Review and Herald, Vol. 78, No. 52. (12/24/1901)

Review and Herald

Dec 24, 1901

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Dec 24, 1901

THE NEEDS OF MISSIONARY EFFORT.

By Ellen G. White

MRS. E. G. WHITE.

Missions at home and missions abroad demand much more consideration than has been given them. Christ came to our world to teach us the importance of missionary effort. Laying aside His royal robe and kingly crown, He clothed His divinity with humanity, and came to a world all seared and marred with the curse, to rescue human beings from eternal death. He took His position at the head of a fallen race, uniting in His body humanity and divinity, in order that all might be done that could be done for the complete restoration of the image of God in man.

Christ is the example for all who go forth as missionaries. His work is the model for all missionary endeavor. It calls for unreserved surrender, for the consecration of time and talents. It calls upon us to return to God the goods He has intrusted to us, with the interest which has come to us as we have traded on them. All is to be put into the cause, to advance the work which Christ came to the world to do.

In the night season I was in a council meeting. We were seeking the Lord with earnest prayer in regard to opening new fields when there was little encouragement given by those at the head of the work that financial aid would be forthcoming. One of authority spoke to us words of instruction, the substance of which I shall trace.

Every family that is converted is to act as God’s helping hand. Had every child for centuries in the past been trained to realize his accountability to God to do missionary work, what a change would be seen in the world to-day. Every morning and evening, sincere, earnest prayer should ascend from every family altar. The Lord will accept individuals from every family for special service, according to their several ability. Fathers and mothers are to act in the place of God to their children, representing Him whose they are by creation and by redemption. They should spare no pains to train their children in the right way, preparing them for service in the Lord’s work.

In this age of the world, apostasy is the fashion. God’s people are to make constant, untiring efforts to press upward. Gratitude offerings of prayer and praise are to be offered to God, but these are unacceptable unless serious, prayerful consideration is given to destitute, unworked fields. What mean the narrow, defective plans on which Christians are working? Why do parents neglect to train their children to go forth as missionaries?

While the Church, in comparison with past years, has made some advance, yet in comparison with what she should be, in comparison with the great sacrifice made in Gethsemane and on Calvary, she is far behind in the most important work ever given to mortals. May God help those to whom He has intrusted talents to awaken to His design and their individual responsibility. God says to them, “I have put you in possession of my goods, that by trading wisely on them, you may carry forward the Christian missions which are to be established far and near. I have given you the benefit of accumulated knowledge. The advantages of the past and the present are yours. Upon you rests the weighty burden of accumulated light.”

With every age God’s plan deepens and broadens to embrace the world. God’s light-bearers are to adjust their movements to His progressive plans. They are to embrace new territory. The churches are to be wide awake, moving with the force of Omnipotence, because they move in harmony with God’s purpose. They are to seize every opportunity for blessing a world lying in darkness.

Church-members should show greater devotion. They should labor with greater zeal for the promulgation of the last message of mercy. Now is the time for all to work. Now is the time to cut away every species of self-indulgence and idolatry. Those who are engaged in Christian ministry are to labor unselfishly for the Lord, dying to self, and pressing together in unity. They are to love as brethren; they are to be kind and courteous; their influence is to be a savor of life unto life.

Many young men and women now engaged in secular labor will feel earnestly stirred to give themselves to the service of God. Some will feel a burden to enter the canvassing field, and will become able evangelists. Let these be given an opportunity to obtain an education for the work of God.

Those who are impressed to take up the work in the home field or in the regions beyond are to go forward in the name of the Lord. They will succeed if they give evidence that they depend on God for grace and strength. At the beginning their work may be very small, but it will enlarge if they follow the Lord’s plan. God lives; He will work for the unselfish, self-sacrificing laborer, whoever and wherever he may be.

God does not ask His servants to show their devotion to Him by burying themselves in monasteries, or by going on long, painful pilgrimages. It is not necessary to do this in order to show a willingness to deny self. It is by working for those for whom Christ died that we show true love. By humiliation, suffering, and death Christ purchased the salvation of human beings. Those who love Him will think of how He laid aside His glory, and came to this earth to live in our behalf the life of the poorest, suffering often with hunger. “Foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests,” He said, “but the Son of man hath not where to lay His head.” Beholding this divine love, this wonderful sacrifice, they are filled with a desire to spend and be spent in the service of the Redeemer.

