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DANGERS AND DUTIES

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Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jan 25, 1877

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 49, No. 4.

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DANGERS AND DUTIES.

By James White

The history of the church shows too plainly the many dangers she has not avoided and the many duties she has not done. And a large portion of the ruin which has resulted to the cause of God is chargeable to those who are set to take the oversight of the flock of God, to watch for souls as they that must give account. Dangers and duties lie all along the path to life eternal. Both demand our closest attention. We are to watch, lest we fall into the one and neglect the other. This has been needful to the salvation of the soul in all past time, and now that we enter upon the perilous times of the last days, watchfulness, that we avoid the dangers, and fully embrace the urgent duties of our time, becomes imperative.
Under God, our cause is moving forward. We are an aggressive, active people; and under the rapid growth of the cause we shall ever talk of broader and still broader plans, until the final triumph of truth, and the great work shall come to a glorious close. Agitate, agitate, agitate, must be our watchword and battle cry until the world shall be aroused and warned, the obedient and trusting ones gathered under the broad shield of Omnipotence, waiting the coming of the Son of man, and the disobedient and unbelieving be gathered under the clouds of error, fully imbued with the spirit of the dragon, waiting only for the vials of the wrath of God to be poured out upon them.
The last message of mercy to a lost world, preparatory to the manifestation of the last plagues, the triumphs of the waiting, watching people of God, and the coming of Christ in glory, attended by all the holy angels, to raise from the dead the blessed and holy of all the ages, are eloquent subjects, and well calculated to move the human mind. Some brethren move slowly, and others move rapidly. Here comes in the importance of fully setting forth the dangers and duties of our time. The earnest, and especially those who are rash and unbalanced by experience, must be warned and guarded, and at the same time those who are slow to see, and to feel, and to move out in the duties of our time, must be stirred to action.
Every proper precaution should be taken to guard the precious cause of Bible truth against corruption, confusion, and reproach. Christ’s ministers should be faithful, godly men. They should drink in experience in the things of the Spirit of God, and be able to instruct the novice, to check and discipline the rash, and save the cause from that injury which these persons are sure to bring upon it, from want of experience and consecration. These must experience a radical change in their views, feelings, and natural inclinations, or they will pull down more in one year than a good worker can build up in two. As a people, we cannot afford this pulling down. Those men who are inclined to enter the lecture field in full confidence that they are competent for the great work, when they have not thoroughly learned first principles, cannot afford to start in wrong, and afterward learn to their great sorrow that they have lost precious time in making work for repentance, and have injured the precious cause of Christ.
Rather, let the warnings come. And let the dangers to which our people are exposed, and the duties devolving upon us at this time, be fully set before us. Warn that rash man faithfully, and if he pays no heed to your warnings, let him be disconnected from the work and cause of God. Don’t give that novice an important and prominent position in the church and cause until you have first proved his qualifications and spirit, if you would save both him and the cause. And let all Bible Christians who hope and battle for eternal life cherish love for the plain testimony which points out their errors and dangers, and sets their whole duty fully before them. We need a plain, pointed, practical, old-fashioned gospel, that lays the ax at the root of the tree, that distinctly points out sin, that presents Christ as the remedy and the sinner’s only hope, that walks into our homes, and touches our hearts, and molds our lives, and that is the power of God unto salvation to those who believe.
We speak earnestly of broader plans because many, especially those who have the most of the Master’s goods, are disposed to take a narrow view of our vast work, and also because the providence of God seems to be ever opening new fields of labor before us. But it is not for the good of the cause for our people to undertake more than we can do faithfully and well. We must have more plain, thorough, pastoral labor among our churches. God has been giving us, through the influence of the third angel’s message, a precious people who can be brought up to duty on all points where the truth is consistently and fully set before them by those who have upon them the unction of the last message.
This is fully demonstrated by the labors of those ministers and presidents of Conferences who have laid their plans wisely and well, and have labored with vigilance to execute them, suffering nothing to discourage and dishearten them. Eld. Canright laid his plans well in Michigan one year since, and worked to the point earnestly and hopefully to execute them. God helped him to do a great work, and we regret that he could not finish that work the present winter. Eld. Haskell had in New England the hardest field beneath the broad heavens, from the fact that more of the disorderly elements of the first-day Adventists were among them than cursed our cause in any other Conference. And yet his systematic, patient, and faithful labors have, with the blessing of God, brought unity to that people, and liberal action in the missionary work, which has excelled any other Conference, unless we except the Ohio Conference.
