Chapter 20—The Publishing Work at College View
Loma Linda, California,
August 24, 1905
I approve of the efforts that have been made to establish our German and Scandinavian publishing work at College View. I hope that plans will be devised for the encouragement and strengthening of this work.
The whole burden of the work must not be left with our foreign brethren. Nor should our brethren throughout the field leave too heavy a load on the conferences near College View. The members of these conferences should lead out and do their best, and all should come to their assistance. The truth is to be proclaimed to all nations and kindreds and tongues and peoples.
Our German and Danish and Swedish brethren have no good reason for not being able to act in harmony in the publishing work. Those who believe the truth should remember that they are God’s little children, that they are under His training. Let them be thankful to God for His manifold mercies and be kind to one another. They have one God and one Saviour; and one Spirit—the Spirit of Christ—is to bring unity into their ranks.
After His resurrection, Christ ascended to heaven, and He is today presenting our needs to the Father. “I have graven thee upon the palms of My hands,” He says. Isaiah 49:16. It cost something to engrave them there. It cost untold agony. If we would humble ourselves before God, and be kind and courteous and tenderhearted and pitiful, there would be one hundred conversions to the truth where now there is only one. But, though professing to be converted, we carry around with us a bundle of self that we regard as altogether too precious to be given up. It is our privilege to lay this burden at the feet of Christ and in its place take the character and similitude of Christ. The Saviour is waiting for us to do this.
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Christ laid aside His royal robe, His kingly crown, and His high command, and stepped down, down, down, to the lowest depths of humiliation. Bearing human nature, He met all the temptations of humanity and in our behalf defeated the enemy on every point.
All this He did that He might bring men power by which they might be overcomers. “All power,” He says, “is given unto Me.” Matthew 28:18. And this He gives to all who will follow Him. They may demonstrate to the world the power that there is in the religion of Christ for the conquest of self.
“Learn of Me,” Christ says, “and ye shall find rest unto your souls.” Matthew 11:29. Why do we not learn of the Saviour every day? Why do we not live in constant communion with Him, so that in our connection with one another we can speak and act kindly and courteously? Why do we not honor the Lord by manifesting tenderness and love for one another? If we speak and act in harmony with the principles of heaven, unbelievers will be drawn to Christ by their association with us.
A Sure Foundation
“Wherefore the rather, brethren,” says the apostle Peter, “give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall: for so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.” 2 Peter 1:10, 11.
Years ago, when the company of believers in the soon coming of Christ was very small, the Sabbathkeepers at Topsham, Maine, met for worship in the large kitchen in the home of Brother Stockbridge Howland. One Sabbath morning Brother Howland was absent. We were surprised at this, because he was always so punctual. Soon he came in, his face aglow, shining with the glory of God. “Brethren,” he said, “I have found it. I have found that we can pursue a course of action regarding which the guarantee of God’s word is: ‘Ye shall never fall.’ I am going to tell you about it.”
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He then told us that he had noticed that one brother, a poor fisherman, had been feeling that he was not as highly respected as he ought to be and that Brother Howland and others thought themselves above him. This was not true, but it seemed true to him; and for several weeks he had not attended the meetings. So Brother Howland went to his house and knelt before him, saying: “My brother, forgive me. What is it that I have done?” The man took him by the arm and tried to raise him to his feet. “No,” said Brother Howland, “what have you against me?” “I have nothing against you.” “But you must have,” said Brother Howland, “because once we could speak to one another, but now you do not speak to me at all, and I want to know what is the matter.”
“Get up, Brother Howland,” he said. “No,” said Brother Howland, “I will not.” “Then I must get down,” he said, and he fell on his knees, and confessed how childish he had been and how many evil surmisings he had cherished. “And now,” he said, “I will put them all away.”
As Brother Howland told this story, his face shone with the glory of the Lord. Just as he had finished, the fisherman and his family came in, and we had an excellent meeting.
Suppose that some of us should follow the course pursued by Brother Howland. If when our brethren surmise evil, we would go to them, saying, “Forgive me if I have done anything to harm you,” we might break the spell of Satan and set our brethren free from their temptations. Do not let anything interpose between you and your brethren. If there is anything that you can do by sacrifice to clear away the rubbish of suspicion, do it. God wants us to love one another as brethren. He wants us to be pitiful and courteous. He wants us to educate ourselves to believe that our brethren love us, and to believe that Christ loves us. Love begets love.
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Do we expect to meet our brethren in heaven? If we can live with them here in peace and harmony we could live with them there. But how could we live with them in heaven if we cannot live with them here without continued contention and strife? Those who are following a course of action that separates them from their brethren and brings in discord and dissension, need a thorough conversion. Our hearts must be melted and subdued by the love of Christ. We must cherish the love that He showed in dying for us on the cross of Calvary. We need to draw closer and closer to the Saviour. We should be much in prayer, and we must learn to exercise faith. We must be more tenderhearted, more pitiful and courteous. We shall pass through this world but once. Shall we not strive to leave on those with whom we associate the impress of the character of Christ?
Our hard hearts need to be broken. We need to come together in perfect unity, and we need to realize that we are the purchase of the blood of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Let each one say: “He gave His life for me, and He wants me, as I go through this world, to reveal the love that He revealed in giving Himself for me.” Christ bore our sins in His own body on the cross, that God might be just and yet the justifier of those who believe in Him. There is life, eternal life, for all who will surrender to Christ.
