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Testimonies for the Church Volume 4
God alone can give the increase of the seed we sow.
We fail many times because we do not realize that Christ is with
us by His Spirit as truly as when, in the days of His humiliation,
He moved visibly upon the earth. The lapse of time has wrought no
change in His parting promise to His apostles as He was taken up
from them into heaven: “Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end
of the world.” He has ordained that there should be a succession of
men who derive authority from the first teachers of the faith for the
continual preaching of Christ and Him crucified. The Great Teacher
has delegated power to His servants, who “have this treasure in earthen
vessels.” Christ will superintend the work of His ambassadors if they
wait for His instruction and guidance.
Ministers who are truly Christ’s representatives will be men of
prayer. With an earnestness and faith that will not be denied, they
will plead with God that they may be strengthened and fortified for
duty and for trial, and that their lips may be sanctified by a touch of
the living coal from off the altar, to speak the words of God to the
people. “The Lord God hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I
should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary: He
wakeneth morning by morning, He wakeneth mine ear to hear as the
learned.”
Christ said to Peter: “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to
have you, that he may sift you as wheat: but I have prayed for thee,
that thy faith fail not.” Who can estimate the result of the prayers of
the world’s Redeemer? When Christ shall see of the travail of His soul
and shall be satisfied, then will be seen and realized the value of His
earnest prayers while His divinity was veiled with humanity.
Jesus pleaded, not for one only, but for all His disciples: “Father,
I will that they also whom Thou hast given Me, be with Me where I
am.” His eye pierced the dark veil of the future and read the life history
of every son and daughter of Adam. He felt the burdens and sorrows
of every tempest-tossed soul, and that earnest prayer included with
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His living disciples all His followers to the close of time. “Neither
pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on Me
through their word.” Yes; that prayer of Christ embraces even us. We
should be comforted by the thought that we have a great intercessor
in the heavens, presenting our petitions before God. “If any man sin,
we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” In