Go Forward by Editor

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Michigan · Apr 8, 1902

Go Forward

By Editor

Editorial

To

ISAIAH “heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” and his response was, “Here am I; send me.” Then came that blessed command, “Go.” Volunteers whose iniquity has been taken away, and whose sin has been purged, are promptly accepted for service.

Go Forward

WHEN the children of Israel were face to face with the Red Sea, with mountains on each side of their camp, and Pharaoh’s host “overtook them encamping by the sea,” the Lord’s instruction to Moses was, “Speak unto the children of Israel, that they go forward.” The Captain of the Lord’s host never sounds a retreat. No obstacle can prevent the Lord’s people from advancing when they are walking in the way of the Lord. The attack of the enemy will only serve as a stimulus to prevent us from settling down in camp, and the difficulties in the way will bring greater glory to our Leader, when they are met in his name.

Go into the Vineyard

THE laborers were hired, and sent into the vineyard. They were not hired to sit in the market place. At the third hour, the sixth hour, the ninth hour, and the eleventh hour the householder’s instruction to those whom he had hired was, “Go ye also into the vineyard.” It is evident that the service rendered did not fix the rate of wages, as all received the same amount, but the going into the vineyard was a necessary step in the way of receiving the recompense which the householder gave to all the laborers alike. The real motive of service can be shown just as well in one hour as in ten hours. It is not the length of time that one loves, but the fact that he loves, that is of importance. But the love that is real shows itself in service. “Do you value more highly the opportunity of serving him than the ability to make him serve you?”

“Toiling for Jesus, joyfully we go; Toiling for Jesus, in his vineyard here below.”

Go into All the World

EVERY wandering child of God is to hear the Father’s invitation, “Come home.” The Lord will not come in judgment to any soul who has not first heard the call of mercy. This gospel of the kingdom must be preached in all the world. How long will it be before we realize that the Lord has made us the depositaries of light which is to enlighten the world, and that it has been given to us for that very purpose? There is the definite work before us of carrying this message to “every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people.” We must pray, we must study; but real prayer and real study cannot be separated from the experience of service. When we pray, “Thy kingdom come,” our prayer means that we offer ourselves as instrumentalities to be used in the work of hastening the coming of the kingdom. There is no genuine worship of God which does not include in it the element of service for God. Just now is a testing time among God’s people, and he is offering them once more, and perhaps for the last time, the privilege of being used in the closing work. Those who show themselves “faithful over a few things” will be granted the opportunity of undertaking great things for God. Some who are to go to the ends of the earth with this message are to-day living in quiet retirement, with their powers for service undeveloped, and they themselves unconscious of the ability which God has given them. The visit to a neighbor to sell a copy of “Christ’s Object Lessons” may prove to be the first step toward some distant and unentered field. Listen for the voice saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?”

A Missionary People

THE gospel which was preached beforehand to Abraham was found in that wonderful prophecy and promise, “In thee shall all nations be blessed.” Abraham and his descendants were to constitute the channel through which the blessing from God was to flow to all the world. This was their high privilege. “What advantage then hath the Jew? . . . Much every way: chiefly, because that unto them were committed the oracles of God.” These living oracles, the word of life, they received directly from God in their fellowship with him, that they might impart the gift to the whole world. Their own salvation as a nation and as individuals depended upon the faithful fulfillment of their trust. It was only as they fulfilled God’s purpose for them that they could maintain their position as the chosen people. These things have been written for our learning. As soon as God’s people lose their missionary zeal, they lose their right to the blessings promised to Abraham. The very essence of these blessings consists in being able to minister light and life and salvation to all the people of the earth. This is sharing in the character of God, and rightly representing that character to the world. “Ye are the light of the world. . . . Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.”

The One Purpose

IT is time for this people to unite heart and soul in the one purpose to give “the advent message to the world in this generation.” Never was a greater privilege bestowed upon God’s people in any age than is offered to us just now. Such a revelation of the power and glory of the coming of the Lord is to be made to the world in this generation as will prepare the way of the Lord in the hearts of all who will receive the glorious message, and so the Lord himself will come in power and great glory to take his people to himself. This time of a general religious decline is just the opportunity for the glory of the Lord to be revealed, that all flesh may see it together. We are in the last hours of the closing day. Soon the night will come. Now is the time to carry the truth to those who have not heard it. The Lord expects great things of his people just at this time. Shall he be disappointed? Our attitude toward the call of God means much in this critical time. May the Lord arouse his people to a sense of their duty and privilege.

Modern Heathenism

ONE of the most comforting assurances in the Scriptures is the fact that the Lord is “a very present help in trouble,” or “a help in trouble very accessible.” It was to his nearness to his people that Moses appealed as proof of the superiority of Israel’s God over any god of the heathen. “For what great nation is there, that hath a god so nigh unto them, as the Lord our God is whensoever we call upon him?” Any teaching about God and the Bible which tends to overthrow this idea of his nearness is a step toward making our God the same as the gods of the heathen. But this is just what the Higher Criticism is doing. In summing up the results of the Higher Criticism, a writer in The Outlook says: “In all these ways God is made to seem further from us, less personal, and less directly interested in us.” This simple statement is sufficient to condemn the whole thing, and to show that it tends directly toward heathenism. “By their fruits ye shall know them.”