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A Glimpse of Early-Day Experiences

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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D. C. · Nov 23, 1905

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 82, No. 47.

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A Glimpse of Early-Day Experiences

By John Norton Loughborough

J. N. LOUGHBOROUGH
(Reading for Monday, December 11)
“Set thee up waymarks, make thee high heaps: set thine heart toward the highway, even the way which thou wentest: turn again, O virgin of Israel, turn again to these thy cities.” Jer. 31:21. These words of Jeremiah are found in connection with what the Lord said concerning Ephraim and his backslidings.
More than one hundred years before, the Lord had pleaded with Israel, through the mouth of the prophet Hosea, urging them to turn from their backslidings, but without avail. It was then that he said, “Ephraim is joined to idols: let him alone.”
Still the heart of the Lord was turned toward Israel. “I will not return to destroy Ephraim: for I am God” (Hosea 11:9), he said. When Israel did repent, one hundred and thirty years later, the prophet Jeremiah thus describes their feelings and the Lord’s love for them:—
“I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself thus; Thou hast chastised me, and I was chastised, as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke: turn thou me, and I shall be turned; for thou art the Lord my God. Surely after that I was turned, I repented; and after that I was instructed, I smote upon my thigh: I was ashamed, yea, even confounded, because I did bear the reproach of my youth. Is Ephraim my dear son? is he a pleasant child? for since I spake against him, I do earnestly remember him still: therefore my bowels are troubled for him; I will surely have mercy upon him, saith the Lord.” Jer. 31:18-20.
Having thus spoken of Ephraim, the Lord calls him to consider the way he has come over, and “set up waymarks, and make . . . high heaps,” to call to remembrance the special providences and leadings of the Lord.
For this same reason, Joshua instructed Israel to carry stones from the midst of the Jordan, where the feet of the priests which bear the ark had stood, and set them up in remembrance of God’s power in their behalf. Samuel placed a stone, which he called Ebenezer, between Mizpeh and Shen, as a token of Israel’s deliverance from the Philistines; and Jacob set up the stone which he had used as a pillow on that memorable night. Gen. 28:17-19. So the Lord would have his people preserve in mind, as waymarks, a remembrance of their past experiences and the evident tokens of divine guidance.
Moses, as he was about to be separated from Israel, admonished them of the danger of forgetting the Lord, and crediting all their prosperity to their own endeavors. He said, “Thou shalt remember the Lord thy God: for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth, that he may establish his covenant.” Deut. 8:18.
Mark the language: The Lord gives power to get wealth, “that he may establish his covenant.” He does not give power to get wealth to be selfishly hoarded up, or spent simply for selfish purposes, but that it may be used in advancing his cause. In view of this, his admonition is, “Honor the Lord with thy substance, and with the first-fruits of all thine increase.” Prov. 3:9. Again, “There is that scattereth, and yet increaseth; and there is that withholdeth more than is meet, but it tendeth to poverty. The liberal soul shall be made fat: and he that watereth shall be watered also himself.” Prov. 11:24, 25.
In harmony with the same principle, our Saviour taught, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things [things to eat, drink, and wear] shall be added unto you.” Matt. 6:33. To do this, is to have the cause of God and its advancement the first and most important object, before us in all our plans and labors.
Paul speaks of those who thus acted in the apostolic church, in these words: “Their deep poverty abounded unto the riches of their liberality. For to their power, . . . yea, and beyond their power they were willing of themselves. . . . And this they did . . . first gave their own selves to the Lord, and unto us [that is, unto the Lord’s work] by the will of God.” 2 Cor. 8:2-5. Those who were thus consecrated did not count their own lives dear unto themselves, so that the work of the gospel might be advanced in the earth. Acts 20:24; 1 Thess. 2:8.
What was true of the apostolic church has been manifest more or less in the early history of every advance movement of the Lord’s work in the earth. As an early Methodist historian says: “Every great work of the Lord in the earth has had a small beginning;” it has been marked by poverty, consecration, and devotion.
Not only has this been so, but the self-sacrifice and unreserved devotion to the gospel work has been the opportunity for the Lord to especially manifest his power with the humble efforts made to advance this truth. Of Whitefield, the associate of John Wesley, it is recorded that when money came into his hands, his study was how much of it he could devote to the Lord’s cause, and how little should be used for himself. On receiving a guinea (a little over five dollars), he would say, “There is a guinea. As little as possible of that shall be used for myself, but I will put a blessing on it by sending it out to do good in the world.”
Such in kind was the course of those whom the Lord in his providence moved out to introduce and establish the third angel’s message. The whole study and theme of their lives was the advancement of the truth. For this they prayed, toiled, and sacrificed. In 1846 Elder Joseph Bates had spent all his means, amounting to eleven thousand dollars, in the work of the first angel’s message. After receiving the Sabbath truth, he realized the importance of having reading-matter on the subject, to place in the hands of the people. But how it could be done without money, was the question, as all the available means he had in the world was a York shilling—twelve and a half cents—and he had to spend that before the first day of writing had expired. But the Spirit of the Lord moved him to write. Believing that the Lord would provide the necessary money, he went ahead, and published one thousand copies of his one-hundred-page tract on the Sabbath question, and his faith was not disappointed. The means for the support of his family, and for the publication of his tract, came, and with it also came the blessing of seeing many souls accept the truth from the reading of the publication.
