Service and Fruitage by Milton C. Wilcox

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jul 20, 1916

Service and Fruitage

By Milton C. Wilcox

[An address to the graduating medical and nurses' classes at the Loma Linda College of Medical Evangelists, June 15, 1916.]

You have chosen noble callings, to minister to the body needs—and may I not say truly, to the deeper, broader soul needs?—of humanity. You have chosen as class mottoes, and it is to be hoped life mottoes, noble sentiments; namely,—

“Coworkers with the Divine Physician” “To Finish the Work He Gave”

What I may say will be an attempt to develop some of the great meanings of the mottoes; for on the very surface they purpose more than the mere diagnosis of physical conditions and prescription of medicine or treatment, more than mere nursing or following doctor's orders. The mottoes are surcharged with the dominant thought of the great Master. These, among other thoughts, are suggested to me as the meaning of the expressed purposes:—

Service

“Service” is oftentimes a hard, unpleasant word, especially if the service be compulsory and arbitrary. The heart of man does not like the service of conscription. But service for God, coworking with Christ, is in its very essence voluntary, willing, working for a chosen Master.

Such service implies first of all consecration. One of the old Hebrew words rendered consecrate comes from yaawd, the hand, the open hand, a symbol of power, means, direction, ready to grasp with effectiveness the thing needed. Another Hebrew word also used of God's ministers is millu, meaning literally a setting of gems. Still another, mayzer, a setting apart to a holy work, the thing so set apart becoming itself holy. The Greek word used of Christ means to accomplish, consummate, finish. All have their place. Man gives himself open-handed to God and his service; God fills the hand, counts the willing servants gems in his crown of glory, and fits them in his own holiness for consummation of character and finishing of work.

The Master Builder sometimes uses, as do men, mere staging for the beginning and framing of his work, but its finishing is completed with his consecrated ones.

Make sure now of the consecration. Yield all unquestioningly to the God you serve. He is worthy of your best.

Duty

Service implies duty. It is easy to serve when we feel jubilant, hopeful, physically buoyant, enthusiastic. It is easy to serve those we personally love, those personally near and dear to us. We do such service by impulse, emotion. But to do equally faithful service when body and brain and heart are weary, to do it patiently when nerves are aquiver, and you feel no personal interest in the one to whom you minister, to one often-times querulous, critical, complaining, requires more than feeling. There must be a keen sense of duty, of what is due to the Master you serve, and through him to the needy one purchased at such an infinite price.

This sense of duty held your great Coworker. Twice it is said of him that “it behooved” him to suffer, “it behooved” him to be made in all things like us; it was necessary, obligatory, due, and his sense of duty held him to his high and holy purpose that led to the lowest humiliation, the death of the cross. Once it is implied that he has feeling; not for himself, but he is touched by the human infirmities of his children.

There is nothing more strengthening to noble manhood and womanhood, to enduring character and to able efficiency, than the doing of duty. Beecher has well said, “He who is false to present duty breaks a thread in the loom, and will find the flaw when he may have forgotten its cause.” And present duty is all that we ever meet. Sometimes in our dreams we have roseate pictures of the beauty of our life work, but we wake to find it made up of common, positive duties, the doing of which is fulfilling the law of sacrifice. You may not measure them now, you cannot anticipate them all, but every one performed will make easier the next. Then follow duty, “stern daughter of the voice of God,” and you shall find as expressed by Roche,—

“And I read the moral—a brave endeavor To do thy duty whatever its worth, Is better than life with love forever, And love is the sweetest thing on earth.”

Sincerity

Duty demands sincerity. Be sincere. The word comes from two Latin words,—sine, without, and cera, wax; the pure honey without wax; the character without falseness; the single-minded, single-hearted, single-faced man, who is the same clear soul yesterday, today, and forever. Be what you seem. Losing sincerity, you lose vital power, you lose connection with both God and man.

Conscience

Duty demands conscience, that indefinable inward monitor which speaks to us of the right or wrong of our conduct. But there are consciences and consciences. Service to God demands “a good conscience,” a conscience cleansed by the blood of Christ. Never was there a time when the devil perverted more consciences than he is perverting now in a thousand ways. He is making men believe that loyalty to a man or a woman, loyalty to an association or a lodge, loyalty to a social convention or a creed, loyalty to country or church, is more important than loyalty to God. Men will see members of their own organization commit crime, even to taking life, and never warn the victim or reveal the murderous purpose, because they cannot conscientiously prove false to a society vow. Persons will see some lustful reprobate ruining an unsophisticated girl, but will not tell her parents, because of conscience over the conventions of society. Men—even ministers—conscientious in most things, will lend their positive influence to the promulgation of error, and yet act as persecutors of others who have followed conscience. Some men when among strangers give conscience a vacation most harmful to the actor. Have, then, conscience toward God. Let no one be conscience for you. To the Giver of conscience must you give account. Keep your conscience regulated by the law of God. Day by day, in self-examination and the grace of Christ, bring your conscience into harmony with the great standard, God's decalogue.