To each human being God has assigned a work. Abraham was called to go forth from his home, a light-bearer to the heathen. And without questioning he obeyed. “He went out, not knowing whither he went.” So to-day God’s servants are to go where He calls, trusting Him to guide them and give them success in their work.

God’s people are to feel a noble, generous sympathy for every line of work carried on in the great harvest field. They are to be interested in everything which concerns the human brotherhood. By their baptismal vows they are pledged to make persevering, self-denying efforts to promote, in the hardest parts of the field, the work of soul-saving. God has placed on every believer the responsibility of striving to rescue the helpless and the oppressed. They are to break every yoke, letting the oppressed go free from the power of vicious habits and sinful practices.

Christians are to be Christlike in their earnest desire to save souls. They should regard it as the highest honor to be enlisted in Christ’s army. They should thank God for the privilege of using the talent of speech to win souls to Christ. They should look upon no privilege as more precious than that of imparting to others the knowledge they have received.

My heart aches when I think of how many more might have been saved if men had done

their duty.

“What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him? If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, and one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit? Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.”

God says to those who profess to believe in Him, “Go forth into all parts of the world, and diffuse the light of my truth, that men and women may be led to Christ.” Let us awaken to our duty. Let us do all we can to help forward the Lord’s work. Let superficial excuses be blown to the winds of heaven. No longer grieve the Spirit of God by delaying. Forget not the words, “We are laborers together with God.” Co-operate with angels sent from the heavenly courts to minister to those who shall be heirs of salvation.

Time is passing; the end is near. While you are unconsecrated, golden opportunities to help souls to see Jesus as He is—full of grace and truth—are being lost. That which you have not done as a devoted Christian in the year which has now almost passed into eternity, you cannot now do. But through the grace of Christ you may redeem the time by redoubling your exertions. Let your interest in the souls for whom Christ has died deepen and broaden. Inquire not, “What shall this man do?” for then Christ would say to you, as He said to Peter, “What is that to thee? follow thou me.” Keep in the love of the truth, and work with untiring endeavor to win souls to the Saviour.

Look upon the world to-day. Is the voice of prayer heard amid the din of confusion? Altars are created, but it is not to God that the sacrifices are offered. Deceivers, robbers, and murderers are many. Pride of ancestry and pride of wealth minister to the work of soul-destruction. Avarice, sensuality, malice,—these are the attributes which bear sway. Thousands are standing on the brink of perdition. Do you see them?—many of them lost, eternally lost to Christ, while professing Christians sleep the sleep of indifference!

More earnest, self-sacrificing men are needed, men who will go to God, and with strong crying and tears plead for the precious souls who are going to ruin. There can be no harvest without seed-sowing, no result without effort.

Christ gave His life to save sinners, and He says to His people, “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.” “Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.” He has laid out before us the work to be done, and has declared that He will give us power to do this work. Shall we take Him at His word, believing that He meant just what He said when He declared that the whole world is to hear the message of mercy?

The work is fast closing up, and on every side wickedness is increasing. We have but a short time in which to work. Why do not those to whom God has given light move out into new places? They will have to do this, whether they wish to or not; for God will scatter them to many places.

God is not willing that any should perish. He has abundantly provided for the salvation of all. If His people had gone forth as they should, giving the invitation to thousands, many souls would have been added to the Church. Let us awaken from spiritual slumber, and consecrate all that we have and are to the Lord. His Spirit will abide with true missionaries, furnishing them with power for service. God is an overflowing fountain of efficiency and strength. The gospel is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believes. When this power is utilized, it will be found to be more than sufficient to meet the power of the enemy.

It is impossible for the man who believes in Christ to see the work that needs to be done and not do anything. Daily the Church is to receive from heaven the healing balm of God’s grace to impart to the needy and suffering. God’s people are weighted with the most sacred responsibilities and the most glorious privileges. All who believe the message for this time will go forth into the field to do something for the Master, relying on the assurance, “He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.” In practical obedience to the divine command, his confidence will increase, and his talents will multiply. The spiritual desert will rejoice and blossom as the rose.

Arise, ye sleeping virgins, and trim your lamps. Take up your appointed work. “Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion: for, lo, I come, and I will dwell in the midst of thee, saith the Lord. And many nations shall be joined to the Lord in that day, and shall be my people.”

