180 Historical Sketches of the Foreign Missions of the Seventh-day Adventists
He has promised to be a present help to us in every time of need.
Then let us not sink down under trials, nor allow them to separate us
from Jesus. As we look at the everlasting hills around us, they should
remind us that God has a controversy with the nations, and that all who
have lost their lives for the truth’s sake will come forth from where
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they have fallen, to be rewarded with everlasting life in the city of God.
Outside the city will be those who persecuted them. As these see the
great light shining upon the faithful ones from Jesus, they will wish
that they had been the persecuted instead of the persecutors. What
agony will come upon them, as they hear the song of triumph echo
and re-echo through the courts of heaven, and realize that the despised
and persecuted are finally accepted of God!
But what will it profit a person, if, after enduring persecution,
he then gives up the truth? Christ gave his life for us, and now, if
necessary, we should give our lives for him. We are his, for he has
bought us; and we ought not to rob him of that for which he has made
this infinite sacrifice. The third angel is represented as flying through
heaven, proclaiming the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.
This message is to prepare a people for the coming of Christ. If men
should refrain from proclaiming it, the very stones would cry out. The
people must be warned. The words of the prophet are, “Cry aloud,
spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and show my people their
transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins.” We have a solemn
work to do to proclaim this message of warning to the world. Are we
engaging in this work? Will men arise in the Judgment and say, “You
never told me that these things were so”? Will the gates of the city
of God be closed against us, or shall we dwell with Jesus through the
ceaseless ages of eternity? We want to give to God all that there is of
us. It is only to the faithful workers that the Saviour says, “Come, ye
blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the
foundation of the world.”
Dear friends. I entreat you to be firm to truth and to duty. Trials
may press closer and closer; but Jesus will lead you, if you will let
him. Pray much. Be willing to separate from everything that sep-
arates you from God. Then, in the day of trouble, he will come to
your deliverance, and will hide you under the shadow of his wings.
When your names are cast out as evil, and friends turn against you,
remember how Jesus was treated on earth. Spies were constantly upon