THE REVIEW AND HERALD “family group” of periodicals is appreciated in other lands as well as at home. The following is copied from a letter recently received from Jamaica:—
“Are you going to make another clubbing offer as you did a year ago? If so, you may send me the same five-dollar club that you gave last year,—the whole REVIEW AND HERALD family; but if not, I shall have to eliminate some of them. It is like giving away one of our children to part with one of these dear papers. All are different, yet all are good, each filling its own sphere, and in its line the best there is.
“Let’s see: put down the REVIEW first. Can’t do without that. Next, we cannot keep house without the Instructor. So, put that down. Then, we shall have to have the Sabbath School Worker. What would our Sabbath-school amount to without the Worker? Then we must put in Education. Must have that to tell us how to educate our little daughter. Then there is the Protestant. We must have12that, too, to keep tab on the Catholics. Now we have left out in the cold Liberty and Life and Health. Well, we get Life and Health in a club; but I fear we shall have to leave Liberty behind this year unless you grant club rates. If you do, let us have the unbroken family. It is a good family. It has been a great help, and comfort, and source of instruction in our home, and it costs only five dollars a year. I do not know where I ever got so much for five dollars. It seems that some of our people get along for months and months without having that ‘family group,’ but I do not intend to try to get along without many of these papers. Too many good things in them to miss. They are a bargain every day in the year.” D. W. REAVIS.
Monterey, Mexico
By George W. Caviness
We have a nice little company in the city of Monterey. One year ago last August I baptized sixteen, and some others united with us, having been baptized before, making a company of twenty-four, including two workers there. They have been calling for me to visit them again.
Recently Monterey was attacked by the rebels, and they came very near taking the city. One of our sisters, a young Mexican Bible worker, lived in the part where the rebels made their attack. She says that several bombs fell into the house adjoining the one in which she was living, but fortunately only one exploded. The rebels succeeded in taking this house, and used it as a sort of headquarters. There they placed their cannon and machine guns. The young woman writes that for two days and nights she was almost deafened by the roaring of the artillery placed so near her own dwelling. Nevertheless she remained safe, and after the battle was over and the rebels were driven out, it was found that she had received no other damage than the shock and anxiety of the situation.
All our brethren in Monterey escaped uninjured. Brother Juan Robles, who is in charge of the work there, writes me that seven desire baptism as soon as I can go there. One other desiring baptism died a short time ago. It seems too bad that believers who are ready for baptism should have to wait and even die before we can reach them to celebrate this ordinance.
We are thankful that our Heavenly Father has preserved our brethren. It seems a miracle that some have not been injured. The young woman already referred to declares that it was only the power of God that saved her.
We are still hoping that conditions in this revolution-torn country will change for the better. We have five canvassers still in the field. They have just finished canvassing San Luis Potosi, where they had splendid success. Three are now in Tampico, and the other two have gone to the isthmus.
We print about seven thousand copies of our missionary paper each month, and there are but few left over at the end of the month. This is a better record than we have made any previous year. We certainly thank God for his goodness to us, and trust that affairs will be so controlled by the Lord that his work will not be hindered. We ask the prayers of all our brethren for the work and workers in this needy and difficult field.
G. W. CAVINESS.
H. G. THURSTON
By H. G. Thurston
Oregon
SALEM.—After spending a very pleasant winter in Santa Ana, assisting the near-by churches and doing some aggressive work, we left California last April, and moved to Salem, Oregon. Here we found a church of over one hundred and fifty members. Their new house of worship, while not completed, is sufficiently finished to accommodate all public services, and also our church-school. Quite a heavy financial burden rests upon the company here, which we hope to see somewhat lightened in the near future. With unity among its membership this organization can do an important work in this center.
Our members are now taking a club of fifty Signs of the Times, and quite a list of subscriptions to the REVIEW has been sent in.
The church-school has outgrown one teacher, and we have been obliged to employ an assistant. Nearly forty pupils are enrolled, and others expect to attend later.
