Judging from some of the testimonies I have heard, we are just now where we can begin to study some of the things which we have been passing over. It would, of course, be very pleasant to me if we could pass along, and in the period of time that is allotted to us, go quite through, or nearly through, the book of Hebrews. But it would not be profitable simply for the sake of going over so much ground, if that were all. It would be a grand thing if we were in the condition to take hold and appropriate the matter as we go along. But what we are here for in this Conference is practical results; not for a show at study, but to get something that will be of practical benefit that we can take away with us. Now, you cannot take anything away with you that you do not take inside of you. You cannot take it in your pocket or anywhere outside, but in you. Because the Word of God is life. Who would undertake to go outdoors and gather up a quantity of sunshine so that we could have it in our rooms to-night? But you might just as well think of doing that, as to think of carrying the light of God to people in any other way than in you.
The text we had yesterday was: "I will put my trust in him." Have we learned that lesson yet? I will put my trust in whom?-In God. These are the words of Christ. He says, "I will put my trust in him." In God and in whom else?
(A voice) In Christ.
Yes, but that is the same thing. But the way it usually goes is, I will put my trust in God and -
(Voices) Self.
In God and somebody else, and usually more in man than in God, because we cannot see the Lord. Do you know that heathenism is the most easy and natural thing in the world, and we are not so far from the heathen. People want to trust in something they can see, and they cannot see the Lord, so they do not know about trusting him. They want to trust in something that they can see; so you hear people talking as though it were the height, the extreme height of trust in the Lord, when we cannot see what he is doing. What wonderful trust! Somebody wants to borrow some money of me, and I let him have it. I trust him with it, but I keep watch of him. He goes down the walk, I follow him. What are you doing?-I am trusting that man. He turns a corner; I follow him. What are you doing?-I am trusting him. He goes into a house; I go as far as I can, and watch the door. What are you doing?-I am trusting that man where I can't see him. That is no trust; it is distrust and suspicion. It is an insult to him; but no one thinks of treating a man in such a way. It is only God whom they feel free to insult, because they cannot see the Lord, and he does not resent their treatment as men would.
I say we have a good deal to learn in that text, "I will put my trust in him." What are the grounds of our putting our trust in the Lord? If you are going to trust your money to any man, you inquire something about his financial standing. You wish to know in regard to his honesty. You must have some grounds for trusting him. Now what ground have we for putting our trust in the Lord?-He is strong, he is wise, he is stronger than we are, and he knows more than we do. He is almighty and all wise. How many believe that the Lord knows more than they do? We tell the Lord that we cannot do anything without him, and then go right on doing things without him. We have taken as an article of our creed, that without the Lord we cannot do anything. We all profess to believe that without the Lord we cannot do anything, and then we go right along and begin figuring and planning without taking the Lord into the account at all. Now, how much sense is there in that?
We have a lesson of trust in the fiftieth chapter of Isaiah. To show who it is that is speaking, so we will have no difficulty on that question, read the sixth verse: "I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: I hid not my face from shame and speaking." Who is speaking?-It is Christ. Now come back to the fourth verse and onward:-
The Lord God hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary: he wakeneth morning by morning, he wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned.
The Lord God hath opened mine ear, and I was not rebellious, neither turned away back. I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: I hid not my face from shame and spitting.
For the Lord God will help me; therefore shall I not be confounded; therefore have I set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed. He is near that justifieth me; who will contend with me? let us stand together: who is mine adversary? let him come near to me. Behold, the Lord God will help me; who is he that shall condemn me? lo, they all shall wax old as a garment; the moth shall eat them up.
Who is among you that feareth the Lord, that obeyeth the voice of his servant, that walketh in darkness and hath no light? let him trust in the name of the Lord, and stay upon his God. Behold, all ye that kindle a fire, that compass yourselves about with sparks: walk in the light of your fire, and in the sparks that ye have kindled. This shall ye have of mine hand; ye shall lie down in sorrow.
