(Tuesday Forenoon, Feb. 9, 1897)
I suppose there is no one in this room who does not think but that he truly believes in the Spirit of Prophecy; that is, that the Spirit of Prophecy belongs to the church,-to this message as is manifested through Sister White, and that these things are believed, professedly believed at least, so far as the idea and the Scriptures that prove that such things are a part of this work. But that is not where the trouble lies, for we are in trouble now. If we do not know it, we are much worse off than if we were in trouble and did know it. And more than that, the cause of God, as well as you and I, are in such trouble that we are in danger day by day of incurring the wrath of God because we are where we are. The Lord tells us that more than once, and he tells us how we got there, and he tells us how to get out of it. And the only thing I know how to tell you here, is to study the Spirit of Prophecy, and get out of it what you need.
That is only one of the statements that is made. In knowing these statements, and having known them for some time, I would have been glad to stay at home and go on with the work there, because there is so much to be done and so many involved. God calls for many changes among the men who have formed committees, boards, councils, etc., and these men who compose these committees, boards, and councils are the very ones assembled here upon whom it will fall to make the changes. Now, how shall these men make the changes in which they themselves are involved, unless they themselves are changed first? The only way to have the change wrought is to have the men changed. All who will do so God will work through, and all who will not do so-what will become of them? That is why I say we are in trouble to-day. When the Lord tells us what trouble we are in, he tells us how we got there and how to get out of it. It all comes through disregarding the Testimonies. Then when we get into trouble by disregarding the Testimonies, and the Testimonies tell us just how to get out of that trouble, and we follow the testimony that leads us out, then we shall be straight on the Testimonies.
I have nothing to get off onto you, for I am in it with the rest of you. The Lord says that the cause is in trouble, and I am part of the cause; I belong with it, my life is wrapped up in it, and so is yours; it is everything to us. Then when the cause is in trouble, you and I are in trouble. It may be that you personally had no definite connection with the steps that brought the cause into trouble; yet we, being a part of the cause, and the cause itself being our life, are in trouble all the same because the cause is. But God tells us what to do to get out of it.
I do not want to give you man's counsel, but the Lord's. It may be that we shall see men's names, and if so I shall not dodge it. If a name should be left out and not read, and we know who it is, it does not follow that an attack is made upon that brother. Suppose that I commit a wrong, and the Lord tells me of it in a testimony. When that testimony comes to me, I turn my back upon the wrong, and you may use it all you want to, and it will not be against me; for I am not in it if I have turned from it by acknowledging it, and acting accordingly.
As a real matter of fact, it is a question whether anybody finds right down in his own heart a belief of the Testimonies until he gets one or two or three, and he has accepted all, and then he will be pretty well satisfied that he believes the Testimonies, and not till he has had some such experience. I will begin and end with the Word. Here is something that tells us what to do when we come to such places as this: "If the Lord is in the midst of your councils, beholding your order and love and fear, and your trembling at his word, then you are prepared to do his work unselfishly."
Here we are in council. Though we be different in character, if we are molded by the same spirit of Christ, we are one. Then the church can rise as clear as the sun at mid-day, and go forth as terrible as an army with banners.
God has been shut away from his work, from the management of his work in general, in state work, councils, in boards, in churches, etc. We have had false gods, because the people have put men, and men have allowed themselves to be put, between God and the work. God is going to work in his cause anyhow, and if you will not get out of his way and let him work his own way, the wrath of God will fall upon those who are in the way. Men keep themselves, and allow themselves to be kept, in places that they should have been out of long ago. If we will get out of his way, and let him work, he will work with a gentle hand. We do not want a whip of cords. We would better be surprised a little now, than become greatly surprised after awhile; and in love be reproved, than to go on not knowing these things, and be made to flee from the temple as they did that day, or to be altogether surprised when we cannot help it.
So if the Lord is in the midst of your councils, beholding your love and your fear, and your tremblings at his word, then you are prepared to do his work; and he will not be in partnership with any unjust transactions.
Again I read: "Man's way is to devise and scheme. God implants a principle." And where God has implanted a principle, our life and actions together are simply an expression of that principle. And if God's principle is not there, then the principle of the devil is there. "Circumstances cannot work reforms. Christianity proposes a reformation in the heart. What Christ works within will be worked out under the dictation of a converted intellect. The plan of beginning at the outside and trying to work inward, has always failed and always will fail."
