THE PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE.
By James White
We have waited a score of years in vain for ministers of the different religious bodies to embrace and proclaim the message of the third angel. God would doubtless accept them, and make them the mediums of his saving truth to the people, if they would accept the Lord and his unpopular truth. These men, with their experience in public speaking, would accomplish much in the Lord’s great harvest field in gathering the golden sheaves for the heavenly garner. But as they choose to reject the counsel of God against themselves, the Lord is calling men from the humbler walks of life to leave their farms and their trades to give themselves to the proclamation of the last message of truth to dying men. The Lord could have called men of wealth, education, and experience in standing before the people, and made them the honored instruments in his hands of first searching out the present truth, and the very first in publishing it to the world. Viewing our early history from a worldly standpoint, had our cause commenced in a more popular manner, our young men who enter the Lord’s vineyard at the eleventh hour would be saved the embarrassment under which they suffer, as the poverty, privations, sacrifices, and humility of those who bore the burden in the heat of the day, are rehearsed before them. But however painful this may be to those who have educational advantages at our College, and who go out leaning upon our Systematic Benevolence Treasuries for support, and with our publications, in which the entire system of present truth is made ready to their hands, so that they simply repeat before the people the truths connected with our message brought out by the pioneers of the cause, it is important to the safety of the cause that these facts be kept before the people. We do not say that the twenty thousand Seventh-day Adventists of to-day should do and suffer just what the few did and suffered at the commencement of the work. God has not changed, however, neither has the truth of his word changed; but the times and circumstances which surround us to-day have changed, demanding broader plans. To fully comprehend this, and understand that our plans must change by being enlarged as the work extends, and that we must still humbly work with God, and be led by the Guiding Hand, is what some fail to do. While it may appear evident that God had a great design in commencing the work in humility, that our people might ever during the period of our message and mission call to remembrance the former days lest we forget all the way the Lord has led us, it would be the height of folly to lay our plans as narrow as they necessarily were a quarter of a century ago, when there were but a few hundreds of Seventh-day Adventists in America and none in the Old World. In the year 1854, our first house of worship was built in Battle Creek. It was 18x22 feet, and would seat not far from one hundred persons. It was the first house of worship erected by Seventh-day Adventists, and was as plain as plain can be. A good brother from Vermont, passing to the West, called at Battle Creek and attended an evening prayer-meeting in our very humble house of worship. At the close of the meeting, conversation passed between us in substance as follows:— “Well, Bro. White, you have built a meeting-house.” “Yes; we have needed a house of worship at Battle Creek since the REVIEW AND HERALD was moved from Rochester, N. Y., to this place. Before the removal of the Office, the few brethren were comfortably convened in a private house, but there is no dwelling occupied by any of our brethren of sufficient size to convene our present congregation.” “Oh dear, I see that you are following in the wake of the other churches, and unless the Lord comes very soon, you will lead this people to popularity.” The good brother meant well, and had he lived to this day, and had part in the work, the providence of God in the growth of the cause would have expanded his views of this great work. When that poor little place of worship would no longer hold our congregation, a second plain house was built, 28x44, which would convene three hundred. But soon the growing congregation could not be seated in that, and a third house was erected, 42x66, which will seat six hundred people. But as our regular Sabbath congregation would be not less than one thousand if we had a place of worship to seat them, the Dime Tabernacle is now going up, which will convene three thousand. What could we do with our Battle Creek congregation of to-day, if we had only the first house of worship, that would seat one hundred persons? And yet there are those among us who will repeat the whine, with age and perpetual use worn threadbare by lubber-lifters in the cause,— “You are drifting toward the other churches, and in less than twenty years, should time continue so long, Seventh-day Adventists will be just like them.”101 We would not spurn the idea and warning of danger, by any means; but we confess want of evidence that the Lord is leading these persons from whom the cry of danger comes. We do not believe that God has called them to this work. It looks far more consistent to conclude that the very ones to whom God has given light relative to broader plans and the general management of the work would also have light relative to the dangers and duties of our people, than that he would lay the burden of the dangers to which Seventh-day Adventists are exposed on those who have been holding back, like an ox being drawn by a rope tied to his horns, into the blacksmith’s sling to be shod, and whom nothing but the irresistible revolutions of the great wheel of God’s providential dealings with us as a people has been able to pull along with the advancing cause. And yet we hear from these the same caution in the same doleful strain, repeated over and over again, which those who have the burden of the cause laid upon them, and who feel our dangers in every nerve, need grace to patiently endure,— “You are drifting toward the other churches, and will soon be like them, unless the Lord shall come very soon.” These imagine that they fill an important place in the cause, and that their cautions are as important to the safety of the cause of God as brakes are to the safety of a railroad train. But if the cause were left to them, its progress might be compared to that of a train of cars with fire put out, locomotive abandoned, and fireman and engineer running the train by the use of brakes alone. The result would be a fixed position similar to that of Lot’s wife. We choose to go forward with righteous Lot. But the Lord has chosen whom he pleased to manage his cause and act the part of conductor, engineer, fireman, and brakeman on the celestial train that is moving toward the golden gate of the city of God; and the invitation and earnest entreaty to those who have no business with the management of this heavenly train, and have quite as much as they can do to act the part of quiet, orderly passengers, is, “Hands off, and get on board, and let those whom the Lord has called and qualified to manage, take charge.” And right here those who think it their duty to act as brakemen to the cause for its safety will charge us with steadying the ark, and will cite the case and fate of Uzza, who put forth his hand to hold the ark of God as the oxen stumbled in passing the threshing-floor of Chidon. To this we reply, There were those who had charge of the ark by divine appointment, and Uzza was meddling with that which was none of his business, and because he got out of his proper place “the anger of the Lord was kindled against Uzza, and he smote him, because he put his hand to the ark; and there he died before God,” 1 Chron. 13:9, 10; another providential warning to those who take on themselves a work which the Lord has not laid upon them of “Hands off, and quietly take your places in the rank and file of the Lord’s army who keep the commands of God and the faith of Jesus, lest a similar fate be yours to that which miserably terminated the life of poor Uzza.” We are happy to know that the Lord has not left the remnant who keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ, to the blind guidance of these. The spirit of prophecy lives in the commandment-keeping church, and is still appealing to us in a straight-forward line, as it has during the past thirty-three years, warning of danger and admonishing to duty. The voice of the Lord through the humble instrument of his choice is still appealing to this people. We do not ask you to follow any person, however endowed with the Spirit and grace of God, but if in this warning you recognize the voice of the True Shepherd, follow him, believe and obey. It may be proper to briefly review the past, and call to mind the merciful dealings of the Lord with us as a people. In the sad history of the people of the Lord, it will be seen that they were in danger of forgetting his merciful dealings with them, and, as a consequence, they would lose sight of his goodness and loving kindness, and become unthankful and unclean, in his sight. We, too, are in danger of losing that clear light and living sense of God’s gracious dealings with us which it is for our safety and profit to see and feel. In the rise and progress of the cause thus far, great and important enterprises have been taken in hand and have been pushed forward with a firmness and zeal which have been truly wonderful when we consider the many obstacles which lay directly in the way of the few who put their hand to the work. But as we now survey our brief history, we clearly see that the Hand of Strength and the Mind of Wisdom have been with us in this cause. J. W.