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Gospel Workers 1915
His disciples, “Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end.” [
Matthew
28:20
.]
Ministers of the gospel, God’s messengers to their fellow-men,
should never lose sight of their mission and their responsibilities. If
they lose their connection with heaven, they are in greater danger than
others, and can exert a stronger influence for wrong. Satan watches
them continually, waiting for some weakness to develop, through
which he may make a successful attack upon them. And how he
triumphs when he succeeds! for an ambassador for Christ, off his
guard, allows the great adversary to secure many souls to himself.
The true minister will do nothing that would belittle his sacred
office. He will be circumspect in deportment, and wise in his course
of action. He will work as Christ worked; he will do as Christ did. He
will use all his powers in carrying the tidings of salvation to those who
know it not. A deep hunger for the righteousness of Christ will fill
his heart. Feeling his need, he will seek earnestly for the power that
must come to him before he can present in simplicity, truthfulness,
and humility the truth as it is in Jesus.
[18]
Examples of Human Steadfastness
God’s servants receive no honor or recognition from the world.
Stephen was stoned because he preached Christ and Him crucified.
Paul was imprisoned, beaten, stoned, and finally put to death, because
he was a faithful messenger of God to the Gentiles. The apostle John
was banished to the Isle of Patmos, “for the word of God, and for
the testimony of Jesus Christ.” [
Revelation 1:9
.] These examples of
human steadfastness in the might of divine power, are a witness to the
world of the faithfulness of God’s promises, of His abiding presence
and sustaining grace.
No hope of glorious immortality lights up the future of the enemies
of God. The great military commander conquers nations, and shakes
the armies of half the world; but he dies of disappointment, and in
exile. The philosopher who ranges in thought through the universe,
everywhere tracing the manifestations of God’s power and delighting
in their harmony, often fails to behold in these marvelous wonders the
Hand that formed them all. “Man that is in honor, and understandeth
not, is like the beasts that perish.” [
Psalm 49:20
.] But God’s heroes