The recent institute, conducted by Elder H. W. Cottrell and others, proved a real benefit to the church. The studies on organization were greatly needed, and helped a large number. Our conference and union conference presidents have been with us from time to time, and their wise counsel is taking hold of many hearts. Those who understand conditions in this place realize our need of heavenly wisdom, and for this we hope to be remembered at our Father's throne.
We have never labored in Oregon before, and although we miss some of the sunshine to which we have been accustomed for so many years, the hearty welcome accorded us told plainly that the blessed gift of making a worker feel at home is not wanting in Oregon.
H. G. THURSTON
Field Notes
EIGHT persons were recently baptized at Streator, Ill., by Elder C. A. Stebbens.
WITHIN the last few weeks four persons have united with the Dallas (Tex.) church by baptism, and several others will join in the near future.
FOUR candidates were baptized and added to the Vicksburg (Miss.) church a few weeks ago. Two of these were students from the Murphy Industrial School.
THE new church building at Keokuk, Iowa, was dedicated Sunday, November 16. Elders Charles Thompson, A. R. Ogden, and J. W. McComas assisted in the service.
ELDERS A. L. MILLER and R. I. Keate recently organized a church of ten members at Carbon Hill, Ala. Five additions to the Sheffield church are reported by Elder James Bellinger.
AT Cincinnati, Ohio, seven new believers were recently baptized in the Ohio River. A company of Sabbath-keepers has been organized at Bucyrus, and ten persons have accepted the truth at Hamilton.
Missionary Volunteer Department
M. E. KERN — — — General Secretary
C. L. BENSON — — — Assistant Secretary
MATILDA ERICKSON — N. Am. Div. Secretary
MEADE MACGUIRE — N. Am. Div. Field Secretary
“I Will Hear What God the Lord Will Speak”
By L. M. Gregg
We are told that once the disciples saw their Master at prayer, something so impressed them that they felt they had never really prayed, so they asked him to teach them to pray. We all need to be taught how to pray. Perhaps we have prayed for years, and received many answers to our prayers; still we have many lessons yet to learn in praying.
A little child missed her mother at a certain time every day. The mother’s habit was to slip away up-stairs alone, and to be gone for some time. The child noticed that the mother was always gentler, quieter, and sweeter after she came back. Her face had lost its weary look and was shining. Her voice was gladder, more cheerful.
“Where do you go, mother,” the child asked, thoughtfully, “when you leave us every day?”
“I go up-stairs to my room,” the mother said.
“Why do you go to your room?” continued the little questioner. “You always come back with your face shining. What makes it shine so?”
“I go to pray,” the mother replied, reverently.
The child was silent for a little while, and then she softly said: “Teach me how to pray, mother.”
As fathers and mothers, will not the faithful keeping of the morning watch give us such an influence as this? Do we not desire to lead those in our own homes to higher and better things? Is not this our privilege? There is room in the morning watch circle for fathers, mothers, and children as well as young people.
God desires to do great things through his children. He desires to make them his messengers; but how frequently we fail to take time really to receive the message! David said, “I will hear what God the Lord will speak: for he will speak peace unto his people, and to his saints: but let them not turn again to folly.” Ps. 85:8.
Is not the morning watch an excellent time to “hear what God the Lord will speak” to us? We so often do the talking, as the poet says:—
“I tell him all my sorrows,
I tell him all my joys,
I tell him all that pleases me,
I tell him what annoys.”
How frequently we fail, though, in listening while—
“He tells me what I ought to do,
He tells me how to try;
And so we walk together,
My Lord and I.”
In the quiet morning hours it is our privilege to listen to what God will say to us through his Word. Our message will then be clear and will bear fruit. We shall have confidence in the message, and faith in the One who has entrusted us with it. L. M. GREGG.
Emmanuel Missionary College
By J. L. S.
It was my privilege a few days ago to visit Emmanuel Missionary College. Not having seen the institution in active operation, I was not a little interested in coming in close contact with the work of the college in its many phases, and in seeing the various members of the faculty and meeting with the students. Four days, however, were all too short a time to become well informed concerning the class work and detailed operation of the school. That must be attempted on another occasion. Our time was spent mostly in public work, and in studying the general features of the school.
