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Review and Herald, Vol. 86, No. 47.

Not As I Will

Review and Herald

Nov 25, 1909

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Nov 25, 1909

Not As I Will

By Helen Hunt Jackson

Blindfolded and alone I stand, With unknown thresholds on each hand; The darkness deepens as I grope, Afraid to fear, afraid to hope; Yet this one thing I learn to know Each day more surely as I go, That doors are opened, ways are made, Burdens are lifted or are laid By some great law, unseen and still, Unfathomed purpose to fulfil, “Not as I will.”
Blindfolded and alone I wait— Loss seems too bitter, gain too late, Too heavy burdens in the load, And too few helpers on the road; And joy is weak, and grief is strong, And years and days so long, so long; Yet this one thing I learn to know Each day more surely as I go, That I am glad the good and ill By changeless law are ordered still, “Not as I will.”
“Not as I will!”—the sound grows sweet Each time my lips the words repeat. “Not as I will!”—the darkness feels More safe than light when this thought steals Like whispered voice to calm and bless All unrest and all loneliness. “Not as I will!” because the One Who loved us first and best has gone Before us on the road, and still For us must all His love fulfil— “Not as we will.”
—Helen Hunt Jackson.

THE WORK — AND — THE WORKERS

A SISTER writes: “Please find enclosed ——, for which send me the dear old REVIEW AND HERALD,—food for the Sabbath-keeper.”
J. O. JOHNSON bears this testimony: “I congratulate the publishers on their maiden effort with Christian Education. If this represents the quality of the wine at the first feast, what will it be at the last?”
ALL classes, nations, and religionists are interested in Liberty. We have just received a subscription from a Jewish rabbi of New Brunswick, Canada. He also invited one of our ministers to speak on religious liberty in his synagogue.
CARRIE L. BURDICK: “I received the first copy of Christian Education, and feel that it will be especially helpful to our school-teachers. I am so well pleased with it that I would like to see it circulated among the people the same as Life and Health and some of our other good papers. I would like to see it have a wide circulation.”
MISS JENNETTE LEE has just sent in the following encouraging report: “I enclose $2 for the magazines recently sent me. I am grateful that I can feel daily that I am doing a good work. I received the 50 copies of the September number promptly, and sold them in one and one-half days. I am willing at all times to engage in the work of the Master.”
Liberty for the fourth quarter of 1909, in simplicity and practical adaptation to the conditions of the great majority of people, is the best number we have ever published. It answers many of the most vital questions associated with the great theme of religious liberty. If any are questioning the propriety of giving their support to temperance work on account of this being intimately associated with the National Reform movement, we recommend them to read the temperance articles in this number of Liberty.
SAYS Elder B. F. Kneeland: “I will confess that when I heard there was to be another magazine added to our already large list of such publications, a large doubt arose in my mind as to the advisability of launching such an enterprise at this time. But when I looked through the first copy, and found it so full of just the things that a teacher ought to know, and breathed its inspiring atmosphere of the real higher life, I decided that Christian Education is started on the right lines, and deserves to succeed. The wide-spread and startling educational apostasy of the present-day demands that more than ordinary efforts be put forth to stem the tide of infidelity and spiritism which is sweeping real Christianity out of our educational systems, and whose dreadful undertow is dragging many of the brightest minds of both school and church back to the rudiments of pagan philosophy.”
THE November number of Life and Health will help all in the matter of food and right living. It gives special instruction upon drinks, and cites scientific laws upon rest and recreation. It, in fact, contains much good common sense upon all the essentials of health and happiness.
GOOD records are increasing constantly. Here is one from Mary Sharpe: “I sold 1,845 copies of Life and Health here in Atlanta, Ga., during last November and December. I sold 1,100 copies of the August number, before the middle of the month. Sold as high as 594 copies in one week.”
ELDER WM. COVERT writes: “The last number of the Protestant Magazine is at hand. This is an excellent periodical, and deserves a wide circulation, both among our people and elsewhere. We shall find time to send out a nice list of subscribers in the near future, and shall encourage suitable persons to go out as agents for it.”
AUGUST GLATT says of our church paper: “I wish to say that the good old REVIEW is so good that we are very much pleased with it. It furnishes us with just the right kind of spiritual food. Last Sabbath I read an article about Brother Cady’s experiences among the islands, also one from Pitcairn Island, together with reports from many other parts of the great vineyard.”
Life and Health readers can be found among many professional people. Our workers are constantly reporting meeting with prominent people who are constant readers of this excellent journal. The following is a sample report just received: “I solicited a doctor yesterday, and he said, ‘Lady, I have taken that journal ever since it was first published. It is so good I wish it was in every home in this town.’”

