“What of the night? Do I discern the import of these messages? Do I understand the place they occupy in the closing work of the great remedial system? Am I so familiar with the ‘sure word of prophecy’ that I can see in the events transpiring around me positive evidence that the coming King is even at the door? Do I sense the responsibility that rests upon me, in view of the light God has given? Am I using every talent entrusted to me as his steward, in well-directed effort to rescue the perishing? or am I lukewarm and indifferent, partly mixed up with a wicked world, using the means and ability God has given me, largely in self-gratification, caring more for my own ease and comfort than for the advancement of his cause? Am I by my course strengthening ‘the conviction that has been gaining ground in the world that Seventh-day Adventists are giving the trumpet an uncertain sound, and are following in the path of worldlings’?GCB April 1, 1897, par. 1

“We hear the footsteps of an approaching God to punish the world for their iniquity.” “The end of time is close upon us. The world's inhabitants are being bound in bundles to be burned. Shall you be bound up with the tares?” “Do you realize that every year thousands and thousands and ten times ten thousand souls are perishing, dying in their sins? The plagues and judgments of God are already doing their work, and souls are going to ruin because the light of truth has not been flashed upon their pathway.”GCB April 1, 1897, par. 2

“O, if those who profess to know the truth had the spirit of Christ, the self-sacrificing Redeemer, who gave up his riches, and splendor, his high command, and did all that a God could do to save souls, they would deny self, lift the cross, and follow Jesus. How will you who love worldly treasure answer to God in the great day of judgment for your feeble and sleepy efforts to send the truth to regions beyond? The money expended in bicycles and dress, and other needless things, must be accounted for. As God's people, you should represent Jesus; but Christ is ashamed of the self-indulgent ones. My heart is pained, I can scarcely restrain my feelings, when I think how easily our people are led away from practical Christian principles to self-pleasing.... I would ask all who have means to remember that God has entrusted this means to them to be used in the advancement of the work which Christ came to our world to do. The Lord tells every man that in the sight of God he is not the owner of what he possesses, but only a trustee. Not thine, but mine, saith the Lord. God will call you to account for your stewardship. Whether you have one talent, or two, of five, not a farthing is to be squandered on your own selfish indulgences. Your accountability to heaven should cause you to fear and tremble. The decisions of the last day turn upon our practical benevolence. Christ acknowledges every act of benevolence as done to himself.”GCB April 1, 1897, par. 3

April 1, 1897