Surely no mistake was made in the choice of location of this institution. It is placed upon two hundred and sixty-four acres of fertile land in the fruit district of Michigan, two miles from the small village of Berrien Springs, yet immediately in touch with the large towns of St. Joseph and Benton Harbor, by means of the interurban railway passing through the farm.
Prof. O. J. Graf, the president, furnished much interesting information concerning the college. We went over the grounds, studied the institutions, and inspected the various industries. The design of the campus has been changed and improved, providing beautiful lawns, which, together with shade-trees here and there, present a pleasing effect. A large amount of fruit is raised each year, and general farming operations, including dairying, poultry raising, and apiculture, are carried on. Alfalfa raising is proving very profitable. The dairy showed careful, scientific management. We have not seen a better-arranged dairy connected with any of our institutions.
It was encouraging to see so much being done in the line of industrial work. Work to the value of $15,000 was done last year by the students.
The institution is to be congratulated on the company of experienced and efficient instructors who year by year are earnestly and unitedly throwing their efforts into its upbuilding. Prof. J. H. Haughey, who for more than a quarter of a century has been teaching in our schools, is enthusiastically going forward with his work. It is a great blessing to have in our colleges teachers of such ripe experience.
We were impressed with the large number of mature students in the school, and the loyalty everywhere expressed by them. Earnestness characterized the class work. In the near future a goodly number of well-trained young people should find their way into the Master's vineyard. The students are deeply sympathetic toward foreign missions. Many have definitely announced their willingness to answer the call to a foreign land.
The Friday evening social meeting was an occasion of unusual interest. In little over an hour all but three of a company approximating one hundred and seventy-five, bore testimony. We understand this is not an unusual occurrence.
After, spending several years in the mission field where the needs are so great, it is refreshing to visit our schools and see strong young people consecrating their lives to God and earnestly preparing for his service. O that every young man and woman in this denomination who is unprepared for service could be in training under the influence of God-fearing teachers!
The last evening we were at the college, a stereopticon lecture on India was given. A mixed quartet sang the words of the following appeal, written several years ago by a leper brother in India:—
“Hopeless millions here are moving
On toward the great last day,
Poor and naked, blind and wretched
Worshipers of wood and clay.
They have never heard of Jesus,
Nor of his redeeming love,
How he shed his blood to give them
Life and rest in heaven above.
“They have never heard of heaven,
Or the city over there,
With its golden streets and portals
And its walls of jasper rare;
Of the glorious, kingly mansions
That the saints will soon attain,
When their Saviour, Christ, appeareth
Once again on earth to reign.14
“Brethren, come and tell these millions
Who are dying every day;
Lead them to the cross of Jesus,
From their gods of wood and clay.
Come, for time is quickly fleeting,
Come along without delay;
India needs more faithful workers,
Come for Christ’s dear sake, we pray.
REFRAIN:
“Come, O, come and tell these heathen
How he died for sinful men,
How he’s waiting to receive them,
How he’s coming back again!”
J. L. S.
Our Responsibility
By C. L. Benson
NINETEEN hundred years ago Jesus said, “Many shall come from the east and west, and sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven. But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
Truly these prophetic words, spoken so long ago, are meeting their fulfilment today. Men and women in Japan, China, India, Africa, America, and Europe are accepting Jesus Christ and the third angel’s message, and their lives are being transformed. They are getting ready for translation. But what about the “children of the kingdom,” our Seventh-day Adventist young men and women, your boys and girls? Are they being transformed and renewed, preparatory to Christ’s coming?—Many are; but thousands of our young people are drifting, going into the world, and caring naught for things eternal.
Surely a great responsibility rests upon the parents of Seventh-day Adventist children. Satan is working hard to capture our boys and girls. But Christ says he can save to the uttermost. Now, dear fathers and mothers in Israel, will you not cooperate in every way possible with the Missionary Volunteer Department in its effort to save your boys and girls?