FAITHFUL

By L. D. Santee

ELDER L. D. SANTEE.

“Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.” Rev. 2:10.

True to the sacred cross, The steadfast purpose of my heart shall be; I count the world but loss, So that Thy presence but abides with me.

Faithful, as thine own truth, My soul rejoices in the promise given, That, glad immortal youth, Will be the portion of the saints in heaven.

And when thy love demands Some sacrifice that I can make for thee, Then, with uplifted hands, My life, my all, I give, dear Lord, to thee.

O pure and heavenly Guest, Wilt thou the chambers of my being fill? So shall I be at rest, Safe and secure from every earthly ill.

And when thou com’st again, To take thy people to the land of song, I’ll say farewell to pain, And join the blood-washed, everliving throng.

HEALTHY RELIGION.

By Franklin Edson Belden

F. E. BELDEN. (Battle Creek, Mich.)

To say that a thing is religious, is not saying much. To say that it is Christian, is saying all that is good, in a word.

But what is Christianity?—It is the control of self. Churchanity is an attempt to domineer others. To the same extent that men rule others instead of themselves, does the papacy or anti-christ rule instead of Christ. Every religious organization on earth has more or less of this domineering “Beast” spirit—has it in exact proportion to the amount of human nature brought into church work. None of it enters Christian work. It is uncontrollable except by divine power, bestowed on conditions. Yielding the outer life to the rules of the Church does not supply the power, even among Seventh-day Adventists, notwithstanding the correctness of their doctrinal theories. Yielding the inner life to God, daily, hourly, “moment by moment,” is the only possible way of thinning the ranks of the papacy, Protestant or Roman Catholic.

Many a Protestant home has a papal husband, wife, father, mother, son, daughter, or other person, “running things,” or trying to do so. Nearly all business “managers” become papalistic, as well as church managers. The friction of resistance or competitive effort to rule, is the cause of the numberless occasions of “unpleasantness” in the various relations of life, social, religious, political, or mercantile. Christianity—the control of self—is all that is needed to make all things run smoothly. But this will never be general; so Christians must suffer as did the Master, “resisting not evil.”

It is much easier to manage others than to manage self; to stop work on the Sabbath than to stop overeating or wrong thinking on that day; to talk about the second coming of Christ than to perfect “holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord.” Hence publications which deal with these vital self-governing principles are religious,— Christian religious, though not always sectarian religious. The most intensely religious—Christian religious—thing a man can do is to control his appetites and passions, or rather, fully to consent to let God do this for him, not forgetting his own part of the work. It is as great an error to suppose that God does this without our co-operation as to teach that we can do it independently of Him. This is why so much has been said relative to the importance of health principles and of the books which contain them. Call them “health” publications, if you please; but do not for a moment forget that, dealing with the essence of Christian life, they are therefore in fact the strongest kind of religious books, teaching the continual, Daniel-like recognition of the fact that we are “not our own,” but “temples” of the Holy Spirit, the divine essence of purity. Discarding this truth of God, His Spirit is discarded also.

“If any man will do His will, he shall know of the doctrine,” means the entire yielding of body, soul, spirit, to God, as the thing of first importance. One who thus consecrates all, shall know all that he needs to know about lesser doctrines. But fill him with other perfect theories first, and the chances are that he will think himself “rich, and increased with goods,” having “need of nothing,” when in fact he is “poor, and blind, and naked,” needing the “gold” of character “tried in the fire.”

Heaven will be full of people whose theology when on earth was wrong in many points, but whose lives were right. “Outer darkness” will be full of people whose theology was well-nigh perfect, but whose characters were worthless. Thousands to-day, outside of the Seventh-day Adventist denomination, are living examples of victory over “the world, the flesh, and the devil;” yet they keep strictly the counterfeit first-day sabbath. Their characters being well-nigh perfect, God will do “a quick work” in the earth when these consecrated ones “shall know of the doctrine” concerning the true Sabbath test for this generation. But it takes longer to develop a good character; and while many of us sleep, satisfied with clean theoretical lamps, without oil, the Bridegroom will come. “And while they went to buy, the Bridegroom came; and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage: and the door was shut.” It did not take long to trim the lamps of doctrine. All did that, in the parable; but the time required to fill them caused the eternal loss of heaven to those who had not the graces of the Spirit.