Matters were in a very discouraging state in Ohio when Eld. St. John took hold of the work there, and was elected president of that Conference. His greatest effort has been to introduce system and prompt action. God has greatly blessed his faithful and patient labors. We hope he will keep the armor on, and if there are those in that State who do not fully co-operate with him, and sustain him in his efforts, there is plenty of room either for him, or for them, in some other field. But Ohio is coming up; and the friends of the cause there will see that live men who are faithful laborers receive their moral support. Ohio is ahead of all our Conferences in furnishing cash for the Battle Creek College. Ohio and New England Tract and Missionary Societies, having live presidents, who are systematic and thorough, have distributed more than their proportion of The Health Almanac, while several of our stronger Conferences have taken only about one-fourth their proportion. The practical application of our systematic and energetic manner of doing business reveals the fact that the root of the matter is in some men, and that it is not in others, so that we can read the officers of our Conferences and Tract and Missionary Societies like books. There must be greater care to elect the right men, and then to give them our moral support while they are in office.
Some think Eld. J. N. Ayers, president of the Kansas Conference, too thorough, sharp and prompt. But when these persons are converted they will agree with us that he is a man for the time. He is a cripple, but cannot afford the time to take care of a cane. His Conference was young and weak, and suffered terribly from drought and grasshoppers; but under his thorough manner of doing business, and the cheerful co-operation of his fellow-laborers, Kansas promises to be one of our strongest Conferences. Eld. Ayers is a thorough health reformer. He fully believes the testimony that “the health reform sustains the same relation to the work of the last message that the arm does to the human body,” and acts in accordance with it. As we watch the movements of men and things we are fully persuaded that as our people doubt, and question, and slide back from the precious things God has been setting before them, and which they once received with gladness of heart, in the same proportion God takes his Spirit and his guiding hand from them, and they are left to suffer from want of united, self-sacrificing efforts among them to build up the cause of God.
We were made very glad by Eld. Geo. I. Butler’s recent letter to us respecting the present position of the Hart brothers and Bro. M. Miller of Iowa. These are men of sterling worth, and would they give themselves wholly to the Lord and his work they could be as happy and successful in the work, after a little experience, as those we have before mentioned in this article. And the Iowa Conference will never amount to very much until such men as Minos Miller, Sydney and Russel Hart put on the armor, and take hold of the work as Elders Canright and St. John have done, and let Eld. Butler go here and there where his powerful, practical gift is needed to meet the spirit of disaffection and rebellion, and to establish the work in new fields, as did Eld. Canright during the year 1876. If there is anything that will weigh down any Conference it is a half dozen strong men, or those who might become strong men, hesitating, waiting, and wavering, neglectful of their duty. There are no men that walk the earth that we more highly respect than Eld. Butler, and Brn. McCoy and Miller, of the Iowa Conference. Our last meeting with these brethren at the Iowa camp, last June, was joyful beyond expression because of the work of the Lord so very apparent in them; and yet we were pained to leave that consecrated ground, hallowed by the presence of God, conscious that none of these brethren were put in their proper places in the Conference.
The brethren elected Eld. Butler as the president of their Conference out of respect to his ability, and his faithfulness to any trust they might commit to him. And while this was the general feeling of the body, some who could fill the position quite as well, after wearing the armor awhile, were more than willing to deprive the cause of his labor, in more needy fields, and hold him in the State to do the very work they should do. Brn. Miller and McCoy both learned to discipline men in the army, and they are both among the most thorough business men in Iowa. Let this talent be fully consecrated, and employed in marshalling the Tract and Missionary force, and managing and directing matters of the Conference, in the spirit manifested by Elders Canright, Haskell and St. John, and Iowa would wake up at once to ten-fold her present efficiency and strength. How sorry we are for the Lord that he has to accept the imperfect labors of second to fourth rate talent in place of so large a portion of number one talent which will hesitate, wait, delay, and finally turn aside from the path of duty.
We have waited too long for the ministers from the several denominations to take up our message and preach it. But few will accept it, and but a small per cent. of these make good workers with us. It is almost impossible for a Seventh-day Baptist successfully to join hands with us in our work. The missionary cause in particular, and in fact all our work, is different from any other religious work in the world. Our strength and success is in uniting system with vigilance so as to run our car safely and fast. Old things are done away, and all things become new to those who enter fully into the spirit of our work. The denominations are burdened with a class of men who, failing in other branches of business, enter the ministry. They fail in other business for want of financial ability. They succeed to other men’s labors where they find things prepared to their hand in the ministry, and are the poorest kind of church paupers. They neither pull nor push, but ride. They leave a church lower than they found it. In short, the church pays them for letting the cause down to be lifted up by one of the Lord’s working men. The habits and manner of labor of the ministers of our time are such that we cease to hope for help from that direction. The Lord would have the work of the last message promptly and faithfully done. And we have finally come to this, in calculating upon the future usefulness of our ministers, to hope for their future success in proportion as they may cultivate habits of order, vigilance, industry, thoroughness, and in short all those faculties which make up the business man.