One of the best methods devised by our department to do this is through the observance of the morning watch, spending a few minutes at the beginning of the day alone with Christ, studying his Word and talking to him. This was the secret of Christ’s power and victorious life as he walked with God among men at the beginning of the Christian era. Will you not observe the morning watch yourself, then encourage your boys and girls to do the same? Present to them a Morning Watch Calendar. Read the text for the next day at evening worship; at morning worship read it again. Get the children to quote it; talk about it at meal-time; ask the children what the text means, then explain what you think it means.
Surely such a course will help the children not to live by bread alone. It will fortify them against the attacks of Satan, and will be a fulfilment of the Lord’s charge to the children of Israel: “Therefore shall ye lay up these my words in your heart and in your soul, and bind them for a sign about your hand, that they may be as frontlets between your eyes. And ye shall teach them your children, speaking of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.”
C. L. BENSON.
The Morning Watch
By MARY MOORE
An old proverb says, “The morning hour has gold in its mouth.” You remember when Peter went fishing, it was the first fish he caught which had the gold; so if you go fishing for the best hour of the day, it is the first which carries the golden opportunities.
No knight in the age of chivalry started out for a day’s adventure without putting on his armor. So no Christian knight dares to start out for a day’s journey through the enemy’s country without putting on the “whole armor of God,” and buckling it tightly with “all prayer and supplication.” These are some of the actual results which experience has proved to come from spending the first hour of the day in prayer and systematic Bible study:—
During the morning watch, the mind is toned up for all the duties of the day. Courage and cheerfulness are inspired to undertake distasteful duties. Some thought or text is found which later is just the help necessary to conquer some unforeseen temptation. In praying for the conversion of friends, the Spirit has inspired the mind with suggestions of good to be done for them. Feelings of dislike and annoyance toward those who may have wronged us are changed into Christian charity. Physical strength is the result of the uplifting and encouragement of the heart. But on the other hand, a day carelessly and prayerlessly begun will mean no strength to fight the enemy and a longer time to spend in regret and penitence at its close.
MARY MOORE.
Educational Department
By J. L. Shaw; W. E. Howell
J. L. SHAW General Secretary
W. E. HOWELL N. Am. Div. Asst. Secretary
Daily Prayer in 1914
The Morning Watch Calendar will remind you that you should make a daily appointment with God, and then keep it faithfully. You cannot afford to fail. Prayer is life's greatest privilege, and it is also life's greatest need. Then start each day during 1914 in the chamber of secret prayer, and saturate each day with prayer, that, praying as the Master prayed, you may learn to live as the Master lived.
Morning Watch Calendar Circulation
THE first edition of the Morning Watch Calendar appeared in 1908. About 6,000 copies were used that year. The next year 14,500 were circulated. For 1910, 17,000 were needed to supply the demand. During 1911, 22,000 were distributed, and for 1912 the edition reached 25,000. For 1913 the English edition reached 33,000, and the calendar texts were printed also in Spanish, German, Japanese, Korean, and Chinese. Join this ever-growing circle. Get the calendar at once from your tract society. Price, five cents.
Church Missionary Work
The Fourth Sabbath Home Missionary Service, Dec. 27, 1913
THE commission that Christ gave to his disciples was not merely for the building up of his cause in a few places. Every nation in the earth was to have the light of sacred truth. The churches that have not been light-bearers to some needy part of the Lord’s vineyard have failed to fulfil the commission of Christ.
Had the money and labor that have been given to the cause in other lands been confined to the work in the home land, the church would have lost materially in spiritual life. God has been honored by the work that has been done for the people in distant lands. We must increase our liberalities to missions. And while we increase our labor and gifts for foreign fields, we must not neglect the work that needs to be done at home.