God’s premium is on character, which is made of habits made of actions made of feelings made of foods, physical and mental, related to exercise, air, rest, cleanliness, etc. In other words, the “flesh” (ours) is about all we are able to control, even with divine power. Doing this, the Lord controls the devil, who controls the world, which, in the Church and outside of it, calls such consecration and sanctification of “body, soul, and spirit,” “crankiness.”

The true relation of habits to character, actions to habits, feelings to actions, food and exercise to feelings, is not understood by many. “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge,” says the Lord. Does that mean knowledge of theories of truth concerning the Sabbath, conditional immortality, the sanctuary and the judgment, the prophecies, and religious liberty,—to believe and advocate these things? or does it mean knowledge of how to co-operate through these channels with divine power, for which power many of us have prayed for years, seemingly ignorant of the fact that it is not all stored up in heaven, but that some of it is inseparably bound up in the right use of His temporal gifts and our physical and mental endowments?

Medical science (not “falsely so called”) is simply the discovery of truth in nature, God’s other book. One says, “Thou shalt not;” the other says, “For these reasons.” One says, “Know thyself;” the other says, “I discover a cause of my feelings.” One says, “Blessed are the pure in heart;” the other says, “Such is the ordained effect of these things on the mind, the throne of reason.”

Knowledge fortifies; ignorance endangers the best of purposes. The law of heredity in our members is much weakened in its “warring” against the divine law in our minds, by our living in harmony with the divine laws of physiological cause and effect.

In this age of special God-given light on these points, they who “thank God through our Lord Jesus Christ” for the victory over inherited and

cultivated tendencies, must accept the flesh-crucifying truth that His life is in certain food elements and habits, and that the life of the enemy of all righteousness—gluttony, impatience, lust—is in certain other modern dietetic and so-called social inventions. He is honored as much by thanks for scientific knowledge, of which He is the author, and by the use of which we co-operate with Him in the warfare against sin, as by gratitude in other cases for seemingly more miraculous deliverance from death. One method of helping is as divine as the other. Lazy and sensual people want the Lord to do it all for them, if done at all—which they seem to regret is necessary. They cry out against human works as of no avail, and indeed they are not, without first yielding the will to Him, in which case He works in us “to do of His good pleasure,” and we then “work out” our salvation with fear and trembling. Having worked knowledge into us, must He also work it out for us without effort on our part? Let us remember that true faith “works by love and purifies the heart.”

Faith is active, not passive. He who does nothing has no true faith. If knowledge were not to be used by us, God would not have given it, but would have taken all evil tendencies out of the flesh. Not so. Christ said, “The flesh is weak,” even when “the spirit is willing.” Co-operation with God for the control of self, for the good of others, is therefore essential. This is healthy religion—Christianity.

PROMISES

By H. A. St. John

ELDER H. A. ST. JOHN.

Prophecies are promises. I promise that Jerusalem shall be encompassed with an army, and be laid level with the ground, and not one stone shall be left upon another of the magnificent temple. I promise that I will come again in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. I promise that my coming again will be preceded by signs in the sun, moon, and stars, and on the earth distress of nations, with perplexity.

These are a few of the prophetic promises of Jesus. All promises are to a degree prophetic, relating to the future for their fulfillment.

A promise is a debt, unpaid until fulfilled. The value of a promise depends upon him who makes it. Ability and will are the two elements that enter into reasonable expectation. A broken promise is hard to mend. It is obviously true that respect and broken promises do not keep company. Faithfulness is essential to all Christian character. Joining the Church creates no new obligations, but simply promises to fulfill those already existing. These obligations were born with each and all. Promptness, accuracy, and the remembrance and faithful fulfillment of promises are the truest test of manhood. These reveal the man. Promptness and accuracy are of sufficient importance to form a separate article in every person’s creed.

The basest form of lying is to promise with no purpose to fulfill. Borrowing and stealing are often different means to the same end. One is more direct than the other, but the results are similar. Any person may ruin his usefulness by forgetting the sacredness of his word. Even song, prayer, exhortation, preaching, and teaching go for little against broken promises.

