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Testimonies for the Church Volume 6
your families. Put forth extra exertion to attend the gathering of God’s
people.
Brethren and sisters, it would be far better for you to let your
business suffer than to neglect the opportunity of hearing the message
God has for you. Make no excuse that will keep you from gaining
every spiritual advantage possible. You need every ray of light. You
need to become qualified to give a reason of the hope that is in you
with meekness and fear. You cannot afford to lose one such privilege.
Anciently the Lord instructed His people to assemble three times a
year for His worship. To these holy convocations the children of Israel
came, bringing to the house of God their tithes, their sin offerings, and
their offerings of gratitude. They met to recount God’s mercies, to
make known His wonderful works, and to offer praise and thanksgiving
to His name. And they were to unite in the sacrificial service which
pointed to Christ as the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the
world. Thus they were to be preserved from the corrupting power
of worldliness and idolatry. Faith and love and gratitude were to be
kept alive in their hearts, and through their association together in this
sacred service they were to be bound closer to God and to one another.
In the days of Christ these feasts were attended by vast multitudes
of people from all lands; and had they been kept as God intended, in
the spirit of true worship, the light of truth might through them have
been given to all the nations of the world.
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With those who lived at a distance from the tabernacle, more than
a month of every year must have been occupied in attendance upon
these holy convocations. The Lord saw that these gatherings were
necessary for the spiritual life of His people. They needed to turn away
from their worldly cares, to commune with God, and to contemplate
unseen realities.
If the children of Israel needed the benefit of these holy convoca-
tions in their time, how much more do we need them in these last days
of peril and conflict! And if the people of the world then needed the
light which God had committed to His church, how much more do
they need it now!
This is a time for everyone to come up to the help of the Lord, to
the help of the Lord against the mighty. The forces of the enemy are
strengthening, and as a people we are misrepresented. We desire the
people to become acquainted with our doctrines and work. We want