Individual Obligation and Personal Effort
By G. A. IRWIN
I copied from the Home Missionary some years ago a statement made by Arthur T. Pierson, one of the world's greatest missionaries, which I wish to have the insert here, since it contains a truth not infrequently overlooked in the consideration of our subject:— “You can not absolve yourself by any personal liberality out of your purse for the personal duty of laboring for the lost. We can never bring this world to the knowledge of Christ by an ordained set of ministers of the gospel. We must do what the primitive Christians did when they ‘went everywhere preaching the Word,’ except the apostles, who remained at Jerusalem. They went everywhere talking about Jesus; they simply told what they knew. Theirs was no eloquent discourse, after the dialectical fashion of the schools. No, dear friends; the men that were in the apostolic succession remained at Jerusalem, while the common laity went out; and the apostles are mentioned as being excepted, in order that we may understand that the preaching that was done was not done by the apostles, because they were not scattered abroad, but it was done by the common disciples; and the reason why in the first century heathen fanes began to be forsaken of their worshipers, and heathen priests began to tremble lest their idols should have no more devotees, was because this magnificent work was taken up by the great bulk of the disciples; they were scattered abroad with the message of salvation flying from lip to ear, descending from ear to heart, coming up from heart to lip, and again going forth from the lip to the ears of others.” This statement is in perfect accord with the spirit of prophecy, as will be seen from the quotations that follow:— “But many of our people are surfeited with the privileges they have enjoyed, and have lost the sense of the value of human souls. “Christ has given to every man his work. He expects every man to do his work with fidelity. High and low, rich and poor, all have a work to do for the Master. Every one is called to action. But if you do not obey the voice of the Lord, if you do not do his work in firm reliance upon Christ as your sufficiency, if you do not follow his example, ‘unfaithful, slothful servant,’ will be registered against your name. Unless the light that has been given you is communicated to others, unless you let your light shine, it will go out in darkness, and your soul will be left in awful peril. God speaks to every one who knows the truth, ‘Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.’ Communicate the knowledge of the truth to others. This is God’s plan to enlighten the world.” To communicate the knowledge of the truth we have received to others, means more than simply to send out tracts that contain the truth. That is a part of our work, but the giving of our means and the sending out of tracts and papers will not absolve us from our obligations in a personal way. It is the personal contact of soul with soul, heart with heart, that makes impressions upon the hearts and minds of the people. “Communicate the knowledge of the truth to others.” I maintain that if we would communicate the light that God is giving us, it would not be long before the loud cry would sweep over the earth like a tidal wave, and the work of God would be finished. If only one church of any considerable size in each conference or mission field would adopt “God’s plan to enlighten the world,” namely to “communicate the knowledge of the truth to others,” and keep perseveringly at it, it would not be long before the influence of such churches would extend and widen until it embraced the whole world. This is what the Lord would be pleased to see, and he is waiting expectantly for such a consecration on the part of individuals and churches that he may pour his Spirit upon them for service. “Brethren and sisters, many of you excuse yourselves from labor on the plea of inability to work for others. But did God make you so incapable? Was not this inability produced by your own inactivity and perpetuated by your own deliberate choice? Did not God give you at least one talent to improve, not for your own convenience and gratification, but for him? Have you realized your obligation, as his hired servant, to bring a revenue to him by the wise and skilful use of this entrusted capital? Have you not neglected opportunities to improve your powers to this end? It is too true that few have felt any real sense of their responsibility to God. Love, judgment, memory, foresight, tact, energy, and every other faculty have been devoted to self. You have displayed greater wisdom in the service of evil than in the cause of God. You have perverted, disabled, nay, even besotted your powers, by your intense activity in worldly pursuits to the neglect of God’s work.”—Testimonies for the Church, Vol. V, page 457. “Remember that your responsibility is measured not by your present resources and capacities, but by the powers originally bestowed and the possibilities for improvement. The question which each one should ask himself is not whether he is now inexperienced and unfit for labor in God’s cause, but how and why he is in this condition, and how it can be remedied. God will not supernaturally endow us with qualifications which we lack; but while we exert the ability we have, he will work with us to increase and strengthen every faculty; our dormant energies will be aroused, and powers which have long been palsied will receive new life. “So long as we are in the world, we must have to do with the things of the world. There will ever be a necessity for the transaction of temporal, secular business; but this should never become all-absorbing. The apostle Paul has given a safe rule, ‘Not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord.’ The humble, common duties of life are all to be performed with fidelity, ‘heartily,’ says the apostle, ‘as unto the Lord.’ Whatever our department of labor, be it housework, or field work, or intellectual pursuits, we may perform it to the glory of God so long as we make Christ first and last and best in everything. But aside from these worldly employments, there is given to every follower of Christ a special work for the upbuilding of his kingdom,—a work which requires personal effort for the salvation of men. It is not a work to be performed once a week merely, at the place of worship, but at all times and in all places.”—Ibid., page 459. There is a statement in “Great Controversy,” under the title of “The Final Warning,” which reads as follows:— “Servants of God, with their faces lighted up and shining with holy consecration, will hasten from place to place and proclaim the message of heaven. By thousands of voices, all over the earth, the warning will be given. [Then it will not be given by our ministers alone unless we have a marked increase in our ministry before that time comes.] Miracles will be wrought, the sick will be healed, and signs and wonders will follow the believers.” This is just how it was in the early rain, when the believers were scattered everywhere from Jerusalem to the four corners of the earth. The Lord is going to cut his work short in righteousness. The only thing that is lacking now is for us to become imbued with the zeal and the missionary spirit which characterized the believers in the early Christian church. “The message will be carried not so much by argument as by the deep conviction of the Spirit of God. The arguments have been presented. The seed has been sown, and now it will spring up and bear fruit. The publications distributed by missionary workers have exerted their influence, yet many whose minds were impressed have been prevented from fully comprehending the truth or from yielding obedience. Now the rays of light penetrate everywhere, the truth is seen in its clearness, and the honest children of God sever the bands which have held them. Family connections, church relations, are powerless to stay them now. Truth is more precious than all besides. Notwithstanding all the agencies combined against the truth, a large number take their stand upon the Lord’s side.”—“Great Controversy,” page 612. This prediction is going to be fulfilled, and that not very far in the future. There are thousands who have heard the truth at some time. When the time finally comes that the Spirit of God is poured out upon his people, and they go forth clothed with the panoply of heaven, these halting ones will come out and connect with the people of God. “If you do not stand in your allotted place, if you do not let your light shine, you will become enshrouded in darkness. God calls upon all the sons and daughters of the heavenly family to be fully equipped, so that at any period they can step into the ranks ready for action. The heart made tender and sympathetic by the love of Jesus will find the precious pearls designed for the casket of the Lord Jesus.” How is the heart going to “be made tender and sympathetic by the love of Jesus”?—Just by giving our hearts to him, and allowing him to use us where he indicates. Then we shall go out and find the precious pearls designed for the casket of the Lord Jesus. “For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater: so shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it. For ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace.” Joy and peace are the fruits of the Spirit, and when individuals go out to publish his word of truth, with the joy and peace of the Holy Ghost in their hearts, they will find other souls who will be ready to respond to that same influence, and there will be joy and peace in many families that are now destitute of these things. In the joy and peace that come to such souls it will be seen that inanimate objects, such as mountains and trees, unite with them in ascribing praise to God. “Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir-tree, and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle-tree: and it shall be to the Lord for a name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.” Isa. 55:13. (The thorns and briers are the result of sin.) “Cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth unto thee.” Gen. 3:17, 18. Sin in some of its forms is in nearly all the families in the land, and it is wounding and piercing on every hand. When the truth of God is taken into the soul, the thorn will be supplanted by the fir-tree, which is emblematic of beauty, glory, and praise, since its wood was used for the doors and ceiling in Solomon’s temple, and also in making harps and other musical instruments for use in the temple worship. The brier is supplanted by the myrtle, a beautiful aromatic tree, whose dark, glossy leaves and scented white flowers were used in synagogues at the feast of tabernacles, and its dried berries and flowers as perfume, symbolic of the fragrance of Christ’s life that filled the whole earth. That is what we shall find in the homes of the people when we go out imbued with the Spirit of God. We shall find that the word of God will not return to him void. God’s word will accomplish that whereto it was sent. The time has fully come when we must arouse to our duty. Everything gives evidence that God is ready to work. May the Lord hasten the day when this can be said of all his people.