There come times in every one’s life when he feels discouraged. No one, I suppose, is entirely free from these. And very often this discouragement leads to backsliding. An unfortunate train of circumstances comes along, until the poor soul is practically in despair.GCB April 8, 1903, page 125.13

I have been reading lately about the experience of Simeon and Levi. Because of their sins, they had a curse pronounced upon them, that they were to be scattered in Israel. Genesis 49:5-7. They were not to be allowed to have any land, as the rest of the people were to have. No doubt, they were despised, and made the subject of much unfavorable comment on the part of their brethren. But they evidently spent much of their time in seeking the Lord, while the others were backsliding. When the entire camp seemed to be leavened, Moses asked, “Who is on the Lord’s side?” and then the entire tribe of Levi, with this curse resting upon them, came out boldly, and led out in a great reformation. Exodus 32:26-28. And, although they could not get their land, yet God turned their curse into a blessing. He made them the spiritual leaders of the people, and supported them by those that did have land. Their curse became the symbol of the greatest blessing. God is no respecter of persons, and He deals with us to-day just as He did with those people then. All of us are laboring under a curse. Perhaps some soul feels that he is hindered from service because of some insurmountable obstacle. The Lord can transform the curse into a blessing, if you will consecrate yourself wholly to His service and are willing to be used anywhere and in any way.GCB April 8, 1903, page 125.14

A very large percentage of our young people are discouraged, and need some loving, sympathizing heart to help them. They need some one to go to them who can feel towards them something as a mother does toward her child, and can pour the oil of healing and the balm of Gilead into their lives and hearts.GCB April 8, 1903, page 126.1

DOES THE HOLY SPIRIT SAVE US FROM TROUBLE

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Another thing that discourages so many is the idea, when they have trouble, that the Lord has left them. Such can receive great encouragement from the case of David. In 1 Samuel 16:13 we read: “Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brethren; and the Spirit of the Lord came upon him from that day forward.” Did he simply have a good time after that? Did he never have any trouble, no discouragements, after that day?—We know very well that he did. To-day there are many thousands who have had an outpouring of the Spirit upon them, and are now praying for something they can not get. It is because they have not learned to make use of what they already have. Later on David became the leader of the people; but what a price he had to pay for this privilege! If we desire to lead an army of saved mortals into the kingdom of God, we will have to go through some such experience as David did. We must be willing to pay just such a price as he was willing to pay, and did pay.GCB April 8, 1903, page 126.2

From the narrative in 1 Samuel 22, we learn something about the character of men that gathered around David,—those who were in distress, in debt, and discontented. David had to get an experience in learning how to deal with such people. When any of you have cranky and disagreeable people to associate with, it is because God knows you have a gift for helping such people and if you do not help them, it is because you are smothering your gift. What a blessed thing it is to realize that just where we are is the very place we can do the most good! If people only knew that, what a difference it would make! People say, “If you want me to work with so and so. I will not work at all.” Oh, what they are missing in adopting such an attitude! God puts people just where they can do the most good, and if they do not profit by the opportunity He gives them to use the talent He knows they have, they get moved on, and they do not get a chance to do the great work that they wanted to do, because they refused to pass through the disagreeable experiences that would fit them for that work. God’s providences are a school. He does not want us to occupy merely a small sphere of usefulness. He wants us to exert an influence that shall extend throughout the earth.GCB April 8, 1903, page 126.3

While David labored with these men, he received the experience that fitted him to lead great armies. Are you working with some disagreeable person? As you help him, and seek to inspire him to rise above his weaknesses, you will be fitting yourself to some day to great things for God.GCB April 8, 1903, page 126.4

Think of the rebellions that broke out in David’s camp, and of the difficulties that he had; think of the sleepless nights and the agony that he must have had to go through; then, again, think how he was chased around by Saul. And yet, brethren, that man had the Spirit of God poured out upon him. And he is a type of what you and I have got to go through, and yet have the Holy Spirit. The Lord is with a man when he is in trouble. That a man is having an easy life, and everything is going smoothly with him, is no evidence that he has the Spirit of God. His trouble is coming later on, when the curse of Meroz comes upon him.GCB April 8, 1903, page 126.5

Do not be afraid to face difficulties because of the criticisms you have to go through. The man who exhibits his virtues, who does something for God and humanity, also exhibits his weaknesses. The greatest work in this world is done by men who know life at its fiercest.GCB April 8, 1903, page 126.6

If there were a great stream of water here, and there were half a dozen men drowning in it, and there were a great company of people out watching it, the half dozen men who jumped forward to pull those men out may not have the best reputation in the town, but they are the most useful men. God chooses not only good men, but willing men. God will make a man good. I knew I can not be good, but I can be willing. We can all be willing: God can make us good, but we have got to be willing.GCB April 8, 1903, page 126.7

