The Holding Power

Daily Association notes.

By A.G. Daniells

This is the first of our daily meetings during the General Conference. There will be twelve or thirteen oc­casions of this kind, and we are very hopeful that these meetings will prove a real spiritual blessing to us. We are not here to discuss plans and deal with problems; we are here to study the word of God as related to the ministry of the gospel, and to seek God for that experience which we need.

One of our preachers stepped up to me out on the street a few days ago, and said, "Brother Daniells, I have come to this meeting with a feeling of very great need. I need something for this work that I do not possess. I need spiritual illumination, and spiritual power to move the hearts of men and lead them to accept Christ. I feel so deeply that somehow it seems to me if I do not get help, and just this kind of help at this meeting, I shall almost feel that I cannot go on with my work." That was his voluntary expression of need. And he is not the only one who is talking to me that way.

I am very glad, dear fellow workers, that men do sense their need so keenly that they feel they must either have help or quit; and I am not so much afraid of a man's quitting when he has reached the point where he real­izes that he must have a closer con­nection with God in order to get the help that he needs. So these daily Min­isterial Association meetings are to be intensely spiritual meetings. I do not mean by that anything extreme or radical, but I do mean, dear fellow workers, that these meetings should be strong and intense. "The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force," Jesus said; and everywhere in the Bible the min­istry of the church are exhorted to great earnestness, great zeal, and deep anxiety for the redemption of men and women.

Now as a denomination and as a band of ministers, we shall have to watch, and be on our guard, lest we follow in the trail of those who have gone before us. I am sure you do not think that the name we bear—"Sev­enth-day Adventists"—is going to pull us along up the road to the kingdom. You do not think that the doctrines we teach are going to do that, or that the theology we hold is going to do it. We know it is not. We know that one may have the clearest view of theology, and yet be in a desperate state spiritually.

I think perhaps one of the greatest shocks that came to me in my early ministry was the experience of D. M. Canright. I was just entering the min­istry when he came to our camp meet­ing in Des Moines, Iowa. He preached wonderful sermons; they were in­tensely interesting and impressive. I cannot say that they were deeply spirit­ual, because they did not make that im­pression on my heart; but they were intellectual and thrilling, dealing en­tirely with doctrinal themes, and he held his hearers spellbound. I would like to see every preacher among us today able to present our doctrinal truths in the same gripping manner as did D. M. Canright at that time. But we should profit by the great mis­takes which led to ruin in his career.

At that camp meeting Mr. Canright was pretty free to challenge anybody that didn't hold our doctrine, and one night two gentlemen came to him at the close of the meeting and intro­duced themselves as Dr. Duncan, presi­dent of Drake University, and Dr. Lucas, editor of the Christian Oracle, and they said they had come to accept the challenge on the Sabbath question. They laid down the basis on which they would debate, which Mr. Canright accepted. But when Mr. Canright told Elder George I. Butler, the president of the General Conference, and some other ministers about the matter, they felt a little hesitancy about it. In fact, they did not want the debate to take place, but Mr. Canright did. So they met and made their arrange­ments—drew up the articles, and fixed the date, two or three months ahead.

I was secretary of the conference at that time, and resided in Des Moines, so Mr. Canright carried on some corre­spondence with me about the arrange­ments, and in several of his letters he said, "I have the best line of argu­ments and facts and proofs about the law and the Sabbath that this denomi­nation has ever had, and I am going to whip Dr. Duncan to a frazzle." I was young and inexperienced, and I thought that it would be a wonderful thing to be able to drive into a corner such great men as the president of Drake University and the editor of the Chris­tian Oracle. It was in the month of August, 1886, that this correspondence with Mr. Canright was carried on, and the debate was to come off early in the spring, January or February. I was called to New Zealand in September, and early in the next year, 1887, the word came out there that Mr. Canright had given up the whole message, that he had turned away from the law and the Sabbath, the Spirit of prophecy, and the whole truth, and had joined the Baptists. That was a terrible shock to me. I could not understand it. I can understand it better now. I was mistaken about theology's being the holding power. I have learned now, dear friends, that the Lord Jesus Christ is the holding power, and unless the theology is translated into the life, there is no power in it to hold a man.