I emphasize the thought. You, as perhaps no other classes, will meet temptations to evil, temptations to the physical man, temptations to equivocate, prevaricate, lie. Policy will be opposed to principle, expediency to truth. Follow principle, follow truth. In the words of Mackay,—

“Perish policy and cunning, Perish all that fears the light. Whether losing, whether winning, Trust in God and do the right. “Some may hate thee, some may love thee, Some may flatter, some may slight. Cease from man and look above thee, Trust in God and do the right.”

For the servants of God are not servile men. They stand with faces Godward, attent to what he has to say. The strongest character of history is Moses, the man of God, meekest and mightiest, strong in God, with no fear of men. God's servants, Elijah and John the Baptist, could rebuke an Ahab or a Herod because they ever stood in the presence of God. He wants each of you, as you meet the world, to be such men, such a man as is expressed by Lowell:—

“He stood upon the world's broad threshold; wide The din of battle and of slaughter rose. He saw God stand upon the weaker side, That sank in seeming loss before its foes; Many there were who made great haste, and sold Their souls to cunning men for fame and gold, He scorned their gifts of fame, and power, and gold, And, underneath their soft and flowery words, Heard the cold serpent hiss; therefore he went And humbly joined him to the weaker part, Fanatic named, and fool, yet well content So he could be the nearer to God's heart, And feel its solemn pulses sending blood Through all the widespread veins of endless good.”

It is such men as this that God wants,—men whose heart beats with the heart of God; men with malice toward none, with charity for all; men who see sin in themselves more hateful than sin in others—these are the men needed. Women of God are needed,—modest women, pure women, true to a strong, pure womanhood; women that will shame the habitué of pleasure and the devotee of fashion, whose very purity and modesty will shield them from the insults of the rake, the roué, the debauchee—these are the women needed. But this does not make against whole-hearted, helpful women, strong, sympathetic women, ministering messengers of God to the afflicted, finding joy in the service of Christ.

Hardship

Service means hardship. Meet it like Christians. We deal with men who are themselves lazarettos, filled with namable and unnamable hopeless maladies; yet back of these are longings for freedom. Endeavor to give hope to the soul while you minister to the body. The life of God in the physician or nurse may work miracles in cases seemingly most hopeless.

Faith

All this demands faith; not mere belief in the Bible or church or your mission, nor confidence in yourself. Belief is based on what seems to be facts; faith takes hold of living truth. Belief on what seemed to be a visible fact said at the open, empty sepulcher of Jesus, “They have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him.” Faith, based on Christ's own words, should have said what the angels had to tell again to blinded hearts, “He is risen; he is not here: behold . . . he goeth before you into Galilee; there shall ye see him.”

Let your faith grasp the great Unseen. See the risen Christ. You have, as was necessary, dealt with the dead in your studies, but not that your mind should be a charnel house. Let it be a living temple. In your work look upon the life side. See the risen Christ going before you, walking with you, leading you in a clearer way and to greater victories than man alone can achieve. Faith means larger life, more abundant life, the Spirit-filled life. The finite mind expands more and more as it drinks in of the infinite, and ever reaches out for larger growth and greater power.

The mighty things of earth become small, the little trials and petty vexations more insignificant, as the great things of God become a part of our being. Grasping his power, we see possibilities and solutions where before was the impossible. You will meet adversaries filled with the spirit of the mighty “prince of the power of the air.” You may conquer them if you are filled with the Spirit of Christ, panoplied with the armor of God.

Sacrifice

Your mottoes mean sacrifice,—your bodies presented a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God; your reasonable, spiritual, logical service; yourselves burning and shining lights in the midst of this sinful world. Failing in the spirit of sacrifice and self-denial, you fail in the very fundamentals of Christian success. “Except a grain of wheat fall into the earth and die, it abideth by itself alone; but if it die, it beareth much fruit.” Giving ourselves for others, pouring out our best for them, brings into our lives in larger and fuller measure the great divine life. He wants you to grasp this life, not as a mere sentiment, not as something to be realized only when he comes, but a blessed present reality, a force, a power from above.

“These things,” says a great apostle, “have I written unto you, that ye may know that ye have eternal life, even unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God.” Let this great life flow into and saturate your being, and flow on, unperverted by selfishness, into other lives. That Spirit-given life and power will create in your own heart loving sympathy and tender pity for the sick and the sinful, with growing hatred for sin. Kindness will open hearts which reproof has closed and hardened. His gentleness will make you great. Let the waiting Spirit of God ever supply the larger life, and you will find needy, hungry souls in all walks of life, waiting for your coming.

Study

Your success will demand study. Study first God's Word and the instructions he has given by the Spirit. Become a saturated solution of their wonderful potencies. Keep abreast of the times as far as possible in your own profession. Be truly broad-minded, noble-hearted, quick-perceptioned men. Learn to act quickly and decisively on the right side. Never even parley with wrong. Improve the spare moments; their use may mean eternal loss or gain. Hold no grudges or hard feelings, big or little; they will injure the holder more than any one else. Leave them with God. Their chosen or tolerated presence dwarfs and poisons mind and soul.

