p. 277 | THE RIGHT SPIRIT

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · April 29, 1880

FromAdvent Review and Sabbath Herald, Vol. 55, No. 18

THE RIGHT SPIRIT.

The following paragraph from the S. S. Times contains a useful hint for all Christians, and one that missionary workers ought especially to heed. Perhaps the persons mentioned by the Times may not be the only ones who fail to give the precedence to the Spirit of God.

Jesus says to every one of his disciples, “Follow me.” But many a professed disciple of Jesus reverses this order, and practically says to Jesus, “Follow me,”—looking upon Jesus as a servant rather than as a master. It is a very common thing for Christians to pray that the Lord will add his blessing to their work; as if they went ahead and the Lord followed after. A Christian’s daily prayer should be that he may know what the Lord would have him do. A Christian’s daily work should be the doing of what the Lord sets him at. There is never any doubt about the blessing when that order of service is observed. The more common order of precedence in the Christian’s view of service is well illustrated in a little pamphlet recently published on “the revival in St. Catherine’s,” Canada, under the editorship of Mr. J. H. Durham. The title-page of that work announces it as “a brief history of the great work, from its inception to its close, under the leadership of the Rev. E. P. Hammond, and the pastors of the Methodist, Presbyterian, and Baptist churches, aided by the power of the Holy Spirit.” Now that is a pretty way of showing who count one, two, three in that movement, according to the idea of the editor of that pamphlet. If that were actually the order of things in St. Catherine’s, the character of the revival there is sufficiently indicated by this announcement. In a real revival the Holy Spirit leads, and pastors, evangelists, and other Christians follow.