We live in an age of power-military power, political power, financial power, atomic power. The heart of the international problem is a struggle for power. In recent decades we have seen nations spring from obscurity and isolation to become world powers. The harnessing of industrial power, the aggregation of materialistic concepts-these have transformed the outlook of the whole world.
Mark Twain once said, "If I were a heathen, I would erect a statue to energy and fall down and worship it." He would not have needed to bother, for everywhere are statues of one kind or another to energy. No more fitting symbol could be chosen of this age than the symbol of energy and power. The release of energy by splitting the nuclei of atoms has uncovered a source of power beyond the comprehension of other generations. The prospect of destruction by that power is making the nations cringe in fear. Where fear is not a factor cynicism is, and only the power of God, the power released from the courts of glory, can meet the issue of our times. The apocalyptic picture of the climax of the third angel's message is "another angel ... [coming] down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory" (Rev. 18:1 ).
The loud cry of the third angel is possible because the power comes down from heaven. It is a spiritual power that springs from the throne of God. We all know it is not the mere power of organization, although it works through organization.
The record of the early church is: "With great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus: and great grace was upon them all" (Acts 4:33). The context tells how the building in which they met had been shaken with their prayers.
Fifteen centuries later, another group of men discovered the secret of power, and of them we read: "From the secret place of prayer came the power that shook the world in the Great Reformation."-The Great Controversy, p. 210. All the great leaders in God's cause through the centuries have been men of prayer.
Men of Prayer
Daniel, upon whose shoulders rested the burdens of an empire, took time from important interests to pray. Three times a day he communed with God. It was Jacob's night of wrestling that brought victory in his own life, and the nation of Israel bore the name that signified his change of heart. The subtle, self-interested Jacob emerged from that experience a God-ruled man.
The place of prayer must never be a thoroughfare, for we can never become really acquainted with God unless we take time. When we casually come and go we have no right to expect the power of God. Luther once said, "If I fail to spend two hours in prayer each morning, the devil gets the victory through the day. I have so much business, I cannot get on without spending three hours daily in prayer." Bishop Asbury, the great Methodist leader, who guided the destinies of Methodism as it made its initial impact on this country two centuries ago, said, "I propose to rise at four o'clock as often as I can and spend two hours in prayer and meditation." Robert McCheyne, recognized as perhaps the holiest and most gifted of all Scottish preachers, said, "I ought to spend the best hours in communion with God. It is my noblest and most fruitful employment and is not to be thrust into a corner. When I awake in the night, I ought to rise to pray."
David Brainerd, whose work and name have gone down in history, was a man of outstanding talents, whose ministry was suited to the most attractive pulpits, but he left the great.centers of refinement and culture and went out alone into the savage wilds of America to teach the Indians the Word of God. Much has been written about the results of this man's work, but it could all be summed up in two words: holiness and prayer. He transformed the wilderness into a blooming garden for God. His diary is full of the records of fasting, meditation, and retirement until his soul was drawn out and upward. "I have nothing to do with heart?," he said, "but only to labor honestly m It for God. I do not desire to labor for one moment for anything which earth can afford." He lacked so much of the material things we possess, but he possessed so much of the things we lack. Here was a man whose power indeed came from heaven. And nothing is more needed today than saintly, God-devoted preachers.
Robert Cecil declares, "The leading defect in Christian ministers is a want of a devotional habit." Paul's constant prayer for the Ephesians was that they might be "fill.ed with all the fulness of God." Money, culture, buildings, policies, organizations-these are not the things that move the heart Godward. But, rather, holiness that energizes the soul gives us the power we all need. When the whole man is aflame with love and completely consecrated; when Importunate prayer has seized the citadel of the soul, then we can know the secret of power.
The Coming General Conference Session
The whole world is to be lightened with the glory of God's last message, and this will be because the message represents a divine cause. When John said, "Therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not" (I John 3: 1), he was speaking of an experience higher than we know today. Every one of us feels in his deepest heart that there is need for a deeper devotion. In a few weeks the representatives of the movement from the world field will be gathered for another General Conference session. Far-reaching plans will be laid. What a wonderful organization is ours! We sometimes say with a pardonable sense of pride that there is nothing like it in all the world. And that is true. But are our delegates being chosen for this session because of their spiritual power? What should be the outstanding emphasis at this historic gathering? It is time, and far past the time, when the loud cry of the third angel should be sounding with great power in all the world. This will not be some supernatural power superimposed upon a great organization. It will be the outflowing of a divine unction from individual workers and leaders, each of whom is an uninterrupted channel for the great power that comes from the throne of God. As we near the opening of this great session, should we not be praying that there will be in every division of the world field a reaching out for God? If every delegate and everyone who attends this San Francisco meeting could, between now and then, spend a period of time every day, preferably in the early morning hourss, pleading for thee spirit of God upon this gathering, only heaven could know the result. There is no substitute for true devotion.
There can be no substitute for a preacher's character and conduct. And there never will be a substitute for heavenly power. The apostles shook the world, because God had shaken them shaken them out of their littleness, their personal ambitions, their scheming, and their criticism. Only another such revival as that will ever bring apostolic power into the work of the remnant church. Great power is the result of great devotion. When worldliness, the low things of our human nature, have been replaced by the high things of the divine nature, then the world will feel the impact of our ministry and the loud cry of the third angel will resound through the earth.