The tenth verse tells when to trust, and it is the only time when we can trust in the Lord. It is when we cannot see; and how much of the Lord's way, how much of the Lord can we see any time?-Nothing. Clouds and darkness are round about him, but here we have the Lord, and we are to trust in him. The Lord hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak the right thing at the right time: "The Lord hath opened mine ear, and I was not rebellious, neither turned away back." Notice the simple statement in Psalm 40:6-9:-
Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire; mine ears hast thou opened; burnt offering and sin offering hast thou not required. Then said I, Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me, I delight to do thy will, O my God, yea, thy law is within my heart. I have preached righteousness in the great congregation: lo, I have not refrained my lips, O Lord, thou knowest.
Now turn to the book of Luke. The second chapter tells of the birth of Christ, the presentation in the temple, the return to Nazareth, of course after they had been in Egypt. "And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom." Or, literally, "becoming filled with wisdom." The child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, becoming filled with wisdom. Now in the remaining part of the chapter we have that wonderful story of the trip to Jerusalem, and of Jesus talking with the doctors in the temple. We see in the pictures always, "Jesus disputing with the doctors," which shows that people who make pictures do not always know the Bible, because we have no record of his disputing, and it would have been most unseemly in a boy of twelve. He was there to improve every opportunity he could to learn something; but, although he was not there as a teacher, yet he could teach the doctors something, and he did that in the questions he asked, and in his answers. Do you suppose, can you suppose, that in the attitude of Jesus there in the temple, when twelve years of age, there was anything out of place, out of keeping with the proper conduct of a child twelve years old to those who were aged? anything immodest, or forward, or assuming, or bold in his character?-No. Just as a little boy he wandered in where the law was being taught, because his tastes led that way. They wondered at the answers he gave them, so clear, so deep, and they wondered that the questions he asked them opened up things even to their minds. But yet there was nothing that was not perfectly in keeping with the actions of a proper child, twelve years old.
W. W. Prescott.-I was very much interested in a statement I recently saw in the "Life of Christ," which is soon to appear; it is that those doctors thought, "What a young man that would be, if we could only instruct him right." What a man we could make of him.
Now the last verse: Jesus increased in wisdom and age, or maturity, and in favor with God and man. Think a little about the wisdom of Jesus. We do not half appreciate it. You remember that he had to meet those same doctors, if not, others fully as wise, all his life. He was forced to meet them, because they put themselves on his track; they were the scribes, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the educated class of the Jews. The Jews as a people were not ignorant. The Jewish people of that day were permeated with Greek literature and philosophy, and all the wisdom of the Greeks. Greek was commonly used among them. Those doctors were the most polished and cultured of the people; they spent their lives in sharpening their wits by considering hard problems and perplexing questions.
These men set themselves to work to entrap this young man who was bold enough to go around teaching the people, without having gone through their curriculum. How many times did they do it? How many times did they catch him?-Not once. They asked him a good many hard questions, and they thought they had cornered him; but did they do it? You and I would give a good deal to be able to act as wisely as Jesus did. Every time he knew the right thing to say, and the right thing to do, and when not to say anything. Was there a person in the world who was as keen of intellect, who knew just how to meet every emergency as did Jesus? You know he was wiser than Solomon. How did he get that wisdom?-It was by the Spirit of God. The Spirit of God made him of quick understanding in the fear of the Lord. But at what time in his life did this wonderful wisdom come to him? Was it as a revelation in a vision that it came to him?-No; the child grew and increased in wisdom. Was there any wisdom in Jesus-who never made a mistake, to whom the most abstruse questions were referred,-was there any wisdom in Jesus that might not be in other people?-No; for he himself is made unto us wisdom. He was always ready. When the time came that called for wisdom, the wisdom was there. Now, how did he get that wisdom, how did it come to him?
(A voice) It was intuition.
Then he was not like us at all. We read that "it behooved him to be made in all things like unto his brethren;" that is, in every particular. We do not want to put the Lord off away from us, but he is one of us. "I have exalted one chosen out of the people." "Behold, I will raise up one from among the brethren." He was one of the people, one of the common people, just an ordinary laboring man. How did he come by his wisdom? Here is the statement given in the thirteenth verse that answers the question, "I will put my trust in him." Now what did he study that gave him this wonderful insight into men, their character, and his knowledge of men's needs, and which enabled him to know how not simply to answer questions, but how to teach the people?-He studied God's Word. "I delight to do thy law, O my God." "Yea, thy law is within my heart." There you have it. He was wholly given to the Lord, knowing that there is no other use for man in this world but to serve the Lord. That is the business of life-to please the Lord. Hearken as we read in the fiftieth chapter of Isaiah:-
The Lord God hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary; he wakeneth morning by morning, he wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned.
