He Is Able by W. A. S.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D.C. · Dec 5, 1907

“He Is Able”

By W. A. S.

“He is able,” said the apostle Paul in his declaration of confidence in the One in whom he had believed. It is not a question of our ability, but of his ability. In this matter of carrying the witness to all the world and seeing the end of the work, the real question is not, Are we able to finish the work? but, Is he able? The answer comes in the Lord’s own question, “Is there anything too hard for me?” and in the assurance of Inspiration, “He will finish the work, and cut it short in righteousness; because a short work will the Lord make upon the earth.”

The Lord appeals to the fact that he is able to send breath to every creature, as evidence of his power to send the light of life to all nations. Thus we read: “Thus saith God the Lord, he that created the heavens, and stretched them out; he that spread forth the earth, and that which cometh out of it; he that giveth breath unto the people upon it, and spirit to them that walk therein: I the Lord have called thee in righteousness, and will hold thine hand, and will keep thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles.” Isa. 42: 5, 6.

Reports from every land show that the Spirit of God is working among people, preparing the way before the human messengers. There were three canvassers at the South Carolina meeting last summer who told of meeting people who had been forewarned by dream of the coming of the canvasser with literature. Similar experiences have been reported in other parts of this country and abroad. There is a God in heaven able to speak to hearts that are open toward the light. He can call men out from darkness in these days, even as he called Abraham from among the idolaters of ancient Chaldea.

A remarkable experience was that of a negro of Surinam, Dutch Guiana, whose story was told by Prof. Henry Dosker in the Missionary Review of the World ten or twelve years ago.

Some sixty years ago the bush natives of Surinam were fetish worshipers, given to witchcraft and sorcery, which was called winti, or demoniacal possession. Professor Dosker says:—

John King, however, seems, from his early boyhood, to have been a white raven among his relatives and daily associates. In vain, efforts were made to bring him under the influence of the winti. He was persecuted and tortured; for three months at a time he was manacled hand and foot, and rubbed with sharp, aromatic herbs—all to no purpose. At last the Gran-winti declared that he had no power over King, because his heart belonged to the God of heaven.

His life became changed, and he was instructed, he says, by dreams and visions, in which Christ was revealed to him, and he was told to go to the missionaries who would teach him to read God’s Book.

There seems no reason to doubt the veracity of this strange story. It seems to have been an actual experience in King’s life, and it certainly was the beginning of a new existence. Staehelin and the other Moravian missionaries who knew the character and piety of King, never doubted the story.

This trance was followed by others of a similar nature, and King steadfastly refused to further join in any idolatrous practises. His tribesmen, however, wanted to compel him to bow to an idol, but King said that the Lord spoke to him, “If thou kneelest to the idol, thou shalt die. But I will save thee from their hands. Fear not, I am with thee.” The turbulent, frantic heathen closed about King, and a martyr’s death seemed to confront him, when suddenly he knelt down and prayed aloud: “My Saviour, if I do this in my own strength, then may my words have no effect at all; but if thou hast elected me to bring them to thee, help me, then, O Lord, to convert them to thee, and cause them to see that thou hast sent me.”

When King arose after this prayer, his tormentors were stealthily leaving the place, and unhindered, he returned to his own house. With great zeal he now began the work to which he felt himself called. He went to Paramaribo, and visited the Moravian missionaries, who taught him to read and write, and instructed him in the truth of God. He advanced rapidly, while the mysterious visions and dreams continued. The missionaries warned him not to trust in them nor to be puffed up on their account, and King accepted their admonitions with the utmost humility.

This man continued for years in his work. Of his end, I have never been able to learn. But many an incident in the Bible story and in modern times affords suggestion of the divine possibilities in spreading the light of truth in ways out of the ordinary.

Of the closing days of his work, the Lord says that he will “bring the blind by a way that they knew not.” We shall see his arm revealed in saving power. His Spirit is to be poured out upon all flesh so that hearts that are true will be led to seek the Lord, while those that refuse his salvation will have to fight against influences that would draw them toward the light.

Tremendous as the work before us is, with the Lord all “the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance.” “He is able.” But the children of God will be associated with him in the great work. This means that not a soul can hold back from service with the thought that now the Lord will see that the work is done. He is to do the work through his people, the power of the Holy Spirit equipping them for service, and making the way plain before them. This means that now every resource of time, of strength, of means, must be devoted to God’s cause. There is no other way of showing faith in the message that we bear in such a time as this, when within a few short years the Lord is to finish his work.

W. A. S.