The present condition of our cause, and the spirit of the present time, demand the labors of our most thorough brethren from the farm, the shop, and the business office, who have made life a success, and for the thorough training of a host of young men in our ranks. We can wait no longer for the ministers from the other churches. They preach so slow a gospel, and move so very tardily, and have so long been accustomed to cast their whole weight upon their people, that, should many of them join us, they would completely sink our little ship. The cause demands workers. God has given this people, through the efforts of men of sound heads and consecrated hearts, about one hundred and fifty different publications in which the great truths connected with the last message are clothed in plain and sound words. And now what is wanted is that sound men, who can command wholesome English, and whose minds have been disciplined to habits of order, industry and vigilance, shall take these books to sell and give to the people in connection with their public labors. In plainness and in sound simplicity lies the power of the gospel. Paul would not preach the gospel “with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect.” 1 Cor. 1:17.
The fields are all white for the harvest, and where are the laborers? We look over into old Europe, and see Eld. Andrews, after laboring a quarter of a century by our side in this country, completing his French and German, at the same time laboring with the brethren, and before the public occasionally, and also publishing a French paper. Who will go and help him? He is calling for a couple of our children, who are now overwhelmed with care and toil in building up the Pacific Press. We take the liberty to quote paragraphs from a recent private letter from Eld. Andrews, as follows:—
“Bro. Ertzenberger came from Germany to attend our General Conference at La Coudre, Dec. 3. He is of good courage and seems to be very much as when he was in America. His mission is something more than self-sustaining. I think, considering all the circumstances, he has been very successful. There is in Germany a good company of brethren and sisters well instructed in the present truth, and a good influence before the public. What is wanted, however, to give strength to the work in Germany, is a German paper and German tracts for general circulation.
“This brings me to say that within a few months, if you think it proper, we will commence to publish our paper in German. What I mean is that we shall be able within a few months to get out a correct German paper. The question will then be, Shall we undertake the financial responsibility of another paper? I bring the question thus to your consideration and ask you to give it prayerful thought.
“We will soon be ready on our part, and if the brethren in America think proper to help us set up such a paper, we will use rigid economy, will work hard, will give all possible care to have our work well and correctly done, and will be content with very plain fare. It is a serious job to think of undertaking, but I believe that God will help.”
It is surprising to us stingy American Christians that Bro. Ertzenberger has a mission of only one year’s standing, in old Germany, with all its infidelity, beer, and tobacco, that is self-sustaining. In a private letter, now on its way to Europe, we have already responded in the affirmative to Eld. Andrews’ inquiry respecting a paper in the German language. In behalf of our people, we stated to Eld. Andrews that he would be fully sustained in publishing a paper and in printing tracts in the German language to any extent that in his judgment the cause demands. We fear that our noble missionaries in Switzerland and Germany are doing injustice to themselves and the cause they represent in their habits of extreme industry and economy. We have said to Eld. Andrews, Go forward with the work, publish on good paper to the fullest extent of the demand for periodicals and general publications. We have urged him to send his orders for money in season to the REVIEW AND HERALD Office; and to avail himself of all the benefits within his reach to extend the work in Europe; and we have assured him that his American brethren would fully sustain him in so doing.
Every enterprise taken hold of under the plea of Broader Plans has proved a glorious success. The winter term of our College opened finely. It is indeed surprising that in less than five years since a S. D. A. College was first mentioned, it has been brought into existence, and into harmonious operation. It is stated that the number of Eld. Smith’s Biblical Lecture Class will probably reach seventy-five. The scheme to educate young men to become practitioners in our Health Institute, and able medical writers, has proved a perfect success. The Pacific Mission is prosperous, and the establishment of the Pacific Press in connection with it has in its results far exceeded our expectation. The Press gives character to the work, and facilities to the cause on the Pacific Coast, which could be secured in no other way.
We have cheering reports from the North Pacific Mission. Eld. Van Horn writes from Salem, Oregon, on New Year’s day:—
“The cause of truth is brightening up some of late here in Salem. We have appointed the second Sabbath and Sunday in January as the time to organize a church here. I think there are about twenty ready to come into an organization.
“Bro. Jones has raised up a little company of Sabbath-keepers about five miles from here in Eola, and we have appointed to organize a church there the third Sabbath and Sunday in this month. There are some good substantial persons among those who have taken hold at Eola.”
