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The ‘Inspiration of a Great Task

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Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Oct 21, 1902

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 79, No. 42.

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The ‘Inspiration of a Great Task

By William Ambrose Spicer

In the narrative of George Müller's life of faith and great achievement occurs this testimony:—
I had a secret satisfaction in the greatness of the difficulties which were in the way. So far from being cast down on account of them, they delighted my soul; for I only desired to do the will of God in this matter.
Who that has been fighting the good fight of faith does not recognize this experience of the blessedness of trusting God amidst difficulties? When the task is so great that only by the special power of God can there be any hope of its accomplishment, there is courage and inspiration in the very impossibilities of the situation.
It is where man's efforts are absolutely vain that we may look for the strong arm of the Lord to be revealed. When Israel stood before the Red Sea with no way of escape, God “made the depths of the sea a way for the ransomed to pass over.”
The difficulties are only so many evidences that God will interpose his deliverances. When the believer has learned the happy secret of finding only renewed courage in the greatness of the task or the difficulties of the way, he has indeed entered into the faith that already hath overcome the world.
Facing the tremendous task of carrying God's final message of salvation to all the earth, as we do now, the thought may sometimes come, “How can it be accomplished in this generation? “Who is sufficient for these things?”—“Our sufficiency is of God,” and by his grace it can be done.
Our workers out amidst the unwarned millions, in the most populous and least worked fields, see, I believe, far more of the evidences that God is cutting short his work than do those who are in the home land. Our hope for the speedy finishing of the work is in the lands abroad. And there we may see God's hand at work. His glorious arm alone can do the great things that must be done. He has opened wide the doors. “The Lord hath made bare his holy arm in the eyes of all the nations; and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.” W. A. S.