International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, Cal. · Jun 24, 1886
General Articles.
By Mrs. E. G. White
Acceptable Worship.
BY MRS. E. G. WHITE.
THROUGH the psalmist God declares, “Whoso offereth praise glorifieth me.” Much of the public worship of God consists of praise and prayer, and every follower of Christ should engage in this worship. There is also the preaching service, conducted by those whose work it is to instruct the congregation in the word of God. Although all are not called to minister in word and doctrine, they need not be cold and responseless listeners. When the word of God was spoken to the Hebrews anciently, the Lord said to Moses, “And let all the people say, Amen.” This response, in the fervor of their souls, was required as evidence that they understood the word spoken and were interested in it.
When the ark of God was brought into the city of David and a psalm of joy and triumph was chanted, all the people said, Amen. And David felt that he was fully repaid for his labor and anxiety by this cheerful, universal response from the people.
There is too much formality in the church. Souls are perishing for light and knowledge. We should be so connected with the Source of light that we can be channels of light to the world. The Lord would have his ministers who preach the word energized by his Holy Spirit. And the people who hear should not sit in drowsy indifference or stare vacantly about, making no response to what is said. The spirit of the world has paralyzed the spirituality of such, and they are not awake to the precious theme of redemption. The truth of God’s word is spoken to leaden ears, and hard, unimpressible hearts. The impression given the unbeliever by these professed Christians is anything but favorable for the religion of Christ. They show zeal and ambition when engaged in the business of the world, but things of eternal importance do not engross the mind, and interest them as do worldly things. The voice of God through his messengers is a pleasant song; but its sacred warnings, reproofs, and encouragements are all unheeded. Eternal and sacred things are placed upon a level with common things, and the Holy Spirit is grieved. Said Christ, “Take heed, therefore, how ye hear.” Those are spiritually dead who profess to worship God while the heart is not in the work. There should be a hearty, wide-awake church to encourage and uphold the hands of the ministers of Jesus Christ.
Those who profess to be guided by the word of God may be familiar with the evidences of their faith, and yet be like the pretentious fig-tree, which flaunted its foliage in the face of the world, but, when searched by the Master, was found destitute of fruit. Fruitful Christians are connected with Heaven, and intelligent in the things of God. The truth and the love of God is their meditation. They have feasted upon the word of life, and when they hear it spoken from the desk, they can say, as did the two disciples who were traveling to Emmaus when Christ explained to them the prophecies concerning himself, “Did not our heart burn within us while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the Scriptures?”
All who are connected with the light will let their light shine to the world, and will, in their testimonies, praise God, to whom their hearts will flow forth in gratitude. Those who have a vital union with Christ will rejoice in the assurance of his love. Nothing of the world can make them sad when Jesus makes them glad by his presence. Walking in the light, they will never disgrace their profession or bring reproach upon the cause of Christ. It is the privilege of every child of God to store his mind with divine truth, and the more he does this, the more vigor and clearness of mind he will have to fathom the deep things of God. He will be more and more earnest and vigorous as the principles of the truth are carried out in his daily life.
We should all be workers together with God. No idlers are acknowledged as his servants. The members of the church should individually feel that the life and prosperity of the church is affected by their course of action. Those in the church who have sufficient talent to engage in any of the various vocations of life, such as teaching, building, manufacturing, and farming, will generally be prepared to labor for the upbuilding of the church by serving on committees or as teachers in the Sabbath-schools, engaging in missionary labor, or filling the different offices connected with the church.
God requires that the first, the best, and the most useful talents shall be employed to carry forward his work upon the earth. The same zeal and energy, tact and order, which are exercised in counting-rooms, shops, and in the fine arts, should be brought into the religious life and exercised in the work of God. All are responsible for the talents given them of God to use to his glory. He calls for them to come up to the help of the Lord against the mighty.
