In a view given June 27, 1850, my accompanying angel said, "Time
is almost finished. Do you reflect the lovely image of Jesus as
you should?" Then I was pointed to the earth and saw that
there would have to be a getting ready among those who have of
late embraced the third angel's message. Said the angel, "Get
ready, get ready, get ready. Ye will have to die a greater death
to the world than ye have ever yet died." I saw that there
was a great work to do for them and but little time in which to
do it.
Then I saw that the seven last plagues were soon to be poured
out upon those who have no shelter; yet the world regarded them
no more than they would so many drops of water that were about
to fall. I was then made capable of enduring the awful sight of
the seven last plagues, the wrath of God. I saw that His anger
was dreadful and terrible, and if He should stretch forth His
hand, or lift it in anger, the inhabitants of the world would
be as though they had never been, or would suffer from incurable
sores and withering plagues that would come upon them, and they
would find no deliverance, but be destroyed by them. Terror seized
me, and I fell upon my face before the angel and begged of him
to cause the sight to be removed, to hide it from me, for it was
too dreadful. Then I realized, as never before, the importance
of searching the Word of God carefully, to know how to escape
the plagues which that Word declares shall come on all the ungodly
who shall worship the beast and his image and receive his mark
in their foreheads or in their hands. It was a great wonder for
me that any could transgress the law of God and tread down His
holy Sabbath, when such awful threatenings and denunciations were
against them.
The pope has changed the day of rest from the seventh to the first
day. He has thought to change the very commandment that was given
to cause man to remember his Creator. He has thought to change
the greatest commandment in the decalogue and thus make himself
equal with God, or even exalt himself above God. The Lord is unchangeable,
therefore His law is immutable; but the pope has exalted himself
above God, in seeking to change His immutable precepts of holiness,
justice, and goodness. He has trampled underfoot God's sanctified
day, and, on his own authority, put in its place one of the six
laboring days. The whole nation has followed after the beast,
and every week they rob God of His holy time. The pope has made
a breach in the holy law of God, but I saw that the time had fully
come for this breach to be made up by the people of God and the
waste places built up.
I pleaded before the angel for God to save His people who had
gone astray, to save them for His mercy's sake. When the plagues
begin to fall, those who continue to break the holy Sabbath will
not open their mouths to plead those excuses that they now make
to get rid of keeping it. Their mouths will be closed while the
plagues are falling, and the great Lawgiver is requiring justice
of those who have had His holy law in derision and have called
it "a curse to man," "miserable," and "rickety."
When such feel the iron grasp of this law taking hold of them,
these expressions will appear before them in living characters,
and they will then realize the sin of having that law in derision
which the Word of God calls "holy, just, and good."
Then I was pointed to the glory of heaven, to the treasure laid
up for the faithful. Everything was lovely and glorious. The angels
would sing a lovely song, then they would cease singing and take
their crowns from their heads and cast them glittering at the
feet of the lovely Jesus, and with melodious voices cry, "Glory,
Alleluia!" I joined with them in their songs of praise and
honor to the Lamb, and every time I opened my mouth to praise
Him, I felt an unutterable sense of the glory that surrounded
me. It was a far more, an exceeding and eternal weight of glory.
Said the angel, "The little remnant who love God and keep
His commandments and are faithful to the end will enjoy this glory
and ever be in the presence of Jesus and sing with the holy angels."
Then my eyes were taken from the glory, and I was pointed to the
remnant on the earth. The angel said to them, "Will ye shun
the seven last plagues? Will ye go to glory and enjoy all that
God has prepared for those who love Him and are willing to suffer
for His sake? If so, ye must die that ye may live. Get ready,
get ready, get ready. Ye must have a greater preparation than
ye now have, for the day of the Lord cometh, cruel both with wrath
and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate and to destroy the
sinners thereof out of it. Sacrifice all to God. Lay all upon
His altar--self, property, and all, a living sacrifice. It will
take all to enter glory. Lay up for yourselves treasure in heaven,
where no thief can approach or rust corrupt. Ye must be partakers
of Christ's sufferings here if ye would be partakers with Him
of His glory hereafter."
Heaven will be cheap enough, if we obtain it through suffering.
We must deny self all along the way, die to self daily, let Jesus
alone appear, and keep His glory continually in vi
have embraced the truth would have to know what it is to suffer
for Christ's sake, that they would have trials to pass through
that would be keen and cutting, in order that they may be purified
and fitted through suffering to receive the seal of the living
God, pass through the time of trouble, see the King in His beauty,
and dwell in the presence of God and of pure, holy angels.
As I saw what we must be in order to inherit glory, and then saw
how much Jesus had suffered to obtain for us so rich an inheritance,
I prayed that we might be baptized into Christ's sufferings, that
we might not shrink at trials, but bear them with patience and
joy, knowing what Jesus had suffered that we through His poverty
and sufferings might be made rich. Said the angel, "Deny
self; ye must step fast." Some of us have had time to get
the truth and to advance step by step, and every step we have
taken has given us strength to take the next. But now time is
almost finished, and what we have been years learning, they will
have to learn in a few months. They will also have much to unlearn
and much to learn again. Those who would not receive the mark
of the beast and his image when the decree goes forth, must have
decision now to say, Nay, we will not regard the institution of
the beast.