A Call to Service

The believers in the South are in need of a thorough conversion. The Lord calls upon them to show a zeal proportionate to the great truth they have accepted. The message to the Laodicean church is applicable to many of those who claim to believe present truth. They are neither cold nor hot. They have not been doing the work God has given them to do. Christ says to them, «I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.»

He who truly believes the truth will show the sincerity of his belief by revealing in his life the principles of the truth. This is the test by which God proves his followers. It is an eternal law of Jehovah that he who accepts the truth is to make it his first work to proclaim to the world the message of mercy and warning.

The work that is neglected brings the denunciation of God upon many. If those in the Southern field wait to see a large work accomplished without first giving themselves to the advancement of the cause of God, with much prayer and daily consecration, making self-sacrificing efforts for its advancement, they will be disappointed. God can not use those who do not sincerely co-operate with the ones he has accepted because they gave themselves to his work, and did all they possibly could to make a beginning. He does not look with pleasure on those who find fault when things do not move in accordance with their ideas.

The hand of God, working through unseen agencies, has opened the way for the advancement of the work in the Southern field. But some of the men in responsible positions have hindered the progress of this work. Throughout the field there have been men who have put stones before instead of behind the wheels of the car that the workers are trying to push uphill. Unconverted men have brought forward theories and suggestions that have sown seeds of jealousy and evil-surmising. The Lord can do without such men. The message he desires them to proclaim he can give to the stones of the field to proclaim. This message will be given to the world; for prophecy has pointed out this work as one that must be accomplished. Why do some do all in their power to hinder? Such men would better go to some hard part of the field, and begin to work .

Few are willing to strip for the race, laying aside every weight, and the sin that so easily besets. Few are willing to gird themselves for the battle, putting on the whole armor of God. From henceforth let every believer in the South labor to the utmost of his ability to advance the work. Let not this work continue to be neglected, bringing dishonor to God. I urge this matter upon you, that you may be impressed with its importance. On your submission to Christ, and your obedience to his command to work out your own salvation with fear and trembling and to labor unselfishly for the salvation of others, depends your present and future happiness.

Those who believe in Christ will reveal the same spirit that Christ revealed. Converted to God, made partakers of the spirit and love of the Saviour, they are set apart to do the same work that he did on this earth. They lose their identity in Christ, becoming one with him. By searching the word of God diligently, receiving it as the leaves of the tree of life, they gain a knowledge of the plan of salvation. They learn from Jesus how to work successfully for others.

Christ says, «As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father, so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me.» Then comes the explanation, «It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life.» Connecting these words with those found in the fifteenth chapter of John: «Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you,» we can better understand their meaning. Will we understand?

In the prayer Christ offered for his disciples just before his crucifixion, he said, «They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them through thy truth; thy word is truth. As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth. Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; that they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they may be one in us; that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.»

What a wonderful prayer is this! Consider it carefully. Study every word, lest you fail of receiving the impression that God desires to make on your heart,—an impression that is of the greatest importance to you. This prayer holds out before us our possibilities, showing that it is our privilege to live in covenant relation with God. Every one may understand these wonderful, far-reaching expressions, and appropriate to himself the rich promises they contain. Those who do not avail themselves of the blessings so graciously offered them, will be called upon in the day of the Lord to answer for their refusal to accept the great gift placed within their reach.

«I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them as thou hast loved me.» Can you comprehend this statement? Is it deeper and broader than your faith can reach? Do you ask, Can this be? It can; for God has said it, and he means every word he says. He will not change or alter the thing that has gone out of his lips.

«Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me; for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world. O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee; but I have known thee, and these have known that thou hast sent me. And I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it; that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them.»

The voice that utters this prayer is the voice of our Redeemer. Do not the tones thrill through every part of your being?

The love of Christ has thrown open to us the gates of Paradise. Who can look into the heart of the great mystery of redemption, and find it to be love, without catching the same spirit that led Christ to die for sinners? As we think of his sacrifice, our life is bound up with his. A desire to serve him takes possession of every fiber of our being.

The Lord is working. The Saviour has been promised the salvation of his people. «Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power.» He who is the source of all power gives energy to souls by his Holy Spirit. His power is the light of life, a soul-energizing light. By his Spirit he works in the children of disobedience, raising to newness of life the dead in trespasses and sins, leading the transgressor to put away his sins and live the life of Christ. Henceforth the surrendered soul lives in harmony with God. The Spirit takes of the things of Christ, and shows them to him with so transforming an effect that he becomes a new man in Christ. —