The Real Crisis by F. M. W.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jan 5, 1911

The Real Crisis

By F. M. W.

In Personal Christian Experience

THE hours of trial in Christian experience are not necessarily hours of crisis. Obstacles and difficulties oftentimes are the means permitted of God whereby we are driven to him for strength and power with which to meet them. Many a disciple has remained true to God and steadfast for right in the face of opposition, who later has succumbed to the spirit of indifference. The real crises in Christian life are those times in which there is a letting go of God, and in consequence a paralysis of spiritual power.

This paralysis may not be indicated by outward experience. There still may be maintained an apparent interest in church activities. The round of church service may be kept up, gifts to beneficent enterprises may be unlessened; but in the inmost heart there is a loss of that consciousness of God's abiding presence which the true disciple has come to know and appreciate.

When we find ourselves drifting with the current, the prey of indifference and spiritual slothfulness, then is the time we need to take warning of our condition, and cry mightily to God for a new awakening. Others may not recognize the drifting, the indolence, the letting down of the high and holy standard in the sanctuary of the soul; but we may recognize it through the gentle monitor of the Holy Spirit, which will speak to us in the silent hours of communion with our Lord and Master. When we find ourselves in this condition, let us hasten to return. By sincere, earnest prayer, by quiet meditation, by study of the Word of truth, by renewed consecration of heart and life and service, let us seek again to enter into that close and holy communion with the blessed Master which it is our privilege to enjoy.

In the Church of God

Similarly, the real crisis in the history of the church of Christ is not necessarily the time of trial and persecution. Going back through the history of the past, we find that the fires of persecution have oftentimes burned out the dross and purified the church of God. The fierce onslaught of the adversary has led the church to humble itself under the mighty hand of God, seeking him for help and deliverance.

The time of real crisis in the church of God, as in individual Christian experience, is the time of apparent lack of spiritual power. The church may be engaged in great enterprises. It may operate, and operate successfully, large institutions; it may donate annually thousands of dollars to missionary and philanthropic work. All this is good. The church would be recreant to its trust if it did not do this; and yet it may even do this, and after all not possess that measure of quickening spiritual power which will enable it to fill its place in God's great purpose.

The power of the church in the first century was in its power of evangelism. It stood as a living witness to the world of the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ. It accomplished this for God in turning thousands of men and women from darkness to light. No less will this spirit of evangelism constitute the power of the church to-day. It will constitute the power of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. We sometimes point with pride to the achievements of the past; we tell of the many mission stations we have opened, of the thousands of dollars given to missionary enterprises, of the thousands of copies of books and periodicals distributed. These are all well and good. While we can thank the Lord for what he has enabled us to do, there comes to us the reflection that we should have done much more. But the doing of these things, in and of themselves, is not necessarily an evidence of the possession of great spiritual power by the church.

Is there going forth from our churches to-day the old-time spirit of missionary evangelism, which marked the churches of apostolic days? Is there in our

preaching a living, quickening power that reveals to men the sinfulness of sin, and leads them to throw themselves upon God's mercy for deliverance? Do we rest, see the spirit of love in church fellowship? Do we see in our pulpit ministrations, in our missionary operations, in our general church activities, that demonstration of the spirit of power which should characterize this last-day movement? Here and there we may witness its manifestation, but generally it is too sadly lacking.

This movement to-day has reached a crisis in its history. It can no longer depend upon organization as such to carry forward its work. It can not build upon its past record of achievement. It can not fall back upon its institutions. It needs something more than these material means and agencies. It needs the quickening, vivifying power of the Spirit of God to transform human effort, to work in and through organization,—a power which shall go with convincing force, revealing the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ, and demonstrating to the world that the resources of heaven are back of this movement.

The great need of the church of God to-day is the Holy Spirit, which, in its train, will bring every other needed blessing. But the church of God as a whole can possess this spirit of power only as it is possessed by its individual members. It will take possession of the human heart only as that heart is fully dedicated to the service of God. Hence, the call of God to-day to this church, is the call to renewed consecration, a consecration of the personal life. God to-day desires to fill every heart, to control every life, to rule and reign in every individual experience. He must do this if this work shall triumph in the glory and power of his Holy Spirit. May every heart cry out to God for deliverance from sin and for the power of the Holy Spirit in the life. Only by the possession of this Spirit on the part of every believer and by the church as a whole, can this movement meet the mind of God and triumph at last.

F. M. W.