Then he kept learning something day by day. He increased, he studied the Word, and submitted to the Spirit; that was all. Turn to Prov.1:23: "Turn ye at my reproof." I am thankful to God for the indication of the willingness of this delegation, of this body of delegates, to comply with these words.
(Audience) Amen.
That is good. But, brethren, I am wonderfully afraid that you are not going much further than that. This is only the first part. "Turn ye." I have wondered to-day how much more we know to-day, how much more wisdom we have, than day before yesterday. What did we get yesterday?
(A voice) Something of the Lord's will.
(Another voice) Reproof.
Yes, we received many statements as to what mistakes have been made, and wrong courses that have been taken. That was the principal thing. It was seen that in many things we had been wholly wrong. Now, does a man's acknowledgment that he has made a mistake give him wisdom, so that he will not make a mistake again?- No. That is where we are now. Day before yesterday, night before last, all the committees felt that they had come to a place where they did not know what to do; where they said, "We cannot go on any further." Yesterday we had the Testimonies read that told us about the wrong, in this or in that part of the cause, wrong upon this or that line of working; and we said, "That is so, Lord; that is good." The Lord showed that he responded to that. Now what? We have had the experience, and now we are ready to go on, because we know all about it. The Testimony has told us about it; it has said we have done wrong, and we have acknowledged it, and now we can go on-go on and do what?-The same things over again; that is all. Although you have acknowledged your wrong, what warrant have any of you that you will not do the same thing again? Who in the first place went wrong intentionally?-Nobody intended to do so. Everybody thought he was doing the right thing. If you had known that you were going wrong, would you have done it?-Certainly not. You have all been honest and sincere, and wanted to do the work of the Lord in the best manner possible. And you do not want to do right now, perhaps, any more than you wanted to do right then. You are just as anxious to do right now as then, and you were just as anxious then as now. But now it is pointed out to you; you made mistakes and went wrong; and you say, "Yes." Now we acknowledge the mistakes, and go ahead, and do what?-Go ahead and make another record of mistakes, and come up again where we will have testimonies, and we will have to say again, "The thing is all wrong," and then go over it all again. What shall we do?
(A voice) Seek God for wisdom.
Well, now, we will say, "We won't do that any more. We see now that we have been following the wrong plan. There are some defects in our organization. We have not managed it all right. That has brought these things about. Now we will divide up a little differently, we will reapportion out districts, so as to avoid putting so much responsibility upon a few men. We will put the responsibility on more men, so we won't do that as before." Now, brethren, I must fear that we are deliberately planning, without intention, of course, to go ahead and make not the same mistakes as before, in the same way, but to make some worse ones in a different way. What warrant have you that you won't do that?
(A voice) Trust in the Lord, and expect that he will guide us.
That is very good, but how often we deceive ourselves. We think we are trusting in the Lord when we bow down and pray to the Lord before our committee meetings, and then get up and try to scheme and guess, to cut and try, and figure; and do not know. The Lord did not do that way. The Lord knew what he was doing. How did he know? He did not make these mistakes; and the Lord has given us these reproofs for a purpose, in order that we may not make any more mistakes. Notice: "Turn ye at my reproof." He has called attention, and everybody has turned. He said, "Halt," and we stopped. That is good. We turned to hear what he had to say. Now what is the next?- "I will pour out my Spirit unto you, I will make known my words unto you." That is the next thing. To accept this which has been given, to receive the reproof of the Lord, to accept it-that is a great deal. But what warrant has any man, after having accepted that reproof, that he won't go ahead and make the same mistakes in some other way?- No warrant whatever; not in the least.
Question.-Will not God guide us?
Answer.-If we let him; but we won't let him.
Question.-Is not the promise based upon the fact that we turn at his reproof?