I want to see the King in His beauty. I want to behold His matchless charms. I want you to behold Him, too. Christ will lead His redeemed ones beside the river of life and will explain to them all that perplexed them in this world. The mysteries of grace will unfold before them. Where their finite minds discerned only confusion and broken purposes, they will see the most perfect and beautiful harmony.
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Let us serve God with all our capabilities, with all our intelligence. Our intelligence will increase as we make use of that which we have. Our religious experience will strengthen as we bring it into the daily life. Thus we shall climb round after round of the ladder reaching to heaven, until at last we step from off the topmost round into the kingdom of God. Let us be Christians in this world. Then we shall have eternal life in the kingdom of glory.
Unity existing among the followers of Christ is an evidence that the Father has sent His Son to save sinners. It is a witness to His power; for nothing short of the miraculous power of God can bring human beings with their different temperaments together in harmonious action, their one aim being to speak the truth in love.
God’s warnings and counsels are plain and decided. As we read the Scriptures and see the power for good that there is in unity and the power for evil that there is in disunion, how can we fail to receive the word of God into our hearts? Suspicion and distrust are as evil leaven. Unity bears witness to the power of the truth.
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Chapter 21—German and Scandinavian Conferences
Loma Linda, California,
September 1, 1905
Dear Brethren,
Some of our ministers have written to me, asking if the work among the Germans and Scandinavians should not be carried forward under separate organizations. This matter has been presented to me several times. When I was in College View, the Lord gave me a straight testimony to bear, and since that time the matter has been presented to me again.
At one time I seemed to be in a council meeting where these matters were being considered. One of authority stood in the midst of those assembled and opened before them principles that should be followed in the work of God. The instruction given was that should such separation take place, it would not tend to advance the interests of the work among the various nationalities. It would not lead to the highest spiritual development. Walls would be built up that would have to be removed in the near future.
According to the light given me of God, separate organizations, instead of bringing about unity, will create discord. If our brethren will seek the Lord together in humility of mind, those who now think it necessary to organize separate German and Scandinavian conferences will see that the Lord desires them to work together as brethren.
Were those who seek to disintegrate the work of God, to carry out their purpose, some would magnify themselves to do a work that should not be done. Such an arrangement would greatly retard the cause of God. If we are to carry on the work most successfully, the talents to be found among the English and Americans should be united with the talents of those of every other nationality. And each nationality should labor earnestly for every other nationality. There is but one Lord, one faith. Our effort should be to answer Christ’s prayer for His disciples, that they should be one.
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“Sanctify them through Thy truth: Thy word is truth. As Thou hast sent Me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth.
“Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on Me through their word; that they all may be one; as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be one in Us: that the world may believe that Thou hast sent Me.” John 17:17-21.
It should be understood that perfect unity among the laborers is necessary to the successful accomplishment of the work of God. In order to preserve peace, all must seek wisdom from the Great Teacher. Let all be careful how they introduce ambitious propositions that will create dissension.
We are to be subject one to another. No man, in himself, is a complete whole. Through submission of the mind and will to the Holy Spirit we are ever to be learners of the Great Teacher.
Study the second chapter of Acts. In the early church the Spirit of God wrought mightily through those who were harmoniously united. On the Day of Pentecost they were all with one accord in one place.
We are to demonstrate to the world that men of every nationality are one in Christ Jesus. Then let us remove every barrier and come into unity in the service of the Master.
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In the erection of national barriers you present to the world a plan of human invention that God can never endorse. To those who would do this, the apostle Paul says: “Ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal? … Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man? I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase. So then neither is he that planteth anything, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase. Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one: and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labor. For we are laborers together with God: ye are God’s husbandry, ye are God’s building.” 1 Corinthians 3:3-9.
An Example of Brotherly Kindness
When our brethren in Scandinavia faced a financial crisis, the testimony was given that we must not permit our brethren to stand as bankrupt before the world. That would have been dishonoring to God. And the prompt and liberal action of our American brethren was an acknowledgment that the difference in nationality could not release them from their duty to assist one another in the work of God. “All ye are brethren.” Matthew 23:8. We are one in the unity of the truth.
We must now, by diligent, self-sacrificing effort, endeavor to walk in the love of Christ, in the unity of the Spirit, through sanctification of the truth. No halfway work will suffice to fulfill the representation given in the prayer of Christ. We are to practice the principles of heaven here below. In heaven there is one grand meeting place.
I must write plainly regarding the building up of partition walls in the work of God. Such an action has been revealed to me as a fallacy of human invention. It is not the Lord’s plan for His people to separate themselves into separate companies, because of differences in nationality and language. Did they do this, their ideas would become narrow, and their influence would be greatly lessened. God calls for a harmonious blending of a variety of talents.
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I again repeat the words of Christ. I would impress them deeply upon your minds. “Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on Me through their word; that they all may be one; as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be one in Us: that the world may believe that Thou hast sent Me. And the glory which Thou gavest Me I have given them; that they may be one, even as We are one: I in them, and Thou in Me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that Thou hast sent Me, and hast loved them, as Thou hast loved Me.”
Christ has hedged in His people from the world, but those who would build up national separation, would do a work for which the Lord Jesus Christ has given no encouragement.
Brethren, unify; draw close together, laying aside every human invention and following closely in the footsteps of Jesus, your great Example.
Testimonies for the Church, Vol. 9 pp. 189-198
