THE WORDS THAT MOVE

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jan 14, 1902

THE WORDS THAT MOVE.

The Christian.

SCOLDING the gospel at people is not the most effective way of presenting God’s message to man. The wrath of man worketh not God’s righteousness, nor man’s salvation.

“Were you ever a fisherman?” said an aged Christian to a student of divinity. “Yes, I have fished with the rod at the rocks,” was his reply. “Oh! but I mean with the net?” “No, I never did.” “Well, you need to learn it. And do you know that when there is thunder, the fish go to the bottom of the sea?” “Yes, I know that to be a fact.” “Well, my young friend, there are very many ministers who don’t seem to think of that.”

Not like hail, and snow, and hurricane, and tempest, does the gracious word of God come most effectively to the hearts of men. The words that break hearts, come from hearts that are broken. Moses said: “My doctrine shall drop as the rain, my speech shall distil as the dew, as the small rain upon the tender herb, and as the showers upon the grass: because I will publish the name of the Lord: ascribe ye greatness unto our God.” Deut. 32: 2, 3.

“Many years ago,” said a writer in the Oberlin Evangelist, “we knew a gospel minister, who had been preaching many a pointed sermon to stir up his people to the work of the Lord. Hope, long deferred, began to threaten heartsickness. At length, his feelings became intensely earnest for the conversion of several of the youth in his congregation. It seemed to him like a mighty baptism of love and prayer for their souls. When the next Sabbath brought him before his people, he tried to tell them, in a plain, simple way, how he had felt for the souls of some of their children, and naturally made some allusions to the need of repentance, and of first love in the Church. It was remarkable, however, that not one stern word fell from his lips. He spoke freely of his own sins, sparingly of theirs. In fact, it seemed to him, that day, as if it would be a great relief to him if—somewhat like his Master—he could bear the sins of his beloved people on his own soul—at least so far as to bow before God, and repent of them all, and especially in view of his own responsibility for those sins. It was natural that he should speak with some feeling of the freeness of pardon through Jesus Christ, even for such grievous sins.

“That day was an era in that church. The house of God was another Bochim, and many an aching heart found relief in tears. The people of God repented, and came up with one heart to the help of the Lord, and many were turned from their sins to praise redeeming love. We noted the lesson at the time, and have ever since deemed it in point to show how those who labor for Christ should bear themselves toward their tardy, and, perhaps, backslidden brethren.”