A. N. DURRANT by A. N. Durrant

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Oct 27, 1910

A. N. DURRANT

By A. N. Durrant

Feasting on God's Word—No. 1

A. N. DURRANT

During the “day of salvation,” while the gospel, “the power of God unto salvation,” is being preached, we are invited to a feast, or spiritual supper. We read in Zeph. 1:7, “The Lord hath prepared a sacrifice, he hath bid his guests;” and again, in 1 Cor. 5:7, “Even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us.” At the second coming of Jesus, as judge of the quick and the dead, only those who have eaten of his flesh, which “is meat indeed,” “the living bread which came down from heaven” (John 6:48-58), and have developed a character like his own, will be able to meet him in peace.

He has told us that “man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God” (Luke 4:4), of which he himself is the embodiment, since “the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us” (John 1:14), when he came to earth, as Emmanuel. His words, as given to us through prophets, patriarchs, apostles, and from his own lips, are all rich spiritual morsels for those who “hunger and thirst after righteousness.” They “are spirit, and they are life.”

Reader, are you feasting on the living Word, as God's children did in former days? Read Jer. 15:16; Job 23:12; Rev. 10:9-11. There is a great famine just ahead, when men shall seek, but shall not find, and shall faint and die of spiritual hunger. Amos 8:11-13. “Except ye eat the flesh [Word] of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you.” John 6:53.

Those who neglect the close study and personal application of God's Word, and feed on the vain traditions of men, on the corrupt, trashy, soul-destroying novels devised and inspired by “the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience,” will awaken, at the close of probation, only to hunger and thirst for the Word, and to wander in vain to find it. Amos 8:11-13; Jer. 8:20; Prov. 1:24-31. Having neglected to feast upon God's Word, they will become a feast to the “fowls of the air,” at the close of earth's history, when the plagues of God's wrath and the brightness of Jesus' coming will slay the unsaved. See Jer. 25:31-38; Rev. 16; 19:11-18; 2 Thess. 1:7-10.

We surely have come to the time spoken of by the Holy Spirit, when men everywhere will turn away their ears from God's Word, and will be “turned unto fables.” Read 2 Tim. 4:3, 4; Isa. 30:8-11. And surely now, just now, it is imperative that the faithful watchmen heed the following injunction as never before: “Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine.” 2 Tim. 4:2. “The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand forever.” Isa. 40:8. “Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his lord hath made ruler over his household, to give them meat in due season? Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing.” Matt. 24:45, 56. “Jesus saith unto him, Feed my sheep.” John 21:17.

Trinidad, British West Indies.