Delayed Results | AdventAI

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jun 17, 1886

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 12, No. 23.

Delayed Results.

THE want of immediate or apparent success is among the severe trials which Christian workers are called to endure. To toil long without any obvious results is painfully trying; but it is a test of faith to which the faithful servants of God are often subjected. He that sows is not always he that quickly gathers the ripened grain with rejoicing that he has not labored in vain. The bringing in of the sheaves from the field where tearful sowing is done, is often delayed. Success, at first, is dealt out but sparingly, in a multitude of cases. The sower is not so soon a reaper as he longs to be, in what seems to him a godly impatience.

It has always been thus. God tries the faith of his servants by keeping them in suspense. Jeremiah says, "It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait." The most excellent and faithful have thus been tried. That for which they anxiously looked did not appear according to their desires or their expectations as to either the time or the way of appearance, if, indeed, aught on earth was ever to be seen. The preaching of Noah produced but little effect, from first to last, so far as gaining converts was concerned. He waited long before his words were confirmed and before the end of his ministry was accomplished. Very wearisome must have been that one hundred and twenty years of waiting. Many a time he must have felt that he was laboring in vain; and never, at all, did he see the world converted and saved. Without doubt, however, he was permitted to feel that the true end of the work given him to do, was accomplished; so that he was by no means to be considered an unsuccessful preacher.—Watchman.