All about us there are opportunities for us to show our willingness to help some poor, discouraged soul. You can not tell anything about the material; you can not tell what will prosper, this or that. We may possibly get discouraged in our work; but if we become discouraged and give up, we never know what we miss. The discouraged people who give up never know what they miss.GCB April 8, 1903, page 126.8

OUR OPPORTUNITIES

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One of these days the curtain will be rolled back, and this people will go forth, as an army, to step into the great opportunities now opening up. Why, the world is hungering and thirsting for this truth that we have; they are thirsting for the simple, uplifting gospel, and for the truths of physical righteousness. Think of the disease and vice that are becoming so prevalent. There is one concern in this country manufacturing from seven to nine millions of cigarettes a day. Think of the dissipation and crime. According to the Chicago “Tribune,” there are one million morphine fiends in the United States. Some of you may know what that means. The world is becoming a lazar-house of disease. Twenty-seven million cases of sickness in this country last year! If we had risen up ten or fifteen years ago, and said, each one. By the help of the Lord, I will do everything that God enables me to do to stay back this tide, who knows how many John the Baptists or Daniels we might have had to-day? If John the Baptist were to come back to the United States, he would make quite a stir here. We have been holding up Jonah as a man that shirked his duty, and he did; yet, brethren, have we a city missionary that has accomplished what Jonah did? That man gave the gospel to a city at least as large as San Francisco, in three days, and the people were not any more ready to receive the gospel in those days than are the people now. We must get a spirit of willingness, of falling into line with God’s providence, a spirit of being linked up with God, and then the fields will open up, and opportunities will appear to us, and we will be prepared to enter them, and accomplish the work the Lord would have us do.GCB April 8, 1903, page 126.9

There is the work for the army and the navy. How much has been done for them? That field is ready. I have had scores of letters from the greatest military officers, and they express a willingness to help to cooperate to get the gospel to the soldiers. It is time that we put the gospel in their hands. One of these days it will be worth while to know that we have got ourselves right before them.GCB April 8, 1903, page 126.10

And here are the great lawmakers of our country, who are putting the mold on the country. How much have we done to help them to become better men? A few years ago we did step into some of these opening providences; but we have largely lapsed back again.GCB April 8, 1903, page 127.1

And then here is the great prison work all over this country. There are one hundred thousand men languishing behind prison-bars, and Christ died for every one of them as well as for us here. Some of us may be there some day, and would we not be glad to look back then and know that we did everything possible to give the gospel to those that had been in that cell before us? These opportunities are slipping between our fingers. Shall we improve these opportunities, or shall we be virtually saying to God, “You must raise up somebody else”? It seems to me that we should fall on the Rock and be broken.GCB April 8, 1903, page 127.2

God is not simply looking for good men, but willing men. If it were good men, some of us would not be in it. I have thought, as I have seen the opportunities opening up before us, that God can not use me. But I must be like the clay in the hands of the potter, willing to be molded and fashioned, or to be made over again into another vessel. I am so glad that the Potter is working upon us, and that He can use us to give this message to the whole world in this generation!GCB April 8, 1903, page 127.3

This is the sweetest and best work. Some of you who have not entered into that thing at all, who thought that saving souls is good enough for the preachers, but as for you, you have your business, I want to tell you that the greatest business of life is, after all, the salvation of souls; and it is the life that preaches the most.GCB April 8, 1903, page 127.4

MANGLING THE GOSPEL

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Once, as I was to give a talk to the prisoners in a great prison, and saw the hardened faces and the hands that had done daring deeds, I said to myself. How can I say anything that these men will listen to? And while on my knees, the thought came to me that all of the men there who would love a bouquet of flowers would love the gospel, if I could present it as beautifully as the flower does. Christ said, “Consider the lilies, how they grow,” and ye shall grow up as the lilies. Now, if God so clothed them, He will clothe us. That thought came to me, and I tried to talk the gospel, and to hold up the gospel of that Master who said, “I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto Me.” But there is another thought. Here is a flower. I crush it in my hands. There it is; now nobody cares for it, although it is God’s flower; “you are prejudiced against it.” Have not you heard men talk in that way when you presented the gospel? Ah, it is the human mangling. My brethren, that was a blessed lesson to me. Men love flowers, but they do not love them after they are mangled in human hands.GCB April 8, 1903, page 127.5

Christ is the Desire of all nations, and every time we find men driven off instead of being drawn, we ought to think of that thing, and on our knees, in fasting and prayer, we want to ask God to help us to hold up that gospel in all its loveliness. I can not present it that way yet, but I will never rest until I can, God being my helper.GCB April 8, 1903, page 127.6

Sabbath-School and Young People’s Work

EXPERIENCES IN EUROPE: OPENING GERMAN EAST AFRICA