What a beautiful suggestion as to the value of a promise was that made by the angel to the Marys at the resurrection of Jesus: “Behold, He goeth before you into Galilee; there shall ye see Him: lo, I have told you.” It was an engagement of Christ with His own, and how wonderfully and faithfully and exactly it was fulfilled by the Lord. May our promises, like His, ever be yea and amen. Christ has many promises to the world not yet fulfilled. When the fullness of time comes, they will all be fulfilled by Him who cannot lie, who is the living embodiment of all truth. How blessed to trust in such promises!

Shall We Join Secret Societies or Unions?

By Clarence Santee

Elder Clarence Santee.

The question, Shall we join secret societies or unions? has been troubling many of the brethren recently, on account of the difficulty of obtaining employment. This has not, as yet, been so marked outside of the larger cities, but it is growing, and will face all classes. The question of the difficulty of obtaining employment is not a new one. Many of the brethren had to face this question when accepting present truth. “How can I support my family?” has been the question that has kept scores of men from accepting the Bible Sabbath.

The wife may have accepted, and stands alone, while the one who should be the priest of the household, halts, condemned by his own conscience, yet fearing to step out and trust God. How strange that men can, so entirely, forget that it is God who gives all that we have, whether we be good or evil. He “sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.” “He giveth to all life, and breath, and all things.” But they choose to trust in the arm of flesh, which can bring forth nothing, and can only use the things granted by the Lord, from whom they turn. We who are standing in the blessed light of truth to-day, have gained the victory over this foe, and have taken our stand with those who regard the Sabbath. But has Satan confessed himself vanquished, and left us alone?—No. The same temptations, under other forms, will meet us again and again. Just now the same serious question confronts many of the very persons who so nobly, by faith, took their stand on the words of the Saviour, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.”

The different lines of business are now represented by “unions,” which say, “Join us, and abide by our rules, or starve.” Faithful men have been thrown out of employment, honest men have seen taken from them the work for which there had been definite contracts made. The reason given was, “He does not belong to the union. If you employ him, we will have nothing to do with you.” The faithful laborer is sacrificed that the favor of a union may be retained. What can be said in favor of any company of men who will, knowingly, take from a man his honest livelihood, and thus bring suffering upon helpless families, simply because he does not put himself under their dictation, and add his influence to theirs, in crushing other men?

I asked a man why they were so urgent that all men of his trade should unite together? He answered, “It is a matter of the big fish swallowing the little ones. We must be the big fish, or we shall be swallowed.” Is this the Christian way? Is this Christian doctrine? If not, can we hold it, and yet be among those of whom it is said, “When He shall appear, we shall be like Him”?

The Lord has warned His people of every pitfall that lies in the way. The prophet says: “The Lord spake thus to me with a strong hand, and instructed me that I should not walk in the way of this people, saying, Say ye not, A confederacy, to all them to whom this people shall say, A confederacy; neither fear ye their fear, nor be afraid.” Isa. 8: 11, 12. What is “their fear” which the Lord says we are not to fear? In the twenty-second verse we are told: “And they shall look unto the earth; and behold trouble and darkness.” “Their fear” evidently is the fear of that which may bring them “trouble,” and to avoid it they “associate” themselves together (verse 9), or form “a confederacy,” a union, so as to defeat any attempts against their craft or trade. But will these unions to whom we pay the dues, and thus divert the funds which ought to be in the cause of God, accomplish their purpose?—No, for God is against them. He says of them, “Ye shall be broken in pieces. . . . Take counsel together, and it shall come to naught; speak the word, and it shall not stand: for God is with us.” Verses 9, 10. If “God is with us,” and they “shall be broken in pieces,” then what attitude shall we sustain to them?

The end is hastening on. Soon the earth will cease to yield her increase. God has said that the fire will devour “the pastures of the wilderness,” “and the flame hath burned all the trees of the field.” Read Joel 1: 15–20. At that time the Lord says, “No craftsman, of whatsoever craft he be, shall be found any more in thee.” Rev. 18: 22. Where then will stand the man who has depended on the orders of his craft for a living? The arm of flesh has failed him. It will be too late then to cultivate that faith which will bring the fulfillment of the promise, “Bread shall be given him; his waters shall be sure.” God’s people must be a separate people from all others. As men of the world band themselves together more closely for oppression, the servant of the Lord will separate himself farther from them. As all these elements, banding together, do their part in bringing to pass the edict “that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark,” it will be against God’s people, because they are not found among them. “Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?” This does not mean that we are to fold our hands in idleness, but that, in faith, we are to accept of the “thought” that God has taken for us, and in this way we are assured that “all things shall be added” unto us.