I cannot apply a testimony to anybody else than myself, for it must be applied at the heart, and work from within. God will then apply it wherever I go. And it is the same with all of us in the testimony that comes to any, in any meeting or council or General Conference meeting. The president cannot apply all over the field a testimony given to him. He must accept it in his soul, and surrender to it body, soul, and spirit; and then Jesus Christ will apply the testimony everywhere he, the president, goes. It is a living thing in him, and then if he goes forward, that testimony is applied by the Lord wherever he may be. But men have tried to apply the Testimonies to other people without having the testimony a living thing in themselves. Over and over again that has been tried, and that is where the trouble is. If the testimony is not accepted by him body, soul, and spirit, so that the principle which is in it is a living thing in him, it matters not how much he may read that testimony and apply it to other people, his own influence will be against the testimony which he is applying. For if it is not lived in his life, and all that he says and does, it is destroyed by his actions. And that is what has brought about the conditions that exist now. "God's way is to give man something he has not." We are to take the thing that we have not, that God gives us, and that will make us a power in the Lord. 2 Cor.2:14: "Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savor of his knowledge by us in every place." When that principle is there, wherever we go God is talking; he is speaking. He is making known the knowledge of himself by us in every place. It may be a business transaction; that makes no difference. Everything we do will remind them of God after we are gone, so he makes manifest the savor of his knowledge by us in every place.
"God's way is to make man something that he is not;" to make me something that I am not. Then when a testimony comes to me telling me that I am not right, that testimony is to make me what I am not,-to make me right. I cannot stand where I am and apply it; but when I apply it, I shall be what I was not, and everywhere I go God can make himself manifest.
"Man's way is to get an easy place, and indulge appetite and selfish ambition. God's way is to work in power. He gives the grace if the sick man realizes that he needs it. Man is too often satisfied to treat himself according to the methods of quackery, and then vindicate the manner of his working as right." God's way is different. We are all sick men, and if we could realize it God would give the cure necessary. Man prefers quackery, and thinks his manner of work is right; but God purposes to purify the soul. John 7:38: "He that believeth on me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water." This is the kingdom of God within him. "Day by day men are revealing whether the kingdom of God is within them. If Christ rules in their hearts they are gaining strength of principle, power, ability to stand as faithful sentinels, true reformers; for there can be no reformation unless there is a thorough co-operation with Jesus Christ. Through the grace of Christ men are to use their God-given faculties to reform themselves. By this selfdenying action, which the Lord of heaven looks upon with approval, they gain victories over their own hereditary and cultivated tendencies; then, like Daniel, they make impressions upon others that will never be effaced. The influence will be carried to all parts of the earth."
This is the witness that I referred to a minute ago. When you receive a testimony and take it into your heart and life, that makes you something you were not, and then it is the kingdom of God within you, and the witness will be carried to all parts of the earth. May be you will never go out of your State. Then how can it ever be? Where you go and where I go, God is making impressions on the heart that will never be effaced, and by them making yet other impressions, and so on. One may harden himself against it, but it will go there just the same; and when that impression is made by you, he will know that it is from the Lord. The Sadducees did not believe in a resurrection, but they also said that they took knowledge of the disciples that they had been with Jesus and learned of him after his death. In their hearts they knew that he had risen. The fact was there, but they were not converted by it. That is the principle that is in the Bible. From a testimony written in 1896 I read: "Many of the men who have acted as councilors in board and council meetings need to be weeded out." Notice, it says many. There are not very many altogether, so that when many of them are weeded out, many cannot be left. "Other men should take their places, for their voice is not the voice of God. Their plans and devices are not in the order of God. The same men have been kept in office as directors of boards, until under their own management and their own ways, common fire is used in the place of sacred fire of God's own kindling. These men are no more called Israel but supplanters." Supplanters instead of Israel! In what worse trouble could we be?
Again, from a testimony written in 1894: "Changes should have been made long ago. God would have the church roll away her reproach." Here are the words: "The same men are not to compose your board year by year; changes should have been made long ago. God would have the church roll away her reproach; but as long as men who have felt fully competent to work without accepting counsel of God are kept in office year by year, this cannot be done. This state of things is leavening every branch of the work, because men do not feel their need of the guidance of the Holy Spirit."
What shall be done? Is the Lord going to have a chance to work now? Shall he be allowed to bring about the needed changes? This testimony is not to be applied by our taking hold of this work and going about abruptly to make the changes. My heart must be right before I can take part in any change. The thing to do is to surrender ourselves to God, and then let him work through us. We do not care who the men are if God is there.