The Open-Flat Bible

WE have just received a large shipment of the new Open-Flat Bible, and are again able to fill orders promptly. This Bible has met with such general favor, and so many orders were received, that our first shipment was exhausted, and we had to hold some orders several days waiting for the new stock. Read the description of those Bibles, and note the prices.
STYLE “A.”—Bering seal, divinity circuit, round corners, red under gold edges, silk head-band and marker, grained leather lining, silk sewed, India paper—a very serviceable book. $4.
STYLE “B.”—Persian morocco, divinity circuit, round corners, red under gold edges, silk head-band and marker, leather lined to edges, silk sewed, India paper—compares very favorably with Bibles which cost more. $5.
STYLE “C.”—Genuine levant morocco, divinity circuit, round corners, red under gold edges, silk head-band and marker, calf lined to edge, silk sewed, India paper—the perfection in Bible making. The cover has a rich, soft, flexible feeling, which immediately captivates one. $6. Prices include postage or express.
“Life and Health really does help me a great deal in the care of my six little ones, and I enjoy reading everything it contains. I send $1 for one year’s subscription.”
“ENCLOSED please find thirty-five cents, for which renew my subscription for your valuable paper, the Sabbath School Worker. I can not do without its assistance in Sabbath-school work.”
WE are getting many letters like the following: “I have had very little experience, having purchased some copies of the magazine from another worker. But I had splendid success, having sold 50 copies in a few minutes less than two hours. Please find enclosed $3, for which send me copies of Life and Health.”
“I THINK Christian Education is a good and important magazine to place in the homes of all our people. Christian education can never be appreciated too highly; nor can we get too much of it in fitting ourselves for the advantage of service in this world and the world to come. I trust the journal will have a good circulation in all fields.”
ACCOMPANYING a list of subscribers are the following words from Emily Johnson, a worker for the Protestant Magazine: “I enjoy selling the Protestant Magazine. I sold it in Lincoln while there attending the summer school. I had some interesting experiences. I am glad I can send you this list of subscribers, and I wish the magazine great success.”
A FORMER agent writes: “We thank you very much for your patience with us. I intend to again sell the magazine Life and Health, when my health improves. I enjoy selling the journal very much. This summer is the first time I have ever sold any. My best record was 55 papers in two and one-half hours.” Fifty-five papers in two and one-half hours, nets the worker $1.54 an hour. That is a good salary, especially for a pleasant and enjoyable work. Many others would make a profitable change if they would sell out, and go into the periodical work.
OUR grandfathers and grandmothers are taking a new lease on life, and entering the Master’s work. The following letter is only one of many we could quote in proof of this statement: “The October number of Life and Health is at hand, and will say that it is surely a seller. Every number seems to be better than the last one, and I am very sorry that I can not at present engage in the sale of the magazine. I am trying to dispose of my property here, so I can go into the work in earnest. You see I live on a farm, and have canvassed every one in reach of me. My first order was for 25 copies of Liberty. Thought if I could not sell them, I could give them away; but to my great surprise I sold them in a few minutes. I am sixty-eight years old. My next order was for 200 copies of Life and Health and 25 of Liberty, and I did real well with them. So now, if I can sell here, I intend to sell magazines as long as I can do anything.”

The Providential “Now”

By W. A. S.