Like the father who, in the early hours, maps out the work of the day, saying to this son, Do this, and to that son, Do that, and as the sons, with no thought or question, heartily join in carrying out the plans of the father, so we should let the Heavenly Father take the “thought” and form the plans, and we, as the sons, believing His thought to be all right, and for the best, join in carrying them out, knowing that thus all will be well in this present world, and we will have an abundant entrance into the world to come.

A RELIGION THAT MAKES WRONGS RIGHT.

The Christian.

About the year 1870, says a local paper, a farmer named Gleason, living northeast of Independence, Iowa, one morning found one of his colts dead, and there was certain evidence that it had been killed by some one. The young man supposed to have killed the colt left the country about that time, and very little was heard from him for some time, when it was learned that he had been converted and had joined the Church. Years afterward the young man returned to Buchanan County for a visit. While there, he went to Mr. Gleason’s farm, and meeting Mr. Gleason said: “I believe you lost a colt several years ago.” “I did,” was the reply. “How much was it worth?” was the next question. “About eighty dollars.” “Will this pay for it?” said the visitor, handing out one hundred dollars. “Yes, and more, too,” said Mr. Gleason, handing back twenty dollars. The other person took the twenty dollars and departed, starting for Nebraska that day.

This is the kind of religion that is needed, and needed by some persons who were converted a long time ago,—so long ago that the strength of their religion apparently needs renewing.

The only way to correct a wrong done is to make it right, or confess it and be forgiven. Denying it does not make it right. Setting up bogus counter-claims and offsets does not make it right. Gagging a wronged man and voting to pay no attention to him does not make it right. Lying about a man and trying to crush him does not make it right. Employing crooked lawyers to outwit him does not make it right. Slandering and boycotting the men who know the facts and dare tell them, does not make it right. Keeping quiet “till it blows over,” does not make it right. Getting a majority to vote that it is all right does not make it right. Employing cheap partisans to abuse and misrepresent him does not make it right. Bribing those who have eaten his bread to lift up the heel against him does not make it right. Long prayers, loud talk, and reports of perfect peace and unbroken harmony do not make it right. When men have started on a wrong road, the only way to get right is to turn about and retrace their steps, cease to do evil and learn to do well, restore that which is taken away, confess the fault, and be forgiven; and then all will be well.

WHEN WILL CHRIST COME?

By J. W. Herlinger

J. W. HERLINGER.

(Fairmount Springs, Pa.)

In this time of peril and trouble, when the nations are distressed, perplexed, angry, and at war with one another, many who are looking for the end of all things, and “the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ,” are asking the questions, Why does Christ tarry? When will He come and deliver His people?

Surely Christ himself could give the best answer. He says: “This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.” Matt. 24: 14.

What is “this gospel of the kingdom”?—“And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to Him . . . that made heaven and earth, the sea, and the fountains of waters. And there followed another angel, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen. . . . And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the Beast and his Image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture [of mercy] into the cup of His indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb: and the smoke of their torment ascendeth up forever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the Beast and his Image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.” Rev. 14:6-11.

Whom does Christ commission to preach “this gospel of the kingdom”—“the everlasting gospel”—to all the world? Christ says to all His disciples, “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.” “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth,” and, “lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.” Matt. 28:19, 20.

Then it follows that if we are engaged in giving the gospel to the world, Christ is with us; and He being with us, we have “all power” with which to accomplish the work.

Since Christ has given us the gracious privilege of proclaiming the everlasting gospel to all the world, and has endued us with power to accomplish that work, it lies with us in a measure to decide how soon Christ will come; for the quicker we give the gospel to the world, the sooner the end will be.

Christ has chosen us to do this particular work, and we have been so slow to do the work, that Christ is becoming weary of us, and says that unless we are more faithful in giving the message, He will place the burden upon another people,—them that will do His will.

How only may we be free from the blood of all men?—“I [Paul] take you to record this day, that I am pure from the blood of all men.” Why?—“For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God.” Acts 20: 26, 27.

“Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light.” “Let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober.”

“Behold, I come quickly: hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown.”

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