the superscription and the
stamp of God. There is a religion of man and a religion of God. We
must have our souls riveted to the eternal Rock. Everything in God’s
[380]
world, both men and doctrines and nature itself, is fulfilling God’s sure
word of prophecy and accomplishing His grand and closing work in
this world’s history.
We are to be ready and waiting for the orders of God. Nations will
be stirred to their very center. Support will be withdrawn from those
who proclaim God’s only standard of righteousness, the only sure test
of character. And all who will not bow to the decree of the national
councils and obey the national laws to exalt the sabbath instituted by
the man of sin, to the disregard of God’s holy day, will feel, not the
oppressive power of popery alone, but of the Protestant world, the
image of the beast.
Satan will work his miracles to deceive; he will set up his power
as supreme. The church may appear as about to fall, but it does not
fall. It remains, while the sinners in Zion will be sifted out—the chaff
separated from the precious wheat. This is a terrible ordeal, but never-
theless it must take place. None but those who have been overcoming
by the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony will be
found with the loyal and true, without spot or stain of sin, without
guile in their mouths. We must be divested of our self-righteousness
and arrayed in the righteousness of Christ.
Arrayed in Christ’s Righteousness
The remnant that purify their souls by obeying the truth gather
strength from the trying process, exhibiting the beauty of holiness
amid the surrounding apostasy. All these, He says, “I have graven upon
the palms of My hands” (
Isaiah 49:16
). They are held in everlasting,