Brief Practical Thoughts.
By John Nevins Andrews
THE END OF LABOR AND TOIL.
Sometimes it seems that this will never come. Yet, all the time it is approaching as with swiftness almost inconceivable. It is not only sure to come, but it is certain to come in a brief period. Time flies swiftly. The Judgment is hastening. Ere long, the work will close up forever. It is no time to stand idle in the vineyard. It is an act of folly to sit down and complain of our toil. Work while the day lasts. The night cometh in which no man can work. Rest will come soon enough, and will never end. Courage in the Lord. Our toil shall end. Yet let it last as long as our Master wills. It is his to assign our work and fix its duration. It is ours to do the work well. The reward is infinite, and the time of its bestowal will not delay. God forbid that we murmur. Christ is formed within when the Holy Spirit has wrought in us all the excellent graces of his character. Our evil natures being put away by genuine conversion, and every wrong being taken from us by the successive steps or acts of conversion, in their place the excellent graces of the Spirit of God one by one are formed in us. These make us like Christ. When the whole work is wrought in us, we are then wholly like him. And those who in character are thus like him, shall certainly be with him in due season. And thus being received into his presence, we shall bear his image in our outward being, as well as in our inner man. For Christ, beholding in us his own character, shall give us his own immortal life. It is all wicked and inexcusable to murmur against God. 1. Because God has the right to chasten us, and because our sins richly deserve and even demand such chastening. 2. Because in all our afflictions God designs our good. He is at work for our salvation. It is then foolish and ungrateful in us to utter one word of complaint. Certainly God is good, and every feeling of our hearts should be mingled with deep gratitude to him for his infinite goodness. Let us forever desist from complaints and murmurings. It is all wicked and unjust and ungrateful. It is a very short and direct way to God when we come to him through Christ. He is the way. We can make him our means of access if we will leave our sins. We need not wander long in sorrow and darkness if we will only take this direct way to the light. It is our own fault alone if we do not find the blessing of God. Generally it is caused by an unwillingness on our part to give up all our sins, or if we give them up, to do it with the idea that we are never under any circumstances to return to them again. But we must perish if we do not do this. Why not then all of us, at once and forever, give up our sins and make Christ our portion? We can come to God at once for help if we will do it thus. WHAT SHALL WE DO TO BE SAVED?
Two things must be effected for us: 1. We must have our sins removed from us. 2. We must have all the graces of the Holy Spirit perfected in our characters. This two-fold work is of infinite consequence to us. We cannot dispense with it if we hope for everlasting life. We cannot enter the kingdom of God till we have been effectually cleansed from our sins. We cannot enter it without also partaking of the divine nature, so that we shall be completely the subjects of the grace of God. This great work of the Holy Spirit is also our own work. We cannot accomplish it without the aid of the Lord. But he will not do this work without our active co-operation. The work is not wrought in a moment. We add to our graces by being brought into those circumstances which make them a necessity on our part to stand the power of the devil. If we do then reach out after help from God it will certainly be granted. And the very things in which we are most lacking will be the ones wherein we shall be compelled to seek after God in agonizing prayer. We shall thus grow strong in the very things in which we are weakest and most deficient. Our sins must be all repented of and pardoned. Our lives must show the genuineness of our repentance. In truth, it will be our work for all our future lives to show that we are changed in principle and in conduct. This work of putting away sin and of establishing in ourselves the excellent graces of the Spirit of God is wrought by the gracious help of the Lord, and by our active co-operation with him. Thus uniting our free will to God’s free grace, we carry the work to perfection. It is time that we were in earnest in this business. We can never be saved till this work is fully wrought in our own souls. Let us be diligent in its accomplishment, if we would be found of him in peace. J. N. ANDREWS.