p. 416 | WORK TO THE POINT by Stephen Nelson Haskell

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Sep 15, 1881

WORK TO THE POINT.

By Stephen Nelson Haskell

BY ELDER S. N. HASKELL.

MUCH labor is lost by not having a definite object before the mind. If children are left to grow up without proper training, without a definite object before them, they are generally burdensome to society, and perhaps come to some bad end. In Christian experience, their object, oftentimes, is not so exalted as it should be. The mind becomes dwarfed, and the experience becomes stale.

I once asked an aged man if he was a Christian. Said he, "I had a spark of grace in my heart forty years ago, and I trust it has not all gone out yet." I repeated the question. He said he trusted he had his sins forgiven when he commenced to serve God forty years before. I repeated the question many times, and as many times he returned in substance the same answer, that forty years before he had an experience upon which he based his present hope. There might be no question concerning his experience at the time he referred to, but the mark he set before himself was altogether too low. When he felt convicted of sin, the object he had in view was to feel the assurance that God forgave him. This was all right as far as it went. But for him to be satisfied with that, without pressing on was a mistake, for we are to "grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ."

Paul, in giving his experience, says, "Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect; but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended, but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." Then he exhorts his brethren as follows: "Let us therefore as many as be perfect, be thus minded; and if in anything ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you. Nevertheless, whereto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same thing."

There is no laying down the armor and resting upon victories gained while we are in the enemy's land. The object of the Lord in giving his people an experience is that they may develop perfect characters, and thus "walk worthy of the Lord" in every respect. The same principle holds good in adopting and carrying certain plans to forward the work of God upon the earth. Plans are laid according to the best ability of those who have the cause at heart. When such plans are laid, it should be the interest of the people of God to work to them. Nothing can be accomplished without this. We have a message that must be given to the world. God has made us depositaries of this message, and we are scattered throughout this country and in many other nations. In this country, some from all the principal civilized nations of the world have embraced the present truth.

We have adopted a system which will, when carried out, lead all to work in harmony to carry forward this work. It unites the different nationalities, and finds a position for every man, and woman, and child, where their influence can be felt in advancing this precious cause. Now we say, Work to the point. Brethren, work in harmony with the system adopted. Unite all your strength against Satan in the spread of this truth. We should not be discouraged if everything does not move just as we wish it might; but if we continue to press forward, much will be accomplished. There is no enterprise that has not its difficulties, and it is no marvel that God's cause, in a world full of enemies to its advancement, will have obstacles to meet. At times they will seem almost insurmountable; but if we work in harmony and press together, God will bless the effort.