WILL YOU DO IT? by Edison Driver

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Oct 22, 1902

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 28, No. 43.

WILL YOU DO IT?

By Edison Driver

WILL you do it? Not would you do it, or should you do it, or could you do it; but will you do it! It takes a straight, firm answer, you see, like the sailor’s “Aye, aye, sir!” And that is why it has been so very much trouble to some people, some billions, in fact!

Now, a good many years ago, one of these people, an influential man he was, too, was turning the problem over in his mind. Said he to himself, “Will you do it?” “Do what?” “O, go down and bathe in that dirty, wretched little stream of a river!” “No, sir!” He drew himself up proudly, with a sneer on his face: “I won’t do it; it’s nonsense.” But he did. Proud Naaman, the Syrian, dipped himself seven times in muddy Jordan—simple foolishness till he understood it—“and his flesh came again like the flesh of a little child.” What made him change his mind and do it, after all?—I’ll tell you; he got at the kernel of the thing; there wasn’t any special virtue in the muddy water, or the seven times dipping, but there was everything in saying, “Aye, aye, sir!” when God asked, “Will you do it?”

God made Saul king. Saul knew it. God knew Saul would make as good a king as could be found, if he would be wise. So God said to Saul, “Will you do it? Will you obey me?” “Yes,” replied the fine, strong, tall, young fellow, “I will.” But by and by he began to think about like this: “Go to now; surely it is always good to offer sacrifice, and I’ll offer up some sacrifices, even if the Lord did tell me to wait for Samuel. Surely it doesn’t make any special difference about Samuel being here.” You see he would do just a little different from what God said—he couldn’t see any harm in it! But alas! by and by he did! He had made his offerings, and said his prayers, and chanted his psalms, and was feeling pretty well satisfied with himself, when Samuel came and stood before him with the sad words, “Thou hast done foolishly; thou hast not kept the commandment of the Lord thy God, which He commanded thee. . . . Now thy kingdom shall not continue.” Ah, Saul! didst thou not know that if thou disobeyedst God in the little things, thou wouldst soon disobey Him in the great?

From the first to the last, from the test he made in Eden, all through the troubled years of history, down to your trials and mine to-day, God has been asking individuals that question of all questions—Will you do it? Do what? Obey Me.

Will we obey? What a question! The weight of the ages of sorrow hung on it once, and hang on it to-day. The only thing that stands between man and his Maker, and cuts off the infinite tide of love and joy, is the heart’s dull, stupid answer, I will not! Or, many times he says to us, Will you do it? We say, Yes Lord; but do we? No! We forget the main thing He is trying to teach us, and we crawl around the difficult place and meet the command on the other side. He says, Swim the river. We go over in a boat—it don’t make any difference how we get there, surely. O, when will we learn that to obey is the teaching and the way of salvation! Not the little, stupid, poverty-stricken goals that are to be won in this earth, but simply obedience. O, that is the lesson of time and eternity. It was the wisdom of Him who walked the earth a conqueror, and it will be the glory of every one who follows in his way.

Fresno, Cal. EDISON DRIVER.