Our Business by C. M. S.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jul 15, 1909

Our Business

By C. M. S.

THE eradication of sin from this world, and so from this universe, is a great business. It is God’s business; and because it is his business, it is the business of every child of God. Jesus realized this when he said, on one occasion, “Wot ye not that I must be about my Father’s business?” Paul understood it when he said, “This one thing I do.” The Christian martyrs of all ages realized it when they faced and endured torture and death rather than be turned aside from the work to which they had consecrated their lives. There is no other such important business undertaking in the world. It lays hold on two worlds, that which is and that which is to come. It reverses the inclinations of the natural man, and causes him to sacrifice the temporal things, in order that he and those who will give heed to his ministry may enjoy the fadeless, the imperishable, the eternal. In this business the death of the witness is an incident, not a finality. Every Christian missionary’s grave is a monument of Christian exploration, Christian witness, in that country. It testifies that the business of the everlasting kingdom has been established there.

Jesus told his disciples that when “this gospel of the kingdom” had been preached in all the world “for a witness,” then the end would come. The bearing of that testimony in all the world was their part of the Father’s business. With that completed, God would crown their work with reward, and begin to do “his work, his strange work,” that must close the history of sin.

But our work is witnessing for God, proclaiming his message, winning souls for his kingdom. The fact that millions will not heed the warning does not in any manner release us from giving it. Every soul will have an opportunity to decide whether he will serve God or not. The Christian’s business just now is giving them that opportunity. Not in the attempt to reform nations by the enactment of laws, not in political machination, not in “social regeneration,” or the proclamation of a “gospel of civic righteousness,” but in the advancement of the cause of Christ through the conversion of individual souls are we, as Christ’s representatives, to find our occupation.

When every land has had the message, then will the end come, righteousness will be rewarded, and the unrepentant punished. “Behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be.” The manner in which every soul receives that last message will determine the nature of his reward. That being true, how important that we who are giving that message shall give it aright. Properly given, it will regenerate hearts, reform individuals, and bring salvation. Properly done, that work will accomplish every good object that the true Christian can wish to see attained; but the Christian worker who turns aside to “social reform,” endeavoring to reform the state or nation by political means, is out of his element, attempting a work unauthorized of heaven and transient in nature, while he is neglecting the greater and permanent work to which he was called. “Ye are my witnesses, saith Jehovah.” “This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.” Matt. 24:14.

This is the business that God has placed in the hands of his servants. It will require all the faculties and powers of the soul, vivified and strengthened by the Spirit of God, to perform faithfully all that is comprehended in that commission; and while the graves of the missionaries are, in a way, landmarks showing where that work of witnessing has been carried on, there are great fields yet unentered that must be entered, and will be entered soon. There is a field of sufficient size in the work of witnessing for Christ to engross the entire attention of the whole Christian force in the world at the present time; and the more completely that force is so occupied, the sooner our Lord will come.

C. M. S.