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COURAGE IN THE LORD

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Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jul 22, 1880

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 6, No. 28.

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COURAGE IN THE LORD.

By James White

TWENTY years since, while at a meeting in the house of worship at Wolcott, Vt., under great depression of mind, Elder Albert Stone arose in the stand, and with his own mind and heart imbued with the spirit of faith and hope, repeated the words, "Courage in the Lord. Courage in the Lord, brethren. Courage in the Lord." These words, repeated three times, seemed electrifying. The powers of darkness gave way, and light, hope, faith, and courage revived, and we wept for joy.
We had been burdened with cares and perpetual toil in feeble health, and were sinking in spirits. It seemed to us that the Lord used this dear fellow-laborer to break the bands that held us, and lead us out into freedom. God bless Brother Stone in his age. The words came home to our aching heart with greater power and sweetness coming from one who was never carried away in flights of feeling, but whose position and course were ever as firm as that substance which bears his name.
Courage in the Lord! What words! At their very mention the Christian heart throbs with joy. Sanctified courage is needed by all who labor in the cause of God. The powers of darkness never pressed more heavily upon the minds and hearts of Christ's embassadors than at the present time. The field of our labor is unlimited; the harvest is truly great, and laborers are few. Men among us who have long stood under heavy burdens are failing in health and courage, and the time has fully come when no shade of darkness should be cast, when no cause of discouragement should be whispered.
God is our hope, and our only hope. He that has been with us may still be seen to be with us, as he has promised to be with us to the end. He has given us glorious victories when we have been humble, faithful, hopeful and true. The very history of the rise and progress of the cause presents a miracle of God's power and love. "Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory, for thy mercy, and for thy truth's sake. Wherefore should the heathen say, Where is now their God? But our God is in the heavens. He hath done whatsoever he hath pleased."
We must all learn to regard the progress of the cause of present truth as the work of God, in a special sense. Have we succeeded in our periodicals and publications? It is because God has helped us. He has been our counselor and guide. In our organization and system to secure support to the ministry, his hand is distinctly seen. Our Sanitarium and our beloved College have been planted by his hand. Our missions at home and abroad have been blessed with marked prosperity, because He who said, "Lo I am with you always, even unto the end of the world," has been with them in their fields of labor.
The enemy of all good has evidently watched our progress, and has opposed the work most vigorously at every step. This we might expect from the nature of the work in which we are engaged, and the history of his workings in the past. He knows that his career must soon close. "The devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time." Rev. 12:12. "And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. Verse 17.
Satan's methods of attack are such as will best serve his cause, in his rebellion against the government of God, and the plan of redemption through Jesus Christ. His temptations upon the human mind, ever powerful, increase as we approach the end of our work. Division and subdivision of the church of Jesus Christ, has ever been his forte, and his power to estrange the hearts of near and dear friends increases. As union is strength, so a want of union is the weakness of the church. Discouragements are sure to follow this state of things. Faith grows weak, hope becomes dim, courage departs, and hands hang down,that should be strong in God, to battle in the cause of truth.
Our system of organization, and the principles of union, in faith and modes of labor, which have prevailed from the beginning of our work, have secured to us a greater harmony than exists in any other religious body. Our ministers are united on the doctrines held by S. D. Adventists. Our people sustain the worship of God in the absence of preachers, as no other people do or can, and there is a willingness to sacrifice for the cause of God, that can be found with no other people. And yet, when we consider the high standard sustained by the plainest declaration of God's word, we, as a people, fall far short of doing what we should do, and of being what we should be.
We rejoice in the truth to a certain extent, while that truth does not have that influence upon our lives, our walk, conversation, and devotions, that it must have to meet the mind of God. And what seems most painful, is the fact that in this state of things, many of our overworked ministers are failing in health. Our beloved brother and fellow-laborer, Elder J. N. Andrews, who toiled incessantly for a quarter of a century in this country, and has continued his labors in Europe for five long years, while suffering under bereavements and a series of discouragements that language can but faintly express, is reported to be quite feeble, and fears are entertained that consumption will soon terminate his important labors. Elder Matteson, who labored in this country ardently and successfully for more than ten years, until he was much worn, is laboring in Norway, to the very extent of his strength. Elder Loughborough, who labored upon the American continent faithfully a quarter of a century, the last eleven years of which was spent upon the Pacific coast, continues his arduous labors in Old England.
Time, toil, and care are making their marks upon these devoted pioneers of the cause. And while they are wearing out, we do not see men entering upon the work with the same devotion, self-sacrifice, and power that has characterized the ministry of these men. And while such encouraging fields of labor as Colorado are destitute of a single laborer, and other good fields are nearly destitute, several of our most efficient preachers are able to do but very little ministerial labor. Faithful brethren in Colorado have paid for a new tent for the present season, and have money in the bank to sustain laborers, and are actually building a house of worship in Boulder City, and yet there is no laborer in that field, to which there is great immigration, including many of our brethren from different States.
The words sad and painful can hardly express this state of things. Our brethren are ready to sustain the cause with their means, their hands, and their prayers, but where are the laborers? The word agonizing better expresses the feelings of those in whose minds and hearts God has put our world-wide message, and whom he has imbued with an undying love for sinners. In view of the situation, and in behalf of the Executive Board of our General Conference, we have appointed July 24 as a day of humiliation, fasting, and prayer. Our people are requested, as they shall assemble in their respective places of worship on that day, to make the wants of the cause and our duty before God as a people the subject of earnest thought, and on that day offer most earnest prayer to God that he will spare to us our dear Brother Andrews, and that he will raise to health and efficiency those who are laboring under the burden of feebleness and discouragements.
May we not, as a people, lay hold of the word of the Lord by the prophet, and be admonished and benefited by it? "Behold the Lord's hand is not shortened that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear: but your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear." God is love. Our sin-pardoning, loving Lord lives and reigns, and it is our privilege to find in Jesus Christ a full and free pardon for all our sins, and to enjoy sweet communion and fellowship with the Father and his dear Son.
"God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all. If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his son cleanseth us from all sin. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." 1 John 1:5, 7, 9. As we draw near to God, who is a body of pure light, we lose our darkness and become bodies of light, and the spirit of fellowship and union runs through such a body of Christians as freely as the light in which they walk.
God lives and reigns, brethren, and our adorable Redeemer will come into our hearts with all his fullness of blessings, when we return to him with all our hearts, in humiliation, confession, fasting, and earnest prayer. "Is any among you afflicted? let him pray. Is any merry? let him sing psalms. Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord; and the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him. Confess your faults, one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain; and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit. Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth, and one convert him, let him know that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins." James 5:13-20.
When the spirit of confession of faults comes into the church, and confidence in the prayer of faith for the sick shall be revived, and the brethren taste of the pardoning love of Jesus, then will a spirit of tenderness and forbearance, and pity for those who err from the truth under special temptations be manifested, according to the words of our Lord, "Love one another as I have loved you." John 15:12. "Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such a one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted." Gal. 6:1. In the Lord we may have faith, hope, and true courage. Courage in the Lord! Courage in the Lord, brethren! Courage in the Lord!
J. W.