Lessons from the Past
203
other directions regarding the work. As messages were thus passing
from one to another, the language was confounded, so that material
was called for which was not needed, and the directions received were
often the reverse of those that had been given. Confusion and dismay
followed. All work came to a standstill. There could be no further
harmony or co-operation. The builders were wholly unable to account
for the strange misunderstandings among them, and in their rage and
disappointment they reproached one another. Their confusion ended
in strife and bloodshed. Lightnings from heaven broke off the upper
portion of the tower and cast it to the ground. Men were made to feel
that there is a God who ruleth in the heavens and that He is able to
confuse and to multiply confusion in order to teach men that they are
only men.
God bears long with the perversity of men, giving them ample
opportunity for repentance; but He marks all their devices to resist the
authority of His just and holy law.
[215]
Up to this time all had spoken the same language; now those that
could understand one another’s speech united in companies; some
went one way, and some another. “From thence did the Lord scatter
them abroad upon the face of all the earth.”
Verse 9
.
In our day the Lord desires that His people shall be dispersed
throughout the earth. They are not to colonize. Jesus said: “Go ye
into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.”
Mark
16:15
. When the disciples followed their inclination to remain in large
numbers in Jerusalem, persecution was permitted to come upon them,
and they were scattered to all parts of the inhabited world.
For years messages of warning and entreaty have been coming to
our people, urging them to go forth into the Master’s great harvest
field and labor unselfishly for souls.
From testimonies written in 1895 and 1899 I copy the following
paragraphs:
“True missionary workers will not colonize. God’s people are to
be pilgrims and strangers on the earth. The investment of large sums
of money in the building up of the work in one place is not in the order
of God. Plants are to be made in many places. Schools and sanitariums
are to be established in places where there is now nothing to represent
the truth. These interests are not to be established for the purpose of
making money, but for the purpose of spreading the truth. Land should