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THE SECRET

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Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jan 8, 1901

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 78, No. 2.

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THE SECRET

By The King's Messenger

The King's Messenger
The secret! Men join secret societies to obtain the secret—to reach the light. I sought for years, taking degree after degree, paying fee upon fee, spending day after day and night after night, in search of the secret, but was fooled with a name, was played with a delusion, and found nothing but vanity and vexation of spirit.
How many wise and strong and dedicated men are seeking in lodge rooms the ignis fatuus of the secret things of the order, and for shame stay in rather than get out and testify that it is a sham and a delusion.
“The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him.” If we receive Him, His province is to make known to us, to take the things of God, to reprove, instruct, to show, to unfold, to inspire. He causes us to know God and the things of God. He makes himself known to us as He does not unto the world.
This is the secret—not found out by studying or worrying, but by receiving; not as we received the third degree or any other, but by opening our hearts and letting Him come in. Him!—a person, not a legend, not a mystery; but God, the Third Person, the Heavenly Guest, the Holy Ghost: not an experience, not a blessing, not an emanation nor an influence; but Another Comforter to take the ascended Saviour’s place until His return. He is the secret.
He wants to make your heart His temple, His abiding, secret chamber. In His own personality He desires to show you things to come. We are to enter into the secret place of the Most High, and abide, stay, continue, under the shadow of the Almighty. He will take us into His banqueting house, and His banner over us will be love. He will make himself known to us, as He does not unto the world. The secret of secrets is God—to know God, not dogmas, nor ritual, nor creed, not doctrine nor experience, but to know Him whom to know is life eternal; not to know degrees, nor the work, not to know knowledge, not to have all wisdom, but to have Him! Receive ye the Holy Ghost.
The mistake we make is to put any and everything in place of Him. Culture and service, experience and testimony, our goodness, holiness, righteousness, which is of no good, take up the room in our hearts that He only should occupy. We can not by study find this secret out. He himself must make it known. This is His work. Man can not do it. I can not impart it to others. I can witness unto Him, but can not give the secret unto others.
Hand to hand, heart to heart, knee to knee, and mouth to ear, is the way it is given. Hush! It is a whispered secret in the secret place of the Most High. Be still and know. Blessed knowledge!—to go on to know. They that do know their God shall be strong and do exploits. It is necessary to know Him before we can make Him known.
We receive power. He is coming upon us. What power? The power of eloquence, the power to speak, or teach, or preach?—Nay; rather the power of simplicity, of humility, of gentleness; spiritual power, the power of the Spirit; not worldly wisdom, or human eloquence, or holy living, but the power because of the presence of the Holy Ghost.
This secret of the Lord is a personal knowing of a personal Saviour. Lo! I am with you alway! He is with us—not Jesus. Jesus has ascended. He is preparing a place, is fitting up our mansions. He has gone, but is to return. He has sent Another Comforter. The Comforter has come, He is here, He abides. We receive Him.
He is the secret—once in the secret always in. I know Masonry in all its degrees. I have tried to unlearn it, to forget it, to displace it, to give room to Him, but it will not out or down. I remember the secrets. So, when He is received, He is never forgotten. Nothing can separate—He abides, and He controls.
This abiding is the secret of fruiting. It is a mystery of mysteries. How? I do not know, I can not tell, but the fruit is, and it abides—much fruit, vine fruit on the branch, because of the connection. This secret grows, increases, line upon line, line upon line, precept upon precept, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little, made known in the furnace, made perfect in affliction, through suffering; shining more and more unto the perfect day.
Remember, He is the secret of a happy, of a useful, of a holy life.