COUNTING NOSES by The Armory

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Mar 6, 1893

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 19, No. 18.

COUNTING NOSES.

By The Armory

THERE are many persons whose remedy for existing evils is votes. If they can get a majority to vote this way or that, then something can be accomplished; and so they estimate the future of the church and the nation and the world on the basis of the census. Such an estimate is erroneous. It avails but little for the cause of righteousness to "count noses," if the majority of the noses are red ones, and, besides, a numerical estimate is sure to be an erroneous one. When someone was asked what he thought of Xerxes' army of five million men, he said, "There are many mouths, but few hands—many men, but few soldiers."

God's work has ever been done by minorities; one man, strong in God, can chase a thousand of those men who simply count. One Elijah on the summit of Carmel is a match for all the prophets of Baal, and all the apostates that feed at Jezebel's table. One man reasoning of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come, and thundering the wrath of God which is revealed against all unrighteousness, counts for more than a score of learned Nicodemeses who have never been born again, or a whole Sanhedrin of rabbis and scribes who are pecking at phrases, and disputing about forms, and striving to take him in his talk. Gideon did not win his battle with thirty thousand warriors, two-thirds of whom were in a hurry to get home. His force was too large; his army must be thinned out and whittled down till the three hundred could take the pitchers and the lamps, and cry, "The sword of the Lord and of Gideon," and conquer with that battle cry.

Man of God, do not fear being in a minority; do not fear to stand alone; fear nobody but God; fear nothing but sin, and let the world count and recount its multitudes. Let the men who draw all their inspiration from the census, reckon their forces and imagine prosperity or adversity, danger or safety, according to the figures they find there; but let men of God know that one man with the Lord is stronger than all the hosts of Satan, and that if God be for us, all hell may rage against us in vain. Stand for the right, stand for the true, stand for the Lord, and, having done all, stand. Those heroic souls who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, were every man of them on the unpopular side; not one of them had a majority with him. The majority bowed the knee to Baal; the majority knelt before the golden image which Nebuchadnezzar set up; the majority prayed to King Darius, while Daniel's windows were open towards Jerusalem; the majority builded no arks, but perished in the flood; the majority went down in the fiery storm that burst upon the cities of the plain; and the majority is likely to be wrong to-day as it was then.

Let the servants of the Lord strengthen themselves in him; let them be of good cheer; let them fear not the foe; and when the hosts of hell assail them, let them, instead of worrying their souls over census reports, cry to the living God for help in time of need, for deliverance in the hour of danger, for blessing which the Lord alone can give.

Man of God, hold fast the faith. Let others number Israel, but let it be yours to trust in him whose hosts no man can number, who counts the stars, who rules the world, who marshals the angels, who delivers his people, who will never leave nor forsake his saints. One man following the Lord of heaven may overturn the devices of a thousand of crafty hypocrites. One man with a voice that cannot be silenced, with a pen that cannot be bought, with a spirit that knows no fear, can stand like a rock in the midst of the ocean's billows, and abide when winds and waves are hushed to rest, and be found at last crowned with light among those who are "more than conquerors through Him that loved us."