In the year 1848 a few in central New York had accepted the message. These desired Elder White and wife and Elder Bates to come and hold meetings with them. Elder White mowed hay in Connecticut to earn money with which to pay their fares to Oswego and return. The result of this meeting was a glorious unity among those newly come to the faith in that locality. At the time Elder White was earning the money for this trip, they were keeping house with borrowed furniture, having no home or furniture of their own. But they were happy in the Lord, because the truth was advancing. Elder White wrote of this time in these words: “I mow five days for unbelievers, and on Sunday for believers, and rest on the Sabbath day. Therefore, I have but very little time to write. God gives me strength to labor hard all day—praise the Lord! I hope to get a few dollars to use in his cause. . . . I rejoice to-day that ease, pleasure, and comfort in this life are a sacrifice on the altar of my faith and hope.”
When we come to the years 1852-53, we have the case of Uriah Smith and his sister, Annie R. Smith, giving up an offer of one thousand dollars a year, for three years, with room and board, for taking charge of an academy. And this they did to connect with the work in the Review and Herald Office in Saratoga Springs and Rochester, N. Y., receiving during the three years their board and clothing. The spirit actuating them was thus expressed by Sister Annie: “Earth has entirely lost its attractions. My hopes, joys, affections, are now all centered on things above. I want no other place than to sit at the feet of Jesus, and learn of him—no other occupation than to be in the service of my Heavenly Father, no other delight than the peace of God which passeth all understanding.”
In those early days some of our brethren sold their farms, that they might have means to help the cause, renting farms, or working at their trades to gain a livelihood. In 1854, when the need of a tent for public meetings became evident, in one day from the time the matter was mentioned, a brother was on his way to purchase the tent, the money having been advanced by brethren who had secured means in this way.
Some one may ask why we mention these early sacrifices. Let the Lord’s testimony answer: “Those who enter the work at the present time know comparatively little of the self-denial and self-sacrifice of those upon whom the Lord laid the burden of his work at its beginning. The experience of the past should be told them again and again; for they are to carry forward the work with the same humility and self-sacrifice that characterized the true workers in the past.”—Review and Herald, June 3, 1902.
“There is danger that some of those now coming upon the stage of action will rest content to be inefficient, feeling that there is now no need of so great self-denial and diligence, such hard and disagreeable labor, as the leaders in this message experienced; that times have changed; and now that there is more means in the cause of God, it is not necessary for them to place themselves in such trying circumstances as many were called to meet in the rise of the message.
“But were there the same diligence and self-sacrifice manifest at the present stage of the work as at its beginning, we should see a hundred times more accomplished than is now. If the work is to go forward on the high plane of action upon which it started, there must be no falling off in moral resources.”—The Watchman, Oct. 6, 1903.
Is it not, then, important that we “turn to the way” that we have come, and set up the experiences of the past as “waymarks” and “high heaps” to stimulate us to action in self-denial and self-sacrifice, that the other ninety and nine parts may be accomplished, and the message be speedily brought to its glorious termination?
The message must go. It will go. Shall we be of those self-sacrificing ones to aid in the work, or shall the Lord say of us as of Ephraim at one time, “joined to idols; let him alone”? Terrible, indeed, will be the condition of those whom the Lord at last “lets alone.”
This is God’s message to the people, and it must succeed. In Rev. 7:2 the work of preparing a people to stand when the great day of God’s wrath shall come is symbolized by an angel “ascending from the east,” or, as some translate, “like the rising of the sun.” Behold the dawning of the day: first appear the rays of light in the east; these blend into greater clearness until the sun’s broad, distinct disk is seen. As the “king of day” ascends to the zenith, its light, heat, and power become more and more vivid. Such indeed has been the progress of the third angel’s message since 1846, when its component truths were brought into distinct form, and from which point the work has shown a marked and steady growth that is wonderful. This we can explain upon no other ground than that the Lord is verifying his word to those who in this time, when his salvation is about to come, “keep the Sabbath from polluting it,” and turn away their feet from doing their own pleasure on God’s holy day, thus, through the “faith of Jesus,” as declared in the third angel’s message of Revelation 14, keeping all “the commandments of God.” Of such the Lord said by the prophet Isaiah. “Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily: and thy righteousness [“the Lord our righteousness” (Jer. 23:6)] shall go before thee; the glory of the Lord shall be thy reward.” With such assurances, how could we expect aught else but that the work would be a success? “If God be for us, who can be against us?”
“One hundred times what is now being done” is within the reach of this people. Shall it be attained by us, or shall others be raised up who will do the work, and we lose the crown? May the Lord awake us to active service, and to a full consecration, should now be our earnest prayer.