SAVED BY FAMILIES by S. M. I. Henry

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Mar 13, 1900

SAVED BY FAMILIES.

By S. M. I. Henry

MRS. S. M. I. HENRY.

Jesus said, “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore.” What did I hear?—“All power is given unto me. Go ye therefore.” It is true that power belongs to Jesus,—all power in heaven and earth,—but what difference does that make to us? Why should we go? Let him who has the power go. We are weak, we have no power.

O heart of little faith! Of course no man ever says, I am very rich, go ye therefore and buy all you need; but have you not heard that His ways are not our ways? When he has something, it means much to all of us. It is like him to say, Because all power is given to me, go ye; for whatever is mine is thine. We are children of the same family, on equal terms, loyalty and obedience being equal.

“As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God,” and “if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ.” Jesus could not have a right to one thing the equivalent to which does not belong to you if you and he are joint heirs. This is law,—law that would be recognized in any court. If Christ has all power, and you and he are joint heirs, all power also belongs to you.

Just as he, after fulfilling all righteousness, received all power, so shall you, when you have come into right relation to the law that is expressed not only in the decalogue, but in conjugal and parental relations, receive the Holy Ghost, which means power. When you eat and drink according to the light that comes to you, and therefore to the glory of God, then you are ready for that overflowing measure of the Spirit which means perfect health for every part of the being, and strength for delightful service. Then you are ready to go, just as Jesus went, and just as he bade you go when he said, “Go work to-day in my vineyard;” “go . . . preach;” go witness; go make known the things that the world must know; go to those who are in the dark, who are perplexed because they are ignorant. If you know anything, go tell it. Whatever you are that can represent the truth, go be it.

“Yes, Lord,” answered some soul, “I would go. I long to go in thy name. I will go just as fast and as far as I can go.”

Then came Satan’s opportunity. He discovered among men and women a disposition to obey this command to go, and he tried to send them so far away, each from his own heaven-appointed work, that they could never get back to it.

The instinct of activity is strong. Any normally constructed being must work at something somewhere. Consecrated activity makes the faithful laborer with God; unconsecrated, it becomes the instigator of that selfish, restless ambition that runs hither and thither, never satisfied or satisfying, always beginning and never finishing.

It is as important to finish as to begin. But before even a gown can be finished, there comes a time of earnest application and perseverance, such as is not altogether delightful to a selfish soul. It is somewhat of a character test to sit still and put in all the last stitches just as firmly and neatly as the first one; to stay instead of to go when one feels like going; to hold one’s strength instead of letting it loose.

The “going” faculty must have adjustment. It must sometimes be stayed in order to be effective. And for lack of this adjustment we are now, as the world’s long day draws to its close, awakening to the fact that there is a great deal that must yet be done before the night comes in which no man can work.

Many who have been most alert are spending valuable time in wondering how it can be that so many laborers leave so much yet to do. They have been trying to do the Lord’s work, they have literally obeyed the word to “go,” and have gone and gone and gone without any satisfactory result. Everywhere about their feet lies a waste of “unfinished business,” and behind them often are tangles, mold, uncleanness, and ruin.

Christian people of every name stand appalled at the condition. Those who are in leading places in every church are wondering what is the trouble; and it is for the interest of each to know just what it means to go and to work.

S. M. I. H.