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Testimonies to Southern Africa
their influence, that they might have no part or lot with you? Much
more might have been done than has been done to bind them up with
the work.... Lines of work could have been entered into that would
have called the young men of the _____ family to act a part in God’s
cause. Then they would not have drifted away into the world....
There is need of an advance movement on the part of God’s pro-
fessed people. We need to draw nigh to God, and see if there are
not jealousies and evil surmisings that are keeping the Saviour away.
Selfishness and self-sufficiency close the door of the heart against
Jesus, saying, “I want not thy way but my way.” Humble yourselves
under the hand of God, and He will lift you up. Your simple, heartfelt
confessions of hard-heartedness, worldliness, and love of display and
pleasure will be heard by God, and these sins will be seen as they
appear in the sight of a holy God. The simple prayer of faith is music
in the ears of the Lord. But you cannot have faith unless you talk faith
and live faith. Then you may expect large things. The Holy Spirit
will come upon you, and convert you, soul, body, and spirit, and you
will show to all around you that your face is turned heavenward. You
will be moved to holy endeavour. There is need of heart searching
and seeking after God. Then God will take the stony heart out of your
flesh, and give you a tender heart, which He can impress. May the
Lord help and teach and lead and guide us by His Spirit, that in life
and character we may be fashioned after the divine pattern.
I address every church member. Open the door of the heart and let
Christ into the soul. I address every labourer: Put on Christ. In this
will lie your greatest triumph. Every minister, every worker in any line
needs to put on Christ and have the mind which dwelt in Christ. There
is revealed too little deep insight into the situation and real necessities
of the Lord’s blood-bought heritage. Souls have cost too much for us
to be careless and indifferent in regard to them.
[79]
It is a sad fact that not all the men who have come from America
as workers have been a help and blessing in South Africa. They were
not living in connection with God. This has cost South Africa much.
There are those who have not exercised wisdom in dealing with human
minds, who have been too indifferent to reach out a hand warm with
sympathy and earnest, intelligent love to help the ones Satan has tried
to secure for his service. Circumstances consign every man, whatever
his position, to a practical test; and the actual results of this test are