An Appeal to Our Churches in Behalf of Home Missionary Work

The Church Must Be Quickened

“Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.” This is a time when every member of the church should be waiting, and watching, and working. Through faith in Jesus Christ, we should be alive unto God; and every man, woman, and child who has a knowledge of the truth, should be able to discern the signs for the times. The weakness and inefficiency of the church must pass away. Creative power from above must impart life to the human agents whom God would use, that they may be able to cooperate with divine intelligences. The church to whom God has imparted his endowment of heavenly truth, must not remain dead in trespasses and sins. PH007 21.1

As Christ's witnesses, our commission is clear. “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.” We are to be waiting, watching, working; it is most inconsistent for the church to whom has been opened the treasuries of truth, to be dull, worldly, and indifferent. Casting away all unbelief, we should by faith put every capability and every power into exercise. PH007 21.2

There is a great work to do, and the Spirit of the living God must enter into the living messenger, that the truth may go with power. The people of God must be aroused from their moral deadness; they must be quickened with power from above. The Lord has promised: “I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications; and they shall look upon Him whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for Him as one mourneth for his only son.” PH007 22.1

The Lord God of heaven would have the entire church devising ways and means whereby high and low, rich and poor, may hear the message of truth. The Lord Jesus, the mighty Saviour, has died for these souls. He can arouse them from their indifference, He can awaken their sympathies, He can soften their hearts, He can reveal to their souls the beauty and power of the truth. The master worker is God, and not finite man; and yet He calls upon men to be the agents through whom He can impart light to those in darkness. God has jewels in all the churches, and it is not for us to make sweeping denunciation of the professed religious world, but in humility and love to present to all the truth as it is in Jesus. Let men see piety and devotion, let them behold Christ-likeness of character, and they will be drawn to the truth. He who loves God supremely, and his neighbor as himself, will be a light in the world. Those who have a knowledge of the truth, are to communicate the same. They are to lift up Jesus, the world's Redeemer; they are to hold forth the word of life. PH007 22.2

We are in nowise to be deterred from fulfilling our commission by the listlessness, the dullness, the lack of spiritual perception in those upon whom the word of God is brought to bear. We are to preach the word of light to those whom we may judge to be as hopeless subjects as though they were in their graves. Though they may seem to be unwilling to hear or to receive the light of truth, without questioning or wavering we are to do our part. PH007 22.3