The Greatest Thing in the World
By W. J. Stone
As I look over the past year and see what has been accomplished by seventy-five thousand professed Seventh-day Adventists, and compare this with the results of one tenth the number of laborers thirty years ago, or think what a thousand laborers might accomplish in one year if they really believed that “the end of all things is at hand,” and possessed a zeal that would certainly characterize a people that believed the Lord would come in this generation, I am profoundly convinced that a change must come to this people, and we must have an experience unknown to many of us. There must be a loosening of our hold upon the things of the world, and a grasping of eternal things. Then we shall see a mighty forward movement, and as much accomplished in one month as we now see in a year. Do we not all desire that our whole being shall be thrilled with a sense of the importance of the message? And is not this our greatest need? Then shall not this week of prayer be so spent that the thing we need so much may be accomplished in us, and for us? What every Seventh-day Adventist needs now, is to stand where he can daily hold sweet intercourse with God, and constantly be kept and guided by his almighty power. It is my greatest desire to maintain such a relation to God day by day that I may constantly have the guidance of holy angels. The work entrusted to us as a people, in God's sight is the greatest thing in the world to-day. Why should we not regard it in the same light? When we comprehend the solemn meaning of this message to all the inhabitants of the world, everything else will sink into insignificance. Then why not throw our whole souls into this work, and arise and give this message to the world quickly? A call is made for eighty thousand dollars to meet present demands. This is none too much; and if we all have the spirit possessed by Christ when he sacrificed all for our salvation, this amount will be easily raised. God has placed in the hands of Seventh-day Adventists many thousands of dollars; and what is it for, if not to be invested now in giving the message to all the world quickly? One dollar is worth more to the cause now than a thousand will be after probation closes, when many will come with their means— too late; their money will avail nothing. May this week of prayer accomplish11for God's people all that God desires it shall. It may, if we will let it. Shall we do it? May this be the time of a greater practical revival than has ever been witnessed in this denomination, and may we set the pace that shall continue until the work shall triumph gloriously.