Many will give money because it costs less self-denial and self-sacrifice than to give themselves. Some say: My business claims all my time. So numerous are my engagements and so pressing their demands, I cannot give my time.” Of what avail is means without agents to use it? Ministers cannot do a tithe of the work necessary to be done at this time to save souls and preserve the vitality of the church.
What revelations will be made in the day of God, when each individual will see his life as God sees it! What opportunities lost to save souls! How many precious hours wasted in following inclination instead of discharging duties! How much greater advancement might have been made in the knowledge of the truth! How much talent that was given of God for wise improvement, to be spent in his service, has been buried in the cares and allurements of this world! How much strength and courage might have been given to the individual members of the church, had they dedicated to God their talents and used them to his service and glory. And how many souls might have been saved, had they been wise, and sought first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.
What can we say to arouse those who profess to be the followers of Christ, to a sense of the solemn responsibilities resting upon them? Is there no voice that shall arouse them to work while the day lasts? Our divine Master gave his life for a ruined world? Who will deny self, and make some sacrifice to save souls for whom he died?
In every act of life Christians should seek to represent Christ,—seek to make his service appear attractive. Let none make religion repulsive by groans and sighs and a relation to their trials, their self-denials, and sacrifices. Do not give the lie to your profession of faith by impatience, fretfulness, and repining. Let the graces of the Spirit be manifested in kindness, meekness, forbearance, cheerfulness, and love. Let it be seen that the love of Christ is an abiding motive: that your religion is not a dress to be put off and on to suit circumstances, but a principle, calm, steady, unvarying. Alas that pride, unbelief, and selfishness, like a foul cancer, are eating out vital godliness from the heart of many a professed Christian! When judged according to their works, how many will learn, too late, that their religion was but a glittering cheat, unacknowledged by Jesus Christ.
Love to Jesus will be seen, will be felt. It cannot be hidden. It exerts a wondrous power. It makes the timid bold, the slothful diligent, the ignorant wise. It makes the stammering tongue eloquent, and rouses the dormant intellect into new life and vigor. It makes the desponding hopeful, the gloomy joyous. Love to Christ will lead its possessor to accept responsibilities for his sake, and to bear them in his strength. Love to Christ will not be dismayed by tribulation, nor turned aside from duty by reproaches. The soul that is not imbued with this love for Jesus is none of his.
Peace in Christ is of more value than all the treasures of earth. Let us seek the Lord with all our heart, let us learn of Christ to be meek and lowly, that we may find rest of soul. Let us arouse our dormant energies, and become active, earnest, fervent. The very example and deportment, as well as the words, of the Christian should be such as to awaken in the sinner a desire to come to the Fountain of life.
Then let us open our hearts to the bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness. Let us work cheerfully, joyfully, in the service of our Master. Let us praise him, not only by our words in the congregation of his saints, but by a well ordered life and godly conversation,—a life of active, noble Christian effort. Let us give diligence to make our calling and election sure, remembering that we shall triumph at last, if we do not become weary in well-doing.
HE KNOWS!
By Marian Longfellow
He knows the bitter, weary way,
The endless striving day by day,
The souls that weep, the souls that pray,
He knows!
He knows! Oh, thought so full of bliss,
For though on earth our joy we miss,
We still can bear it, feeling this—
He knows!
He knows! O heart take up thy cross,
And know earth's treasures are but dross,
And he will prove as gain or loss!
He knows.
—Marian Longfellow.
Patriarch, Jew, Christian—Israel.
By C. P. Bollman
IN the minds of some, Judaism and Christianity stand arrayed against each other, and the law and the gospel appear as antagonistic elements, whereas, in truth, they are but different parts of the same system—both divinely ordained for the conservation of truth, and the salvation of men. The religion of the patriarchs and prophets was equally of divine origin with the Christian; indeed, the latter is but the superstructure erected upon the foundation laid in the former; or, more properly speaking, the plan of redemption is one; and its essential elements are, and ever have been, "repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ." Acts 20 : 21.
