WHERE ARE THEY THAT KEEP THE COMMANDMENTS OF GOD AND THE FAITH OF JESUS?
By Hart Hall
There is probably no text in the word of God more familiar to us as a Sabbath-keeping people than Rev. 14:12. It is used by us in our publications, in our sermons, in our Bible readings and conversations, as referring to ourselves as a denomination; but it is not easy always to persuade others to our belief. The public at large, and even friends and relatives of our earnest converts, do not agree with us in our applications of the text. And why? The difficulty is not hard to explain. It is because they do not see in us the commendatory characteristics referred to in the text. If, in their opinion, we are not laboring under false pretenses by assuming the application, we are at least traveling the journey of life under a misnomer. “You profess to keep the commandments, but where,” they say, “is the patience of the saints revealed in your people—the very first qualification of the text?” “Where is the faith of Jesus manifested among you? and where are the mighty works which are the natural concomitant of such faith?” And, brethren, are we able to say, “Here they are, behold them”? Are not these interrogations in many cases the natural inquiries of the honest, truth-seeking mind? The Spirit of Prophecy has stated that “the burden of our message is not only the commandments of God, but the faith of Jesus.” The faith of Jesus is not yet a distinctive feature of our denomination; and until it is, we as a denomination are not the people referred to in the Third Angel’s Message. We may be sometime by the grace of God and our own diligence, but we are not now. The world is being engulfed in a great flood of moral and spiritual darkness. To even the casual observer the condition of things is appalling. Satan has come down with great power, knowing that he has but a short time. And we know that when God proposes to do a great work in the earth, it is Satan’s plan to parry the force of that work by some of his counterfeiting energy. God’s work for this time must be done, he is waiting patiently to do it, and the time is already far spent. Satan is bringing rapidly to the front his deceptions, his counterfeits, and his infidelity; while God’s great work, which is to shake the world and lighten it with its glory, is yet in comparative seclusion. And why is it that God’s work is so behind? The answer is given: “The Lord can do little for his people because of their limited faith.” And why is their faith so limited? “The ministers have not presented Christ in his fullness to the people, neither in the churches nor in the new fields, and the people have not an intelligent faith.” So, then, a summary of the case is that God’s work is hindered by the failure of the ministers to preach Christ in his fullness. Paul’s success in the work of God lay in his determination to know nothing save Jesus Christ and him crucified. And unto us who are saved it is the power of God. 1 Cor. 1:18. But to these sentinels upon the walls of Zion it is too narrow and confining a theme. They must broaden out into wider fields and greener pastures. And all this in a time when the seven last plagues are about to fall, and the Lord is admonishing us to “get ready.” Some one inquires, “How shall we obtain a better faith than we now have?” “Faith cometh by hearing . . . the word of God.” When we feed upon the word of God so that it becomes to us, as it did to Job, more than our necessary food; when we meditate upon it day and night, as David did; when we pray, as Daniel did, for it to come to pass,—then we shall begin to believe it in a way that will be faith; for faith is belief. We shall receive it not as the word of man, but as it is in truth, the word of God. And receiving it as his word, his message, we shall be so burdened with its import that we shall be always communing with him about it. We shall talk it over with God until his message shall be our message, his work our work, his faith in his word our faith in his word. And that is the faith of God, that is the faith of Jesus. And when we deliver this message of his in his way, he will be speaking directly through us; and that is the testimony of Jesus,—the spirit of prophecy, which everyone of the remnant seed will have who keep the commandments of God. Rev. 12:17; 19:10; Eph. 1:17. The faith of the prophets has brought fire from heaven, caused the clouds to withhold rain and to give it again. It has parted the Red Sea, stopped the rushing waters of the Jordan, stayed the sun and moon in their courses, and filled dead flesh with life again. All nature, and even the God of nature, has responded, and will respond now, to the call of faith. Is this our faith? If it is not, it is because, as the Lord has told us, “the need of faith should be kept before the church; for the knowledge of our privileges has become almost extinct.” Do we long for the faith and power of Elijah to attend our labor? “When we have men as devoted as Elijah, and possessing the faith which he had, we shall see that God will reveal himself to us as he did to holy men of old. When we have men who, while they acknowledge their deficiencies, will plead with God in earnest faith, as did Jacob, we shall see the same results. Power will come from God to man in answer to the prayer of faith.” Let us awake and heed the Saviour’s earnest admonition to “have the faith of God.” Mark 11:22, margin. “For this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.”