Review and Herald Fire
97
Read these words carefully. Many today are asleep, as were the
disciples. They are not watching and praying lest they enter into
temptation. Let us read and study those portions of God’s word that
have special reference to these last days, pointing out the dangers that
will threaten God’s people.
[101]
We need keen, sanctified perception. This perception is not to be
used in criticizing and condemning one another, but discerning the
signs of the times. We are to keep our hearts with all diligence, that we
may not make shipwreck of faith. Many who were once firm believers
in the truth have become careless in regard to their spiritual welfare
and are yielding, without the slightest opposition, to Satan’s well-laid
plots. It is time for our people to take their families from the cities into
more retired localities, else many of the youth, and many also of those
older in years, will be ensnared and taken by the enemy.
* * * * *
January 7, 1903.
We have all been made very sad by the news of the terrible loss that
has come to the cause in the burning of the Review and Herald office.
In one year two of our largest institutions have been destroyed by fire.
The news of this recent calamity has caused us to mourn deeply, but it
was permitted by the Lord to come upon us, and we should make no
complaint, but learn from it the lesson that the Lord would teach us.
The destruction of the Review and Herald building should not be
passed over as something in which there is no meaning. Everyone
connected with the office should ask himself: “Wherein do I deserve
this lesson? Wherein have I walked contrary to a ‘Thus saith the Lord,’
that He should send this lesson to me? Have I heeded the warnings
and reproofs that He has sent, or have I followed my own way?”
Let the heart-searching God reprove the erring, and let each one
bow before Him in humility and contrition, casting aside all self-
righteousness and self-importance, confessing and forsaking every
sin, and asking God, in the name of the Redeemer, for pardon. God
declares, “Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out” (
John
[102]
6:37
); and those who in sincerity present themselves before Him will
be pardoned and justified, and will receive power to become the sons
of God.