Our field is the world. Repeat it again and again: Our field is the world. We rejoice for those who have made a willing offering of their property to the Lord. We encourage all to help with their means in the cause of God. Christians who are fully awake to the needs of the work will not spend the Lord’s money needlessly. They will consider the great missionary field to be worked, and, viewing their obligations in the light of the cross of Calvary, they will consider no sacrifice too great to make for him who gave his life for the life of the world.
The Lord is calling upon his people to take up different lines of missionary work. Church-members are to do evangelistic work in the homes of their friends and neighbors who have not received full evidence of the truth. The presentation of the truth in love and sympathy, from house to house, is in harmony with the instruction that Christ gave to his disciples when he sent them out on their first missionary tour. By songs of praise to God, by humble, heartfelt prayers, by simple presentation of Bible truth in the family circle, many will be reached. The divine Worker will be present to send conviction to hearts. “I am with you alway,” is his promise. With the assurance of the abiding presence of such a helper, we may labor with faith and hope and courage.
All who surrender themselves to God in unselfish service for humanity are in cooperation with the Lord of glory. This thought sweetens all toil, it braces the will, it nerves the spirit for whatever may befall. Working with unselfish heart, ennobled by being partakers of Christ’s sufferings, sharing his sympathies, they help swell the tide of his joy, and bring honor and praise to his exalted name.
Precious are God’s promises to those who minister in his name. He says, “Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily.” Thy light shall rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noonday: and the Lord shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones; and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not.”
MRS. E. G. WHITE.
The Week of Prayer in Our Schools
By J. L. S.
We are coming to the most important week in the entire school year. It is the week of prayer, the time set apart for our people everywhere as a time of consecration and prayer. We are hoping, believing, and praying that our schools will earnestly enter into this period of prayer, and derive a very large amount of spiritual help.
We are living in an age of great intensity. Christian people seem too busy to pray. The hurry and excitement of life do not give time for quiet meditation and communion with God. Teachers in our schools are busy, and a large number of them have heavy work to carry. Yet God calls them to a life of earnest prayer. It is the prayer life that stimulates a desire for prayer among the students. Prayer is our means of communing with God. It is the key which unlocks the storehouse of heaven. “Unceasing prayer is the unbroken union of the soul with God so that life from God flows into our lives; and from our lives purity and holiness flow back to God.” Communion with God lifts us above our surroundings, gives us new views of God and his work and purpose in our lives. The ministry of intercession provides us the means of being lifted above the things of life into the communion of God and the atmosphere of heaven.
In Jesus’ school, prayer was one of the most important subjects of study. The Master practised the prayer life. And so profoundly did his manner of life affect the disciples that they earnestly besought him to teach them to pray. As a result, we have that beautiful prayer, so simple, and yet so comprehensive. We call it the Lord’s Prayer, yet really it is the prayer he taught his disciples to pray.
Today, as in the school of the twelve disciples, prayer in the life of the teacher leads to the same desire on the part of the pupil. We have a large number of young people in our schools. Their education and training will very largely affect our work in the near future. How much these dear young people need to learn how to pray, how to take hold of God in earnest, believing prayer, and learn from actual experience that God does hear and answer when they call upon him. Hudson Taylor said, while preparing to go to China, that he could not go to a mission field until he knew for a certainty that God heard and answered prayer. It was with abiding faith in God that he went to China; and the results of his life show the marvelous way in which God used him in his work. If all the young people in our schools had the definite assurance that God does hear and answer prayer, what remarkable results would follow! Men of greater might and power would be developed, and laborers, made ready for the outpouring of God’s Holy Spirit, would go forth into the Master’s service.
We are living in the time when God’s Spirit is to be poured out; and without it the advent movement will miss its goal. It is the prayer life that prepares the way for the life of power. The three and one-half years in the school of prayer led the disciples to that upper chamber; and it was the ten days in that chamber which prepared for Pentecost and brought the results that followed.
As educators, may we this coming week of prayer consider the importance of prayer, our own relation to it, the place it should occupy in school work, and the wisest means to make that possible.
