The Very Works I Do by C. M. S.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Apr 21, 1910

The Very Works I Do

By C. M. S.

God has in both heaven and earth witnesses that are testifying of him. Said Jesus to the unbelieving Jews, “The works that I do in my Father’s name, these bear witness of me;” and again: “Though ye believe not me, believe the works.” John 10:25, 38. The works done by the Son of God are not all confined to this earth; they speak to us out of the sky by day and by night, as well as out of the eyes of redeemed human beings created anew in Christ Jesus.

Men may seek by every subterfuge of subtle reasoning to prove the non-existence of God; but in the heavens are the works of his hands. The critics of the Word of God, for instance, are stumbling over a dead fish,—not a whale, for Jonah does not call it so,—and they are seeking to use their own stumbling-block to batter down the citadel of God’s truth.

That criticism of the Word of God which seeks to take away its vitality and its inspiration, and every claim it has to being the light of the world—that criticism is filling the pulpits of a multitude of churches to-day with a Christless gospel, a Spiritless Bible, and a godless creation. The acceptance of those theories is shriveling the spirituality of the churches as sere and dead as the autumn leaf; it is drying up the fountainhead of missionary contributions, so far as it is actually believed, as the volcano of St. Pierre dried up the streams that used to rush down its grassy slopes; it is taking the love of the foreign mission work out of the hearts of the people, as the wells of the valleys are dried up by subterranean fissures; and as a result of this, it is turning the desire for worship into the channel of self-worship and the worship of gold. It is stealing away the faith of the people, as the stealthy thief deprives the thoughtless householder of his jewels and wealth. When the man awakes, his possessions are gone; he had them, and now they are not.

But in every part of the universe God has his witnesses, and they are testifying to his existence, his power, his wisdom, his care, and his undying love. “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament showeth his handiwork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night showeth knowledge. There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard.” Ps. 19:1-3. All the creations of God are bearing witness for him—in their own language, it is true, but speaking in a voice that can be heard by all, and in a language that all who will may understand. The stars that twinkle to us through infinite space are telling us of the wisdom and power of him who made them, and gave to each its orbit and the glory of its radiance, and set a bound for its habitation which it might not pass. The mind may think out into space till it reaches the faintest star that glitters into the view of our strongest telescopes; think out into the great star-studded depths through which the radiance of mighty suns wearies in its flight, and sinks just as its trembling finger-tips have touched the shore of our vision; think out and out and out, till thought itself, like a fledgling sparrow, flutters and falls in the impossible purpose; and still we are in the workroom of the Almighty, whose works are tonguing the praise of their common Maker. The great audience-chamber of the Infinite is peopled with his witnesses.

In the presence of such a concourse, presumptuous indeed is the human atom that comes to the bar of eternity to present his little brief upon the non-existence of him by and in and through whom all these consist. Truly, it is wisdom’s voice which says, “The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God.”

As God’s works are his witnesses, so are our works our witnesses. His works witness to his righteousness, his love, his wisdom, his power. To what do our works bear witness? As his works are witnesses of what he does and is, so are our works witnesses of what we do and are. That witness can not be impeached; it tells in unmistakable language the condition of the heart that prompts the hand to do the deeds.

If our hearts are in the work of God, then are our hands busy with deeds that prove it so. If we are half-hearted in

that work, that word is written indelibly on every piece of work that passes through our hands, and on every act that goes to make up our daily life. It is not left to the angels only to write it there; the hands that do the work are doing the writing. The professions we make count for nothing when the works we do are clamoring to be heard against us, and are contradicting our professions to the face. We must be what we want men to think us, or we are asking them to believe a lie.

It is time wasted to profess what our works do not substantiate. They are the only witnesses that are qualified to testify for us either before men or in the court of last resort. If they witness against us, our professions are empty air. Let us so act that our professions may be in harmony with our deeds. Let us seek to be what we would have God count us as being, and then the deeds that flow from our hands will be a constant well-spring of praise to our Creator, and God will crown our lives with the crown of victory. We can not impeach the testimony of our works either here or hereafter.

This is not teaching salvation by virtue of our own works. That is not the purpose of the argument. When Christ was asked, “What shall we do, that we might work the works of God?” he replied, “This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.” That is the essential of salvation; and from the life which is actuated by that belief will flow a constant stream of deeds testifying to men and to angels of our belief in that great fact. We can not earn or purchase salvation by the works that we may do; but our deeds can and do bear witness to our belief in, and acceptance of, the only way of salvation open to men. Let us open our hearts to him; believe on him; and then our lives and deeds will testify that we are his; that his work is our work, and the interests of his kingdom the motive of our lives.

In such witnessing as this there is power for good. The world will see it, and be moved by it. Such lives are God’s most powerful evangelists.

Now when God’s last warning message is going to the world, what a responsibility rests upon us so to live that the work we attempt to do for him will not be marred by an inconsistent life. Let consecration to him be our aim; the mind of Christ within us, let that be an accomplished fact; and then let us go into the vineyard, living and laboring for souls. Often we hear the words, “The harvest is white;” but God’s purpose in bringing us to see the condition of the harvest is not accomplished unless we step in among the reapers and do our part. Mere belief is not enough.

The devil can see the condition of the harvest better than many of us. God does not recognize the worth of any belief that does not result in fruitful labor for the cause of Christ, or does not attempt anything for him. Christ became a servant; his children are to be servants. There will be no pampered pets in his household, no drones who see and do not.

In the midst of the jangle of voices that are seeking to cast discredit upon the Word of God, it is our privilege to know in our heart of hearts that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. Let the soul who would be a child of God so work and so live each day that his words and his deeds will bear constant witness that he is indeed a child of God. Then others will be glad for his having lived, and Christ will confess his name before his Father and before his angels.

C. M. S.