Individual Obligation and Personal Effort
By G. A. IRWIN
“But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father. Take ye heed, watch and pray; for ye know not when the time is. For the Son of man is as a man taking a far journey, who left his house, and gave authority to his servants, and to every man his work, and commanded the porter to watch. Watch ye therefore: for ye know not when the master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cockcrowing, or in the morning: lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping. And what I say unto you I say unto all, Watch.” Mark 13: 32-37. These are the words of our Saviour in regard to his second coming. There is a similar statement in the record as given by Luke. After indicating the signs which would precede his coming, he closes the instruction in each instance with a warning to the people of God who should live in the time when this prophecy should be fulfilled, lest they should become drowsy and careless as to their duties and obligations. This scripture does not refer so much to the coming of our Lord in the clouds of heaven, with all the holy angels, as to his coming to individual names in the investigative judgment now going on in the heavenly sanctuary. That is quite clearly brought out by one or two expressions in the thirty-fifth verse: “Watch ye therefore: for ye know not when the master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cockcrowing, or in the morning.” We know by other scriptures (Job 34: 20; Matt. 25: 1-13), and by the spirit of prophecy (“Early Writings,” page 145), that the coming of the Lord in the clouds of heaven to deliver his people will be at midnight; so that this must mean a coming to the names of individuals in the investigative judgment, and of that time we know nothing. The thirty-fourth verse contains the thought I wish to present for consideration: “For the Son of man is as a man taking a far journey, who left his house, and gave authority to his servants, and commanded the porter to watch. Watch ye therefore; for ye know not when the master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cockcrowing, or in the morning: lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping. And what I say unto you, I say unto all, Watch.” This language is not addressed to the disciples alone, but to every child of God. Christ has given to every man his work. Hence the question that should arise in every mind is, Am I doing the work that God has given me to do, so that when my name is called in the judgment, whether in the morning, or at evening, or at noon, or at midnight, I shall be found faithfully discharging that work, and thus be entitled to an entrance into the Master’s kingdom when he shall return from the wedding? We have now been many years in the time foretold by our Saviour; and, as we continue, we can see more and more the reason for this admonition at the end of each of our Saviour’s discourses. He evidently looked down to the time in which we are living, and saw that a desire for ease and self-gratification would take hold of the people of God, and this would be one of their greatest dangers in this time. While having a knowledge of the theory of the truth, their love of ease and self-gratification would overbalance and outweigh their love for it; so that at a time when God would expect them to be active agents in spreading a knowledge of the truth, many, very many of God’s people would be doing practically nothing in that line. In other words they would be sleeping when God would expect them to be wide-awake and active. We are told in an unpublished Testimony that “there has been so much preaching in our churches that they have almost ceased to appreciate the gospel ministry. The time has come when this order of things should be changed.” Now the object of the gospel ministry and all the instrumentalities which God has placed in his church is not that the members of the church shall be fed from Sabbath to Sabbath, and carried along by these agencies and instrumentalities, but that they might be teachers to instruct the church as to how its whole membership might be engaged in the work of the ministry; that is, in disseminating the light of truth that God has given it. Concerning the gifts in the church and their object, we read, in Eph. 4: 11-15:— “And he it is who gave to the church apostles, prophets, missionaries, pastors, teachers, with a view to fitting his people for the work of the ministry, and so for building up the body of the Christ. This work will continue until we all attain to that unity which comes from a fuller knowledge of him, until we reach the perfection of manhood, and that degree of development of which the ideal to be found in the Christ is the standard. We shall then no longer be like children, tossed backward and forward, and blown about by every breath of human teaching, and driven toward the snares of error by the trickery and craftiness of men; but by following the truth in the spirit of love, we shall grow up into complete union with our Head—Christ himself. For it is from him that the whole body, which is closely joined and held together by every link in the system, derives its power to grow in proportion to the activity of each individual part; and so it is being built up in a spirit of love.”—Twentieth Century Translation. We see, then, that the church derives its power to grow not by those agencies alone which are placed in it. They are placed there to teach the people, and fit them for the ministry. The body will grow just in proportion to the activity of each individual part. A church whose members simply settle down, and depend upon the minister to feed them from Sabbath to Sabbath, they themselves exercising none of the gifts God has given them,—that church will deteriorate instead of grow. We read from the Testimonies:— “Let the ministers call out the individual church-members to help them by house-to-house work in carrying the truth to regions beyond. Let all co-operate with the heavenly intelligences in communicating truth to others. What though it be in weakness? It is Christ who speaks to the heart; it is he who creates an interest where there has been no desire to hear.” There is one mistake we are all liable to make. We think we must be possessed with some power of our own that will compel a hearing and the acceptance of the things we preach and teach. We can only speak to the ear. “It is Christ who speaks to the heart; it is he who creates an interest where there has been no interest to hear.” In Ps. 68: 11 we are told, “The Lord gave the word: great was the company [margin, army] of those that published it.” This text was a favorite one with our beloved Sister S. M. I. Henry; and before she accepted the present truth, she applied it to the work of the W. C. T. U. But I believe it applies more especially to the work of the gospel in these closing days. You will see by comparing this with other scriptures that it is a latter-day prophecy. Reading from the fifth verse of this chapter, we can see where the connection should be made:—10 “A father of the fatherless, and a judge of the widows, is God in his holy habitation. God setteth the solitary in families: he bringeth out those which are bound with chains: but the rebellious dwell in a dry land. O God, when thou wentest forth before thy people, when thou didst march through the wilderness; the earth shook, the heavens also dropped at the presence of God: even Sinai itself was moved at the presence of God, the God of Israel. Thou, O God, didst send a plentiful rain, whereby thou didst confirm thine inheritance, when it is weary. Thy congregation hath dwelt therein: thou, O God, hast prepared of thy goodness for the poor. The Lord gave the word: great was the company of those that published it.” The expression “plentiful rain” found in the ninth verse refers to the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the latter rain of the third angel’s message. This whole psalm is especially applicable to the remnant church in the closing work of the third angel’s message. Connecting this psalm with statements like the following, found in the fifty-eighth chapter of Isaiah, one can readily see that it is a latter-day prophecy, and must meet its fulfilment at the same time: “Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily: and thy righteousness shall go before thee; and the glory of the Lord shall be thy rereward.” You can see from this that it has an application in the last days. “The Lord gave the word; great was the army of those that published it.” If there is to be a great army to publish the word in the last days, it must mean more than the ministers and the accredited workers of the denomination. It must certainly mean that; because the ministers of the denomination could not be said to be a great army. At present they would only make a small battalion. So, then, in order to make a “great company,” or “an army,” the whole denomination must be included. He who gave the word, and calls for a great army to publish it, not only promises to create an interest, but to give the increase. So the one who plants is nothing, the one who waters is nothing; but it is God who works in and through all, so that no flesh can glory in his presence. Takoma Park, D. C.
(To be concluded)