There are more than five thousand children and young people in our mission schools in heathen lands. Some are Kafirs, others, Hindus, Mohammedans, Buddhists, and believers in other religions. How important it is that these students accept the Lord Jesus Christ, and prepare themselves as workers for their own people! Let us pray during this week of prayer that God may greatly bless our teachers and their schools, that a still larger number may accept the Lord Jesus Christ, and be trained and fitted for service among their own people.
J. L. S.
A Missionary Revival
By Mrs. A. E. Ellis
When we speak of a missionary revival, our thoughts instinctively go back in our denominational history to the time when missionary work was the business15of our churches; when every one who accepted the truth which separated him from the rest of the Christian world expected to bring that truth to the notice of others, and win them also to its acceptance; when, failing to find words to express his doctrinal belief, the ever-ready tract was slipped into the hand of acquaintance or friend, with a prayer that the Spirit might give it power; when into every letter the “silent messenger” found its way, not carelessly sent, but winged with the consciousness and delight of imparting a knowledge of new-found treasures; when not only the dollars of the well-to-do were freely given, but the scanty pennies of the poor were hoarded to “help the cause;” in short, when people were really born into the truth, and with their first spiritual intake of its essentially missionary atmosphere, were mightily moved to impart what they had received; when missionary enthusiasm began at the bottom, and by the inevitable law of growth spread itself and gathered strength in denominational activity and direction.
What we call a decline in the missionary spirit is not true in a strictly denominational sense. Our work is moving grandly onward, and continual opportunity and importunity are thrusting upon our leaders the necessity of the forward march through all the world. But the vital strength of the denomination is in the hearts of its individual members; and if these in any degree fail or become discouraged, the denominational work is proportionately weakened.
Has there been a falling off in individual missionary activity? Then the place to begin the missionary revival is in the hearts of our people,—in the home churches, where their lot is cast and their lives are spent. Many have fallen into the habit of regarding missionary work as an enterprise, and not as the direct outgrowth of Christ in the heart.
A dying missionary was visited by a friend, who, thinking to comfort him, said close to his ear, “I know in whom I have believed.” The old saint opened his dimming eyes, and, fixing them on his visitor’s face, replied: “I cannot have even a proposition between me and my Lord. ‘I know whom I have believed.’ Let us get up to that level; ‘let the great baptized heart of the church get up to that level of intimate, faithful union with Christ,’ and we shall have a perennial missionary revival.”
The trouble is, as one writer says, “We are vessels half full, trying to run over.” We need, as truly as did the woman of Samaria, to hear the divine voice saying to us, “The water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.” The unfailing spring of missionary activity is within us, a perpetual miracle wrought by the hand of our Lord; and if the channel is kept free, the tide of life will flow strong and sweet, and we shall learn the true meaning of God’s “whatsoever.”
“Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do,” sets aside all fine-spun theory and brings the child of God face to face with his daily life, its homely tasks, its uninspiring routine, its chance meetings and partings, as well as its higher aims and more far-reaching plans. Not a single ministration in the home, the church, or the neighborhood, can escape that insistent “whatsoever.”
“Ye have the poor with you always, and whensoever ye will ye may do them good.” Here is a field declared by the Lord himself to be ever open to missionary effort; and in this line of Christian Help work are great possibilities for utilizing a variety of talents, and for enlisting and holding the interest of old and young.
Of blessed memory is a little Help Band to which the writer once belonged, and which for years scattered blessings both near and far. In its friendly meetings every week the dear old grandmothers could indulge without stint their passion for piecing quilt blocks; younger and stronger hands prepared many a box of bedding and barrel of comfortable clothing; and the children were more than happy to sit with the older ones and fashion iron holders, wash-cloths, and dish-towels, or paste scrap-books for some bed-ridden child. The husbands and brothers could do their part on collection day, or at some needy person’s wood-pile. Some who had thought themselves of no use developed good talent in gathering loads of second-hand clothing; and one dear sister said she had only one gift, and that was for patching, but she was thankful she could use it for the Lord.
Everywhere there are the sick to be cared for and the sorrowing to be comforted. We are apt to look upon all this as very humble work, but it was not too humble to occupy the time and thought of our Saviour.
