Cooperation in God’s Work
God is one. His work is a unit. No part of His manifold and diversified operations counterworks any other part. His work in heaven for man corresponds with His work in the earth. Never does invisible influence touch a human soul but that some visible influence on earth is moved to cooperate with it. His servants above cooperate with His servants upon earth. His servants in heaven are the shining messengers of light who wait upon His Word; ready ever to go at His bidding in silent and swift obedience. Of those servants it is written by one whose eyes were anointed to see within the heavenly portals, “Thousand thousands ministered unto Him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before Him.” Of these shining messengers, whose service is as swift as the light, as sure as the morning, as mighty as the infinite power of God which rests upon them as they do His bidding, it is said, “Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to do service for the sake of them that shall inherit salvation?” What a wonderfully comforting thought! Angels are interested in man’s salvation, and glad they were when the offer of salvation was first made to fallen man, when Christ the Creator under God “gave Himself” that the fallen might be saved; for as there is joy in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, we cannot believe that the myriads upon myriads of angels round about the throne are not partakers in that joy. God does not permit His messengers to appear in their glory to men. Man could not endure it. It is only with certain of His chosen ones that angels are allowed to converse. God would not frighten the wicked by any appearance of glory. When men serve God they must do it from choice, from love, and not from fear. All the gods of the heathen have worked upon humanity through fear. Sometimes God reveals the wonderful effects of sin and just what sin will work out. All the revelations of His righteous judgments against the wicked are but the developments of unrestrained sin. He manifests them that men may see the evil of sin. But His shining glory can be revealed only to those who have received so much of His presence that they can bear the sight. God’s plan of working is abundantly set forth in innumerable scriptures. Through His angels clothed with His Spirit, He sends His messages to the human messengers. The soul to whom God’s angel may come knows God’s voice. He is not deceived. The angel is in harmony with the Christ who is formed within. Then that HUMAN soul is sent to the sinner. The Spirit of God ever goes before to convince the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment; and the same Spirit goes with the human messenger as he bears to the sinner the message of life. In God’s plan not one single soul will be saved in His kingdom through a single soul. Angels of God and humanity have cooperated with Divinity in the work of salvation. Cornelius, the Roman centurion, earnestly longed to receive fuller revelation of God’s light and blessing. Already he had been accepted of God because of the heart to do; “for the eyes of Jehovah run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward Him.” And so He sends the angel to Cornelius as recorded in the 10th chapter of Acts. But He does not send him to give the message. He simply sends the angel to tell Cornelius that God looks upon him with favor, and that his prayers and alms are accepted; for the message must be given by the human, and therefore he tells Cornelius to send for Peter to Joppa, and he will tell him what he ought to do. And so Cornelius sends to Joppa after Simon Peter. Peter goes down there and preaches the Gospel message, and Cornelius and all his house embrace the Christ. The Lord in His mercy and glory struck down the zealous Saul as he was on his way to Damascus to persecute God’s children; but no being of exceeding glory tells him what to do; again that must be left to the human; and so Ananias comes in to see Paul and to tell him what to do: “Arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins.” It is ever so. God’s angels cooperate with God’s children here in the flesh. The angel would frighten the human, so human is sent to human; and the human who has received the great message, to tell the story of that message to others who are longing for it. Why does God do thus? Infinite love prompts Him to do it. Just a short time ago we had the news ringing through the land that a certain man had made a great discovery. He knew that he was on the way to make that discovery; but he sent back every one who was with him of the same nation and race, in order that he might make it alone and have all the glory to himself. Not so does God work. Some day there will come into this universe great rejoicing. Some day the great problem of wickedness and misery and evil will be settled forever. Some day the reign of sin will be over. Some day sin and death, and all the wo which has come by sin, will be swept away from God’s universe, so that every creature in heaven and in earth shall laud and magnify Jehovah. But Infinite Love will not rejoice alone, Infinite Love could not rejoice alone; and therefore in the working out of that wonderful problem, and in the accomplishing of that wonderful work, eternal in its importance and its bliss, God has enlisted every agency in heaven and earth that will cooperate with Him. “He shall see of the travail of His soul, and shall be satisfied;” but those who have used the talents which He has given, in that same precious work, shall enter into the joy of their Lord. It is a common thing for revivalists and evangelists to tell us that so many souls were saved here and there by their labors. We do not know. It is impossible for men to divide the meed of the harvest now. Sometimes the poor who have in love contributed to the evangelist’s support will receive the greater share when God shall apportion what belongs to each, because the very means they have used to send the Word through him had more of love in it than had his labors. Sometimes ministers have had a fruitful harvest from a very few sermons, but the one who has travailed in agony for souls may have been some poor and unnoticeable person who longed for the salvation of the very ones who have yielded under the word of the minister. So Jesus tells us that in that field of His, one sows and another reaps, and both gather fruit to life eternal; and when the great harvest day comes, both sower and reaper will rejoice together. God shall apportion to each one his share in the golden harvest. What a blessed thing it is, isn’t it? What a wonderful plan by which all may cooperate with the Deity Himself. How good it is to the poor, stumbling, halting human to know that there are others higher than he, stronger than he, wiser than he, yea, truer than he, who have learned, even as he longs to learn, to resist temptation, and who are able by the power of God to help him in the trying times and in the struggles through which he passes. For “the angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear Him, and delivereth them.” How many times this has been done, and we have not recognized the goodness of our God, when we have been going on perhaps blind and selfish, and thinking almost that God had forgotten us. The darts of evil have been turned aside, faithful hands have guided us away from the deep, dark pit into which we might have fallen to destruction. Mighty, helpful hands have held us up when to fall would have been our last. Sometimes we see the great deliverance and thank God; but many times there are more common deliverances which we shall never know until that great day when the infinite hand shall take away the veil which has shrouded the earth because of sin, and we shall see written in the books of life the wonderful work of God for His children. Then in that great day God’s angels shall be revealed, and He shall send them forth as ministers of light and power to gather His saints from the graves and sleeping caverns of the sea, immortal, forever immortal, to go out from their heavenly home to worlds yet to be created, and bear to them the wonderful story of the love and sacrifice of Jesus their Lord, who has redeemed from utter ruin the universe. Then, reader, let us yield ourselves to God to serve Him; and with His invisible helpers always and forever in harmony with His holy law we shall by His grace be able to work out that character which shall endure forever. “Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father.”