“GOD” IS WEIGHING HIS PEOPLE”
By A. F. Ballenger
During the last few years more than twenty-five thousand Seventh-day Adventists, as a result of the appeals from the Spirit of Prophecy, the pulpit, and the press of the denomination, have come to realize the need of the baptism of the Holy Spirit, and have sought the Lord definitely for the promised power from on high. With each one of these I desire to speak a few words through the columns of the REVIEW AND HERALD. Have you lost the effect of the message? Once your heart was stirred with it. Does your heart still burn with thankfulness for the power already received, and throb with faith and hope for the future fullness which is yet to fall in the latter rain on the faithful of the little flock? Have you become discouraged with what you deem an unexplained delay? Are you weary of waiting? Were you honest with God and your soul, when, kneeling, you said you yielded all, and then joined in prayer for the promised power to witness for God? Were you really in earnest? Did you really give up all? Have you kept your all upon the altar? Do you still hunger and thirst for power to present “the everlasting gospel” to the world in all its glory? Or did you make this move because nearly all the preachers and people made it? And now that some of the preachers and some of the people have lost the effect of the message, how is it with you? Have you lost it? Have you concluded that there is nothing to it after all? Have you fallen back to your old low level, to live a defeated life? Is your view of the matter the same as that reflected in the following quotation? “I conclude that the whole thing is a failure because I have not heard anything about the message of late. Once the first-page articles in the REVIEW were devoted to the subject of the reception of the Holy Spirit, but now they are devoted to canvassing, and I have no burden for that. Once the message at the camp-meetings was, ‘Receive ye the Holy Ghost,’ but now it is not. Once the leading editorial in the REVIEW each week closed with the same words, but now it does not. Isn’t that an evidence that the whole thing has been abandoned as a failure?” Yes, with many persons it has. But with some it has not. Once the Lord himself came down upon Sinai, and in a most impressive manner delivered a message to Israel. This was followed by a general revival. Everybody, preachers and people, indorsed the message. All testified that they accepted the message, and promised to live on a higher plane. Suddenly the messenger disappeared, and they heard the message no more. Because the Lord did not come down on the mount and repeat the Ten Commandments every ten days or so, but was silent concerning the message for forty days, most of the people, preachers and all, decided that the message was a failure, and returned to their former ways. A few who went forward in that revival retained the force of the message during all the forty days, yes, during all the forty years, yes, forever.
The Lord could have had a sweeping revival every afternoon during all the forty days, and all the forty years of the wilderness experience, if He had repeated the message with as loud a voice, and with as much earthquake, fire, and smoke, as He did at the first.218Well, if He could, why didn’t He?—Because He did not wish to be continually thundering at His people; because He will not have a people who remain so far away from Him, and who are so dull of hearing, that it takes a thundering voice, a melting mountain, and an earthquake continually to hold their attention. The Lord did not take pleasure in talking so loud at Sinai. He did it because He must; because the people were so far away—not so far in point of rods and miles, but in point of acquaintance with Him. When He spoke to Moses, He asked him to come close to Him, and when he came, He lowered His voice to a quiet conversational tone; “and the Lord spoke unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend.” Ex. 33:11. Stirring revivals are necessary in the Church, and the Lord conducted another at the close of the forty days, and often during the forty years, and during the time of the Judges, and of the kings, and of the later captivity, in the time of John the Baptist, of Pentecost, of Wycliffe, Huss, Jerome, Luther, Wesley, and William Miller. But after the “thunderings and lightnings” of Sinai there came a time of calm. So after every great awakening there comes a quiet time. For it is in the quiet time, not in the earthquake, that character is built. The earthquakes are to rend the rocks from the bosom of the earth, but it is in the quiet of the calm that the character is carved out by the now gentle hand that hitherto had rent the rocks. About forty years ago the same message which in recent years has been sounding in the ears of the children of the Third Angel’s Message, was given to their fathers. Just as God tested the fathers in the wilderness at the beginning of the forty years, and their children at its close, so the Lord is to-day testing the children of the “present truth.” Here is a description of the message given forty years ago, with a statement of its meaning:—