In the patriarchal and Jewish ages they had the moral law by which is the knowledge of sin (Rom. 3 : 20), that which contains "the whole duty of man," and which will be the rule of the Judgment (Eccl. 12 : 13, 14); and they also had types and shadows, "handwriting of ordinances" (Col. 2 : 14), which pointed forward to the promised Saviour, the hope of Israel. But we too have that law which "is perfect, converting the soul" (Ps. 19 : 7), that law the transgression of which is sin (1 John 3 : 4); while in the bread and wine of the Lord's Supper, we behold by faith the same broken body and shed blood which were so vividly typified to both patriarch and Jew by the bleeding victims on many an ancient altar.
Though apparently less conspicuous in the patriarchal and Jewish ages than in the Christian, Christ has ever been the grand central figure of both. The promised Seed of the woman, who should be wounded by the serpent, and who will in turn bruise the enemy's head (Gen. 3 : 15), was no less the hope of the pious Jew than is that same Seed the daysman of the Christian. The words of the apostle Peter, when he declared that "there is none other name under Heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved," except the name of Jesus (Acts 4 : 12), were true when spoken; they are true now; and they were equally true in the days of Abel, Abraham, and Moses. The throng of the redeemed from "all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues," will ascribe their salvation to the Lamb of Calvary; patriarch, Jew, and Christian will unite in the same glad song—their theme, redemption; the object of their adoration, Jesus.
The gospel is not new; nor is it peculiar to the present dispensation. It is as old as the promise of a Saviour; and if Abel's offering did not typify Christ, it was meaningless. But that it did no Christian will deny; for Paul testifies that "By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts; and by it he being dead yet speaketh." Heb. 11 : 4. It is equally certain that Abraham had the gospel; for, says the apostle: "The Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed." Gal. 3 : 8. And of the Jews in the days of Moses, we read: "For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them; but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it." Heb. 4 : 2. This text presents the matter in a light somewhat different from that in which it is generally viewed; but that it is correct we cannot doubt; for these are not the "words of man's wisdom."
Paul was pre-eminently the apostle to the Gentiles; and though he labored for all as he had opportunity, yet his mission was to the uncircumcision; and so we most frequently find him in the strongholds of heathenism. Athens, Corinth, Ephesus, and even Rome itself were stirred by his presence, and moved by his preaching. Nevertheless he was a Jew: "Circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews," and brought up at the feet of Gamaliel—certainly such a man ought to understand the faith of the Jewish Church. Eminent as a defender of the law and the prophets, but doubly conspicuous as an apostle of Christ, he could not fail to rightly comprehend the significance of those types which he declared had met their fulfillment in the Man of Calvary.
But Paul regarded the religion which he preached simply as the logical outcome of the faith of his fathers—the unfolding of God's one plan for the salvation of all who believe; and when permitted to speak for himself before Agrippa, he presented his case thus: "My manner of life from my youth, which was at the first among mine own nation at Jerusalem, know all the Jews; which knew me from the beginning, if they would testify, that after the most straitest sect of our religion I lived a Pharisee. And now I stand and am judged for the hope of the promise made of God unto our fathers; unto which promise our twelve tribes, instantly serving God day and night, hope to come. For which hope's sake, king Agrippa, I am accused of the Jews. Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you, that God should raise the dead." Acts 26 : 4-8.
Then after declaring the manner of his conversion (verses 9-21), the apostle continued: "Having therefore obtained help of God, I continue unto this day, witnessing both to small and great, saying none other things than those which the prophets and Moses did say should come; that Christ should suffer, and that he should be the first that should rise from the dead, and should show light unto the people, and to the Gentiles." Verses 22, 23.
Paul was not an apostate from the faith of his fathers; for, as appears from this testimony, their faith was his faith; his hope was the same as that to which the twelve tribes hoped to come; and his preaching was only of those things which the prophets and Moses had said should come to pass; while in accepting Christ he had only done that which was demanded by the Jewish religion; he had only believed that which was taught in the Jewish scriptures.
