How It Will Be Done by George B. Thompson

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jul 21, 1903

How It Will Be Done

By George B. Thompson

G. B. THOMPSON

From the Review of Feb. 28, 1899, I copy the following words from the pen of Sister White:—

“Paul lived the gospel that he preached; and if our ministering brethren will live the truth, they will be loving, kind, tender, lowly in heart, unpretending, earnest, devoted. Their works will be their credentials. There would be a hundredfold more conversions than the record shows to-day if God’s workmen were what they should be. God demands truth in the inward parts. The spirit of those in the ministry must correspond to the truth preached.”

We talk of finishing the work in this generation, and of delay no longer, and look upon the vast fields with their unwarned millions sending in a mute appeal for help, and wonder how it will be done. Humanly speaking, the task is impossible, but with God all things are possible. The quotation given above from the spirit of prophecy tells how it can be done. It never can be done through the power of institutions, or by a change of this or that plan, though all this may be necessary and proper; but it is consecration to God that will capture the ramparts of the enemy, and finish the work. God has waited long for this. Has not the limit of his patience and long-suffering been almost reached? There shall be “delay no longer,” thank the Lord.

But this statement from the Holy Spirit makes me feel sad at heart, and as a minister of Christ I feel ashamed. Think of it: “a hundredfold more conversions than the record shows to-day if God’s workmen were what they should be”! As ministers we should weep between the porch and the altar that this sad condition might speedily be changed. There is much labor expended, and much of the Lord’s money used in the home and foreign fields that yield but little returns. Effort after effort is made in new fields, and scarcely any results. Year after year we labor on with only meager returns, one here and there, like the gleaning of grapes when the vintage is over. It might be different if only we were more consecrated.

We have the mightiest truth the world has ever known. God is in it. This generation will witness its triumph, and the Lord will come. It will close in power greater than the “midnight cry.” Hence some of God’s servants will seek and obtain the power which comes from consecrating all to him. The promised blessing will come. Who of God’s servants will receive it? And who will be passed by?

Again I quote from this article:—

“Will the workers in various lines of God’s work ponder these things? A large share of the shallowness of the work is the result of the shallowness of the workers. When the Spirit of God works, something will be done, and in a much larger degree than we have yet seen.”

Shall we not lay these things to heart? O, if all, by becoming tender, gentle, kind, and earnest—consecrated—can accomplish a hundredfold more than now, how speedily the work in all the earth could be done, and our divine Lord come.

Many of our local churches are drying up, dying spiritually. If all would awake and lay hold of the power which awaits our demand and reception in all our churches, what a growth would be witnessed, and voices would be everywhere proclaiming the appearing of the Saviour in the clouds of heaven. My heart longs for this blessed day to dawn, and with a sense of my great need and unitness to receive him in all his fullness, my soul reaches out for a deeper consecration to his work. The feeblest instrument can be used if it is only consecrated to him. How glorious it will be to share in the refreshing, engage in the last terrible struggle against sin and its hosts, and as conquerors enter the promised Canaan.