Here is the Patience of the Saints
By L. R. CONRADI
(Reading for Tuesday, December 5) “Here is the Patience of the Saints”
OUR people are all familiar with the text, “Here is the patience of the saints;” and yet how difficult it is to reach the standard it implies! All heaven has had to learn its lesson of patience. All mankind has failed on this point. God had a plan to fill his whole universe with free moral agents. If the angels had kept their first estate, and if Adam and Eve had kept theirs, the purpose of God would have been quickly fulfilled; but as they did not, about seven thousand years of patient toiling will have passed before man can enjoy the new heaven and the new earth, wherein shall dwell righteousness. To make this future blessing possible has cost the deepest suffering and the greatest sacrifice and the most patient forbearance on the part of a loving Father and of a tender Redeemer. The eternal gospel of salvation to man through the Seed of the very woman who had first sinned, was proclaimed immediately after the fall. When the “mother of all living” beheld her first-born, with a joy that only a mother can feel she exclaimed, “I have gotten a man from the Lord.” What bitter disappointment must later have filled Eve’s heart as she mourned over the body of Abel, slain by the very son at whose birth she had rejoiced! God provided in Seth another son, and with him the people began to call upon the name of the Lord. Abraham and Sarah waited patiently many years for the promised seed, but finally Sarah thought of a shorter way—and how many heartaches did the experiment cost! Years later, in accordance with God’s plan, Isaac was born. However, the greatest test of patience came after Isaac had grown up to young manhood. Abraham was asked to lay his son, with all his hopes, upon the altar. He did so, for at last he had learned to obey the divine will, and to look forward in faith to the day of Christ, accounting God able to raise Isaac from the dead. The heavenly Father honored such faith and patience, because he saw in Abraham the very patience he must exercise in giving up his own Son as the only availing sacrifice. Moses, when forty years old, being in the prime of life and a wise general, had his own plans concerning the way to deliver Israel from bondage. At twice this age he had become a wiser man; and at thrice the age he sat upon Pisgah’s heights, seeing the Promised Land only from afar—because the meekest of all men had once grown impatient. Job’s patience is proverbial, and yet he too once failed. God’s people waited four thousand years for the promised Seed. When he arrived, they did not receive him, because they had become impatient in the school of suffering, expecting a Messiah who by the arm of flesh would deliver them from the Roman yoke. The promised Seed, coming in the power of the Spirit, was tempted of the devil. Why should the Son of man be hungry so long? One small act,—turning a stone to bread, casting himself from the temple, or falling down and worshiping the tempter,—and all his task of wresting the usurped kingdom from the devil would be accomplished! This was the temptation. The Second Adam, however, had learned to wait, and by suffering he gained the desired end. Five thousand well-fed men, at the instigation of Judas, wanted to make Jesus king. But he sent the disciples away, and himself dismissed the multitude, instead of ascending a throne. John’s death presaged his own. He told his disciples about his own sufferings, but they were more troubled concerning the loss of a place of honor for themselves in his kingdom than concerning his drinking of the cup of suffering. And so, when the hour came, they slept—and failed. Even the Son of man had a fearful conflict in the garden, sweating as it were great drops of blood before he drank the cup to its dregs. What great expectations as to the bright prospects of their own nation must have swelled the hearts of the believing Jews during the Pentecostal days! But persecution dispersed them, and they were obliged to learn patience in carrying the gospel to the ends of the earth. Paul was hastening to Damascus, determined with fleshly weapons to stop the work of the Spirit, when light from the resurrected One shone into his heart. He entered the city a new man, and at once began to testify of Jesus. However, he must learn patience in the desert of Arabia. He returned to Jerusalem, but had to leave again. Quietly he went to Tarsus a wiser man, awaiting the call of God through leaders of the church at Antioch. By patient, sturdy toil and untold suffering, he became the mightiest instrument in God’s hand to carry the gospel to the Gentiles, as God had promised. Once more he went to Jerusalem, and many Jews believed. He told how thousands of Gentiles had accepted the glad tidings through him. He was seized in the temple, and held a prisoner for two years at Cæsarea. He underwent a terrifying journey by sea, spent several years in chains at Rome, testify-14ing of Christ before kings and emperors. He had hoped to live and be changed when the Lord should come, but instead it was his lot to toil and labor and suffer, and at the end be a martyr at Rome for the truth’s sake. Even patriarchs, prophets, apostles, and saints have failed at times, to understand God’s providence and to learn the way of patience. The Reformers, instead of slowly building up a body of truly converted believers, thought they had found a shorter way, and created national churches, which had a name to live, though they were dead. Adventists were intrusted with the mighty gospel of the kingdom, but they grew impatient, and thousands failed. The writer’s first experience with Adventism was in Chicago. There he met a man who tried to impress his hearers by means of a wonderful chart which sought to make it clear that the Lord would come within a few days. Though that man and his flock failed, my own heart tasted later of the sweet love of Christ, was filled with joy at the advent hope, and gladly accepted the call to make it known to others. At a camp meeting in Dakota in those days, a brother preached a powerful sermon, stating that he thought the Lord would come in less than five years. He grew a bit impatient. A good brother asked my opinion, and was surprised when I hesitated because of thoughts of the millions in the Old World yet unwarned. A few years later I was called to Europe; but unlike one good brother, who left his family behind because he thought the mission upon which he was sent could be so quickly discharged, I took mine with me, in the depth of winter. This year I again preached in the same city where I raised up my first church in Europe. Thirty years had passed. Our people there, numbering about one hundred, now occupy a fine hall. I could tell them joyfully that we were not mistaken about the results attending the proclamation of this message, but that we had been impatient about the time. How