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OUR SUCCESS

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Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jul 26, 1877

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 50, No. 5.

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OUR SUCCESS.

By George C. Tenney

The want of apparent success often causes us to feel discouraged in the cause of God. This should lead us to consider what constitutes success in our work.
The third angel’s message is one of warning. It points out the dangers, and defines the duties, of the present time. Like the messages of Noah and John the Baptist, the truths we bear to the world are distasteful to most people. As it was then, so now,—the truth for this time cuts directly across many of their practices, and condemns them. This makes it unpopular. But in the order of God, it must be proclaimed, whether men will hear or forbear.
Those who accept the truth in the love of it, and carry it out in their lives, will be sanctified by it and saved. While the scoffing, careless world will by it be condemned.
Sometimes our hearts are pained at the spirit manifested toward the truth of God. Many oppose it with all the bitterness of a wicked heart full of bigotry and hatred. Many others confess its clearness and obligations, but popularity and the cares and pride of life choke the word and make it unfruitful. Perhaps a few, a very few, embrace it; and in their hearts, like seed sown in good soil, it produces fruit to the glory of God. This is our experience nearly everywhere we go.
Shall we then measure the progress of our work by the small number who embrace it? If we do, we may well be discouraged. If popularity is the criterion of our success, we may well despair. Our work is faithfully to warn the world. Some of the labor which seems ineffectual now will no doubt be blessed to the good of those who hear, and none of it will return void unto Him who hath sent it. It will prove a savor of life or of death.
The best indication of our success, under the hand of God, is the faithful proclamation of this message in different parts of the world. How to do the work faithfully, thoroughly, is a proper subject of thought and prayer. The work is ours to do; the result lies with God and the people.
GEO. C. TENNEY.