Alibi! — How oft we hear the familiar alibi for no fruitage that it is " such a hard field." But was there any harder field than Peter faced on that Pentecostal morning — hostile, prejudiced Jews and idolatrous Gentiles who believed Jesus was an impostor, and dead at that? What we need is Pentecostal power for Pentecostal results. Only thus will our work be finished.
Rush! — The ministry has no time to stop and think any more. All is action. Meditation is becoming a lost art. We rush through our meals, we rush through our devotions, and through our work. We even hurry through the funeral services. We are so busy getting ready for the next event on our busy program that we have little time to talk with souls, little time for personal spiritual culture. Activity is fast taking the place of communion. Beware!
Trends! — Let us watch our trends, for two opposite trends continuing along the lines of divergence, soon lead to a wide gap. There are two such trends we must watch and check as individual workers,— the lessening in the net number of souls per evangelical laborer, and a steadily increasing net cost per soul won. These trends are in the wrong direction, and the wider the divergence between these two points, the more serious the prospect. The remedy in large degree rests with the individual worker.
Superficiality! — Do we really study, or do we merely skim? Do we really know the Book? Do we really search for great underlying truths, and then relate all minor points properly thereto; or are we just hunting up proof texts? The Seventh-day Adventist should be understandingly the man, of the Book. Our pioneers were compelled to hew the foundations of their faith by diligent study of the Bible. On their knees individually, and often in little groups, they sought for truth. We are the inheritors of their findings, and the tendency is to take everything for granted. We must know for ourselves. Only thus can we have that calm, quiet assurance that can intelligently meet all assaults.
Prophecy! — Whenever we listen to or read the cocksure assertions of some preachers expounding certain of the prophecies, we find them matched by the equally dogmatic but contradictory declarations, of others. Both cannot be right. If one is right, the other must be wrong. More probably both are wrong, at least 'in part. Usually it is the man who has never made any original research into sources who is loudest and most assertive. Hadn't we better be a little less dogmatic about some things concerning which we really know very little in the ultimate? Hadn't we better adopt the true and reverent spirit of the scholar who first finds all his facts from incontrovertible sources before he draws his conclusions, and interprets all in the true historic spirit? Truth has nothing to fear. If it cannot stand investigation, it is time we found it out. Such is the declaration of the spirit of prophecy.
L. E. F.
