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The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Third-day, October 29, 1867

FromReview and Herald, Vol. XXX, No. 20

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“EVEN AS IT WAS TOLD ME.”

By Nahum Orcutt

“I BELIEVE God, that it shall be even as it was told me.” Acts xxvii, 25.
Thus the apostle Paul gives expression to his confidence in the accomplishment of what had been told him by the angel of the Lord. No doubt seems to have troubled his mind. He had unlimited confidence. He expresses no contingency. “There shall be no loss of any man’s life among you, . . . for there stood by me this night the angel of God, whose I am, and whom I serve, saying, ‘Fear not, Paul,’ &c.” His was more than a speculative faith—an assent of the mind. He had not only this, but, in addition to this, unlimited confidence and trust in God’s character and promises. He had given up all, and could say, “I count all things but loss . . . that I may win Christ.” He had made a full surrender of his will to the guidance of his Heavenly Father.
“The angel of God, whose I am,” he told me. He had no tangible evidence that he had been told the truth, but he believed that what had been told him was a revelation from God, and although the surrounding circumstances were all discouraging, so much so that he says all hope that they should be saved was taken away, yet Paul believed, not only that God was able, but that he would deliver. It was not, I guess, I hope deliverance may come, but the language of unwavering faith that takes hold of the promises of God: “I believe God, that it shall be even as it was told me.” Only obey and you are safe. “Except these abide in the ship, ye cannot be saved.” May we not profit by the example of the apostle? May we not learn from him, in some degree, the blessed and heavenly lesson of trusting in God, of looking to the future to vindicate his providence and fulfill his promises.
God may not send his angel to communicate to us his will and purpose, but has he left us to grope our way in darkness? Paul has borne testimony to the church: “But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, . . . ye are all the children of the light, and the children of the day.” “Light is sown for the righteous,” and the great difficulty has been that men have loved darkness rather than light. God has not left himself without a witness. He “who at sundry times and divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son.” He has revealed his secrets to his servants, the prophets, and, in carrying out his plan, has graciously given us “a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path.” “Holy men spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.”
Surely, we cannot excuse our lack of faith by saying that God has not spoken unto us. Happy are we if we have fully learned and realized that “Whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope.” We have abundant reason to have faith in God, confidence in the word that has thus come down to us, and to say with the apostle, “I believe God, that it shall be even as it was told me.”
Had Paul, in his previous experience and his knowledge of God’s dealings with his children, the assurance that he could implicitly rely upon the promise by the mouth of the angel? And are we left without evidence of the same class, which should beget in us like faith? If we turn to the records of the past, we find upon the page of secular and sacred history the literal fulfillment of many of those things that have been told us. The fulfillment of what was revealed unto Daniel of the Babylonian, Medo-Persian, Grecian, and Roman kingdoms, has proved the truth of the adage, “Prophecy is history in advance.” Except the last, they have arisen, filled the mould of prophecy, and passed away. Of the last, what remains to be said, but that she is to be consumed by the fire of His mouth and destroyed by the brightness of his coming?
The present generation have some of them witnessed the darkening of the sun and moon, and the falling of the stars, and are now amid the distress of nations foretold by the Lord Jesus Christ. Are not these instances, without adducing others, sufficient ground upon which to base our faith that what remains to be fulfilled of the predictions of the word will as literally come to pass? Had we no other evidence, surely we need not doubt. But we have also many precious promises, in the verification of which we find the evidence, upon which we may rest with faith like that of the apostle. While we thus believe, with what pleasure and joy we read, “My grace is sufficient for you.” “All things work together for good to them that love God.” “No good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.” “Lo, I am with you alway, even to the end.” We know that these promises are sure, that the same God who sent the ravens to feed his servant Elijah commissioned his angel to shut the lions’ mouths, that Daniel be not harmed, and wrought deliverance for his servants in the furnace of fire, that they were untouched by the scorching flames, still lives; and that legions of angels yet obey his bidding, and watch over those that love him.