Fellowship

Your mottoes mean fellowship, preeminently fellowship with the divine, fellowship with the One who can enter into all your purposes, all your plans, all your trials, weaknesses, failures, mistakes, besetments, hardships, sorrows, successes. We have friends, and a greater or less amount of fellowship with them. We have some things in common. We prize their friendship, but we cannot tell them all. It is best that we cannot: we should depend too much upon them; we might be too much in their power; they are likely to become our ideal, our standard of life, our conscience regulator. This must not be, or we are limited as God never designed his servants should be.

Above all things, do not enter into fellowship with those who know not God. Unbosom to them none of your secrets, open not your life or temptations or trials or doubts to their gaze. Such a course is a strong strand to bind you to the darkness, not to the light. You are above wanting the help that such can give you. Fellowship with no one who is not where Christ can control.

Strength

Fellowship with Christ means strength, constantly accumulating strength. We draw from him; he gives to us that we may give to others. He comes into our life; he purifies heart and motive; he clothes himself with us. We become, in his fellowship, ashamed of sin; we hate that which caused him to suffer. We become strong in the strength of the Divine.

Growth

Fellowship means growth. He is infinite, we are finite; but in his own blessed, considerate way he does not repel us or make us uneasy in his company, unless we love sin. We see our ugly impurity in the light of his beautiful purity. We see our folly in the light of his wisdom, our inefficiency in the light of his perfect efficiency, our torpid inactivity in the light of his loving, unflagging zeal; yet he is still our best Friend. Our simple faith of the finite reaches out more and more to the Infinite; he covers our defects, and we find our heart and soul and mind continually expanding in his presence.

It was Garfield, if I rightly remember, who said that his idea of a university was Dr. Hopkins on one end of a log and himself on the other. But fellowship with Christ brings us nearer than that: we are both in the middle of the log. Do not shun him as teacher. However great your affection for your Alma Mater and the devoted men and women who have given you of their best, I cast no discredit upon them when I say that fellowship with Christ is better than that of all others combined. He will clarify and help you to classify, to use all you have learned here, and will suggest many things more never taught in the schools of men. But be diligent to meet his standard. He knows no fellowship with the lazy or careless.

Comradeship

Fellowship with him means comradeship. Living his life, you can ask and receive his counsel and cooperation. He will guide the hand in critical surgery; he will bring to your remembrance where veins and arteries run, where tendons and muscles are strung, and their relationships and positions as regards the anatomy. He will let his own life flow through your hands as you place pack and compress upon the suffering ones. He will indicate, sometimes, perhaps, contrary to the schools, the remedy needed for the otherwise fatal illness. In all things trust him, confide in him, make him a very practical, constant helper in all your work. Rejoice in his presence, and he will abide with you to the end.

Vision and Reward

Your mottoes imply satisfaction sometime to be realized, not for an hour or a day or a lifetime, but forever. Not that you will be satisfied with your work alone. Never in his fellowship will you boast of your skill or knowledge or success; but you will hope for it, expect it, and see constant progress toward the goal. That this may be, you will ever have before you the vision of success. You will see in your weak, anemic patient, one with the rose blush of health on the cheek, and with Christ you will labor to the accomplishment of that vision. You will see beyond the bloated, blear-eyed, rum-blossomed inebriate a sober man with cleaner complexion, clearer eyes, a man among men; and with Christ you will labor to make the vision a reality. Such results will bring greater satisfaction than all monetary consideration, human praise, or professional fame.

You will have reward in your work here; thank God for that! You will have reward in constantly added efficiency in overcoming weaknesses, in greater skill, in better knowledge, in the ability to meet with greater courage some of the colossal and seemingly impossible tasks before you. But all these will create greater longing for the future fruition. Keep that before you. Let the larger vision clean out all the smaller, meaner ones of earth, and sanctify every motive. Let no sin, secret or otherwise, shut from you the heavenly call, the heavenly vision.

“Yea, only as this heart is clean Shall larger vision yet be mine; For mirrored in Thy life are seen The things divine.”

See at the end of your work eternal life in the absolute, and let faith draw from its crystal stream actual power and refreshing now. See the fruitage of souls won to the Master of life, stars in your crown of rejoicing forevermore. See the King in his beauty, and know that you shall be like him, in his own image, and pray that his presence may dwell in you now, fitting you for that royal position of sons and daughters of God, for the transcending glories of the limitless life, for the land that has no fences around its beautiful and fruitful fields and forests, for the fellowship and finished work which are never ending.

An evil time! Black clouds appear, And strange lights gleam along the way, And wild waves rise, cheeks blanch with fear; The night is dark, men long for day. And lightnings flash On clouds afar, Foretokens of The coming war.

Yet some there be who sleep and dream, And dream and sleep, and know they not Things that are real from things that seem. They're led, but by they know not what.

An evil time! The nations mad, And millions fight and millions die; And some are sad, and some are glad, And many laugh, while others sigh. And fathers fight, Fathers and brothers, And children starve, And starve the mothers; While great guns thunder fire of hell, And cities burn and cities fall, And shattered church chimes ring the knell, And smoke of battle spreads the pall.

M. C. WILCOX.