OUR CALLING AND WORK by Dan. T. Jones

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Feb 8, 1892

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 18, No. 14.

OUR CALLING AND WORK.

By Dan. T. Jones

BY ELDER DAN. T. JONES.

SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTISTS are, by the doctrines they hold and their relation to those about them, forced to be a missionary people. To accept the situation and act upon it is the only consistent thing we can do. We believe that God has given us light and truth in advance of that held by the Christian people about us; moreover, we believe that this light and truth which we have received embrace a message, symbolically represented by the three angels of Revelation 14, which is to go to all the world just before Christ comes, to ripen the world for the final harvest. The acceptance of such a faith lays at the door of those who profess it grave responsibilities.

It has been God's plan ever since the gospel was instituted to work through man for the salvation of men. A gentleman prominently connected with the great missionary movement that is now agitating the Christian world lately said that he seriously questioned whether God had ever converted a soul or ever would convert one without in some way connecting man with it. Addressing the church, the apostle says: "But all things are of God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and gave unto us the ministry of reconciliation, to wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, . . . and having committed unto us the word of reconciliation, we are ambassadors therefor on behalf of Christ." 2 Cor. 5: 18-20, Revised Version.

As in the natural world electricity does not pass from one object to another without a conductor, so in the spiritual world the work of God for the salvation of man must pass through the channel that He has ordained. Man must be connected with it. Man's part in the work of converting souls may sometimes be very slight,—a word spoken, a line written, a tract or paper handed to an individual or sent through the mails. An act in standing out for truth and right may be, and often is, used by God for the salvation of men. When a people have departed from the truth and gone into darkness and forgotten the laws of God, the Lord has revealed himself to individuals who were loyal to him, and through them revived a knowledge of the truth in the earth. This principle is illustrated by the calling and work of such men as Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, Hezekiah, the prophets, Martin Luther, and others, and by the calling of Israel as a nation, through whom God designed to let the knowledge of himself and the light of the gospel go to all the world. Had Israel been true to her high calling, instead of the majority of the people of the earth groping in the darkness of heathenism, forgetting God and his truth, all the nations of the world would have received, through the chosen people, a knowledge of the true God, and have heard the gospel of salvation.

The fact that so much depends upon the work of even the disciples of Christ makes it of the greatest importance that every possible effort should be made to reach our fellow-men with the truth of God. Even the smallest acts that we do—and everyone can do something—may, through the blessing of God, accomplish much. The Lord says, "In the morning sow thy seed, and in the evening withhold not thine hand, for thou knowest not which will prosper, this or that, or whether both will be alike good." Everyone who accepts the Third Angel's Message is called to work in some capacity for the spread of the gospel of the kingdom. In the closing invitation of the gospel, the true witness says, "LET HIM THAT HEARETH SAY, COME."

As the closing work of the gospel is to be a thorough work that will develop a perfect people, so the Lord has caused to be recorded the failings of his people in the past, that we may be admonished thereby, and avoid falling into the same errors that marred and destroyed their work. Their lack of faith, their murmurings, their faultfindings, their idolatry, their temptings of Christ, their failures to receive the message of God as he gave it to them, their neglect of the work which he gave them to do, these and many other things are "written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come."

It is the duty of one as much as another to become an active worker in the Lord's vineyard. The fact that we may not be able to devote much time to the work, or do something that will seem large in our own eyes and in the eyes of those who look on, does not excuse us for devoting no time at all to working for God, or in neglecting to do the little that we might do for the spread of his truth. The Lord judges "according to that a man hath, and not according to that he hath not." The mites of the poor widow who had no more, were in the sight of God a greater offering than the shekels of the rich who had an abundance left. The same principle holds good in the missionary work. The smallest act performed or sacrifice made in the name of Christ, with an unselfish motive and in the spirit of love, cannot fail to accomplish good, and will receive its reward. The greatest demonstration is not an evidence of the greatest power. God was not in the wind, though it rent the mountains; nor in the earthquake, though it shook the hills; nor in the fire, though it consumed the forests; but he was in the still, small voice which said, "What doest thou here?"

In the parable of the talents each man received a portion, but it was the man that received the one talent who failed to make a satisfactory use of that which was committed to his trust. Likewise there is danger that those who have but little of time or talent or means to use for God, will neglect to use what they have because it is small, and will therefore fall under the condemnation of a "slothful and wicked servant." "Who, then, is that faithful and wise steward, whom his Lord shall make ruler over his household, to give them their portion of meat in due season? Blessed is that servant, whom his Lord when he cometh shall find so doing." "Therefore to him that knoweth to do well, and doeth it not, to him it is sin."