"Down to Sleep"
Sleeping preachers are not exclusive to our generation. "And he cometh unto the disciples, and findeth them asleep" (Matt. 26:40). Peter, James, and John were asleep when they should have been praying. "But Jonah was gone down into the sides of the ship; and he lay, and was fast asleep" (Jonah 1:5). Jonah was asleep when he should have been in Nineveh preaching. "And as he lay and slept under a juniper tree" (1 Kings 19:5). Elijah slept when he should have been visiting. He was later told that there were seven thousand whose lips had not kissed Baal. Quite a visiting list! The disciples were asleep to their own deep need. Jonah was asleep to his possibilities under God. Elijah was asleep to the scope and effectiveness of the divine operation. As symbols of our own time these three cases are important to us; important enough to require individual analysis.
"I Pray the Lord"
Peter, James, and John had been honored to be taken into the inner sanctum of the Lord's council. They were close enough to witness His final agony of decision in Gethsemane. They should have been praying. Jesus knew this. He knew that one would be beheaded, another crucified, and the other exiled. Christ also knew that they were about to witness an event that they would not understand—His crucifixion—and that this could topple their faith. So much depended on their praying. Is it any wonder they all forsook Him and fled? or that one denied Him with cursing? "I beheld Jesus in the garden with His disciples. In deep sorrow He bade them watch and pray, lest they should enter into temptation. He knew that their faith was to be tried, and their hopes disappointed, and that they would need all the strength which they could obtain by close watching and fervent prayer."—Early Writings, p. 167. And so do we. Are we more concerned than were they? Is not prayerlessness the sin of this age? How often do human considerations color our decisions!
Also, as when Peter cut off the ear of the high priest's servant, so much of what we do has to be undone. We preachers 'need to pray more. For what? you ask. Jesus told the first group that they ought to pray against the hour of temptation. What! a preacher tempted? Yes, the preacher is a human being just like other people, and his opportunities for good or evil are multiplied by his position. The preacher must pray constantly for grace to resist evil. The call of the priesthood carries with it no natural immunity to sin. Position will not perfect or protect. The man himself must cling by faith to the hem of the Master's garment with the cry of Jacob on his lips: "I will not let thee go."
The preacher should pray for power. Is not this the age for which it is promised? What hinders the enjoyment of the fuller experience? Could prayerlessness be the answer? The preacher should pray for conversions, many of them. Is it not by the agency of the Holy Ghost that men come to Christ? Then let us travail for souls. There are times when we awaken in the predawn hours and sleep is difficult. Don't count sheep. Pray! We need to pray for our congregations, the sick, the needy, and the spiritually weak. Yes, "men ought always to pray, and not to faint."
"If I Die"
Jonah slept when he should have been preaching. Nineveh, to be sure, was a great and wicked city. To Jonah this was the last straw. The good man felt so inadequate that he was possessed of an unreasoning fear and fled in panic to Joppa. Humility is a virtue too few possess. It is a virtue to be cultivated, not only prayed for. The menial task is an excellent antidote to pride. To doubt oneself is one thing, but to doubt God is quite another. The first is a virtue; the latter a sin. Jonah was guilty of the latter. "Thou therefore gird up thy loins, and arise, and speak unto them all that I command thee: be not dismayed at their faces, lest I confound thee before them" (Jer. 1:17).
God has ordained that His ministers face the cities and call the inhabitants to decision. Many of these places are ripe for destruction, but the voice of God must first be heard in their streets. For this task "God in His providence is calling His people out from their limited sphere of action to enter upon greater enterprises. Unlimited effort is demanded at this time when moral darkness is covering the world."—Testimonies, vol. 3, p. 405. Satisfaction with small things disqualifies us to receive the large things of God. And we can think "big" because a great God goes with us into the future.
Poor Jonah! He was asleep to his possibilities in Christ. His assessment of himself was correct. Jonah looked at Jonah, and what he saw was not reassuring. The evangelist forgot the Biblical truism, "Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts" (Zech. 4:6). So blinded was he by personal inadequacy that he was totally oblivious to the sufficiency of grace. This is not to minimize the immensity of the problems faced. Let none underestimate the nigh-impossible challenge of the teeming cities. Restrictive codes, pleasure outlets, the lure of the dollar, and pagan philosophy constitute a literal Tower of Babel on the plains of Shinar. If these were the only considerations then I would say, "Let us all go to joppa." But there is infinitely more!
"He who called the fishermen of Galilee is still calling men to His service. And He is just as willing to manifest His power through us as through the first disciples."—The Desire of Ages, p. 297. "Angels of God, that excel in strength, are sent forth b-s. God to minister to His human workers who are speaking the truth to those who know it not."—Testimonies, vol. 8, p. 17. "Workers for Christ are never to think, much less to speak, of failure in their work. The Lord Jesus is our efficiency in all things; His Spirit is to be our inspiration. . . . We may draw upon His fulness, and receive of that grace which has no limit."—Gospel Workers, p. 19. More meaningful than ever are the words of the shipmaster: "I'Vhat meanest thou, 0 sleeper? arise, call upon thy God, if so be that God will think upon us, that we perish not" (Jonah 1:6).
"Before I Wake"
Elijah the Tishbite was asleep to the scope of the divine operation. Jezebel loomed large on the horizon as the prophet's vision faded. It was Elijah's conviction that he had finished the work and that Jezebel would cut it short. "Yet I have left me seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal, and every mouth which hath not kissed him" (1 Kings 19:18). This text is well worth remembering. There are a lot of people who are doing a lot of different things to spread the gospel. No one man or method is adequate for this hour. Even the thousands of our laymen must be pressed into service for the final push.
Nor must we, as did Elijah, forget what God can do with little. He multiplied the widow's meal, fed the multitudes with five loaves and two fish, enabled one man to slaughter thousands with a consecrated jaw-bone, and with a few men—three hundred to be exact—Sisera's legions were routed. As we measure the exploding population of the globe against the few whose task it is to reach these masses, let us never forget what God can do with a consecrated few.
Be it also remembered that there are legions of angels urging the message of
Christ upon human hearts above and beyond, and often in spite of, human effort. Of this the prophet was unaware in his blind flight. But the God of heaven opened Elijah's eyes and let him see that all of the powers of heaven are deeply interested in man's redemption. Thus the work of God progresses and will progress in the days ahead. Where the human meets the divine, revival fires are kindled. Nor can their flames be quenched except the human relaxes his hold on the divine. The tides of human affairs, like the waves of a gale-lashed sea, dash against the ship of grace. The commandments of men, like an angry wind, tear at the sail of truth. Impending persecution, like an ominous cloud, darkens the horizon. Apostate religionists lurk just beneath the choppy surface like hungry whales ready to swallow us whole. Above the shrieking wind and dashing wave sounds the challenge of the shipmaster: "What meanest thou, 0 sleeper? arise, call upon thy God, if so be that God will think upon us, that we perish not."
E. E. C.