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SEEKING FOR LIGHT

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Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Apr 12, 1877

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 49, No. 15.

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SEEKING FOR LIGHT.

By C. W. S.

Those of our readers who are less connected with the active work have no idea of the earnest calls for preachers and for reading matter that are every day being received at this Office from individuals in all parts of the country, who have heard a little of the truth, and want to learn more. I would that these calls might reach the ears of scores of young men of talent in our midst, and call them from the farm, from the shop, the anvil, the counter, the schoolroom, and lead them to strike out into the darkness of this world under the banner of Truth, carrying the bread of life to honest, famishing souls.
It is not always best to wait till you can bring your circumstances around to your liking, before you move out to work in the cause. Should you make up your mind to do that, you may be sure that the devil will control the circumstances as much as possible. Circumstances sometimes demand that we wait; but when we are half glad of an excuse for not moving out, our difficulties are not inclined to grow less, and each succeeding year finds new weights upon us, new ties to bind us to the world.
If we feel that God demands that we assist in spreading the light of his truth, and yet circumstances prevent our obeying, our duty may be to work directly to the purpose of removing those difficulties; or it may be our duty to move out in spite of them. If God says “Go forward,” though the Red Sea lie before us, we should step in—the waters will divide. God will open the way when we move in obedience to his commands, though he lead us through dark places and over difficult hills, to try our sincerity and faith.
The Tract and Missionary Societies are doing a great work. Here is an employment in which all may join. All the different points in our faith are put in print. The people are being stirred up to investigate. It is easy to get their attention. Now is the Heaven-favored time for our whole army to go forward. We believe that time is short; that Christ is soon coming. That nice house, that costly furniture, those dollars laid in the bank, will be of no use to you or anybody else in a few years. Think of the perishable riches that will lie in ruins on the surface of this earth after the redeemed have been taken to the heavenly city, and the earth has been racked and depopulated by the plagues and the brightness of Christ’s coming.
Cities will lie in ruins. Stores will not be locked, but no thief will come in to steal, no busy clerk will arrange the wares nor dust the books. Banks will be open at all hours, but no lender shall come for his interest, no cashier shall ever close the vaults. The humming of the mill and the scream of the locomotive will be silenced forever. Our houses shall tumble down and rot away, and the flower gardens of our homes shall be filled with weeds. A thousand years shall these things lie waste, and no human being shall breathe the air of earth. Devils, in horrid discontent, with no man on whom to exercise their deceptive powers so long used to activity, will drag out the sad years with these ruins for home and the bones of their victims for company.
Will you heap up riches for the last days? James speaks of a class that will do so; and he represents them as having occasion to weep and howl for having done so. James 5. But the Saviour shows how dollars and cents can be turned to a better account. “Sell that ye have, and give alms,” he says; and he states the result of this in his next words: “Provide yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where no thief approacheth, neither moth corrupteth; for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” Here is a chance for you to make a transfer to the Bank of Heaven. That bank will never fail, and it pays a larger interest than you can get here; and he who invests freely, and gives his heart also, has the promise of life everlasting wherein to enjoy the proceeds.
When I commenced this article, I thought of giving a few extracts as examples of the earnest calls for information and help. A card from Georgia reads: “Please send me such papers as will enlighten me on your doctrines. Anything you may see fit to send, or any information, will be gladly and thankfully received.”
Bro. A. B. Rust, writing from Texas, says, “I now know of twelve or fifteen good openings for our ministers to step in and fill.”
A brother in Alabama, who is a Presbyterian minister, writes a very encouraging letter, from which we extract the following:—
“I am preaching your doctrine now whenever I minister in holy things. I am a minister of the Old School Presbyterian Church, but I am displeased with their doctrines, and have embraced your views. I have not yet publicly joined your body, or withdrawn from my own church. My object in writing is to get information on certain topics, preparatory to withdrawal from the Presbyterian Church and entering the S. D. A. Church.” “I preach for your people [a company who have recently embraced the truth] once a month, and hope to contribute to your Heaven-sent message and communion. I believe you are raised up in these last days, to warn the world of approaching doom, and I desire to join you in so noble a calling.”
“You shall not lose anything by your kindness to me in favoring me with your publications, as I will not only proclaim these truths, but pay you as soon as possible.”
“Your books are so valuable that I will never be satisfied till I read them all, even if I go in debt. I go in debt for no other thing, but I feel that I must have the information your publications contain.”
Sr. Chapman sent this good brother the SIGNS. With the true missionary spirit he says in a letter to her, “I will read and circulate the SIGNS OF THE TIMES, and when I receive the necessary funds remit its subscription price—not that I refuse the gift, which I gratefully acknowledge, but that you may be able to perform the same generous act to some one else not even so well able to pay for it as I am. Although poor, I am not destitute, for God has prospered me, and in due time, when I reap the fruits of my labors, I give the tithe of it all to Him who gave me power to earn it.”
“I am amazed at the work of Mrs. E. G. White. That a lady could write so massive a work as this [Spirit of Prophecy] proves to me she must be the special favorite of Heaven. Never have I read such thoughts from the pen of a lady. May God richly reward her.”
A man writes from Kansas, “If you can send me some tracts or papers or anything that will lead into the light, you will oblige a seeker after truth. Others here are anxious to learn the truth. . . . I am poor and cannot send any money now.”
A brother in Alabama has withdrawn from the Presbyterian Church, having embraced the Sabbath truth. Now he sends for reading matter. He is poor. A poor brother in Ill., has been distributing tracts. He says, “They are doing good. Several accept the Bible Sabbath, and a few have decided to keep it. If some of our preachers could give a course of lectures here I think much good might be done.”
Bro. Bahler writes from Texas that a man who has lately found the truth writes to him thus: “I want the strongest Sabbath works. I am anxious to get the works as soon as I can. Our brethren are talking of dismissing some of us from the church, and I wish to prove to them why I have embraced the Sabbath as the Lord’s only rest day. There are a great many inquiring friends in this country, who would like to read some of your tracts. If you have any surplus tracts, please send us some.”
We might make this list much longer. The above are a sample of the earnest calls for help. The Lord is turning the minds of the people to his truth. Now is the time for every soldier of Christ to put the armor on and come up to the help of the Lord. Reading matter is what the people want; and the earnest, strong, long, and united pull of the T. and M. workers, laboring in a systematic manner, will be the means under the blessing of God of carrying the light of truth and the warning message to tens of thousands of our fellow beings, to whom eternal life appears as sweet as to us. C. W. S.