IT IS GOOD by F. D. Starr

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Nov 6, 1900

IT IS GOOD.

By F. D. Starr

F. D. STARR.

(Oakville, Ontario.)

“THEY helped everyone his neighbor; and everyone said to his brother, be of good courage.” Isa. 41 : 6. A commendable way to do, surely! But who are these who are talking so encouragingly to one another, brother helping brother? A chorus of voices replies: “Christians, God’s people, commandment-keepers.” Very well, let it be so; it certainly ought to be so. But let us read the next verse: “So the carpenter encouraged the goldsmith, and he that smootheth with the hammer him that smote the anvil, saying, It is ready for the soldering: and he fastened it with nails, that it should not be moved.”

Now do you know who these people are, and what they are doing? Oh, they are poor, deluded heathen, busily engaged making an idol! The energy with which they work in their misguided zeal, worthy of a better cause, is described in Isa. 44 : 12: “The smith with the tongs both worketh in the coals, and fashioneth it with hammers, and worketh it with the strength of his arms: yea, he is hungry, and his strength faileth: he drinketh no water, and is faint.”

What devotion to their cause is here expressed. If heathen idolaters can work so harmoniously and unitedly, helping and encouraging one another all they can in their labors and their worship, which the Scriptures inform us is simply demon worship, how ought Christians to work! How ought we to work? Would it not be a shame for us to work at cross purposes with one another, and discourage and hinder one another?

So then the language of the text, if transferred to the work of the Lord and brought down to the present time, would read something like this: “So the preacher encouraged the printer; and he that sold books, him that taught in the school. The Bible worker helped the missionary nurse; and schools, sanitariums, publishing houses, and missions, all helped and encouraged one another, and had a good word to speak one for the other and to the other.”

How majestically the work of God would move along under such a condition of things as this. If the heathen can speak encouragingly to his brother, how much more should everyone of us be ready to say to our fellow workers in the Lord, Be of good courage, brother; the work is progressing, it will soon be finished, and we shall see the completion of our labors and our hopes.

In the margin of verse 7 we have the expression, “It is good.” That is what one workman says to the other, of his work. Such little expressions of appreciation go a great deal further than whole volumes of criticism and fault-finding. May the Lord help us to learn, even from these unregenerate Gentiles, some lessons on the unity of the work and the workers.

All the great enterprises in the world have been brought to a successful completion by men who, though worldly minded, have worked together in harmony. Even Babel of old, in all its greatness, was advancing toward a successful completion when the Lord caused the enterprise to cease, by confounding the language of the workers. Satan sees that the only way to frustrate the work of God is to cause disunion and confusion to come in among the workers. Then they begin to discourage and criticise one another, and thus the work is seriously hindered.

But instead of that, let the inspired words be true of us, “They helped everyone his neighbor; and everyone said to his brother; Be of good courage.” Even Satan’s kingdom, if divided, would come to an end. That will come to an end; but God’s kingdom, eternally united, will stand forever.