The Last Days - E. G. White

The Need of the Holy Spirit; Final Events

 
I think of the meditation of Christ and the promise, “I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you” (John 14:18). The agency of the Holy Spirit is to combine with human effort, and all heaven is engaged in the work of preparing a people to stand in these last days. The end is near, and we want to keep the future world in view. The burden of my prayer is that the churches may be aroused from their moral [stupor] and awaken to earnest, interested endeavor. Oh, that they could see and understand that in this last conflict the Captain of the Lord’s host is leading on the armies of heaven, and mingling in the ranks and fighting our battles for us. We shall have apostasies; we expect them. “They will go out from us, because they were not of us” [cf: 1 John 2:19]. “Every plant, which My heavenly Father has not planted, shall be rooted up” (Matthew 15:13).
 
The angel, the mighty angel from heaven, is to lighten the earth with his glory, while he cries mightily with a loud voice, “Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen” (Revelation 18:2). Oh, how I wish the church to arise and shine because the glory of the Lord has risen upon her. What can we not do in God if every human agency is doing its very utmost! “Without Me ye can do nothing” (John 15:5). We would lose faith and courage in the conflict if we were not sustained by the power of God. Every form of evil is to spring into intense activity. Evil angels unite their powers with evil men, and as they have been in constant conflict and attained an experience in the best modes of deception and battle, and have been strengthening for centuries, they will not yield the last great final contest without a desperate struggle. All the world will be on one side or the other of the question. The battle of Armageddon will be fought, and that day must find none of us sleeping. Wide-awake we must be, as wise virgins having oil in our vessels with our lamps. What is this? Grace, Grace.
 
The power of the Holy Ghost must be upon us, and the Captain of the Lord’s host will stand at the head of the angels of heaven to direct the battle. Solemn events before us are yet to transpire. Trumpet after trumpet is to be sounded, vial after vial poured out one after another upon the inhabitants of the earth.
 
Scenes of stupendous interest are right upon us, and these things will be sure indications of the presence of Him who has directed in every aggressive movement, [the One] who has accompanied the march of His cause through all the ages, and who has graciously pledged Himself to be with His people in all their conflicts to the end of the world. He will vindicate His truth. He will cause it to triumph. He is ready to supply His faithful ones with motives and power of purpose, inspiring them with hope and courage and valor in increased activity as the time is at hand.
 
Deceptions, delusions, impostures will increase. The cries will come in from every quarter, “Lo, here is Christ! Lo, there is Christ!” “But,” said Christ, “Go ye not after them.” There will be one fierce struggle before the man of sin shall be disclosed to this world, who he is and what has been his work. While the Protestant world is becoming very tender and affectionate toward the man of sin, shall God’s people take their place as bold and valiant soldiers of Jesus Christ, to meet the issue which must come, their lives hid with Christ in God? Mystic Babylon has not been sparing in the blood of the saints, and shall we be wide-awake to catch the beams of light which have been shining from the light of the angel who is to brighten the earth with his glory?
 
Wake up the mighty men. Let the messages of the past 50 years that have been sounding now be seen in their true force and bearing by repetition. Let the same spirit which attended these messages come into our hearts in these last days. These things are not [to] be mentioned with gloom and sadness. 
 
We are [to] think how heaven regards these events, and to be in harmony with the transactions going on in heaven in preparing a people to stand in this, the day of the Lord, and having done all to stand [Ephesians 6:13]. Let the light and power of the sunbeams of righteousness enter into the soul. [Revelation 19:1-6, quoted.]
 
We are not to be of sad countenance. We are not to mourn and lament because of our trials, although we shall sigh and cry for the abominations done in the land. But I did not think of writing on this strain. I will stop where I am. May the Lord bless you and make you stand firm, wholly on the Lord’s side. The bell rings for breakfast.—Letter 112, 1890.
 
Ellen G. White.
1888 Materials, Lt 112, 1890 (Dec. 22), pp. 761-763