Your ShelfYour Projects

PROMISES

14%

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Dec 24, 1901

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 78, No. 52.

Read the full edition

PROMISES

By H. A. St. John

ELDER H. A. ST. JOHN.
Prophecies are promises. I promise that Jerusalem shall be encompassed with an army, and be laid level with the ground, and not one stone shall be left upon another of the magnificent temple. I promise that I will come again in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. I promise that my coming again will be preceded by signs in the sun, moon, and stars, and on the earth distress of nations, with perplexity.
These are a few of the prophetic promises of Jesus. All promises are to a degree prophetic, relating to the future for their fulfillment.
A promise is a debt, unpaid until fulfilled. The value of a promise depends upon him who makes it. Ability and will are the two elements that enter into reasonable expectation. A broken promise is hard to mend. It is obviously true that respect and broken promises do not keep company. Faithfulness is essential to all Christian character. Joining the Church creates no new obligations, but simply promises to fulfill those already existing. These obligations were born with each and all. Promptness, accuracy, and the remembrance and faithful fulfillment of promises are the truest test of manhood. These reveal the man. Promptness and accuracy are of sufficient importance to form a separate article in every person’s creed.
The basest form of lying is to promise with no purpose to fulfill. Borrowing and stealing are often different means to the same end. One is more direct than the other, but the results are similar. Any person may ruin his usefulness by forgetting the sacredness of his word. Even song, prayer, exhortation, preaching, and teaching go for little against broken promises.
What a beautiful suggestion as to the value of a promise was that made by the angel to the Marys at the resurrection of Jesus: “Behold, He goeth before you into Galilee; there shall ye see Him: lo, I have told you.” It was an engagement of Christ with His own, and how wonderfully and faithfully and exactly it was fulfilled by the Lord. May our promises, like His, ever be yea and amen. Christ has many promises to the world not yet fulfilled. When the fullness of time comes, they will all be fulfilled by Him who cannot lie, who is the living embodiment of all truth. How blessed to trust in such promises!