Finishing the Work

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D. C. · Jun 1, 1905

Finishing the Work

THE seventh session of the ministerial institute was called at 11 A. M., May 19, when the following subject was considered: “The Ministry and the Field: Inspiring the People to ‘Finish the Work’ in Both Home and Foreign Fields.” The principal speaker was Elder A. G. Daniells, who spoke, in part, as follows:

It is certainly proper to talk about finishing the work. This special work in which we are engaged was begun about sixty years ago, and is the culmination of a work begun when the Lord spoke encouragement and assurance to Adam at the fall. God has a work in the world; for he says: “Cursed be he that doeth the work of the Lord negligently.” And again he says, “Go work to-day in my vineyard.” “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.” So, from the fall to the present time, God has had a work going forward, of which he is the beginner and also the finisher.

Of the finishing of this work we read: “In the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished.” The mystery of God is the gospel, and that work is to be finished in the days of the voice of the seventh angel. That sounding began in 1844. We know that this is correct from the clear line of prophecy that we have in the seven trumpets. Beginning with the first trumpet, we can trace our way clearly until we come to the eleventh day of August, 1840, when the sixth trumpet ended. The seventh was to sound quickly, and in the days of that sounding, the time would come for the dead to be judged, for the conflict among the nations, and for the reward to be given to the saints of God, and also to the wicked. So the events of the seventh angel carry us from the time it begins to sound down to the time when the wicked will receive their just deserts at the close of the thousand years. This voice began to sound in our day; the time of the seventh angel is our time. The finishing of the gospel is the proclamation of the gospel in all the world as a witness unto all nations. The gospel is summed up in the threefold message of Revelation 14, which is to go to every nation, kindred, tongue, and people. The message, “Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come” became due when the seventh angel began to sound; and the proclamation of this gospel which began then will bring the end of human history and of the work of God in the earth. That will finish the work.

This is the time to finish the work; the threefold message is the message to finish the work; and the people brought out by the threefold message are the people to finish the work in the earth. This is the time, this is the message, this is the people; and we are now face to face with that tremendous problem.

I thank God that such a definite work is assigned to us. We are in the world for a definite purpose, which is to arise and finish the work of God in the earth. This is the purpose of the latter rain. Pentecost came to cause the seed that Christ and his disciples sowed, to spring up and bear fruit, while the latter rain is to come to ripen off the whole harvest for the garner of God. We have come to the time of the latter rain, and that is the gift of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is given only for service in the work of God, to finish his work in the earth. Power is given for service, and not for our edification. The Spirit of God is given that we may serve, toil, and work to finish the work of God.

Men, money, and labor consecrated to God are needed to finish the work. The Lord will not give the Spirit in the latter rain to any one who has no idea of serving in his cause. We want power to apply to this mighty movement that is in the world, to be finished at this time. All the power that is needed will be given to the people who desire to accomplish the work.

And this service does not mean fleshly service, but the service which God points out in his Word. That alone can do the work, and no amount of prayer-meetings, or of joy in our own hearts, or association, will take the place of downright hard service in the cause of God. Consecrated service is called for to-day in all lands; and when that is determined upon, when we make up our minds that God’s cause shall have it, he will grant the power, send his laborers forth, provide the means, and we shall see a mighty work done. Hard, earnest work among the people will enlighten and help them. We want to consecrate our own lives to the definite purpose of finishing the work.

It is a pleasure to think that we are not to toil on here until we are old and gray, and then hand this work over to another generation, and that generation to another. We have come to the time when we are to finish the work in our generation, in our day, and bring it to an end. If that is not true, we are a terribly mistaken people. It has seemed to me at this meeting that I have caught an idea of brotherly love and brotherly unity that I never realized before. It seems to me there is a blending of hearts, and a binding together as brethren and sisters in one great family, with Christ as head, that I never saw manifested in any previous experience. I believe the Lord is coming wonderfully near to this people, and that he will begin a work the like of which nobody has seen in latter days. May God grant it.

E. W. Farnsworth: We are to inspire the people to finish the work. To inspire means to fill with energy, to inbreathe. We as ministers are called upon to inbreathe into the people the idea of finishing this work, to fill them with enthusiasm for doing it. Enthusiasm is not something that can be drawn off to order. David said, While I was musing, the fire burned within me. That which breeds enthusiasm in missionary work is great missionary facts of the success of missionary enterprises. If a

man has no enthusiasm in this thing in his own soul, he can not possibly inspire enthusiasm in anybody else’s soul. Our own hearts must first be filled with the conviction that this work must be finished in this generation, or we can not inspire anybody else to believe it. Then, and not until then, can we take that to their souls, and lead them to that experience.

We need money for many enterprises. If we will lift ourselves, it will give us strength to help another to lift. No man can get up much enthusiasm in pushing this work to foreign fields with a ten-thousand-dollar farm on his hands, or a five-thousand-dollar account in the bank. But let him put that amount into this cause, and it will give him more inspiration than he can get by talking to the people all his days. When there is something to do or some sacrifice to make, that is what God wants, and there is no amount of prayer or exhortation that will ever take the place of the thing that God wants done.

We have this message to give to the world, and you may talk everything else under heaven, but it will never take the place of giving this message. That thought must take hold of our very souls and hearts, and we must settle that in our souls before we can lift this denomination to a proper place before God. When this company consecrates what they have, and puts it into this work, this denomination will rise as one man, and carry this work to the ends of the earth. The thing is with us. If we are leaders of the people, under God, we must take hold of this work and do, and I am glad to see evidences that the people are rising to that thing. That is the key that will unlock every missionary enterprise that we want to enter.

J. N. Loughborough: I am glad to hear about closing up the work soon. I think if these principles are carried out, with the blessing of God, they will tell mightily in closing up the work. This day is an anniversary day, for it was just one hundred and twenty-five years ago to-day that the sun was darkened, when the Lord told us what to do: “When these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh.” Our redemption is very near. May the spirit of enthusiasm fill all our hearts, and the hearts of God’s people, and the work will go. There was more done in three months in 1844 than had been done in all the preceding time of that movement. The mighty power of God went with that message like a tornado, and seemed to move independently of human agencies. They got the midnight cry in many places at the same time and in the same way. The Lord is not slack; one day with him is as a thousand years. I have thought that that meant that God would do in a day what you would think it would take him a thousand years to do.

R. A. Underwood read Eze. 12: 22, 23, and stated that this work will be finished in this generation, whether we have a part in it or not.

O. A. Olsen: As I look over the fields, I see indications of a rising as I never witnessed it before. May God give us divine inspiration and the power of this message to go forth and close up this work in righteousness.

W. J. Stone: Much is being said in these days about new light; but I want to say that unless the new light contributes to the old message, it is not light; for all the truth in the world to-day is in the third angel’s message. All truth is in harmony with the third angel’s message. All the light and glory of all past ages is focused in this message for this people. Nearly two thousand years ago John, in vision, saw this company here to-day, and this message going to every nation, kindred, tongue, and people. This is a definite message, and let us stand by it.