The Proving of Israel, Ancient and Modern
By P. T. Magan
THE men and women who, under God, founded the Seventh-day Adventist denomination did bravely and well. They knew what it was to fight great battles for the Almighty. They knew what it was to endure hardships, privations, ridicule, and scoffing. Almost insurmountable obstacles were in their path. They knew what it was to search their Bibles and produce from them a beautiful and harmonious system of truth. Many of these men and women are now sleeping in their graves. Their sturdy minds and bodies have been laid to rest. Those of us who have come into the faith later, have found a denomination already formed and established. The principles which constitute the pillars of our faith were clearly defined before we mounted the stage of action. We found ourselves not only in possession of the wonderful system of truth which the toil of others had dug from the written Word, but we found ourselves also in possession of fine institutions and facilities with which to carry forward the work. Our lot differs widely from that of the pioneers in this movement. In the beginning there was no system, no organization. The machinery of conferences and tract societies, which can now so easily be set in motion for any good cause, and which works so powerfully and effectively, was not then in existence. To-day there are a hundred thousand or more Seventh-day Adventists in the world. In the early days there was only a handful. When it is necessary to do something now for the advancement of the message, we are a hundred thousand strong to divide the cost and the work, with an organization second to none on earth. We have sixty sanitariums. They had none. We have eleven colleges and academies in the United States alone. They did not have any. And yet in spite of all our advantages, they, with only strong faith in God, and brave, strong hearts, did proportionately far more than we are doing. Having inherited so much, we have not seen the necessity of inuring ourselves to hardships and struggles for the truth’s sake, as did our fathers in the faith. In these respects our lot has been much like that of those who came after Joshua and the generation of Israel who conquered the land. Nevertheless the Lord has left us some blessings in disguise, just as he did ancient Israel. Our fathers did nobly and well in planting this truth in the various parts of the world. They left us, however, a large number of institutions deeply in debt. From one standpoint, we think that this ought never to have been. From another standpoint, it looks as if God had left these debts purposely, just as he “left those nations, without driving them out hastily; neither delivered he them into the hand of Joshua.” God is now turning this condition into a blessing to us who have come later. As God left the five lords of the Philistines, the Sidonians, and the Hivites “to prove Israel” and “to teach them war,” so also the Lord has allowed these debts to remain in order that the present generation may be tested and proved. Our task is light in comparison with that of our fathers. We are apt to forget all the good they accomplished, and become absorbed in brooding over the wrong they did us in leaving a few hundred thousand dollars of unpaid debts on the institutions. To be sure, those who went before us should not have made these debts. But shall we stop and turn pale because of them?—Never! It may be that God had a hand in the leaving of these debts, after all, just as he left some heathen tribes for the sons of those who conquered Palestine to wipe out. He left those tribes “to prove Israel,” and “to teach them war, at the least such as before knew nothing thereof,” “even as many of Israel as had not known all the wars of Canaan.” Many of us, Seventh-day Adventists of the present day, were living in ease and contentment when we discovered these our enemies in the land—the debts on our institutions. For years messages had been coming to us from the Lord reproving us for our sloth and indolence in the work. And now these debts have been left “to prove [modern] Israel by them, even as many of [modern] Israel as had not known all the wars” of the early days. They have been left “only that the generations of the children of [modern] Israel might know, to teach them war, at the least such as before knew nothing thereof.” There are many of us in this latter class. There are many Seventh-day Adventists at the present day who have never known hard times for the truth’s sake. And the Lord is telling us that in this matter of the relief of our schools “he is testing his people and his institutions to see if they will work together and be of one mind in self-denial and self-sacrifice.” We are now engaged in a tremendous campaign for the relief of the schools and the founding of our medical college. Never have our people been more stirred by any enterprise than by the campaign for the sale of “Christ’s Object Lessons.” Besides this, a great interest is springing up in the Missionary Acre Fund, the proceeds of which go for the securing of the Battle Creek College buildings for our medical college. From the Atlantic to the Pacific our people are working like true-hearted Christians to sell “Christ’s Object Lessons.” The “Five lords of the Philistines” turned out, after all, to be a blessing to ancient Israel; that is, the work of exterminating them was a great blessing. In just the same manner the wiping out of these debts will prove a great blessing to us, if we will lay hold of the work and cheerfully do it. Dear reader, what are you doing? Have you sold your quota of “Christ’s Object Lessons”? If you have not, will you do so without delay? If you have, will you help some poor, weak brother who has not sold his? Have you done any thing for the Relief of the Schools Fund? The money given to this fund is used to purchase the material out of which “Christ’s Object Lessons” is manufactured. Now, as books are being sold so fast, we are desperately in need of more money for this fund. Many are helping the second and third time, and their help is greatly appreciated. Are you doing anything to help the Missionary Acre Fund? We have all been blessed by the health reform principles. Let us do something to provide a building where young men and women may be trained to go out and teach those principles. As we do the work before us, we can think of the struggles of our fathers. They endured much. They accomplished much nobly and well, but they did not accomplish all. Something has been left for us to do. In the ages to come, in the kingdom of God, a fuller meaning of all these battles here on earth will be made clear to the vision of every saint, and a full reward will be given to all who have loyally fought beneath the banner of Prince Immanuel.22 For the present, we know that when we engage in the sale of “Christ’s Object Lessons” and in the Missionary Acre work, a sweet blessing comes to us from above. As we do this work, we realize the necessity of putting away our sins, and humbly seeking God. One quarter of this year of our Lord nineteen hundred and two is already passed. Nevertheless the life and power that is entering the hearts of our people to do the work bids fair to make this the year of jubilee,—the year when all the debts of the denomination will be paid. Let us pray on and press on that the words of Boaz to Ruth may be realized in our lives: “The Lord recompense thy work, and a full reward be given thee of the Lord God of Israel, under whose wings thou art come to trust.”
P. T. MAGAN.