A RIGHT VIEW OF THE MESSAGE.
By L. A. S.
The Third Angel’s Message, as now proclaimed in the earth, is a series of three messages blended into one. First came the angel proclaiming the hour of God’s judgment; next the angel crying, “Babylon is fallen, is fallen;” and the third angel followed, giving a warning against the worship of the “Beast” and his “Image.” But with the beginning of the message, “Babylon is fallen,” the message of the hour of God’s judgment did not cease; and with the first sounding of the warning against the worship of the Beast and his Image the two messages preceding it did not terminate; but the second message was joined with the first, and the third was joined with the first and second. And neither the first nor the second message has lost any degree of its importance since the day it was first proclaimed. To give these messages to the world has been the work of Seventh-day Adventists. As the work has progressed, new features have been added, and new lines of work have been opened up; but the appearance of a new feature in this great gospel enterprise did not mean that any already-existing feature was to disappear; and the opening up of a new line of effort did not mean that the work was to cease upon any line already begun. All the features which had given character to the message were to be retained, and no line of work was to be lessened in importance as the message advanced toward the final issue. “There is to be no change in the general features of our work. It is to stand as clear and distinct as prophecy has made it. . . . If any stand in the way, to hinder the advancement of the work in the lines that God has appointed, they will displease God. No line of truth that has made the Seventh-day Adventist people what they are, is to be weakened. We have the old landmarks of truth, experience, and duty, and we are to stand firmly in defense of our principles, in full view of the world.” — “Testimonies for the Church,” Vol. VI, page 17. “The three angels of Revelation 14 are represented as flying in the midst of heaven, symbolizing the work of those who proclaim the First, Second, and Third Angels’ Messages. All are linked together. The evidences of the abiding, ever-living truth of these grand messages, that mean so much to the Church, that have awakened such intense opposition from the religious world, are not extinct. Satan is constantly seeking to cast a shadow about these messages, so that the people of God shall not clearly discern their import, their time and place; but they live, and are to exert their power upon our religious experience while time shall last.” — Id. Let us not make the mistake of thinking that some lines of the work have been outgrown; that they have “had their day,” and that the issues to which they pertained are now dead. This is what the enemy of the message would like to have us believe. He would be pleased to have us look with disfavor upon some older line of effort, which perhaps has lost much of its old-time prominence, and bestow all our thought and attention upon some newer line of work, which, by reason of its novelty or by force of other circumstances, may be claiming the particular attention of our people. Not that there is any great danger of attaching undue importance to any branch of the work of the Third Angel’s Message, for we can hardly overestimate the importance of any of the special truths this message bears to the world; but there is danger that we shall fail to realize that every branch of the work is of vast importance, and must be pushed forward with unfailing energy and faith. It is human nature to be attracted to the thing which is “at the front.” There is a class of people who do not want to be connected with a work unless it is “on the boom.” But this is not the class of people most needed by the Third Angel’s Message. The call is not so much for those who are willing to catch on and ride when something is going on the top wave of prosperity, as for those who are willing to get behind and push, simply because they believe the work is of the Lord, though it may be beset with difficulties and discouragements. We must be careful not to get too narrow a view of the work of the Third Angel’s Message. The cause of God is not moving forward in column form, permitting of only one part of it being at the front, with all other parts necessarily in the rear, so that to be up abreast of the work we must be connected with the one thing at the head; but the cause is advancing as a line of battle, presenting an extended front, which includes all the essential departments of the work, every “line of truth that has made the Seventh-day Adventist people what they are.” No one of these lines of truth is to be weakened, or treated as though it had been relegated to the rear. Nor is one branch of the work to consider itself independent of another branch. To a considerable extent this feeling has prevailed among the workers, and it is most unfortunate. The work is one, even as the Church is one body, though having many members. “For the body is not one member, but many,” wrote Paul to the Corinthians; and in the same connection we are instructed and admonished thus: “If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where were the smelling? But now hath God set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased Him. And if they were all one member, where were the body? But now are they many members, yet but one body. And the eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee: nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you. . . . That there should be no schism in the body; but that the members should have the same care one for another. And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honored, all the members rejoice with it. Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular.” 1 Cor. 12: 17–27. One member of the body cannot say to another member, “I have no need of you.” The whole body would speedily become impotent if the members should behave themselves thus. And one part of the message of present truth cannot say to another part, “I have no need of you.” One part of the line of battle cannot speak thus to another part, for it is of the utmost importance that the whole line be kept intact; since if any part is broken, all parts are likely to suffer defeat.785 Then let it be believed, and ever kept in mind, that “no line of truth that has made the Seventh-day Adventist people what they are, is to be weakened.” There are no outgrown issues in this work. Let every part of the line of present truth be made strong, and let all parts move forward together. God’s hand has been in the development of this work, and He has brought forward just the agencies needed to oppose the world’s forces of sin and error. Each line of truth presented is a part of the everlasting gospel which must go to the world in this generation, and will hasten the coming of the world’s Redeemer. “Press together,” is the word; of this there is opportunity, and there is need.