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God Is at the Helm

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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Dec 31, 1914

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 91, No. 55.

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God Is at the Helm

By W. E. Hancock

W. E. HANCOCK
“Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding.”
LIKE a ship on the tempest-lashed sea God's cause has always moved and still moves through the commotions of earth. Gray heads may turn in dismay to ask what the present situation means; the young and strong may faint and fall in despair; but “they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength,” because the Lord our God “fainteth not, neither is weary.”
There was never a greater need for the faithful preaching of the gospel, there was never a better opportunity for the true Christian to manifest his faith, than now. After the first excitement of this war is over, men and women will fall into a more serious attitude of mind. Believing that God will guide his cause gloriously through this and all other tempests of war, we wait with confidence the issue of this struggle. Now is the time when the Christian virtues shine the brightest. Even though the fiercer passions of men may be stirred to their depths by the war spirit, there are thousands who are longing for “the peace of God, which passeth all understanding.” If we have learned to wait upon the Lord, we can be peace commissioners in the time of war.
This is not a time for wild speculation about the significance of passing events. A great war should not be the occasion for the sounding of great alarms. There are enough terrors and forebodings occasionedby the war itself without ministers and Christian workers preying upon the fears and the credulity of the people by an undue emphasis upon the significance of it. We should be deeply moved, and even alarmed, at the present condition of the world; but the war is only one of the many symptoms. We need to go to men with the remedy that will treat the fundamental disease.
The enormity of the war should not be the occasion or the cause of alarm. But it is time that men should be alarmed about their souls’ salvation. This war may or may not lead immediately to the battle of Armageddon; it may or may not end in that battle. The time of the battle of Armageddon is not the question of prime importance. The important work to be done is to take to men lost in sin the message of salvation. The significance of this or that event as a fulfillment of prophecy has its place in preaching the gospel; but supreme prominence ought to be given to “Jesus Christ, and him crucified,” now and at all times, in our preaching. The fulfillment of prophecy, after all, is not the constraining motive of true service. “The love of Christ constraineth us.”
The chief note of warning and our great work are indicated in the following words of Isaiah:—
“Cry aloud, and spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and show my people their transgression and . . . their sins. Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke?” Isa. 58: 1, 6.
God may use this war to awaken conviction in men's hearts, and to quicken the receptiveness of their consciences. It ought to be expected that a religious awakening will follow the war, to give an impetus to the proclamation of the gospel in all the world. But this will not be accomplished by creating a great excitement about the war. It will be done by preaching Christ more fully and more faithfully. We ought to use this occasion of awakened attention, to turn the hearts of men and women to Christ and his truth. In such a time as this he ought to be lifted high above the dust and din of battle, that men may be drawn to him. He says, “I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.”
God is at the helm in these troublous times. The saving truth for this time is to be carried to the nations of earth, and through all the strife and commotion he is guiding the affairs of the world to that end. We may not yet be able to see just how the proclamation of the message to the millions of the heathen world may be advanced by such a frightful struggle. But after all is over, it will be seen that God makes even the wrath of man to praise him.