November 22, 1883

A Solemn Appeal

EGW

The Lincoln, Nebraska, State Journal kept a reporter in the field every day during the camp-meeting of seventh-day adventists at crete. His reports were very favorable, even complimentary, and the synopses of discourses quite liberal. From the Journal report of a discourse by Mrs. E. G. white, we take the following:ST November 22, 1883, par. 1

We are standing as a brand in the burning. What a position we are in! The whole world is in darkness. Deception is prevalent everywhere; and here is the remnant church taking its stand on an important truth. I wrote these great truths out in my fourth volume, I felt that we are not ready and I said to my son, I must go. He argued that I ought not, when my health was so poor, but I felt that I must go and talk once more at our meetings. If I could only tell you how my heart is stirred when I feel that the time is at hand, and so many are unprepared. We have no time to devote to frivolity, to backsliding from God. We must be preparing to walk through time and eternity. The work is going on in the sanctuary, yet how sensual, how sleepy, how indifferent we are. How much our young men and our young women could do! What rich experience they could have! It seems sometimes as if there were a paralysis upon our people; that they do not realize how near they are to the end of the earth. We need more standard-bearers. We need more missionaries to go forth into the world.ST November 22, 1883, par. 2

We feel at this hour we ought to understand our position in history and prophecy. We want to know if you understand this as well as you do your wheat-fields and your cattle and your hogs; whether you are purifying yourselves line upon line and precept upon precept. So many look upon confession of Christ as a step down. But O, what could be a greater privilege than to be a child of God, children of the heavenly King. This is not taking a step down, not making a sacrifice. I have been engaged in this work forty years. I have fainted down upon the floor for want of food, with an infant in my arms. I have known poverty. I have laid dear ones in the grave, but I have never made a sacrifice. I have been letting treasures go here, but I have put them in the bank in Heaven.ST November 22, 1883, par. 3

But Christ has made a sacrifice for us. Christ, the majesty of Heaven. We make no sacrifice. His yoke is easy and his burden is light. I have proved it for forty years.ST November 22, 1883, par. 4

Mothers and fathers there is a great work devolving upon you—to instruct your children aright. When you do not do this, you have imposed a terrible burden upon them. They grow up with their characters deformed and crooked, and they must be all made over again. In allowing children to be disobedient you are teaching them to be rebellious against the commands of God. The first missionary duty you have is your families. You will see the power of God when you begin the work in your families. It will do more than all the preaching. A family that has moral backbone will sway and not be swayed. Work just as earnestly with your family as with those outside. Are you afraid to talk with your children because your fretful and impatient disposition has alienated you from them? Then mend. Bind them to you by the golden words of love. All this fretting and fault-finding is the work of Satan. What a world this would be if we were all true Christians.ST November 22, 1883, par. 5