The apostle was none the less a Jew because he had become a Christian; he had by no means lost his inheritance as a lineal descendant of Abraham, because he sought to make his calling and election sure by an alliance with Christ, the promised Seed. Indeed it was only by such an alliance that Paul or any one else could remain a Jew in the true sense of the word; it was only by being circumcised in heart that the circumcision of the flesh could be prevented from becoming uncircumcision. "For he is not a Jew which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh; but he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God." Rom. 2 : 28, 29.
But Paul shows elsewhere that to be entitled to any of the blessings which God has promised to his people we must be reckoned as the children of Abraham; for the promises are to Abraham and to his seed. Says the apostle: "Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ." "And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise." Gal. 3 : 16, 29.
In Rom. 9 : 7, 8, the apostle shows that it is not alone as the literal descendants of Abraham that any may share in the blessings, "but the children of the promise are counted for the seed," so that through faith the Gentiles may likewise claim a part in these things; while if they continue in unbelief, the literal seed will be cut off. In chapter 11 : 16-21, Paul illustrates this by a tree, thus: "If the root be holy, so are the branches. And if some of the branches be broken off, and thou, being a wild olive tree, wert graffed in among them, and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree; boast not against the branches. But if thou boast, thou bearest not the root, but the root thee. Thou wilt say then, The branches were broken off, that I might be graffed in. Well; because of unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by faith. Be not highminded, but fear; for if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee."
Of this tree Christ is the root; he is the Root and the Offspring of David; he is that from which all nourishment is derived; and as in the illustration of the vine (John 15 : 1-8), individuals are the branches. The Jews, the literal descendants of Abraham, are the natural branches, and all who reject Christ are broken off; while the Gentiles who accept Christ are the wild olive branches which are graffed in and (though contrary to nature, Rom. 11 : 24) partake "of the root and fatness of the olive tree." In natural grafting, the cion retains its own nature, but the soul which becomes connected with Christ is made a partaker of the divine nature, and instead of doing the works of the flesh (Gal. 5 : 19-21), will bring forth the fruits of the Spirit, which are these: "Love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance; against such there is no law." Verses 22 : 23.
But even though we may stand in that relation to the True Vine where we can bear much fruit, should we not heed the words of the apostle: "Be not highminded, but fear; for if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee. Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in his goodness; otherwise thou also shalt be cut off." Let us then strive to make our calling and election sure, that we may have a name and a place among the people of God; that by faith we may indeed be the children of Abraham, and that finally we may enter the glorious city of God, the New Jerusalem, in whose twelve foundations are the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb, and whose twelve gates bear the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel. Rev. 21 : 12, 14.
He Will Come Again.
By A. F. Schauffler
We read in many places in the New Testament that Christ will come again. Not only did Jesus affirm this, but the angels who spoke to the apostles after his ascension said the same thing. "Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven." Acts 1, 11. The apostles refer again and again in many places to this second coming of Jesus Christ. Now, the second coming of Jesus will be like the first in this respect, that it will be sudden and unexpected. For this reason Jesus bids all his disciples watch. "Watch therefore," he says; "for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh." In one respect, however, the second coming will differ widely from the first. The first advent was in humility and poverty; the second advent will be in majesty and glory. "The Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God." 1 Thess. 4:16. When he comes again, he will come to reward his followers and punish his enemies. Their day of triumph will then end, and his earthly triumph will begin. This very earth, that witnessed his shame eighteen hundred years ago, will witness his exaltation, and all his foes shall be ashamed and shall perish.
—Rev. A. F. Schauffler, in S. S. Times.
Deliverance from Temptation
"THE Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptation." 2 Peter 2:9.
The Inspired Word.