it cheered my heart to see those loyal believers still pressing forward for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Their hair as well as mine has turned gray, but we rejoice more than ever because the results attained in preaching the message are the greatest sign that the Lord’s coming is near at hand. That same summer, thirty years ago, I went to the eastward—into Russia. As I was preaching one night, the windows came crashing in. I quieted the people by telling them that something worse might happen; and something more did happen to me before I finished organizing the church. During forty long days spent in prison I learned patience. Though I did not always sing praises of deliverance, as did Paul and Silas, yet deliverance came. Years ago some thought that representatives of all peoples would flock to the shores of America, and there hear the message, so that we should not have to go out and bear the brunt of the battle in other lands. This represented our impatience. But lo, as time went on, it was noticed that the truth made the most rapid advancement in countries where the people suffered from all sorts of persecution. This gave us courage; and the faster the message went, the more it aroused the people at home, until they also awoke to a greater sense of their own privileges, and the message gained power at home. This cheered the hopes of those in foreign fields. A few years since, the writer sat with others in the World’s Missionary Conference. Clever and deep plans were laid for an international work in all the world; but suddenly, like a flash of lightning from a clear sky, war was declared among the nations. Everybody thought that in such highly civilized times, war would last only a few months, and all would be over, and we should again be left free to carry forward the gospel. Hitherto, wars in Europe have had but little effect on mission work in foreign countries. But not long ago I sat with a mission director of a neutral mission society and listened to the tale of their woes. Out of four hundred missionaries, three hundred had been interned, some had been killed, and the society had forsaken one of its oldest fields, being no longer permitted to labor there. What availed all the wise counsel at Edinburgh about international mission polity? In our own work we have had to learn the lesson of patience amid trial. We have been cut off from some of the mission fields, where, before the war, hundreds were being converted and thousands of natives were flocking to our schools. The work must have been sadly hindered in some parts during these months. Visits to outlying fields have been more and more restricted. In Europe thousands of our members in the regions of conflict have been scattered. Untold misery was brought upon many, and death has had a rich harvest. Two years have passed, and the war still rages as we write. And not all our troubles on the continent of Europe have come from without. Some within became impatient, overbalanced by the stress and strain. They thought all would be ended in a few months. Some ceased work, and began to make trouble in our churches, trying to tear down what had been built up by patient toil. But with troubles on the right and on the left, from without and from within, the work of God has gone forward. Thousands in Europe have been converted to God and have accepted this truth during the last year. Who can separate us from the love of Christ? Who can stop this work as long as God is for us? With fewer evangelical workers, with less liberty, in the midst of greater difficulties, the success of the consecrated individual worker has increased rather than diminished. The number of our colporteurs having been cut down, sisters have enlisted in the ranks, and despite the harder times, the work has gone forward. Our papers have had to be reduced in size, but the editions remain as large as ever. Times are growing harder. The cost of living is increasing. But the love of God so burns in the hearts of the believers that the Lord’s treasury keeps supplied. A number of our men are scattered in prison camps all over Europe. However, they write us of how they are improving the opportunities of sowing the seed among thousands whom they might not have been able otherwise to approach; and this seed is already taking root. Some have been torn from their churches, where they were elders and workers. They have been placed under new conditions, in touch with men who would never have attended our meetings, and there they testify of the hope that cheers their own hearts; and already we hear of cases where this testifying has had a telling effect. Our missionaries in parts of Africa have been cut off from us. They and their new converts from heathenism are passing through a fiery test. Some of the stations have been plundered and burned. We do not know what has become of them. Oh, how we shall rejoice to learn that all is well with them and with their dear families! From Western Africa we hear of new stations; of recently added converts in Nigeria; and on the Gold Coast and in Sierra Leone believers are being added. And far out in the Indian Ocean a church of over sixty has been raised up. The world is learning a lesson. Before the war, it rushed on in high living, intemperance, self-love, without restraint. Suddenly it has been stopped in its career. Rations have been curtailed, while temperance and simple living have been forced practically upon all. Men have been put under the most severe discipline. Women have now to do the work of the men, and children must assume many responsibilities in performing the labor usually assigned to adults. Millions have to endure suffering untold, and to face death constantly. They must leave their homes and families, and live in places where they once supposed existence impossible. Is there a lesson in this? Are some learning patience? Is God taking the nations in hand, and placing them in the hardest of schools? Are some workers being developed for our cause in a school in which we have thus far had no pupils? God alone knows. But we try our best to follow the lead of his providences. During such troublous times one appreciates the intercessions and good will of God’s children who are not suffering under the same hard conditions. We also solicit an interest in their sympathies and prayers for the future. And we who endure these troubles beseech you, our brethren, to learn the lesson of patience while it is well with you. Be patient in well-doing. Be patient in hope; patient in waiting. Exercise the patience of the saints. Let no one say, ‘My Lord delayeth his coming;’ for though he seems to delay, he waits for a purpose,—that many souls in all lands may be saved, and that we all may be tried, and be fully changed in the inner man, drinking the cup of suffering, bear-15ing the cross in order that we may at last wear the crown and eternally drink of the joyful cup of salvation.