A Foretaste of the Final Victory by C. M. S.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Tacoma Park Station, Washington, D.C. · Jul 1, 1909

A Foretaste of the Final Victory

By C. M. S.

God is demonstrating before our eyes from day to day his ability to make a success of his work in spite of the inefficiency of his instruments and the opposition of his enemies. Among this people, as a people, as well as among individuals, as individuals, we see the constant fulfilment of this scripture: “Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.” Phil. 1:6.

Nations have stood in the way of this message to hinder its progress among the people. But we have seen repeatedly how God has brought the devices of the great men to naught, and opened the doors of such nations for the freer entrance of his truth. He has used the very oppressions of such nations to his own praise and the spread of his last message of mercy, when exiles have raised up churches in the place of their exile, and when jailers have been compelled to acknowledge that God was working in behalf of those whom they had imprisoned. Siberia thus becomes not a prison-house of inactivity, but a new mission field, a new center of light. “We can do nothing against the truth, but for the truth.” How true it is! That weapon is not considered a prosperous weapon which operates in favor of the cause against which it is formed. And such are all the weapons devised and formed against the progress of the third angel’s message. Says the Word: “No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper.” It can not carry out the intent of its deviser. God will turn its edge against its own cause.

How often we look with trembling upon the threatened passage of some

nation that threatens to close its doors against any further proclamation of this gospel of the kingdom; but in some way, through means that God alone could devise, the message continues to go and to make conquests for the cause of righteousness. He who brought a world out of nothing, light out of darkness, hope out of despair, and life out of death, knows how to bring out of the mine of this dark world most precious jewels for the crown of his glory in the kingdom of light. Such is the God whom we serve; and his message committed to us is a manifesto of victory as well as a command to action. The representatives of the many nations at this Conference are but an earnest of the completed work when we shall see the representatives of every nation under heaven in the kingdom of God as the result of the proclamation of this message to every nation and kindred and tongue and people.

C. M. S.