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The Great Problem

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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jul 12, 1906

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 83, No. 28.

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The Great Problem

By Editor

Editorial

The Great Problem

WE are called upon to solve the great problem of reaching the people of the whole world with a warning message—a message which is to prove a savor of life or a savor of death to the human family. We are to proclaim the gospel of the soon-coming Saviour to all people and to prepare a company for translation. Through the agency of the living preacher, the Bible worker, the medical worker, the teacher, and the canvasser—through every divinely ordained means we are to make known the truth which we have received. We must declare the message whether men will hear or whether they will forbear. All departments of our work should be organized as contributing agencies to the solution of this great problem—how to proclaim the third angel’s message to all the world in this generation. All heaven is interested in this movement, and divine power is pledged to those who will be laborers together with God in finishing this work. O for that consecration which shall not count life dear, if only this great problem may be solved! There must be delay no longer.

Abana and Pharpar

WHEN Naaman the Syrian was told to wash in Jordan seven times for the cleansing of his leprosy, he was angry and inquired, “Are not Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? may I not wash in them, and be clean?” But when Naaman was willing to obey the instruction, “his flesh came again like unto the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.” There is a great tendency now to substitute some human method for the divine plan of salvation through faith in the crucified and risen Christ. Education and environment are the Abana and Pharpar of modern Damascus, and they are thought to be better than the new birth. The result is that sin is hidden rather than healed, until after a time it refuses all restraint and is revealed in outbreaking crime. There is no remedy for the leprosy of sin except the original gospel of Christ. The simple yet powerful means which God has ordained unto our salvation can not be discarded in favor of some human invention. “Other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.” “Though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.” Abana and Pharpar are not better than the waters of Israel.