SERVICE, THE TEST by Joseph Miner

Pacific Press Publishing Company · OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA · Jun 27, 1900

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 26, No. 26.

SERVICE, THE TEST.

By Joseph Miner

GOD will not save you if you do not try to save some one else. Were it otherwise, the whole plan of redemption would be arrested and nullified. God’s purpose is to save the world through human agency. Every man is to seek and bring his brother-man, even as Andrew brought Simon to Christ. The Spirit of Christ is designed to reproduce itself in the heart and life of every believer. Soul-saving faith makes soul-saving men. I do not think that any man is ever saved except by the direct or indirect intervention of some other man. Christ alone

can call the Lazarus forth, but there is a stone to be rolled away before, and there are wrappings to be removed after the miracle is wrought. And hence God is but working out His own economy in demanding that every member of His kingdom shall be a servant and a worker. Through all time the test of saintship is service.

But this is not all. The divine claim is not exhausted by the mere demand for work. It is declared again and again that no service is acceptable unless it be rendered with the whole heart. God claims the entire man, body, soul, and spirit. He lays his hand not upon our gifts, our wealth, or our leisure, but upon us, saying as He does so, "Thou and thine are Mine." Our very life, with all its powers and possibilities, must be surrendered to Him. Partial, perfunctory, half-hearted service He sternly rejects; and upon those who mock Him by offering it He pours out His righteous wrath.—Joseph Miner.