p. 77 | What Wilt Thou Have Me to Do?

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jan 22, 1867

What Wilt Thou Have Me to Do?

By Roswell Fenner Cottrell

THIS is the inquiry of every true heart. Especially does this question arise when convictions that we are not in the path of duty press upon the mind. Saul was thus deeply convicted when the Lord Jesus, whom he was persecuting, appeared to him in the way as he was going to Damascus. The way of duty was pointed out to him; and he proved, by his self-sacrificing life, that he was sincere in asking the question, and willing to do whatever the Lord should bid him.

We may inquire what the Lord would have us do, and still not be willing to follow his instructions. We may get a fancy that if the Lord required us to do some great thing, we would willingly do it, while some of the clearest duties of the Christian life are neglected. Naaman the Syrian, when he went to the prophet Elisha to be cured of his leprosy, would willingly have done “some great thing,” had the prophet required it, but the simple, easy, requirement to wash seven times in the Jordan, fell so much short of his exalted ideas and expectations, that he rebelled in his spirit, and would have gone away in a rage, had not his servant been more reasonable than he, and persuaded him into compliance with the simple prescription of the prophet.

So it is with individuals who think they are anxiously inquiring the way of duty. They have their minds upon some great thing, perhaps the ministry, and if they could ascertain that the Lord called them to that, they would willingly engage in it; while they overlook, in a great measure, the humble, every-day, duties of every Christian without exception. Such are mistaken in regard to themselves. They should first reduce the teachings of Christianity to faithful practice, and thus prove the efficacy of our religion in reforming and purifying them, so that all can see its converting and ennobling effects, then if the Lord has further duties for them to do, the calling will be obvious to themselves and others.

When we are at a loss to know what great things the Lord would have us do, we can still busy ourselves with the little things which we know is the duty of every one who has named the name of Christ. If we are unable to tell what particular duties devolve upon us, we can still strive to draw near to God by prayer and a devoted life to all those duties which all must do, or fail of the kingdom of God. And in the way of humble obedience and constant communion with God the way will open and the path of duty will, more and more clearly, develop itself. Let us all do this by the help of God.

R. F. COTTRELL.