Letters and Manuscripts — Volume 25 (1910 - 1915)

Ms 29, 1910

The Work Before Us

November 14, 1910 [typed]

Previously unpublished.

We feel deeply the great need of workers to take hold at once in every city and reveal the deepest earnestness in the presentation of the truth. In the highways and the byways, the truth is to be proclaimed with earnest simplicity to the multitudes who have not yet heard it. Twenty years ago the need of doing this work was presented, and I have continued to urge the subject upon the attention of our people. In response, there has been some little measure of doing; but the work that the Lord presented to me should be done has not been done. The trifling moves made, and the delay, have had the result of encouraging Sunday observance, and this false theory has been zealously urged to the front. Our people have not done all that they might have done. The real question at issue is yet to be met with. When it does speak, Satan will appear with the spirit of the dragon. Long before this, we should have placed ourselves decidedly before the world and before the churches as a people observing the true Sabbath. We are twenty years behind where we should be. 25LtMs, Ms 29, 1910, par. 1

The Sunday question has been working its way to the front. It is our duty not to act as a church asleep. Those at the head of the Sunday movement will wrestle for the victory. Shall they have it? God forbid. 25LtMs, Ms 29, 1910, par. 2

Let this matter now come before the people as it should. The Scriptures are to be presented in a clear, forcible manner. Let workers go into the cities and hold meetings. Let the largest number possible hear a plain “Thus saith the Lord.” God will move upon hearts as the truth from His Word is presented in earnestness. When a plain “Thus saith the Lord, Verily, My Sabbaths ye shall keep” is presented, many will hear and obey. 25LtMs, Ms 29, 1910, par. 3

“How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace, that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth. Thy watchmen shall lift up the voice; with the voice together shall they sing; for they shall see eye to eye, when the Lord shall bring again Zion. Break forth into joy, sing together, ye waste places of Jerusalem; for the Lord hath comforted His people, He hath redeemed Jerusalem.” [Isaiah 52:7-9.] 25LtMs, Ms 29, 1910, par. 4

Read the fifty-first, fifty-second, and fifty-third chapters of Isaiah, also the fifty-eighth. 25LtMs, Ms 29, 1910, par. 5

“If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on My holy day; and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable; and shalt honor Him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words; then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord, and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father; for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.” [Isaiah 58:13, 14.] 25LtMs, Ms 29, 1910, par. 6

“Thus saith the Lord, Keep ye judgment, and do justice; for My salvation is near to come, and My righteousness to be revealed. Blessed is the man that doeth this, and the son of man that layeth hold on it; that keepeth the Sabbath from polluting it; and keepeth his hand from doing any evil. 25LtMs, Ms 29, 1910, par. 7

“Neither let the son of the stranger, that hath joined himself to the Lord, speak, saying, The Lord hath utterly separated me from His people; neither let the eunuch say, Behold, I am a dry tree. For thus saith the Lord unto the eunuchs that keep My Sabbaths, and choose the things that please Me, and take hold of My covenant, even unto them will I give in My house, and within My walls a place and a name better than of sons and of daughters. I will give them an everlasting name, that shall not be cut off. 25LtMs, Ms 29, 1910, par. 8

“Also the sons of the stranger, that join themselves to the Lord, to serve Him, and to love the name of the Lord, to be His servants, every one that keepeth the Sabbath from polluting it, and taketh hold of My covenant; even them will I bring to My holy mountain, and make them joyful in My house of prayer: their burnt offerings and their sacrifices shall be accepted upon My altar; for Mine house shall be called an house of prayer for all people. 25LtMs, Ms 29, 1910, par. 9

“The Lord God which gathereth the outcasts of Israel, saith, Yet will I gather others to him, besides those that are gathered unto him.” [Isaiah 56:1-8.] 25LtMs, Ms 29, 1910, par. 10

It is no time now to hesitate in a state of unbelief. I am instructed to call upon our people everywhere to awake and prepare for the judgment by doing thorough work in binding up with Christ. They are not to sit in calm expectancy of the storm that is coming from the power of darkness, comforting themselves with the thought that they will be sheltered and safe. They are to work with every God-given capability to save a perishing world, speaking a word in season to those who need light and instruction. Satan is not idle. He has been gathering into his ranks ministers and every one else whom he could induce to accept his erroneous theories. Ministers who were once with us have been drawn away by their own desire to bring out something new and strange. 25LtMs, Ms 29, 1910, par. 11

Those who have received the evidence of the Word of God concerning the verity of the Lord’s holy day are to bear in mind that the line of demarcation between Sabbath-keepers and those who observe the day upon which no sanctity has been placed by the Lord is never to be obliterated. We have a special work to do, and this work we are most earnestly to carry forward. 25LtMs, Ms 29, 1910, par. 12