In all the story of special providences there is no record more striking than that of the providences by which the way has been prepared for the advent message to go quickly to the ends of the earth.
“Up; for this is the day,” was the word of the Lord to Israel in a crisis; and as the host responded, the very stars in their courses fought for them. “Up; for this is the day,” is the message to us now, not only by the sure word of prophecy, but by every turn of a world-shaping providence.
Opening Providences. — Prophecy had declared that when the hour of God’s judgment came, in 1844, the last message was then to be carried to every people. But when that hour came, half the world was practically closed to missionary effort. And note, now, the fact that since that very time it has been one succession of opening doors, till even Tibet, “the great closed land,” is really opening, and we know of only one principality, Nepal, a lesser state of northern India, that can be said to be closed to missionary propaganda. With the coming of the message came the opening of the way for it.
Swift Providences. — The message of the prophecy was to go swiftly, within one generation. A few years before 1844, men were traveling about the world little or no faster than five thousand years before. Suddenly, and largely within the memory of some still living, the world has been reduced to small compass by the development of swift means of transportation and communication. Only a few weeks ago the Mission Board held a conversation with India by cable, receiving word one day, answering the next, getting reply that evening, and answering next morning. Providence has prepared the means for quickly covering the field of effort, to “the uttermost parts of the earth.”
Language Providences. — The message of the judgment hour, with its warning against perversions of the truth and its call to the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus, was to go to every “tongue.” A few years before 1844 the Scripture itself was translated into but few languages outside the European family. But this has been the generation of Bible translation. The Word of God now speaks in over five hundred tongues. It is a most marvelous fact to contemplate; and wherever that Word goes, it is teaching the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus, and telling of Christ’s coming again. More and more frequently we are hearing of persons catching the truths of the message from reading the Bible alone; and a preparation for a wonderful work and a quick work, as the Holy Spirit is poured out, is being accomplished by this widespread distribution of the Word of God. It has come about in our day. And we can never be clear of guilt if we do not move faster in the work of putting the helps to Bible study, our literature, into the languages. Our missionaries are just getting ready to go at it in earnest. It is for us to provide the means.
“Up; for This Is the Day!” — That is the cry of world-moving providences to our ears, in tones like the trump of angels. It calls every sleeper to awake. It calls us to turn sharply away from all selfishness and covetousness and wastefulness, and to devote our means to the work of hastening the third angel’s message to the world. The voice of Providence silences every voice that would lift itself against the missionary forward movement with counsels of delay. Providence is not delaying. There is call for the action of a whole people now. Every day the open doors seem threatening to close again, so far as peaceful and unhindered occupancy is concerned. But the providential ordering still holds in check the winds of strife. As the angels hold, how earnestly they must look to see the people of the prophecy spring into the open ways. Everything cries, “This is the day.” No Seventh-day Adventist can face the facts without praying to God for a deeper consecration of heart and a knowledge of how to do more to hasten the message on. From every corner of the earth these flaming providences signal for the largest week-of-prayer offering ever given. It is no time to settle down comfortably to plan for many years to come. “Up; for this is the day!” W. A. S.

As in the Days of Noah

By C. M. S.

