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Testimonies for the Church Volume 5
harvests ready to be gathered, but there are none to do the reaping.
Prayers are offered for the triumph of the truth. What do your prayers
mean, brethren? What kind of success do you desire?—a success
to suit your indolence, your selfish indulgence?—a success that will
sustain and support itself without any effort on your part?
There must be a decided change in the church which will inconve-
nience those who are reclining on their lees, before laborers who are
fitted for their solemn work can be sent into the field. There must be an
awakening, a spiritual renovation. The temperature of Christian piety
must be raised. Plans must be devised and executed for the spread
of truth to all nations of the earth. Satan is lulling Christ’s professed
followers to sleep while souls are perishing all around them, and what
excuse can they give to the Master for their negligence?
The words of Christ apply to the church: “Why stand ye here all the
day idle?” Why are you not at work in some capacity in His vineyard?
Again and again He has bidden you: “Go ye also into the vineyard;
and whatsoever is right, that shall ye receive.” But this gracious call
from heaven has been disregarded by the large majority. Is it not high
time that you obey the commands of God? There is work for every
individual who names the name of Christ. A voice from heaven is
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solemnly calling you to duty. Heed this voice, and go to work at once
in any place, in any capacity. Why stand ye here all the day idle?
There is work for you to do, a work that demands your best energies.
Every precious moment of life is related to some duty which you owe
to God or to your fellow men, and yet you are idle!
A great work of saving souls remains yet to be done. Every angel
in glory is engaged in this work, while every demon of darkness is
opposing it. Christ has demonstrated to us the great value of souls
in that He came to the world with the hoarded love of eternity in His
heart, offering to make man heir to all His wealth. He unveils before
us the love of the Father for the guilty race and presents Him as just
and the justifier of him that believeth.
“Christ pleased not Himself.” He did nothing for Himself; His work
was in behalf of fallen man. Selfishness stood abashed in His presence.
He assumed our nature that He might suffer in our stead. Selfishness,
the sin of the world, has become the prevailing sin of the church. In
sacrificing Himself for the good of men, Christ strikes at the root of all
selfishness. He withheld nothing, not even His own honor and heavenly