Majorities by Jos. Clarke

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · Jun 1, 1876

Majorities.

By Jos. Clarke

“BEHOLD the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance; behold he taketh up the isles as a very little thing.” Isaiah 40 : 15.

It appears to those who view this world from the standpoint of the natural or carnal heart, that, the majority being on the side of error, it must be strong; and that, as only a few hold to the truth, it must be weak. But this is not the case. To those who are familiar with the dealings of God with men in past ages, it is clear that men, no matter how mighty they may be, have no power when warring against God. As an instance of this let all read the thirty-seventh chapter of Isaiah, in which is found the pleadings of king Hezekiah as he spread that insulting letter from the Assyrian king before the Lord. He, without an army, without means, threatened by a powerful, well-trained army, there implores the Almighty to vindicate his own power and promises.

Oh, that some inspired artist could take a photograph of good King Hezekiah, standing there in that sacred temple, which he had restored from its desecration, as he unrolled that letter from the Assyrian leader, and as he looked up to his God in humble faith, realizing the presence of a vast army at his gates, menacing his very existence, his honor and the honor of his people, and above all the honor of the sacred cause he represented. But what was the result of being in the minority then? It was that the Lord worked wonderfully for the Israelites, and “the angel of the Lord went forth, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians a hundred and fourscore and five thousand; and when they arose in the morning, behold they were all dead corpses.”

Thus did he work for his people then, and in the same powerful manner will he deliver his people now, even though they are in the minority.

Hezekiah did not take the popular view of majorities. No, he looked into heaven itself, to the great and unchangeable Jehovah, who rules the vast system of systems, and who is able to vindicate his truths under any emergency.

Jos. CLARKE.