Travailing for Souls by I. H. Evans

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Nov 25, 1909

Travailing for Souls

By I. H. Evans

“For as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children.” Under inspiration the prophet here sets forth the way in which souls are born into the kingdom of God. Sometimes we fancy this work on the hearts of men is wrought through the eloquence of man, or by his will power, or through some effort that man puts forth in his own strength. But this does not seem to be the teaching of the Word of God. The prophet said, “For as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children.”

The word of God in the earth is committed to man through the operations of the Holy Spirit. Man, by his unaided effort, has no power to bring a soul to Christ. The Holy Spirit works through human agencies. It uses man and man’s inventions as instruments to accomplish its work in behalf of the souls of men.

Another of the Bible writers said, “Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts.” This work of heart regeneration is wrought in the souls of men through the influences of the Holy Spirit and the Word of God, generally using man as an agent in bringing these influences to bear upon the hearts of men.

To Nicodemus Christ said: “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he can not see the kingdom of God. . . . Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he can not enter into the kingdom of God.” These statements show that men are born into the kingdom of God. As the physical birth is generally preceded with travail and suffering, so the Bible teaches that when men are born into the kingdom of God, their birth will be preceded with travail of soul and great spiritual wrestling. “For as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children.”

God has rarely done much for his people when his doing has not been preceded by suffering and heart anguish on the part of some of his professed followers. When the Lord proposed to bring Israel out of Egyptian bondage, he did not send an angel from heaven to act as their leader, independent of man as his visible representative. When the time drew near that Israel should be delivered, the Lord called Moses, the man whom he had selected to act as the deliverer of Israel, from the courts of Pharaoh, and sent him into the wilderness to receive his training, where he remained for forty long years. During this time, while Moses was receiving his fitting up for the great work of acting as the deliverer of Israel, the Lord was preparing the people to leave Egypt. Upon them heavier tasks were laid. They were required to make brick without straw, yet were not to abate in the number of bricks that they were to make in a day; the taskmasters became more and more exacting and cruel; the decree was more rigidly enforced by increased police vigilance in destroying the male children of the Israelites; the lives of the people were made as wretched as cruelty, slavery, bondage, and oppression can make the lives of human beings.

Unfavorable conditions increased with such rapidity that the hearts of the people despaired, and their condition seemed unbearable. In their utter helplessness they prayed unto the Lord for mercy and deliverance, and he sent Moses from

the wilderness to lead them to the promised Canaan. Thus it can be plainly seen that there was great travail of soul before Israel was brought out of Egypt.

In the days of the captivity, when God’s people were in Babylon, deliverance did not come until there was soul agony on the part of at least some of those who were true to God. Read the ninth and tenth chapters of Daniel, and see how the prophet humbled his heart and pleaded with the Lord that he would remember his people. We read that the prophet not only prayed, but that he humbled his heart with fasting, continually pleading with the Lord that he would send deliverance from the Babylonian captivity. The Lord heard the heart prayer of Daniel, and it was but a little time before the kings of Media and Persia commanded Israel to return to Jerusalem.

When the wicked Haman had planned the destruction of the Jews, was their deliverance brought about without wrestling with God? After the decree had been passed that the Jews should be put to death, and fear was in every heart, before any direct promise had been made by God that he would deliver his people, read how the Jews in Babylon humbled themselves by fasting and prayer, beseeching God that he would change the decree that the Jews should be destroyed, to their salvation. This is the proclamation sent out to the Jews in Babylon: “Go, gather together all the Jews that are present in Shushan, and fast ye for me, and neither eat nor drink three days, night or day: I also and my maidens will fast likewise; and so will I go in unto the king, which is not according to the law: and if I perish, I perish.”

Thus there was great wrestling of soul, great travailing among the people of God, before the Lord worked their deliverance. As soon as the people of the Lord humbled their hearts, the Lord began to work wondrously for their deliverance. But, as far as we can understand, God did nothing to save the Jews from their decreed destruction until they set their hearts to seek God and put away their sins.

When Jacob was about to meet Esau, we find that his deliverance was preceded by a night of wrestling and prayer. Probably if ever, in Jacob’s experience, he agonized with God, he did it on that night after he had sent his family across the brook, expecting the next morning to meet his brother Esau.

In the days immediately following the crucifixion of Christ, there seemed no great manifestation of the power of God among the disciples. Not until after the ascension, when the apostles were daily seeking God by prayer and fasting and by confessing their sins, did there come that marvelous pentecostal blessing. After the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, thousands came to Christ in a day. But this marvelous ingathering of souls to Christ was preceded by fasting and prayer and great wrestling with God. “For as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children.” Not even the apostles who were with Christ during his earthly ministry were qualified to go out and preach the gospel until they had wrestled with God in soul agony and prayer and gained a full measure of his blessing.

In the days preceding the Reformation, conditions seemed to be as unfortunate for the growth and development of the cause of God as at any time since the days of Christ. Probably the Catholic Church and the professed people of God had never departed so far from the Lord as at this particular time. Not only was the Word of God disregarded, the priesthood given up to drunkenness, licentiousness, and worldliness, but so far had the church departed from the Lord that it was selling indulgences for sin for paltry sums of money. There were many in the church at that time who deplored this wicked thing, and because they set their hearts to seek God and to protest against the evils in the church, it was possible for the Reformation to make such rapid progress as it made when the time came for its work. Had there not been wrestling with God and travailing of soul, it does not appear that the Reformation would have made such rapid progress throughout Europe as history records.

If space should warrant, it would be easy to show that there has never been a great reformation or a great ingathering of souls at any time, which has not been preceded and accompanied by travail of soul and much prayer and wrestling with God. Even this same principle applies to Christ our Saviour, when working out the salvation of man. Probably Christ, while carrying forward his active ministry in healing the sick, teaching men, journeying from city to city, spent more time in earnest prayer and communion with God than any of his followers have ever spent. In speaking of the reward that should come to Christ in the souls of men, we find the prophet saying, “He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied.”

Of all times in the world’s history when there should be great wrestling with God; when men should consecrate their lives to the work of soul saving, and there should be agony of heart that the Spirit of God should move men to repentance, it would seem that that time would be the last days just preceding the coming of Christ to this earth. Knowing that Christ is soon to come, and that all who do not accept his mercy will be lost, one would think that the remnant church would be much in prayer, forsaking the world and its riches, and agonizing with God that his Spirit would strive with sinners and win them to Christ.

If God has never wrought a mighty work in the past in the saving of souls until there had been great travail and much wrestling in prayer on the part of his people, is it reasonable for us to expect that in the last days, when human history is about to close, the Lord will accomplish the salvation of every honest soul without the travailing of the church? If the church is backslidden, let there be much prayer and communion with God on the part of those who feel the need of a revival of his Spirit, and almost invariably these prayers are answered. But God can do but little in the work of winning souls to Christ until the ministry and his people are travailing for souls. When this time comes, we may expect the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and a large ingathering; “for when Zion travailed, she brought forth her children.” I. H. EVANS.