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Need of Earnest Effort
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led by God into clearer and still clearer light. If this is not their
experience, they will be among those whose voices will one day be
raised in the bitter lamentation: “The harvest is past, the summer is
ended, and my soul is not saved! Why did I not flee to the Stronghold
for refuge? Why have I trifled with my soul’s salvation, and done
despite to the Spirit of grace?”
“The great day of the Lord is near, it is near, and hasteth greatly.”
Zephaniah 1:14
. Let us be shod with the gospel shoes, ready to
march at a moment’s notice. Every hour, every minute, is precious.
We have no time to spend in self-gratification. All around us there
are souls perishing in sin. Every day there is something to do for
our Lord and Master. Every day we are to point souls to the Lamb
of God, who taketh away the sin of the world.
“Be ye also ready: for in such an hour as we think not the Son
of man cometh.”
Matthew 24:44
. Go to your rest at night with every
sin confessed. Thus we did when in 1844 we expected to meet our
Lord. And now this great event is nearer than when we first believed.
Be ye always ready, in the evening, in the morning, and at noon, that
when the cry is heard, “Behold, the Bridegroom cometh; go ye out
to meet Him,” you may, even though awakened out of sleep, go forth
to meet Him with your lamps trimmed and burning.
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