THEOLOGIANS have, first and last, written a great many essays and treatises on the subject of inspiration. And yet, as a matter of fact, there are no statements on this subject clearer and simpler than those which the Bible itself supplies. We prefer these statements to any others. "God," says Paul, "who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son." Here is inspiration on its divine side. God does the speaking through agencies of his own selection; and, if so, then man's province is to do the hearing and the believing. "Holy men of God," says Peter, "spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." Here is inspiration on its human side. "Holy men of God" did the speaking, but they were moved by the Holy Ghost in what they said. "Which things also we speak," says Paul, "not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth." These three passages contain an inspired statement of inspiration. They connect the authority of God with the truth of the things spoken. The Bible, as a record, by this authority, becomes the word of God. We receive it and believe it because God is the Author. Reason never acts more reasonably than when it believes God. His word is always good for all that it affirms. There is no sounder or safer position for human thought than to receive this word. We must do so, in order to feel its force, or get from it the comforts which it is suited to impart. He who cavils with this word is engaged in very poor business for his own comfort. He will not, while in this position, be sanctified or saved by it.—Independent.
Suddenly.
By Jesse S. Gilbert
WE are told by the apostle Paul (1 Thess. 5:3), when speaking of the overthrow of the ungodly at the glorious appearing of Christ, that "sudden destruction cometh upon them." And Jesus himself speaks of his second advent as breaking in upon a thoughtless world with a startling suddenness: "For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be." Matt. 24:27. The resurrection of the sleeping saints will be instantaneous—no gradual change—"in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump; for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed." 1 Cor. 15:52.
All the prophecies concerning the last things indicate wonderful rapidity of movement as the end draws near. Do we not see symptoms of this all about us? Is not this called preeminently "a fast age"? It is the age of machinery, of steam, and electricity. Each new invention outstrips all its predecessors in the effort to annihilate time and space. Nor is this all; there is wonderful rapidity of movement in the unfolding of events, in the making of history. A decade is more than a century used to be, and a century shows more changes than formerly took place in a millennium. The stream of time flows faster as it nears the ocean of eternity. It is an age of travel. Many "run to and fro" and knowledge is increased. How sudden and startling are the changes that take place in the political, social, and scientific worlds at the present time! One surprise follows upon another until we almost lose the power of being astonished.
Faith in God and an earnest expectation of our Lord's glorious appearing, alone can keep our hearts and minds tranquil in this age of excitement and sudden change. Men of the world may ask with bated breath what all these things mean, but the true watcher for the Lord's return knows that it is the "budding fig-tree," foretelling the eternal summer.—Rev. Jesse S. Gilbert.
"The Second Advent."
By R. F. Cottrell
UNDER this title, which is in perfect harmony with numerous expressions of Scripture, a writer in the Buffalo Christian Advocate, some time since, presented views which are very much at variance with his chosen title. A second implies a first, while it does not disprove a third, but there can be but one second in any series of events. The sacred writers would have the Christian church look for a second advent of Christ. Says Paul, "So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him he shall appear the second time without sin unto salvation." Christ had once appeared to men, and he is to appear a second time to those who look for him according to the promise, "I will come again, and receive you to myself." Again signifies once more, or a second time.
But this writer, after referring to several instances of the Lord's appearing to his disciples in vision, proceeds to the following expressions: "The 'coming' seems a matter of course, a common occurrence, a stated feature of the dispensation." "He did 'come in the glory of his Father,' and has not ceased to come. His promise is sure, and in the recorded fulfillments we have a revelation of what is yet to come. A notable instance of his advent was to John on the Isle of Patmos." He inquires, "was this the only coming of the Lord to the 'beloved disciple'?" The whole character of Christ, and the current of the gospel, forces the conviction that it was merely one of many; a representative occurrence, illustrating the certainty and mode of advent, which began soon after the descent of the Spirit, and is to continue to the final catastrophe, at the end; a personal coming to spiritual vision.
What does all this mean? How many second advents are there? What is the final catastrophe of which he speaks? and in what relation to other events is it to come?
