THE WORKS WE DO by S.

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jun 4, 1902

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 28, No. 23.

THE WORKS WE DO.

By S.

GOD declares of Himself that His works are His witnesses. We know to what they bear witness. It is just as true that our works are our witnesses; but to what do they bear witness? As His works are witnesses of what He does and is, so are ours of what we do and are. The works we do are witnesses which can not be impeached. They are telling in unmistakable language the condition of the heart that prompts the hand to do them.

If our hearts are in the work of God, our hands are busy with deeds that prove it so. If we are half-hearted in that work, those words are written indelibly on every piece of work that passes through our hands, and on every act that goes to make up our daily life. It is not left to the angels to write them there—the hands that do the work are doing the writing too. The professions we make count for nothing when the works we do are clamoring to be heard against us, and are contradicting our professions to the face. We must be what we seem to be, or we are hypocrites. We must be what we want men to think us to be, or we are asking them to believe a lie. It is time wasted to profess what our works do not substantiate. They are the only witnesses that are qualified to testify for us, either before men or in the court of last resort. If they witness against us, our profession is empty air. Let us be what we would have men think us, and then will our profession be in harmony with the testimony of our deeds. Let us seek to be what we would have God count us as being, and then the deeds that flow from our hands will be a constant well-spring of praise to our Creator, and God will crown our lives with the crown of victory. Our works are our witnesses, and we can not impeach them either here or hereafter.

This is not teaching salvation by our own works. That is not the purpose of the argument. When Christ was asked, “What shall we do, that we might work the works of God?” He replied, “This is the work of God, that ye believe on Him whom He hath sent.” John 6:28, 29. That is the essential of salvation; and from the life which is actuated by that belief there will flow a constant stream of deeds testifying to men and angels of our belief in that great saving fact. We can not earn or purchase salvation by works that we may do; but our deeds can and do bear witness to our belief in and acceptance of the only way of salvation open to man. Open your heart to Him; believe on Him; and then your life and deeds will testify that you are His; that His work is your work; and the interests of His kingdom the motive of your life. And in such witnessing as that there is power for good. The world will see it, and be moved by it. Such works, such lives, are God’s most powerful evangelists. S.