The world has turned a warning voice upon itself. It is as if a sleeper, in the grip of a terrible dream, were shrieking to waken himself. For several years the greatest magazines in this country, if not in the world, have been blazoning forth to their readers the almost unthinkable conditions that exist in all the great cities of our country. They have done this with no idea of teaching the people that the end of the age is approaching, or that the second coming of Christ is nigh. They have seen no religious or prophetic significance in it all. But they have laid bare conditions which are unmistakable fulfilments of divine prophecy.
Said our Lord: “As were the days of Noah, so shall be the coming of the Son of man.” The wickedness of man was great in the earth when Jehovah decreed its destruction by a flood of waters. So also with Sodom. We read that “the men of Sodom were wicked and sinners against Jehovah exceedingly,” and the “cry of Sodom” was great. The angel of the Lord could not find ten righteous in it, and its name has become synonymous with the lowest sinful practise known to man.
But to-day, in every great city of the world, there is committed every crime and sin that Sodom knew, or that was practised by the nations of Noah’s day. From every great city in the world there are modern Sodoms crying up to God for the flood of fire, there is wickedness as great as that drowned out by the deluge of Noah’s day. In one issue of one great magazine alone (McClure’s for November) thirty-three pages are devoted to the political and social pollutionof one great city. The revelations therein made are shocking in the extreme. The conditions portrayed may in the future be worse in quantity, but they can not be worse in quality. The authors of the articles in question demonstrate that the greatest city in the New World is ruled by a well-organized band of criminals, the foundation and life of whose operations is prostitution. That degrading business has the protection and fostering care of the greatest political organization of the municipality, and in turn contributes to that organization the millions that keep that organization in power and support its body-guard. The buying and selling of girls, both local and immigrant, for immoral purposes has become a controlling factor in the politics of that great city. The political organization supported by that awful business has had absolute control of the police department and the police courts; and as a result, every kind of crime has found protection from those sworn to enforce the law.
So well did this arrangement serve the purposes of professional politicians, that “it has now established itself to some extent in at least three fourths of the large cities of the United States,” says George Kibbe Turner, in the magazine mentioned. Not only so, but the most active political workers in the city are the hosts of conscienceless young men who live upon the earnings of fallen women. The wicked business has no limits to its operations, and there is no place too sacred for it to set its trap for the unwary working girl. “Everywhere through the great cities of the country the sharp eyes of the wise ‘cadet’ [procurer] are watching, hunting her [the working girl] out at her amusements and places of work. And back of him the most adroit minds of the politicians of the slums are standing to protect and extend with him their mutual interests. . . . Special lawyers defend the ‘cadets’ when they are caught, and all have their direct access to the political machine.”
Gen. Theodore A. Bingham, recently deposed police commissioner of New York, telling his experience in endeavoring to break the power of the political-criminal organization in New York City, says: “I was opposed by a strong and organized body which fought every step of the way. At the end of that time [two and one-half years] I was suddenly removed from office. . . . The average decent citizen has no idea of the power of the organized criminals of New York.” He declares that the practise of law in the lower section of New York has one chief purpose in view,—the protection of the criminal,—and shows that many of the political leaders are engaged in questionable business that can not be mentioned in polite society.
The publisher of the magazine himself devotes many pages of his journal to a discussion of the same conditions. He says: “The struggle to degrade the standards and guaranties of civilization in America have come about largely through the populations of cities. . . . In this ample field for their enterprise have sprung up organizations for the profitable debauching of populations, such as have rarely, if ever, been equaled in the history of the world.”
Mr. McClure makes one statement which is full of meaning to every reader of this paper. He says: “The oldest and most infamous organization in America for exploiting this population is Tammany Hall of New York, which the great classical historian, Prof. Guglielmo Ferrero, recently compared to the very similar organizations that were formed for exploiting the city of Rome during its decadence.”
Concerning the prevalence of these conditions, Mr. McClure says: “The same political forces engaged in degrading civilization into barbarism are at work with general success in all the larger cities of the country.” Again: “The operation of the coroner’s court in New York in dealing with the average murder is one of the ghastliest travesties of justice in human government.”
Said Prof. Charles W. Eliot, of Harvard University, in New York, on Dec. 16, 1908: “The defenses of society against criminals have broken down.”
If these are the conditions in our great cities, as we have every evidence they are; and if they are growing daily in the quantity of crime and sin of every description, as we know they are, how urgently incumbent it is upon us to do in them our allotted work right speedily! Such places are no places for the thronging of our youth. They who must go there in the business of this message have a duty attended with peril, and implicit trust in God is their only sure defense; but they who go there without the duty have the peril without the defense.
The cities of this world are human inventions, and are fast becoming citadels of strength in the kingdom of darkness. They are growing constantly in size, and this very growth is an assurance of the certain increase of the debasing conditions found in them to-day. The verdict of the facts of history and the logic of cause and effect are dead against the idea of any permanent renovation of the cities of the world. “Evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse.” Every great city of the world is sending up to heaven the cry that went up to God from Sodom of old, and the day when he will answer with fire is not far distant.
C. M. S.

Christ’s Ministry in the Heavenly Sanctuary

By W. W. P.