Speaking of the disciples when they saw the Lord ascend from the Mount of Olives, our writer says, "Still they hoped to see him again, and stood gazing, when two angels came to say, 'This same Jesus, who is taken up from you into Heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into Heaven.' This agreed perfectly with the promise, 'Lo, I am with you alway, even to the end of the world.' How could he be present with them, if he did not come?"
The promise to the apostles and the church, that he would not leave them, but be with them always, to the end of the world, by his Spirit, is made, by this writer, to agree perfectly with the promise that, though he was about to leave them and go to the Father, he would come again and take them to himself, or the assurance to the disciples by the angels, that "this same Jesus shall so come in like manner." What a good thing it is that we have the Bible, and that the poor have the gospel preached to them! If they depended upon such expositors, they might well be pitied.
R. F. COTTRELL.
An Enlightened Conscience.
ONE of the best signs of a truly enlightened conscience is to be found in our carefully guarding the reputation of others. Growth in grace is shown by saying little of their supposed faults, and by mentioning, as far as is consistent with truth, their commendable qualities. The good to be derived from a proper cultivation of charity toward all men is threefold; it benefits the erring person, giving him to see that there are those who have his welfare in view; it is also a benediction upon those who observe our charitable spirit, prompting them likewise to words and works of charity; and it always blesses the individual himself, leading him to practice self-control and self-renunciation in behalf of others.
Christian forbearance is a wonderful educator. The epistles are full of earnest teaching upon this subject. There is a divine reaction upon the soul that habitually cherishes this spirit. The only wonder is that it is not more generally practiced for its own sake. The sacred writings, however, do not urge this upon us as a mere sentiment. Rather, we are taught that charity is the genuine fruit of ripened Christian experience, and that it is always consistent with justice and truth.—Watchman.
Courting Rome.
By Christian Instructor
REV. JOHN MILLER, in the Independent, gives an account of an interview he had with Archbishop Corrigan, which is worthy of some attention. He tells how he sought an audience with the archbishop and was most graciously received; how he told the archbishop that the Catholic Church had been misrepresented by the reformers, and how Archbishop Corrigan had detained him after he came out, and what nice things were done and said. There must be something in these statements of special significance or they would not have been sent abroad. There is a method in it that is of ill omen. The manifest design is to soften down Protestant feeling against the Roman Catholic Church. The unsuspecting readers of the Independent will feel that if the high officials are such pleasant men, and talk so gently of Protestants, it cannot be that Rome is such an apostate from truth.
But facts are stubborn things. The character of Rome is written in blood for centuries. The way is stained all along with the blood of the saints of the most high God. Men of this generation do not know the half of her crimes. Of these she has never repented, for she glories in her unchangeableness. It is quite too late in the day to make believe that she is the tender and delicate lady that cannot see a lost one without feeling compassion for his soul—that she has no blood on her skirts, and that she would not persecute and destroy the children of God as before. It is time those who love liberty and truth should open their eyes to the somewhat systematic and frequent efforts of Protestant periodicals to lessen the just hatred that exists of Romish superstition. The results are already seen in many churches, in the adoption of her rites and modes, not in full but in a way that surely detracts from the spirituality of divine worship. The whole tendency of such writing and practice is to blind the eyes to the importance of maintaining Reformation principles.—Christian Instructor.
One Thing.
A man of divided aims, of diversified pursuits, seldom succeeds. It takes concentration of effort to bring about the most important results. The man of one book is the most thorough; the man of one pursuit is the most successful. David said, "One thing have I desired of the Lord," and Paul declared, "This one thing I do." Whatever else a man may or may not do, he cannot serve the Lord with a divided heart. To please him, he must have one aim, one purpose, continually in view. His heart must be fixed. While others are careful and troubled about many things, he must choose the good part, the one thing needful. He must be willing to part with all he has to purchase that one pearl of great price. A truly pious mind gathers up all its desires into one great wish: "it pants after God, yea, the living God." This is what Christians need to make them consistent, to make them efficient, and to crown their efforts with success. Without this no man can serve the Lord acceptably. "A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways."—Sel.