144
Testimonies for the Church Volume 4
might well become discouraged, were it not for the continual evidences
their Master gives them of His wisdom and assistance. Long has the
Lord borne with His people. He has forgiven their wanderings and
waited for them to give Him room in their hearts; but false ideas,
jealousy, and distrust have crowded Him out.
Few who are professedly of Israel, and whose minds have been
enlightened by the revelations of divine wisdom, dare to come boldly
forward, as did Caleb, and stand firmly for God and the right. Because
those whom the Lord has chosen to conduct His work will not be turned
from the course of integrity to gratify the selfish and unconsecrated,
they become the target for hatred and malicious falsehood. Satan is
wide awake and working warily in these last days, and God calls for
men of spiritual nerve and stamina to resist his artifices.
Thorough conversion is necessary among those who profess to
believe the truth, in order for them to follow Jesus and obey the will
of God—not a submission born of circumstances, as was that of the
terrified Israelites when the power of the Infinite was revealed to them,
but a deep and heartfelt repentance and renunciation of sin. Those
who are but half converted are as a tree whose boughs hang upon the
side of truth, but whose roots, firmly bedded in the earth, strike out
into the barren soil of the world. Jesus looks in vain for fruit upon its
branches; He finds nothing but leaves.
Thousands would accept the truth if they could do so without
denying self, but this class would never build up the cause of God.
These would never march out valiantly against the enemy,—the world,
the love of self, and the lusts of the flesh,—trusting their divine Leader
to give them the victory. The church needs faithful Calebs and Joshuas,
[156]
who are ready to accept eternal life on God’s simple condition of
obedience. Our churches are suffering for laborers. The world is our
field. Missionaries are wanted in cities and villages that are more
certainly bound by idolatry than are the pagans of the East, who have
never seen the light of truth. The true missionary spirit has deserted
the churches that make so exalted a profession; their hearts are no
longer aglow with love for souls and a desire to lead them into the fold
of Christ. We want earnest workers. Are there none to respond to the
cry that goes up from every quarter: “Come over ...and help us”?
Can those who profess to be the depositaries of God’s law, and
who look for the soon coming of Jesus in the clouds of heaven, stand