In the further study of such passages in the epistle to the Hebrews as have a bearing upon the place of Christ’s ministry in the heavenly sanctuary after his ascension, we will consider the following extract:—
“For Christ entered not into a holy place made with hands, like in pattern to the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear before the face of God for us: nor yet that he should offer himself often, as the high priest entereth into the holy place year by year with blood not his own; else must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world; but now once at the end of the ages hath he been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.” Heb. 9: 24-26.
Whether we follow the reading of the Revised Version, “a holy place,” or that of the Authorized Version, “the holy places,” in verse 24, it is clear that it would do violence to the text to interpret this in either case as meaning the “most holy place.” According to the rendering of the Authorized Version, reference would be specifically made to both apartments, while the reading of the Revised Version would correspond exactly to the expression found in chapter 9: 12, where the same general thought, that of Christ’s entrance upon his priestly work in heaven, is under consideration. In both places the same Greek word is used, and in both places it evidently refers to the sanctuary as a whole, just as the same Greek word is used in chapter 8: 2, where it is translated “the sanctuary.”
It should be further noted that “a holy place made with hands” is here contrasted with “heaven itself,” and therefore, if “a holy place” is limited in its meaning to the second apartment of the sanctuary, it would seem that there was nothing in heaven which corresponded to the first apartment; but this would be absolutely contrary to the direct testimony of other scriptures, and such an interpretation is, therefore, entirely inadmissible. It follows, then, that the place into which Christ entered on his ascension, the true tabernacle, contained two apartments, the same as the earthly sanctuary.
In the twenty-fifth verse reference is clearly made to the continual sacrifices offered in the typical service, especially the continual burnt-offering which was offered morning and evening. Ex. 29: 38, 39. That this interpretation is correct is demonstrated by comparing the expression “year by year” with the same expression “year by year” in verse 1 of chapter 10. These sacrifices there mentioned, which the priests offered year by year continually, which could not “make perfect them that draw nigh,” are the same as those referred to inthe ninth verse of chapter 9; “both gifts and sacrifices that can not, as touching the conscience, make the worshiper perfect, being only (with meats and drinks and divers washings) carnal ordinances, imposed until a time of reformation.”
The plain meaning of verses 25 and 26 is that the sacrifice of Christ was made once for all, and that it fulfilled all that was foreshadowed by the repeated offerings of the typical service. This is also indicated by the further development of this same theme in verses 11 and 12 of chapter 10:—
“Every priest indeed standeth day by day ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, the which can never take away sins: but he, when he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of God.”
Comparing these several passages again with verses 24, 25, and 26 of chapter 9, the conclusion seems to be fully warranted that when Christ entered “into heaven itself, now to appear before the face of God for us,” and thus became “a minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, not man,” he entered upon that complete service which was foreshadowed in the service performed by the priests of the earthly sanctuary, of whom it was said that they “serve that which is a copy and shadow of the heavenly things.”
The lesson of the epistle to the Hebrews is a most practical one. We do not have in this epistle a merely theoretical interpretation of the typical services of the earthly sanctuary, but a practical application of the teaching to personal experience. This is clearly indicated in the following words:—
“Having, therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by the way which he dedicated for us, a new and living way, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh; and having a great priest over the house of God; let us draw near with a true heart in fulness of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience.” Heb. 10:19-22.
As the priest in the typical service entered into the sanctuary with confidence, although he appeared in behalf of the sinner, because he bore with him the blood of the slain victim, so it is declared that we have “boldness to enter into the holy place by the blood of Jesus,” “who gave himself for our sins.” Here again we find the expression, “the holy place,” which is the rendering of the same Greek word found in chapter 8: 2, and chapter 9: 2, 8, 12, 24, and 25, and rendered in the first text “the sanctuary,” and in the other five (in the Revised Version) the “holy place.” This word is incorrectly rendered “the holiest” in chapter 10:19 in the Authorized Version, and no sound exposition of the passage can be based upon such a translation. Coming to this text as a kind of practical climax to the previous interpretation of the sanctuary and its services, the natural conclusion would be that it was setting forth the spiritual benefits accruing to the believer through his faith in Jesus as his high priest and representative before the Father in the heavenly sanctuary, during the whole period of Christ’s ministry both in the first and second apartments.
The exhortation is then equally applicable to those living at the time when it was written, who would enter into fellowship with their High Priest in his work in the first apartment, and to those in this generation who are prepared by the special light of the threefold message to enter with Jesus into the most holy place, and to co-operate with him in the special services of the day of atonement.
We have now called attention to these passages in the epistle to the Hebrews which have the most direct application to the question under consideration. In every case we have found that the natural interpretation of the language used would show that when Christ entered upon his ministry in the heavenly sanctuary, the typical services in the earthly sanctuary found their fulfilment, and that Christ in his own person was the antitype both of the earthly priests in their round of services and of all the offerings made in consequence of sin. It seems to demand an absolute wresting of the Scriptures to maintain, after reading this epistle as a whole, that the ministry of the earthly priests in the holy place of the typical temple had already found its counterpart in reality in the ministry of another priest, Melchizedek, in the heavenly sanctuary, and that Christ’s ministry answered only to the services on the day of atonement. The evidence found in this epistle alone is sufficient to show that any such teaching does not harmonize with the divine interpretation of the priesthood of Christ set forth in shadow and symbol in the earthly sanctuary and its services.
W. W. P.

