p. 35 | Pull at the Oar

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jul 18, 1871

Pull at the Oar.

THE servants of Jesus are like rowers in a boat. They sit with their backs to the bow, and cannot see what lies ahead. But the helmsman at the stern is on the look-out, and he steers the boat whithersoever he will. So in our godly undertakings we sit with our backs to the future. It is all unknown, untried, impenetrable. We know not what the morrow may bring forth. But it is our business to pull at the oar of prayer and earnest labor. There is a divine Helmsman who sees the future, and who holds the rudder in his hand. We have only to commit our ways to him, and to pull at the oar of duty. This is trust. This is faith. This is the way that Paul pulled his boat toward Rome, not knowing or caring what stripes and imprisonments, or what triumphs of the gospel, were awaiting him there. What a blessed thing it is that we cannot foresee the future. We might be so paralyzed by the perils, or difficulties, or the sufferings before us, that we would drop our oars in despair. Every true Christian toiler is continually “saved by hope.” He pulls at the oar and trusts.—Evangelist.