To a Young Minister and His Wife
297
Frequently, when brought into strait places, the entire night has
been spent in earnest, agonizing prayer with tears for help from God
and for light to shine upon His word. When the light has come and the
clouds have been driven back, what joy and grateful happiness have
rested upon the anxious, earnest seekers! Our gratitude to God was
as complete as had been our earnest, hungering cry for light. Some
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nights we could not sleep because our hearts were overflowing with
love and gratitude to God.
Men who now go forth to preach the truth have things made ready
to their hand. They cannot now experience such privations as the
laborers in present truth have endured before them. The truth has
been brought out, link after link, till it forms a clear, connected chain.
To bring the truth out in such clearness and harmony has required
careful research. Opposition, the most bitter and determined, drove
the servants of God to the Lord and to their Bibles. Precious indeed to
them was the light which came from God.
I have been shown that the reason why some cannot discern the
right is because they have so long cherished the enemy, who has
worked side by side with them while they have not discerned his power.
It sometimes seems hard to wait patiently till God’s time comes to
vindicate the right. But I have been shown that if we become impatient
we lose a rich reward. As faithful husbandmen in God’s great field, we
must sow with tears and be patient and hopeful. We must meet troubles
and sorrows. Temptations and wearisome toil will afflict the soul, but
we must patiently wait in faith to reap with joy. In the final victory
God will have no use for those persons who are nowhere to be found
in time of peril and danger, when the strength, courage, and influence
of all are required to make a charge upon the enemy. Those who stand
like faithful soldiers to battle against wrong, and to vindicate the right,
warring against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the
darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places,
will each receive the commendation from the Master: “Well done,
good and faithful servant: ... enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.”
Never was there greater need of faithful warnings and reproofs,
and close, straight dealing, than at this very time. Satan has come
down with great power, knowing that his time is short. He is flooding
the world with pleasing fables, and the people of God love to have
smooth things spoken to them. Sin and iniquity are not abhorred. I
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