and their houses a desolation. The prophet Jeremiah, looking forward to this fearful time, exclaimed, I am pained at my very heart. I cannot hold my peace, because thou hast heard, O my soul, the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war. Destruction upon destruction is cried. That day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of wasteness and desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness, a day of the trumpet and alarm. Behold the day of the Lord cometh to lay the land desolate, and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it. In view of that great day, the word of God, in the most solemn and impressive language, calls upon his people to arouse from their spiritual lethargy and to seek his face with repentance and humiliation. Blow ye a trumpet in Zion and sound an alarm in my holy mountain. Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble for the day of the Lord cometh, for it is nigh at hand. Sanctify a fast. Call a solemn assembly. Gather the people. Sanctify the congregation. Assemble the elders. Gather their children. Let the bridegroom go forth out of his chamber and the bride out of her closet. Let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep between the porch and the altar. Turn ye even to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning, and rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the Lord your God. For he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness. To prepare a people to stand in the day of God, a great work of reform was to be accomplished. God saw that many of his professed people were not building for eternity, and in his mercy he was about to send a message of warning to arouse them from their stupor and lead them to make ready for the coming of the Lord. Great Controversy 309-311. This was speaking about the early pioneer movement. They were in the same condition in their time that we are in our time except I believe we are in a worse state of Laodicea. But in God's mercy he sent this very message to them that the day of the Lord was at hand and brothers and sisters, it's not a good day. It's a horrible day. Now you can ask Seventh-day Adventists about the close of probation. When we die, what a privilege if we're ready to live with the Lord when we die and our probation is closed. But are you ready to die today? I know from prophecy that the majority of Seventh-day Adventists are not ready to die today and be saved for eternity. They're going to be lost. And that's quite a solemn question. Are you really, are we really today prepared to die? But you want to know a more solemn question than that? Are we ready today to close our probation and live until the Lord returns?