p. 7 | WHAT DOES IT MEAN? by Estella Houser

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jan 1, 1901

WHAT DOES IT MEAN?

By Estella Houser

ESTELLA HOUSER

The Third Angel’s Message is the greatest trust ever committed to one generation of men. The vastness of this work, the countries yet unentered, and the meager efforts put forth in some of the most extensive fields where a beginning has been made, are being brought out from month to month in our studies. To him who has not faith, the task seems overwhelming, but with our Father “all things are possible.” “What He had promised, He was able also to perform.” Rom. 4:21.

Noah, clothed with power from on high, warned the people of his generation, so that they were without excuse, and not one perished in the flood because he had had no opportunity to be saved. In one day Jonah warned Nineveh, that “exceeding great city of three-days’ journey.” When Jonah really gave himself to that work, God wrought through him, and placed his message upon the lips of others, so that before three days had passed, the city was in sackcloth, repenting of their sins and accepting the proffered pardon and salvation.

After the baptism of the Spirit, for which the disciples had been told to tarry at Jerusalem, five thousand were converted in a day. The early church had “all things common,” with one absorbing ambition—to preach Christ. Wealth was laid at the apostles’ feet, laymen as well as their leaders labored to carry out the Master’s last commission, and numbers were daily added to the church—such as were being saved. True, it required persecution to scatter them into the regions beyond; but the marvelous success that crowned their efforts demonstrated that even this was permitted of the Lord. Before Paul’s work was completed, the gospel had been so extensively preached that he wrote to the Romans, “Your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world.”

Look at the power that marked the Reformation; and the world-wide progress of the first angel’s message, which was almost simultaneously proclaimed in every country and mission station on the globe. All these things inspire courage. If the Lord could do such remarkable works with one man, or a few at most, with limited facilities, what may we not expect Him to accomplish now with the body of Seventh-day Adventists, if every man, woman, and child is imbued with the missionary spirit? We have the word of our King that the message of His return will be proclaimed to the uttermost part of the earth. We have His promise, pledged by His life, that the worker shall not go forth alone: “Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.” And we already see evidences of the fulfillment of these promises in the results of the labors of the many who, whole-heartedly, have labored at home, or have gone to the more distant and more needy regions beyond. Interests are arising, until we sometimes are almost amazed, and wonder how so many have heard the truth. The message is spreading: The living preacher is called for in far more places than he is able to fill, in the foreign field even more than at home. But this is only the beginning of the great work God would have us do. Time is fast hastening. Our opportunities are decreasing, and yet the work must be finished.

What does it mean? Discouragement?—No! Rather the consecration, at the beginning of this new year, of every power to the Lord’s work. It should be the first in the home, in our business, yea, the all-absorbing passion of our lives.

We can not afford to withhold one mite of our strength, or of our time, or of our intellect from this all-important work now. Never will we have a better opportunity. Soon the work will close. Whether we share in its final triumph depends upon our relation to it to-day.