Travailing for Souls

By I. H. Evans

“For as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children.” Under inspiration the prophet here sets forth the way in which souls are born into the kingdom of God. Sometimes we fancy this work on the hearts of men is wrought through the eloquence of man, or by his will power, or through some effort that man puts forth in his own strength. But this does not seem to be the teaching of the Word of God. The prophet said, “For as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children.”
The word of God in the earth is committed to man through the operations of the Holy Spirit. Man, by his unaided effort, has no power to bring a soul to Christ. The Holy Spirit works through human agencies. It uses man and man’s inventions as instruments to accomplish its work in behalf of the souls of men.
Another of the Bible writers said, “Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts.” This work of heart regeneration is wrought in the souls of men through the influences of the Holy Spirit and the Word of God, generally using man as an agent in bringing these influences to bear upon the hearts of men.
To Nicodemus Christ said: “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he can not see the kingdom of God. . . . Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he can not enter into the kingdom of God.” These statements show that men are born into the kingdom of God. As the physical birth is generally preceded with travail and suffering, so the Bible teaches that when men are born into the kingdom of God, their birth will be preceded with travail of soul and great spiritual wrestling. “For as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children.”
God has rarely done much for his people when his doing has not been preceded by suffering and heart anguish on the part of some of his professed followers. When the Lord proposed to bring Israel out of Egyptian bondage, he did not send an angel from heaven to act as their leader, independent of man as his visible representative. When the time drew near that Israel should be delivered, the Lord called Moses, the man whom he had selected to act as the deliverer of Israel, from the courts of Pharaoh, and sent him into the wilderness to receive his training, where he remained for forty long years. During this time, while Moses was receiving his fitting up for the great work of acting as the deliverer of Israel, the Lord was preparing the people to leave Egypt. Upon them heavier tasks were laid. They were required to make brick without straw, yet were not to abate in the number of bricks that they were to make in a day; the taskmasters became more and more exacting and cruel; the decree was more rigidly enforced by increased police vigilance in destroying the male children of the Israelites; the lives of the people were made as wretched as cruelty, slavery, bondage, and oppression can make the lives of human beings.
Unfavorable conditions increased with such rapidity that the hearts of the people despaired, and their condition seemed unbearable. In their utter helplessness they prayed unto the Lord for mercy and deliverance, and he sent Moses fromthe wilderness to lead them to the promised Canaan. Thus it can be plainly seen that there was great travail of soul before Israel was brought out of Egypt.
In the days of the captivity, when God’s people were in Babylon, deliverance did not come until there was soul agony on the part of at least some of those who were true to God. Read the ninth and tenth chapters of Daniel, and see how the prophet humbled his heart and pleaded with the Lord that he would remember his people. We read that the prophet not only prayed, but that he humbled his heart with fasting, continually pleading with the Lord that he would send deliverance from the Babylonian captivity. The Lord heard the heart prayer of Daniel, and it was but a little time before the kings of Media and Persia commanded Israel to return to Jerusalem.
When the wicked Haman had planned the destruction of the Jews, was their deliverance brought about without wrestling with God? After the decree had been passed that the Jews should be put to death, and fear was in every heart, before any direct promise had been made by God that he would deliver his people, read how the Jews in Babylon humbled themselves by fasting and prayer, beseeching God that he would change the decree that the Jews should be destroyed, to their salvation. This is the proclamation sent out to the Jews in Babylon: “Go, gather together all the Jews that are present in Shushan, and fast ye for me, and neither eat nor drink three days, night or day: I also and my maidens will fast likewise; and so will I go in unto the king, which is not according to the law: and if I perish, I perish.”
Thus there was great wrestling of soul, great travailing among the people of God, before the Lord worked their deliverance. As soon as the people of the Lord humbled their hearts, the Lord began to work wondrously for their deliverance. But, as far as we can understand, God did nothing to save the Jews from their decreed destruction until they set their hearts to seek God and put away their sins.
When Jacob was about to meet Esau, we find that his deliverance was preceded by a night of wrestling and prayer. Probably if ever, in Jacob’s experience, he agonized with God, he did it on that night after he had sent his family across the brook, expecting the next morning to meet his brother Esau.
