Engaged in a Great Work by R. C. Porter

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Dec 3, 1914

Engaged in a Great Work

By R. C. Porter

THE prophet Nehemiah represented the work of the Lord in a time of great crisis. He was called of God to bear heavy responsibilities during that period of apostasy and crisis, because he was trustworthy. His loyalty was based upon principle. He could not be swerved by prospects of honor, bribed by worldly goods, cowed by the laughter of opponents, nor intimidated by threats. His anchorage was the Rock of Ages.

The secret of his devotion was the estimate he placed upon the work of God in his day. He regarded it as a “great work.” If he had placed a low estimate upon that work, regarding it as insignificant and scarcely worthy of his endeavors, the record of his life would have been very different. Self-interest would have eclipsed his interest in the cause of God, and a worldly spirit instead of the spirit of the Master would have captivated him.

Humility and Devotion Indicate a Sense of the Greatness of the Work

Self-sufficiency, independence, lack of humility and devotion, are always accompaniments of a high estimate of self and a low estimate of the Lord’s work.

As Moses bowed low in humility and pleaded his own insufficiency in the presence of the great undertaking of leading Israel from apostasy in Egypt to the land of Canaan, and Daniel in deepest contrition confessed his own sin and the sin of Israel, and set his face to seek the Lord, “by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes,” for deliverance from Babylonian captivity; so when Nehemiah learned that the people of God had been carried away captive, and those left in Jerusalem were in great affliction, he “sat down and wept, and mourned certain days, and fasted, and prayed before the God of heaven.”

A sense of the gravity of the sin of Israel’s apostasy which had brought upon them these calamities, and of the greatness of the undertaking to awaken them to repentance and restore them to their inheritance, brought the prophet low at the feet of the Great Counselor, with a powerful plea for the aid of the Mighty Helper in the accomplishment of this work. That fervent petition availed much. It was the foundation stone of the restoration of the “broken down” wall of Jerusalem, because it was the beginning of a reformation movement that brought Israel back to their allegiance to God, and coupled their weakness in captivity with his almighty power for the restoration of their city, government, and nation. R. C. PORTER.