“The outlook before us now is quite favorable.We are preparing for a vigorous campaign the coming tent season.”
And our people in California have never had better courage to work in the missionary cause than at the present time. The late State quarterly meeting was excellent, and left a very encouraging influence, and the opinion prevails that Eld. Smith should visit the State and hold a Biblical Institute during the month of April.
We have talked of “broader plans” until some think the old story completely threadbare. But we cannot help their cases, neither can we help talking and acting upon plans for the extension of our cause.
But there are those, and some of them persons who have a large amount of means that they can spare without realizing the least want, who take no practical interest in the execution of the best plans to extend our work. There are hundreds who will talk long and earnestly of the hand of Providence that is pushing our cause into all parts of the world, who never think of giving a dollar to any of our home or foreign missions. But there is another class of our professed friends who will neither talk nor act in a manner to encourage the extension of our work. The last-named class are really tired of hearing of Broader Plans. They think it very rash to send Eld. Andrews to Europe, to raise money to establish a press there, and to send money to support missionaries and to print books and papers in that far-off land. These hug to their homes and hug their money.
These have never yet received the missionary spirit into their hearts. These have never felt a single thrill of that inspiration which the true servant of Christ feels as he reads the commission, “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel.” These are held by the spirit of the world and of Satan from giving their hand to that work in which they would find the greatest satisfaction were they fully converted. We mourn that they will deprive themselves of the blessing of giving, and of having a lively interest in the cause of God. In the language of Paul we would exhort them “to remember the words of our Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive.” The stupefying influence of the love of this world affects the memory on certain points. Don’t forget this, brethren; but remember these important words of the Lord Jesus, fully endorsed by Paul, that it is more blessed to give than to receive.
Our work is vast, and of a nature which requires vigilance and the expenditure of large sums of money. We labor against great odds in many respects. Numbers, influence, and the natural inclination of the mind and heart, are all against us. “If it had not been the Lord who was on our side, when men rose up against us, then they had swallowed us up quick.” Ps. 124: 2, 3. What is wanted now is that every brother and sister work with the Lord.
But there are some among us who are losing their interest. Instead of rising with the work, they are going down. And the prospect of reaching them and helping them is growing more hopeless. Some of these have manifested great industry and economy in amassing their wealth. Throughout their business life they have weighed carefully every business transaction from the largest down to the minutest expenditure of means. These careful habits have increased with their years until the burden of advanced life is to earn and to save, while they have no earthly use for the larger portion of what they already possess. They have been doing business all their life with the certainty that every enterprise in which they engage would pay well. And now as they are urged to engage in this and that enterprise to advance the cause of God, they have no strength to act by faith.
These persons assent to the arguments drawn from the sacred Scriptures, but they are as destitute of living, active faith as Lot’s wife after she was changed to a pillar of salt. Nothing but the power of God can move them from their fixed position. We fear that love of the world will hold some of those who have had great light until they sink in the general ruin. We can warn them, and go on about our work, mourning that they are not ready to help us, and thus receive the blessedness of well-doing here, and the reward hereafter. Again, in the language of Paul, we “charge them that are rich in this world that they be not high-minded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy; that they do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate; laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life.” 1 Tim. 6: 17-19.
We have called for $10,000 to establish a S. D. A. Publishing House in Europe, and we are happy to report that $6,000 of that sum has actually been paid in at the REVIEW Office, where it is needed at present to carry forward the cause until the time comes to invest it in presses, type, etc. At present Eld. Andrews has not available force to manage such an establishment. In his last letter he urges W. C. White and wife to come to his assistance. But these persons are at present the main dependence at this Office, and cannot be spared until others are raised up to fill their places here.
The $10,000, however, must be reserved for the object for which the sum was designed. We now call for donations to sustain our publications in the French and German languages in Europe. And we urge that these donations shall not be taken from our S. D. A. treasuries in this country, nor from persons who have only a few dollars to spare, which they should apply to the advancement of the cause at home. But rather let the money necessary to sustain the cause in Europe come from those who can spare it without feeling the want of it, and who would not give less to support the cause in America for liberally donating to the European Mission.
Come, brethren, get out your pocket books and unroll the greenbacks, and prove your interest in the European Mission. We send along with this article to the REVIEW Office an order to charge $100 to our account, and receipt the same in this issue to our name for the European Mission. Fall in, brethren, with your liberal donations, and let us make the hearts of our dear missionaries glad with the tangible evidences of our love for them, and the cause to which they devote their lives.
Address, REVIEW AND HERALD, Battle Creek, Michigan. J. W.