There are other things we can do. As long as there are people who do not know the good news of Christ’s soon coming and the kindred truths with which this is associated, and as long as there are papers and tracts in which these things are plainly and attractively presented, so long will the Lord want to use his children as the connecting link to carry to those who know it not his saving message. Is there any one who cannot help in this? And if every one would do even a little, how many publications might become saving messages to those whom God loves and whom he longs to reach and save!
No one who has stood by the mammoth printing-press of today and noted its wonderful mechanism, its marvelous possibilities, and the almost human capability with which its work is done, can doubt that it is one of God’s prepared agencies for the finishing of his work; and when we consider with it the stupendous mail system, reaching the remotest corners of the earth, where is our loyalty if we cannot gladly give the use of our hands in intelligent cooperation to send the printed pages everywhere?
We should remember that not in this favored land alone are publications a means of grace, but that in many of our far-off mission stations papers and tracts are most helpful in spreading the gospel, and that the hearts of our workers who are struggling under untold difficulties to publish in other tongues the last message, would be cheered and lightened if the churches at home would share their burdens by sending means to help scatter the precious pages.
The time in which we live is justly called “the age of books,” and Satan knows well how to utilize the almost universal desire for reading. Surely we cannot leave the field to him, but should rather emulate his zeal and industry as we scatter the books containing the truth for this time. The special effort of our enemy never ceases; and the real strength of our work depends largely on the measure of the “continuing spirit” which we possess, on the steady, never-failing spiritual energy which characterizes those only in whose hearts the fires of true missionary consecration are kindled.
“Every one must learn to work and to stand in his place as a burden-bearer. Every addition to the church should be one more agency for the carrying out of the great plan of redemption. The entire church, acting as one, blending in perfect union, is to be a living, active missionary agency, moved and controlled by the Holy Spirit.”
The money invested for God; the stock dedicated to him; the missionary garden; the honest, earnest effort to keep in touch with God’s work at home and abroad; the fervent, effectual prayer, never forgotten nor neglected; every gift, every ability, every resource possible to any human being, are swept into that all-embracing admonition, “Whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.”
A noted Christian worker says, “We want in this age saints—more saints. We need to believe that in Christ there is all power in heaven and in earth, to make us live here a heavenly life, living among men as those inspired by God and filled with the divine presence.”
These words of Spurgeon’s are true today: “O, how we want all power now! We all have our theories of the condition of the churches just now. I do not know what yours may be; mine are not very bright. But I have this one belief in my soul, that what is wanted most of all is a great revival of spiritual life, a wonderful downpour of the grace of God from heaven to flood all our churches. It seems to me we get very much like the barges and the vessels down yonder at London Bridge when the tide is out. There they lie on the mud. You cannot move them. What is to be done? Now, will you great engineers tell me how much horse-power and how much steam-power you want? There is nothing wanted but the tide. When the tide rises, every old barge begins to walk the water like a thing of life, and every vessel moves right readily. When the heavenly tides of spiritual blessing come up, nothing can withstand them. Come up, O heavenly tide! Nothing can stand against thee!”
In a comment on the verse, “All power is given unto me,” I read this: “Perhaps some one says, ‘I will do what I can.’ But this is not enough. Any one can do that. He that believes in Christ does what he cannot do, attempts the impossible and performs it.” It was said of Luther, “There goes a man who can have anything of God he likes.” O, for more Luthers! If we were indeed what we profess to be, if we were all alive and endued with the Spirit of God, and “germinating mightily with the inner life,” there are enough of this people to shake the world from end to end, and make it burn and glow with the light and glory of the last warning message. God grant that the missionary revival in this denomination be not long delayed.
“Is not thy grace as mighty now
As when Elijah felt its power?
When glory beamed from Moses’ brow,
Or Job endured the trying hour?1200“Remember, Lord, the ancient days;
Renew thy work, thy grace restore;
And while to thee our hearts we raise,
On us thy Holy Spirit pour.”