“I was shown that the testimony to the Laodiceans applies to God’s people at the present time, and the reason it has not accomplished a greater work is because of the hardness of their hearts. But God has given the message time to do its work. The heart must be purified from sins which have so long shut out Jesus. This fearful message will do its work. When it was first presented, it led to close examination of heart. Sins were confessed, and the people of God were stirred everywhere. Nearly all believed that this message would end in the loud cry of the third angel. But as they failed to see the powerful work accomplished in a short time, they lost the effect of the message. I saw that this message would not accomplish its work in a few short months. It is designed to arouse the people of God, to discover to them their backslidings, and to lead to zealous repentance, that they may be favored with the presence of Jesus, and be fitted for the loud cry of the third angel. As this message affected the heart, it led to deep humility before God. Angels were sent in every direction to prepare unbelieving hearts for the truth. The cause of God began to rise, and His people were acquainted with their position. If the counsel of the True Witness had been fully heeded, God would have wrought for His people in greater power. Yet the efforts made since the message has been given, have been blessed of God, and many souls have been brought from error and darkness to rejoice in the truth. “God will prove His people. Jesus bears patiently with them, and does not spew them out of His mouth in a moment. Said the angel, ‘God is weighing His people.’ If the message had been of as short duration as many of us supposed, there would have been no time for them to develop character. Many moved from feeling, not from principle and faith, and this solemn, fearful message stirred them. It wrought upon their feelings and excited their fears, but did not accomplish the work which God designed that it should. God reads the heart. Lest His people should be deceived in regard to themselves, He gives them time for the excitement to wear off, and then proves them to see if they will obey the counsel of the True Witness. “God leads His people on, step by step. He brings them up to different points calculated to manifest what is in the heart. Some endure at one point, but fall off at the next. At every advanced point the heart is tested and tried a little closer. If the professed people of God find their hearts opposed to this straight work, it should convince them that they have a work to do to overcome, if they would not be spewed out of the mouth of the Lord. Said the angel, ‘God will bring His work closer and closer to test and prove every one of His people.’ Some are willing to receive one point; but when God brings them to another testing point, they shrink from it and stand back, because they find that it strikes directly at some cherished idol. Here they have opportunity to see what is in their hearts that shuts out Jesus. They prize something higher than the truth, and their hearts are not prepared to receive Jesus. Individuals are tested and proved a length of time to see if they will sacrifice their idols and heed the counsel of the True Witness. If any will not be purified through obeying the truth, and overcome their selfishness, their pride and evil passions, the angels of God have the charge, ‘They are joined to their idols, let them alone,’ and they pass on to their work, leaving these, with their sinful traits unsubdued, to the control of evil angels. Those who come up to every point, and stand every test, and overcome, be the price what it may, have heeded the counsel of the True Witness, and they will receive the latter rain, and thus be fitted for translation.” And now, my doubting, discouraged brother or sister, can you not see that in this time of waiting, while you have been weighing the message and pronouncing it wanting, God has been weighing you—weighing your faithfulness, weighing your patience, weighing your loyalty? Has this time of calm revealed to you your faithlessness? Has it revealed your fickleness? Has it revealed your murmuring spirit? Has it revealed your tendency to follow the crowd,—to repent when the crowd repents, and backslide when the crowd backslides? If it has, then hasten to repent. Do not wait for the next revival to come. Have a revival of your own. Have it now. If you have spent this time of calm in doubting and murmuring and sinning, as you did before the revival, you are behind the moving host. You are in danger of being lost forever. Seek the Lord now, to-day, for cleansing from those sins that have been brought to light by this waiting time. You are not fit for the fullness of the Holy Ghost if you can not maintain your integrity in a little time of waiting while the Lord works a needed preparation for that power. Do not wait until the Lord raises His voice in trumpet tones, and makes you tremble in terror. Go close to Him. “Whosoever will” let him come. “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden.” “Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.” Go close to Him. Tell Him of the weakness which the waiting time has revealed in you. That is what I am doing. Thank Him for the time of calm. Ask him to burn out the discovered dross, and to build in His own blessed life. Tell Him you want to learn to talk with Him face to face. Tell Him that you want to learn to hear Him when He speaks with His “still small voice,” so He will not have to speak so loud. Then open your Bible, and listen to Him speak. “Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.” “If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him?” A. F. BALLENGER.