In the days immediately following the crucifixion of Christ, there seemed no great manifestation of the power of God among the disciples. Not until after the ascension, when the apostles were daily seeking God by prayer and fasting and by confessing their sins, did there come that marvelous pentecostal blessing. After the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, thousands came to Christ in a day. But this marvelous ingathering of souls to Christ was preceded by fasting and prayer and great wrestling with God. “For as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children.” Not even the apostles who were with Christ during his earthly ministry were qualified to go out and preach the gospel until they had wrestled with God in soul agony and prayer and gained a full measure of his blessing.
In the days preceding the Reformation, conditions seemed to be as unfortunate for the growth and development of the cause of God as at any time since the days of Christ. Probably the Catholic Church and the professed people of God had never departed so far from the Lord as at this particular time. Not only was the Word of God disregarded, the priesthood given up to drunkenness, licentiousness, and worldliness, but so far had the church departed from the Lord that it was selling indulgences for sin for paltry sums of money. There were many in the church at that time who deplored this wicked thing, and because they set their hearts to seek God and to protest against the evils in the church, it was possible for the Reformation to make such rapid progress as it made when the time came for its work. Had there not been wrestling with God and travailing of soul, it does not appear that the Reformation would have made such rapid progress throughout Europe as history records.
If space should warrant, it would be easy to show that there has never been a great reformation or a great ingathering of souls at any time, which has not been preceded and accompanied by travail of soul and much prayer and wrestling with God. Even this same principle applies to Christ our Saviour, when working out the salvation of man. Probably Christ, while carrying forward his active ministry in healing the sick, teaching men, journeying from city to city, spent more time in earnest prayer and communion with God than any of his followers have ever spent. In speaking of the reward that should come to Christ in the souls of men, we find the prophet saying, “He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied.”
Of all times in the world’s history when there should be great wrestling with God; when men should consecrate their lives to the work of soul saving, and there should be agony of heart that the Spirit of God should move men to repentance, it would seem that that time would be the last days just preceding the coming of Christ to this earth. Knowing that Christ is soon to come, and that all who do not accept his mercy will be lost, one would think that the remnant church would be much in prayer, forsaking the world and its riches, and agonizing with God that his Spirit would strive with sinners and win them to Christ.
If God has never wrought a mighty work in the past in the saving of souls until there had been great travail and much wrestling in prayer on the part of his people, is it reasonable for us to expect that in the last days, when human history is about to close, the Lord will accomplish the salvation of every honest soul without the travailing of the church? If the church is backslidden, let there be much prayer and communion with God on the part of those who feel the need of a revival of his Spirit, and almost invariably these prayers are answered. But God can do but little in the work of winning souls to Christ until the ministry and his people are travailing for souls. When this time comes, we may expect the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and a large ingathering; “for when Zion travailed, she brought forth her children.” I. H. EVANS.

The Simplicity of God's Way

By F. M. W.

THE goodness of God is shown in all his works and ways. His eagerness to save, his willingness to bless all his creatures, is revealed in every manifestation of his character. He imposes no hard conditions upon the one who desires to come to him. He gives personal audience. No prince or potentate, priest or prelate, is necessary to make a formal presentation. The humble penitent secures direct admission to the heavenly audience-chamber. The great Sovereign of the universe listens with his own ear to his humble subject’s plea. He treats with the penitent directly and in detail.
What an assurance this method of dealing gives to the poor sinner! To an attentive and sympathizing ear he can reveal the full measure of his guilt; to one who will never betray his confidence, he can confide the inmost thoughts of his heart. And the pardon comes as freely and as fully. To the woman laden with her burden of sin, the Saviour said, “Go, and sin no more.” He says this to-day to every evil-doer. He has no words of scorning or reproach. The bruised reed he will not break; the smoking flax he will not quench, but by his own divine breath of love he seeks to fan the smoldering fire into a brighter blaze of life and glory.
This is the God that asks the love and veneration of his creatures. When we but contemplate his character, the sense of his infinite goodness thrills our hearts with love, and leads us to repentance. “O that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!”
F. M. W.
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