An Introductory Appeal to all SDA’s

Dear “Ammi” and “Ruhamah”:

With deepest anxiety I am writing to implore you to make overtures to our estranged “Mother,” that we may effect her reconciliation, save our Father from His inconsolable grief, and re-gladden our now unhappy home.

I am in receipt of a letter from Father, in which He reluctantly exposes our “Mother’s” indecent worldly connection, and urges you to plead with her to repent of her unfaithfulness and to return to Him. He still calls for her with the same supreme love as always, though she has done a shameful thing, and is more corrupt in her inordinate love than are all women. So may your earnest prayer and diligent effort reunite our household and avert the imminent family disgrace, especially the shame and dishonor to Father’s great name.

If you truly love Father and “Mother,” you will fervently respond to this solemn appeal. And what will be your gladness if by Father’s merciful entreaties and your own untiring efforts, “Mother” be won to repentance, reconciled to Father, and restored to His kingly home! Think of the inexpressible joy, as with open arms He then receives the whole family and spreads a great banquet, as did the prodigal’s father!

It is therefore my deepest concern that this urgent message reach you without delay. You will see that its warning is the most solemn and momentous since Noah’s prediction of the flood.

In order to help in this crucial hour, it is necessary that we as true and loyal Seventh-day Adventists continue to be searchers of truth, wisdom, and knowledge of God. Make certain not to trip on the stumbling blocks of others, but to turn them into stepping stones to Christian progress.

The Jews before Christ’s day, and ever since, thought they had all the truth there was to know. True, they had the Bible. But their consequent misunderstanding of the plan of God, and resultant over-confidence in themselves, led them to feel that they were rich and increased with goods and in need of nothing. It was this attitude that caused them to turn a deaf ear to the teachings of Christ the King of glory. Thus their misconception of the Truth, and their prejudice against light upon the Word of God, so robbed them of the knowledge and the wisdom of Jehovah that they were finally led, to their ever-lasting shame and condemnation, to commit the terrible crime of taking the life of the Son of God.

This fearful guilt, however, does not lie upon the hapless Jew alone. The Christian church as well, in each of her succeeding periods, has in effect crucified the Saviour afresh in rejecting His messages of Present Truth to them. So it was in the days of Luther, of Knox, of Wesley, of Campbell, of Miller and of Sister White. And so it is today with all who are failing to take special heed to avoid the enemy’s ever-set snare.

Now the only safe and sane procedure is to read closely every page of the solemn message contained herein. Let not a line escape your attention. Study every word carefully and prayerfully. Be an earnest and diligent student of the Truth. “Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.” 1 Thess. 5:21.

As their record shows, the Bereans made a thorough and unbiased investigation of the messages which came to them, that they might know whether “those things” were so. In so doing they were neither misled by the enemy nor reproved by Inspiration, but rather were led by their open-mindedness to keep pace with the Truth, and were honored for their noble course. But the priests, whom God had previously made recipients of the Word, upon learning that the common people were hearing the Truth gladly, came and confused them. For this, those dignitaries were condemned—and all who gave heed to their voice rather than to the then un-popular one, were thus misled.

These things being written for our “en-samples,” let us not fail to emulate the “more noble” example of the Bereans! Only thus can we honestly exercise our judgment; otherwise we repeat the folly of the Jews who were led astray by the so-called wise teachers of Israel.

Says the Spirit of Prophecy: “ . . . if a message comes that you do not understand, take pains that you may hear the reasons the messenger may give, comparing scripture with scripture, that you may know whether or not it is sustained by the Word of God. . . . No one of those who imagine that they know it all is too old or too intelligent to learn from the humblest of the messengers of the living God.”—Testimonies on Sabbath School Work, pp. 65, 66; Counsels on Sabbath School Work, pp. 29, 30.

It is these so-called venial sins of becoming prejudiced and self-satisfied, and of leaning upon others, that have ever led God’s people away from Him. Then, too, the fear of coming in contact with error has all too often kept them from coming in contact with advancing Truth. These pet fears and sins condone by most Christians and even defended by many, have,mat the introduction of each advancing Truth, robbed multitudes of eternal glory.

Ponder anew the experience of the people in the days of Paul: “And the brethren immediately sent away Paul and Silas by night unto Berea: who coming thither went into the synagogue of the Jews. These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the Word with all readiness of mind, and searched the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so. Therefore many of them believed; also of honourable women which were Greeks, and of men, not a few. But when the Jews of Thessalonica had knowledge that the Word of God was preached of Paul at Berea, they came thither also, and stirred up the people.” Acts 17:10-13.

Having thus briefly recalled to your minds the fatal mistake of the church throughout her long history, I now divulge the climaxing news: Father has promised to give forever to “Mother,” Pisgah’s View—His great vineyard—if she will return and be true! He will hedge it about with “a wall of fire” (Zech. 2:5), lay its “stones with fair colours,” and its “foundations with sapphires,” make its “windows of agates,” and its “gates of carbuncles,” and deck all its “borders of pleasant stones” (Isa. 54:11, 12), so that “there shall not come thither the fear of briers and thorns.” Isa. 7:25.

I am confident that after hearing our Father’s merciful plea in the succeeding pages, and then closely restudying this appeal, it will become the more urgent. Be assured that I shall rejoice to hear from all of you as to the results of your im-portuning “Mother.”

Sincerely yours for a happy home,

JEZREEL

By V. T. H.

From the introduction to Tract No. 4 “The Latest News for Mother”