p. 10 | Our Duty by I. H. Evans

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Mar 7, 1912

Our Duty

By I. H. Evans

WE are living in thrilling times,—times that have no parallel in human history. The marvelous accumulations of great wealth; the bringing into every-day service of hundreds of modern inventions, minimizing labor, and thus giving man a leisure never before enjoyed; the telephone and the telegraph, reducing time and distance, throwing communities and nations into one great family, so that each may know what the others are doing; the printing-press, carrying to the four corners of the earth every advance made in human knowledge, in many places enabling the poor in remote rural districts to keep pace with the most advanced thought and inventions of the day; the convenience and rapidity of travel, making it possible to visit distant parts of the world with ease, and at a comparatively meager expense; the Word of God in the vernacular of the people; the rapid strides in extending and perfecting public-school systems in various countries,—these and a hundred other things make this the most wonderful of all ages in the history and progress of man.

What meaning has all this to the people of God? Are they, blinded to every opportunity for service, to partake of the spirit of the age, and drift with the current into the maelstrom of worldly business and speculation?—No! The definite duty of the church is clearly set forth in the farewell charge of the Master to his disciples, “Go ye therefore, and make Christians of all nations.” This is our duty, this should be the chief object of our existence. The words of the prophet Elisha to his servant Gehazi, who followed Naaman for reward, may be well applied to God’s people at this time: “Is it a time to receive money, and to receive garments, and olive yards, and vineyards, and sheep, and oxen, and men servants?”—No; a thousand times No! The voice of the Master is, “Go ye, . . . and make Christians.”

What interest can the people of God have in the present clashing of the nations, this clamor for war, this national thirst for world-power, this reaching out on the part of strong governments to absorb the territory of the weak?—None whatever, save as they see in it all the stepping of the nations to fulfil the Word of God in the last great conflict. Our duty is to “make Christians.” It matters not to us whether Italy or Turkey controls Tripoli; whether Russia or Turkey directs the affairs of Persia; whether or not Russia and Japan absorb Mongolia and Manchuria; or whether China has a republican government or a constitutional monarchy. Ours is clearly a plain duty—to make Christians.

Everything earthly must soon perish. The awful doom of a lost world is impending. The message entrusted to us is the last warning of divine mercy to the peoples of earth. Ours is the great privilege of the ages,—to call the honest in heart to repentance, to prepare a people for the coming King. We have no other duty, no other business. We are in the world, but we should not, we dare not, be of the world. Kingdoms may rise, and kingdoms may fall; markets and stocks may go up or down; implements of destruction may be multiplied without end; pleasures may invite, and the maddening, clamoring voices of the world may seek to distract: but none of these things will move the children of God, save as they impel them to quicken their efforts to warn the world of its coming doom. Ours is the word of the prophet Jonah to the people of Nineveh, the message that Lot bore to the inhabitants of wicked Sodom and Gomorrah,—Flee! for the destruction of the Almighty is impending. Never was a prophet of any age sent on a more solemn errand, never did seer bear a more thrilling message to any kingdom or nation, than is entrusted to those who are called to give to this generation the solemn warning, “Prepare to meet thy God.”

I. H. EVANS.