With so much help now available, is it possible that our old ministerial textbook, Gospel Workers, is being neglected? What a wealth of information and inspiration it contains!
Urgency is written large upon every page of the first section of this wonderful little book. "Not with tame, lifeless utterances is the message to be given, but with clear, decided, stirring utterances. Hundreds are waiting for the warning to escape for their lives" (page 29). The great need of a world on the brink of perdition is for "earnest, self-sacrificing men and women. . . who will. .. plead for the souls that are on the brink of ruin" (page 26). As ministers we know how much nearer we are to that brink than when these solemn words were written—but do we realize it?
As one of my earliest ministerial duties, I was privileged to assist in two of Elder Luther Warren's series of meetings in the city of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. None could fail to be impressed by his earnestness. His messages were neither "tame" nor "lifeless." They were "clear, decided, stirring utterances." He seemed to bear a tremendous burden for souls. His experience at Kingston, Jamaica, some years previous, is well known. It was on the evening of January 14, 1907, that he addressed a large audience in that city. Those in charge were annoyed at the delay as he walked back and forth pondering, while the great congregation waited. His message was with power and was most fervent. He felt the hand of God upon him as he pleaded with souls to be ready to meet their Lord. The urgency of the message arrested their attention, and the Holy Spirit brought conviction. Imagine his reaction as he experienced the earthquake the next morning, and realized that the more than six hundred killed included members of his congregation of the previous evening. He could understand then the reason for the tremendous burden he felt for those people.
Impending global disaster should lead us into more earnest endeavor for God in this judgment hour. "If our ministers realized how soon the inhabitants of the world are to be arraigned before the judgment seat of God, to answer for the deeds done in the body, how earnestly they would work together with God to present the truth!"—Evangelism, p. 17. But how can we realize as we should this solemn thought? We are so busy with so many duties. For such realization we must pray, recognizing that it is said of the true minister of God that "feeling his need, he will seek earnestly for the power that must come to him before he can present in simplicity, truthfulness, and humility the truth as it is in Jesus."—Gospel Workers, p. 17. Like Paul we cry out, "Who is sufficient for these things?" (2 Cor. 2:16). And like him, we must recognize that "our sufficiency is of God" (2 Cor. 3:5).
To the minister who receives proper heart preparation for his work, "Christ will be . . . an abiding presence, controlling thought, word, and deed."—Gospel Workers, p. 23. "As he constantly obeys the divine will, he becomes daily better fitted to speak words that will guide wandering souls to the fold of Christ."—Ibid.
Christ's true ministers have assurance of victory. "He [Christ] makes His ministers a greater blessing to the church, through the working of the Holy Spirit, than are the stars to the world."—Ibid., p. 14. Who can know the sum total of the blessings the stars bring? We do know, however, that our world is dependent upon a star—the sun—for its life-giving rays. When such God-empowered possibilities of shining service are within our reach, why should it be written: "I feel constrained to say that the labors of many of our ministers lack power" (ibid., p. 35)? How wonderful it is to know that through the Holy Spirit's working we, as ministers, like our Lord, can have an experience made up of "a series of uninterrupted victories" (ibid., p. 39). We must not relax our vigilance. We must be positive. The counsel that comes to the preachers of the third angel's message in this hour of urgency is, "In trumpet tones their voices are to be lifted, and never should they sound one wavering, uncertain note" (ibid., p. 15) . A confused world calls for the certainties of divine revelation.