Answer.-Yes, but we must allow him to fulfill that promise in us. "I will pour out my Spirit unto you." Have we had that result?-No; we have not had that yet. We get in such a hurry that we run ahead of the Lord. We play the part of Joab's servant. Where is your message?-"O, I haven't any, but let me run." And so we run, and run, in vain. Now the Lord studied the Word, and from the Word of God, Jesus got all the wisdom he ever had. How much more do you and I desire to know than he knew? In what lines was he deficient that we want to perfect ourselves in? In what lines was he deficient that we want to be proficient in? He had at least seventy men under him whose work he had to direct; so he knew something about running a conference. He had more preachers under him than any presidents of conferences that you know of. So he could give instruction in that line. Where did he get it from?- "O, he looked up the Jewish records, and saw how they did the work, and then modeled his plans upon that;"-did he? "He took the Methodist Discipline, and looked at the mission boards of other denominations, and saw how they worked, and then modeled his plans after that." Where did he get his wisdom?-Out of the Word of the Lord, didn't he? from God's Word, and that alone with the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit.
He was not rebellious, did not turn back; but when the Word came, he did not pick it to pieces to subject it to the trial of his own intellect, but he took it in, and let that enlarge his intellect. That is the way we want to take the Word-instead of subjecting the Word, God's Word, and his Spirit and teaching, to our intellect and reason, we must take it in. What good does it do us then? It will enlarge our capacity and comprehension.
Now somebody will say, "What is your plan of work? What changes shall be made in our organization?- I do not know anything about that. But here is something I do know: I know where wisdom is to be obtained. And now, whatever we may say about school work, or anything of that kind (it all comes to the same thing),- whatever we say about any other kind of work, certainly if we find any wisdom whatever in the Word, it ought to be upon how to carry on the work of the Lord. If you cannot find out how to carry on the work of the Lord, in the Bible, what can you expect to find?
Don't you suppose we can find in the Bible all we need for carrying on the work of the Lord on earth? But that is about the last place one thinks of looking, isn't it? You say, "I don't see anything in here about electing a president of a Conference. The Lord leaves that to human agents. The Lord has not gone into details; he has left man to carry out details." The attention of the Lord is not so occupied that he cannot give attention to details. That is one of the things we have been studying-the Lord in creation, in every single thing; the Lord personally caring for every part of his universe. Every detail in the universe has his personal supervision.
(A voice) Do you think that God bothers himself about all these things?
O, no; not a bit of it. God is so great that he can give attention to all these things, and not be bothered at all. That is God.
Now I will put my trust in him. The lesson to be learned, and the whole truth of the third angel's message, the gospel in a nutshell, is simply in this-that God is everything, and man is nothing.
As compared with God, we are vanity, nothing, and even less than nothing. Men of low degree are vanity, and men of high degree are a lie. Men of low degree are only vanity, but men of high degree are a lie because they profess to be something when they too are only vanity. Now, if man is nothing but ignorance, and God is everything, all wise, would it be wise to leave God out, and let man take care of the details? If God knows everything, and man does not know anything, it would be wisdom to let God give directions in everything. If he is all wisdom, what is to hinder him from going into details? If he knows it all, what is to hinder him from going to the whole length, and showing man how to do all the work?
But now I imagine that I hear some one remarking that this is discouraging. You are putting us right where we were before.
Well, it did not seem discouraging yesterday, did it? Was anything said yesterday to discourage any body?-No. The Lord does not utter a discouraging word to a single soul. No, "he shall not fail, nor be discouraged until he have set judgment in the earth." Then what is the use of our being discouraged? He does not talk discouragement to anybody. "But he says some pretty hard things."
Yes; but it is not to discourage us. When the Lord sends reproof, who brings it?
(A voice) The Holy Spirit.
What is his name, who is he?
(A voice) Comforter.
Comforter; then the reproof is the very first step in comfort. When he comes, he will convince the world of sin, and of righteousness. Good! Let us take the whole thing. Let us take whatever the Spirit has to give to us. What does the Spirit give? "The Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God." "O the depths and the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God."