We are not to begin here to look about now to see what candidates we can raise up, that we can favor and work into positions that are held now by others; for then, though they would be out of the places, we would be in the places, and the Lord would be as far off as before. The trouble is now that the Lord has been left out. Now, if we would work ourselves into their places, the Lord would be left out still, and the cause would be worse off than before. But that is not what is wanted. There is to be no politics here; but if politics is in us, it will be here, and will show itself here. If indeed a man does have politics in him, the best place for him to spend it is out in the open world, amongst those who are politicians and nothing else, for that is all he is; and if he does not spend it there he will spend it in the church, and only spread mischief and deviltry there. And of course it is better that such work as that should be open in the world than in the church. So that is not what we are here for. We are here to find God, and open our hearts that he may occupy the place from center to circumference, in every thought and word and deed; and God is not a politician; he is God. What we are to do is to seek God with all the heart, so that God shall do all that is to be done; and he will do it if we let him. Give God a chance. Those who are in the way are to get out of the way, and the rest of us are to keep out of the way. Then God can have the place that belongs to him.
Next there is cited for us here the story of Nicodemus and Christ. Nicodemus was a ruler in Israel, and it says that "Nicodemus sought an interview with Jesus at night, saying, 'Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him.' All this was true as far as it went, but what said Jesus? He 'answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.' Here was a man in high position of trust, a man who was looked up to as one who was educated in Jewish customs, one whose mind was stored with wisdom. He was indeed in possession of talents of no ordinary character. He would not go to Jesus by day, for this would make him the subject of remark; it would be too humiliating for a ruler of the Jews to acknowledge himself in sympathy with the despised Nazarene. Nicodemus thinks, I will ascertain for myself the mission and claims of this teacher, whether he is indeed the light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of Israel.
"Jesus virtually says to Nicodemus, It is not controversy that will help your case. It is not arguments that will bring light to the soul. You must have a new heart, or you cannot discern the kingdom of heaven. It is not greater evidence that will bring you into a right position, but new purposes, new springs of action: you must be born again. Until this change takes place, making all things new, the strongest evidences that could be presented would be useless. The want is in your own heart; everything must be changed, or you cannot see the kingdom of God.
"This was a very humiliating statement to Nicodemus, and with a feeling of irritation he takes up the words of Christ, saying, 'How can a man be born when he is old?' He was not spiritual-minded enough to discern the meaning of the words of Christ. But the Saviour did not meet argument with argument. Raising his hand in solemn, quiet dignity, he presses home the truth with greater assurance: 'Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth; so is every one that is born of the Spirit.' Nicodemus said unto him, 'How can these things be?'
"Some gleams of truth were penetrating the ruler's mind. Christ's words filled him with awe, and led to the inquiry, 'How can these things be?' With deep earnestness Jesus answered, 'Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things?' His words convey to Nicodemus the lesson that instead of feeling irritated over the plain words of truth, and indulging in irony, he should have a far more humble opinion of himself, because of his spiritual ignorance. Yet the words of Christ were spoken with such solemn dignity, and both look and tone expressed such love to him, that he was not offended as he realized his humiliating position. Surely one entrusted with the religious interests of the people could not be ignorant of truth so important for them to understand as the condition of entrance into the kingdom of heaven. 'Verily, verily, I say unto thee,' continued Jesus, 'We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen; and ye receive not our witness. If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you heavenly things?'
"This lesson to Nicodemus I present as highly applicable to those who are today in responsible positions as rulers in Israel, and whose voices are often heard in council giving evidence of the same spirit that Nicodemus possessed." Who will listen and let the same words have the same effect upon their hearts and lives to-day? Nicodemus was converted as a result.
These words were spoken to the presidents of conferences, elders of churches, and those occupying official positions in our institutions. You know whether you are a president of a conference. It speaks to you; it says, You must be born again. You know whether you are an elder of a church. It speaks to you; it says, You must be born again. You know whether you are occupying an official position in any of our institutions. It speaks to you; it says, You must be born again. It says, You must be converted. It does not say that you never were converted; even though we have been converted, the time is such that God calls for a more thorough conversion, a deeper consecration than ever you or I have known before. It is nothing to you or to me that we were converted five, ten, or fifteen years ago, if we are not converted now, to-day. And to-day he says if you will hear his voice, harden not your hearts. To-day, while it is called to-day, he says to you and to me, You must be born again; you must be converted; and except a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God. And there is the blessed promise, A new heart will I give unto you. Thank the Lord! Let us seek the Lord with such heart, with such earnestness as never before, that he may use us as never before; and then he will roll away the reproach from his church, and she will rise to go forth untrammeled, fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners. That is what the Lord wants of you and me today. Shall he have it?