So I say again, our denominational name, our theology, our institutions, our organizations, or any of these, will not hold us firm and steady in the Christian life. The fact is, they are not holding us, and unless something else gets hold of us, we shall continue to see thousands falling away from our ranks. People have all the theology; they have been brought into the or­ganization, yet thousands have dropped away every year. O brethren, we have got to get something beyond all that that I have mentioned.

Now I say again, we will have to watch, and we will have to take a cer­tain course, if we are saved from the spiritual declension and departure from truth which has been apparent in re­ligious movements of the past. Israel went astray; the church after apostolic days went astray; the Reformation churches have gone. It makes us sad to think that these bodies have de­parted from the devotion, the loyalty, the consecration, and the faithfulness manifested in the early days. I thought today I would like to give you just a brief review of how men connected with these other bodies have failed, and the warnings they hold out.

One minister writes thus in "The World's Greatest Things," p. 18: "This age is spiritually decrepit; it is halt­ing, languid, and feeble in spiritual things," and then he admonishes his own church to take heed lest they partake of the spirit of the world.

Another minister has this to say: "The greatest danger confronting the churches of Christ today is the pos­sible decadence of the pulpit. Let the pulpit decay, and the cause of Christ goes into an eclipse. No power under heaven is equal to the power of a Spirit-filled ministry."—Id., p. 33. Do you think that is right? [Voices: Amen! What is there in the church in this whole work of God, what is there so powerful to hold the church and lift the church and develop the church, as the ministry? Let the ministry lose its spirituality, its vision, its devotion, its consecration, its power, and what will come to the truth? What will come to the people?—Just that exactly.

Then I was made sad some little time ago by reading a statement made by the editor of the Methodist Times, in London, England, a man of very high position in the Methodist Church. And the Methodist Church is a very great church numerically, financially, and influentially. We know that; we know something about its origin; we know something about the men who raised up that body of people,—John Wesley, Charles Wesley, George White-field, and a host of other mighty men of God through whom there was wrought a mighty miracle of grace in old England. This is what the editor of the Methodist Times says:

"The Methodist churches have largely ceased to function as soul-saving institutions. The cry of the penitent is seldom heard within their walls. Conversions do not take place. The spiritual miracle has ceased to happen. What is worse, there is no expectation that it ever will happen. Sermons either are not made to con­vince men of sin, or if so made, fail in their purpose. The plain truth is that Methodism has settled down into a church organization, and is no longer a great evangelistic movement, com­pelling world-wide attention. The glow has gone."

Now that comes from a Methodist preacher in very high position. He is supposed to tell the truth, and he does. What is the matter, and where is the secret of that decadence? what is the secret of the loss of the glow of Meth­odism as it shone under the pioneers? The secret of it lies in the ministry of the Methodist Church. If the same fire and the same consecration, the same kind of men had continued down through the years, the church today would be as it was back in pioneer days. And who knows but that God would have led them on to develop into the movement which we represent today? Why did God turn and choose us?—Because of their decadence. Brethren, we must take it to heart, that if the Lord saves us and takes us through, we shall have to be on our guard and stand right with Him.

Here is a statement from a preacher up here in the State of Washington, written some time ago: "The world's greatest need is spirituality. If we had this, it would cover all the essen­tial needs in one's life. A true per­spective of life through spirituality would save us today." He is talking about his church. And what does he consider the great need of the church in which he ministers?—Spirituality, spiritual life, that life that comes from God through the divine Spirit. That is the way he writes. And so we see what these men in other bodies are looking for, what they are desiring.

I feel, brethren, that we have reached a treacherous time in our history, and that we should all take this to heart, and lay hold of God for this deep spirit­ual life, so as to prevent that falling away, prevent decadence and departure and loss among us. The great purpose of these meetings is to deepen our spiritual life, to bring greater spiritual illumination to our minds, to lead us up into the mount with God, where we shall see light in His light, where we shall see things as they appear to Him.