The whole work is saving souls. I am not going to find any fault or criticize a single thing that exists in the work. I am content, perfectly content, that everything, every organization, be just as it is. There are certain things that we have set in operation, presumably for the purpose of assisting in the work of the Lord, in forwarding the message, in the work of saving souls. Now when we look back over what we have done, can we flatter ourselves very much with the progress we have made? Has it been a brilliant success? What we heard yesterday certainly will keep us from boasting very much. Now, having tried to work in our own way, would it not be fair to give at least a just trial to the Lord's way.
Here is a lily growing. That is the standard given for us. "Consider the lily." The lily starts out in the spring. It is going to make a considerable growth this year; but before it can think of growing at all, it will stop and lay plans for the summer's growth, and measure just exactly how much it is going to grow, and what it is going to be. It must devise and measure it all out; have a plan laid out. If it did that, it would never grow. What is the proper size and shape of a tree? How high must a tree be? how great must be its circumference? what its diameter? how high from the ground must the first branch put forth? how far apart must each branch be? how many branches must it have? and how many leaves must each branch bear? O, that depends upon the tree. And for that matter, you cannot fix it, because it does not stop growing. It keeps growing as long as it lives. Now, the Lord says that his people shall be trees of righteousness, and Christ was one of the model trees. How was it with the model tree? He kept growing and increasing in stature, and learning something, not because that is the way somebody else had done, but because God was in him.
Brethren, we have got only a little glimmer of light. The light that God has for us would dazzle our eyes if he would give it to us now, because we have accustomed ourselves to so much darkness. By and by the light will shine from heaven in such a way that people who have not been used to the light, will run and hide in holes, and who here is going to do that? If we do not get our eyes opened pretty soon, so that we can take the light a little faster than we have been taking it, it may be that some of us who are here will hide in holes when the Lord shines forth.
Question.-Are we to understand that Christ's knowledge was acquired?
Most certainly it was. There was no other way. He was not born with wisdom. But we have in the first chapter of 1Corinthians this statement: "The foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men." Where can you find anything more foolish and helpless than a little baby? In the twenty-first Psalm we read that Christ was cast upon the Lord from his mother's womb. There God manifested what he could do. The one thing we want to learn is, "I will put my trust in him." Learn to trust the Lord, for the Lord knows more about anything than we know. Whatever we know about anything in the world, the Lord knows more about it than we do.
The one thing that rests upon my mind is, Are we going to become acquainted with the Lord, and get in touch with him, so that we can know when he speaks, and talk with him day by day, so that we shall know what to do and how to do it? and if we are not, what in the world is going to hinder us from making the mistakes we have been making all these years? It does not make any difference how sorry we are for a thing. That does no good unless we go farther. That is good of itself, the right kind of sorrow that works repentance. The thing for us now to say is, Lord, we accept the reproof. Pour out thy Spirit upon us. Give to us the enlightenment of thy Spirit. I was reading yesterday a statement that it is for the people of God now to be gathering together, and seeking the Lord for the outpouring and the filling of his Holy Spirit. That is what we need for the work. And when we have the Holy Spirit's enlightenment, then we will know the Lord day by day. He will open our eyes. He will talk with us, and these things that are wrong will drop away. The work of the Lord is to build up. We do not have to set ourselves to tearing anything down, but just let the Lord fill us with the Spirit,-the spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the spirit of counsel and of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord, which will make us of quick understanding in the fear of the Lord. Then whatever we have that is right, will go right along with us; and whatever we have that is unnecessary and useless, will drop off. There is one thing, brethren, we want to do here, and that is to say, Lord we take these reproofs, and we are waiting to be filled with thy Holy Spirit; and then expect that we shall have his words made known unto us, and we will find that there is light. But then do not think that there is the place to stop. There is no stopping-place. People get a little light, and then the first thing they know they are troubled because they are expected to get some more light. They do not like to be troubled with getting accustomed to more light. They want a rule laid down, so that they will know just the thing that they are to say and teach. Well, the only rule is progression, eternal progression. The path is as the shining light which shineth more and more unto the perfect day. And when that perfect day dawns our eyes will be so accustomed to seeing the light of the Lord, that we can see the full and unveiled glory of the Lord, and our eyes will not be dimmed.