In the early ages of this dispensation were found apostles who dared to trust in God and claim his promises; and the result was, that in all the varied scenes of their eventful lives, in prosperity and adversity, in joy and sorrow, in sickness and health, in life and death, in view of perils and dangers, amid persecutions, scourgings and revilings, they could say, “None of these things move me.” They could look forward to the crown of righteousness, for them laid up, never doubting but it would be given. The millions of martyrs, from Stephen down to the present time, have found, when called to seal their testimony for the truth with their blood, comfort from God, and joy in his salvation. They have “found it even as it was told them.”
How was it with those who embraced the first and second angels’ messages of Rev. xiv, 6–8? They believed God. They were called to sacrifice for the truth, to meet with opposition, to sever strong ties, to break up old associations, and to bear heavy burdens. Cheerfully they bore the consecrated cross. Joyfully they took their stand upon unpopular truths, and endured the scoffs of an apostate church, and the derision of the world. While they stood in the counsel of God, did they ever look in vain to him for promised aid? Nay, verily! They found it even as was told them. Never did they find the Lord’s ear dull that he could not hear, or his arm shortened that he could not save.
And again, how has it been with those who, when the hour of bitter disappointment came, waited to see the salvation of God, and when the command was given to move forward, obediently moved, and gladly received the third angel’s message? They have been cast off and despised by their associates in the former messages, endured hardness, surmounted difficulties, have been tested and tried, as they have taken step after step, keeping pace with the increasing light that has shone upon their pathway. In vain we look for one of these who have kept a smoking sacrifice upon the altar and failed to find the Lord a present help. Some have wandered from the Lord, manifested a spirit of rebellion against God and his chosen instruments, and gone down. But those who have lived near the Lord, have always found the Almighty arm underneath to help when help was needed. The power of God is manifested in their behalf. His voice from Heaven, in the testimonies to the church, is given just at the right time; not only giving many general and individual warnings and much instruction, but also bringing before his people the Health Reform, that they might learn to be temperate in all things, and thus be brought into a position where they could add to temperance, patience. Truly, they have “ever found it even as it was told them.”
With all these sources of encouragement, the promises of God’s word, the experience of prophets, apostles and martyrs, and of the church in the three messages, shall we distrust God, doubt his providential care, and fail to lean upon his Almighty arm? All who have believed his word, trusted in and obeyed him, have found his every promise sure—found it even as was told them.
He delivered Daniel from the lions, his servants from the fiery furnace, and will he not deliver us if we are found, as they, doing his will? He led his people out from bondage with a mighty deliverance, and forsook them only when they forsook him, and will he not guide us into the promised land if we profit by the record of his dealings with them, and fall not after the same example of unbelief? He has been with those who embraced the truth under the proclamation of the first angel’s message, to afford all needed assistance to guide them, unless they rejected his counsel and rejected truth subsequently developed; with those who have heeded the voice of the third angel, striven to repair the breach, who “keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus;” and will he not, if we cling closely to him, verify his promise and be with us, even to the end?
Ye lonely and way-worn ones, take courage. Ye tried and tempted, lift up your heads and rejoice. What though perils increase, and the time of trouble before us be exceedingly severe. God only designs, “the dross to consume, the gold to refine.” Those who have the gold tried in the fire have an enduring treasure that moths cannot corrupt, or thieves steal. They, and they only, are truly rich. Those who have the white raiment will not be found naked in the coming day. That robe will even give them admittance to the marriage feast, prepared by the great King, and freely proffered by him to the invited guests. With this garment, worn with the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, how gloriously arrayed.
And the heavenly eyesalve! without it, blind. Those who have it will be able to discern the signs of the times, will not be unaware of the wiles of the adversary, but will be able to stand.
What need, then, of discouragement? Why not believe that it will be even as God has told us? Believe, with Paul, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
NAHUM ORCUTT.
Health Institute, Battle Creek, Mich., Oct., 1867.