We cannot trust ourselves, for we are not trustworthy. We are danger­ous men and women, all of us. Every human being is a dangerous character from the religious standpoint, the standpoint of the Christian. No man can be trusted; he cannot trust him­self. We cannot trust men. The only one we can trust and be sure of, is God. Our greatest need is the presence and indwelling of that living Christ in our hearts. He will hold us. He will make our minds clear. He will lead us on into greater light, greater illu­mination, a truer apprehension of His purposes and His plans for us, and He will keep us and hold us firm.

An Efficient Ministry

This all means greater efficiency in our work as ministers. The Bible clearly teaches that every minister of the gospel should be an efficient min­ister. The word especially given in the Bible is "sufficient." In Paul's second letter to the Corinthians we read: "But thanks be unto God, who always leadeth us in triumph in Christ." 2 Cor. 2:14. That is God's purpose, that is His plan for us,—that He shall lead His church through His ministry in continual triumph. It is not God's purpose or any part of His program that we shall lose ground or suffer defeat or suffer any kind of fail­ure whatever. He wants to lead us on continually upward and onward in tri­umph.

As we review the history of our denomination, do we not all most de­voutly wish that from the pioneer days this people had gone on steadily up­ward toward God, onward into life and into consecration and holiness and power? That was His purpose con­cerning us. 0 that God would help us to call a halt right now at this General Conference,—a halt toward weakness and decadence of spiritual power, and turn us about, and start us up the road, toward Him, and impart to our ministry and throughout the church a zeal and triumphant life which shall grow stronger every day!

Paul gloried in the fact that it is God's purpose and His ability to lead us in continual triumph in Christ. "We are a sweet savor of Christ unto God, in them that are saved, and in them that perish; to the one a savor from death unto death; to the other a savor from life unto life." Verses 15, 16. Then he cries out, "Who is sufficient for these things?" Verses 16. What things?—The things of the minister of Jesus Christ. Brethren, let us join Paul in that cry today, "Who is suffi­cient for these things?" If we come to feel that we must have relief, we must have a new life from God, a new experience in God, a new fire put within our heart, or else we must give up our work in the ministry, then we shall turn to the Lord, and shall get the ex­perience which our hearts long for.

In the fifth verse of the next chapter Paul says, "Not that we are sufficient of ourselves." That is the first answer he gives,—we are not sufficient of our­selves. Then he goes on to say, "But our sufficiency is from God; who also made us sufficient as ministers of a new covenant." He was not disheart­ened nor deterred from his forward move by the fact that he himself was not sufficient for this great work. He turns and says that though we are not sufficient, yet we have the suffi­ciency that is needed. It is from God, who has "made us sufficient ministers of a new covenant." I like that, breth­ren. God is able to make the inefficient thoroughly efficient. He is able, and willing, and glad to do it.

But there are some things required of us. While our sufficiency comes from God, through His blessing, His strength, His help, yet He requires something from us. He requires a re­ceptive attitude toward that which will build us up in efficiency. We must have responsiveness to His call and to His ways. There are a few elements entering into this "sufficiency"—or "efficiency," which is the more modern term, both of which mean ability—to which I wish to call special attention, because I think it is absolutely essential that we understand the ground of upbuilding, of becoming 100 percent efficient:

1. Spirituality. Acts 1:4, 5.

2. Sincerity. 2 Cor. 2:17-3:6.

3. Earnestness. Col. 1:27-29.

4. Studiousness. 2 Tim. 2:15.

5. Sympathy. 1 Thess. 2:7-12.

6. Power. Luke 24:49.

These are not all the ingredients of efficiency, but they are fundamentals. I will not say that I have arranged them in order according to their place, but I know the first is spirituality. How can any one be an efficient min­ister who is not spiritual? Do you think, brethren, that any man can be a thorough, genuinely efficient minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and not be a spiritual man? It is impossible. Well, then, the measure of one's effi­ciency, from that standpoint, must be the measure of his spirituality, must it not? And what is our spirituality? I should be glad if we had the time now to read the scriptures telling what spirituality is and what a spiritual minister is. We have it clearly out­lined in the word of God, and it is worth our study. I think that every preacher ought to take up that question of personal spirituality,—his standing with God from a spiritual standpoint, —and read the Bible. For that is the minister's textbook on what a spiritual minister is.

A man who goes into business stud­ies that business; he studies every im­portant point of salesmanship, and ad­justs himself to it. I think when a man enters the ministry he should study the spirituality of the gospel. He should study the spirituality that is required of the man who purposes to preach the gospel, and then he should square himself with that re­quirement.

Can you imagine a man 100 per cent efficient who is not deeply earnest in his work, in his mission, in his call, so with Paul he can truly say, "This one thing I do"? There are many things clamoring for a share of our time and thought, but if I understand it aright, everything that does not con­tribute to dead earnestness in this great soul-winning work must stand aside. I believe this cause needs a ministry of mighty earnestness, a min­istry that carries a heavy burden of heart to win men and women and save their- souls from death. Let us read this scripture where Paul tells about this great mystery of godliness, "Christ in you, the hope of glory: whom we proclaim, admonishing every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ; whereunto I labor also, striving according to His working, which worketh in me mightily." I think that is the standard for the gos­pel minister today. I believe, brethren, that this hour demands a ministry every whit as earnest as was that of the apostle Paul back there. Let us pray God to fill us with a fire and an earnestness that will push everything else aside, and keep us doing "this one thing."

I believe that there must come into the hearts of ministers a greater sym­pathy. We must have a greater sym­pathy for our dear people, and a greater love for one another. Oh, how much harm has been done by a lack of sympathy! I with you would bow my head in the presence of God, and crave and pray for this warm, sympa­thetic heart. This is a hard old world, and we are weak. The devil is after us on every side. I am coming to think the church should be a more sympa­thetic body than it is, but ministers especially should be sympathetic. Our brethren and sisters are toiling in the sweat, trying to get on, to save up their money, and bring it in. Sometimes they don't bring as much as we would like. I think that in all our drives and our efforts for money, our cam­paigns, we ought to talk very sweetly and very kindly to our brethren. We shouldn't scold them and be harsh. Sometimes lately I have felt a bit pained as I have heard the brethren talk. The church needs our sympathy. The people are some of them struggling their level best; they need encourage­ment.

And 0, we need to go into homes, and get down with our brethren and sisters, and pray with them and encourage them. The other day I felt greatly rebuked about this. This revival work I have tried to do has opened my eyes to a lot of things that I didn't quite understand before. A brother_ asked me to go to see an old couple. The re­quest came at the close of a strenuous meeting, the weather was hot, and I was tired. I reluctantly consented to go, and as the brother said it was just a little ways, we started walking, but as we walked on and on, it seemed a long ways to me, and I didn't like to have him drag me off like that when I was tired.

Well, when we reached the place we found a dear old couple who had been in this message half a century, but they were getting a bit blind and couldn't get out to meetings very much. Now feeling as I did, I was not in a very good condition for comforting those dear old people, and I don't think I did them much good. When I came to leave, I overlooked my Bible and left it there, and did not discover the fact until I got home. I could not go back after it that night, but early the next morning we went back to get it.

When I knocked at the door, the old sister met me, and she said, "0 Brother Daniells, you left your Bible, didn't you?" "Yes," I said, "that is what I have come after." "Well, just let me call father in for a few minutes." So "father" came in, and we sat down and I talked with them. I just let time go, and talked with those old peo­ple about the message, and the hope, and the coming of the Lord, and then I said, "Now I would like to pray with you." So we knelt down and prayed, and when we got up, the poor old peo­ple were crying. The wife said, "Well, father, aren't we glad Brother Daniells left his Bible! We never would have had this good visit, and this prayer for us, if he hadn't left his Bible."

I tell you, brethren, it smote my heart. I began to see I must be more loving and more sympathetic and more thoughtful of God's dear people. We read those words of that stern apostle, how he was like a father with the chil­dren and like a nurse with the sick. That was the way he dealt with the church, and that is an example for us.


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By A.G. Daniells

October 1930

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