Issue: 2021 June

Keys – Like the Leaves of Autumn

by

One day I had several errands to run in town. It was a sunny, warm day for early November. Because the weather had been consistently warmer than the normal average for that time of year, the trees still held most of their leaves and the grass was still green and required mowing from time to time.

As I left the house, I noticed that a few leaves had fallen from the big tree in the front yard. I wondered how soon they would all fall and I would have to do something to get them chopped up or raked up. I left at mid-morning and didn’t return until mid-afternoon.

When I arrived home and turned into the driveway, the sight that welcomed me was absolutely overwhelming. Like an instrument in an orchestra directed by the conductor, “all together now,” the big tree had dropped hundreds of leaves in the yard. In spots the leaves were deep enough to be over the tops of my shoes and it still had plenty of leaves yet to drop.

The phrase “like leaves of autumn” comes to mind when I think of this day. Jesus said that we are to “teach the gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15). This is accomplished through Bible studies, witnessing, handing out literature, cooking schools, but mostly by how we live our lives.

But the Spirit of Prophecy also tells us of another way in which we can share the gospel. “This is a work that should be done. The end is near. Already much time has been lost, when these books should have been in circulation. Sell them far and near. Scatter them like the leaves of autumn. This work is to continue without the forbiddings of any one. Souls are perishing out of Christ. Let them be warned of His soon appearing in the clouds of heaven.” The Review and Herald, August 13, 1908. [Emphasis supplied.]

Imagine, Bibles, The Desire of Ages, Steps to Christ, The Great Controversy, The Ministry of Healing all blanketing the world like the leaves in my front yard.

Inspiration – Separated from the World

by

“I pray not that Thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that Thou shouldest keep them from the evil.”

John 17:15

 Many professed Christians are well represented by the vine that is trailing upon the ground and entwining its tendrils about the roots and rubbish that lie in its path. To all such the message comes, “Come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord” (2 Corinthians 6:17). Your tendrils must be severed from everything earthly. … It is impossible for you to unite with those who are corrupt, and still remain pure.

O that the young might realize that they may be as precious plants in the Lord’s garden. … Let the delicate tendrils of the affections twine about Jesus, to receive nourishment from Him; and instead of creeping upon the earth, turn the face toward the Sun of Righteousness, that you may catch divine rays of light. Day by day grow up into His likeness, and become a partaker of His divine nature, that you may at last be found perfect in the paradise of God. …

Rivet the soul to the eternal Rock; for in Christ alone there will be safety.

A union with Christ by living faith is enduring; every other union must perish. … But this union costs us something. … There must be a painful work of detachment, as well as a work of attachment. Pride, selfishness, vanity, worldliness—sin in all its forms—must be overcome, if we would enter into a union with Christ. The reason why many find the Christian life so deplorably hard, why they are so fickle, so variable, is, they try to attach themselves to Christ without detaching themselves from these cherished idols.

Will we accept the condition laid down in His word—separation from the world? … Our consecration to God must be a living principle, interwoven with the life, and leading to self-denial and self-sacrifice. It must underlie all our thoughts, and be the spring of every action. This will elevate us above the world, and separate us from its polluting influence.

The Faith I Live By, 221.

Story – A Little Factory Girl Who Became a Poet

by

Lucy Larcom was one of a large family of children. She lived in an old-fashioned house in Massachusetts. In those days, people knew nothing about electric light. They did not even have kerosene lamps, or stoves such as we have. The house where Lucy lived was lighted by a tallow candle.

Lucy’s mother had rosy cheeks and happy blue eyes. She pinned her dark curly hair back under a white lace cap. The father had a pale, noble face. Every evening before the children went to bed, they all gathered around the bright, warm fireplace. The father read from the big family Bible. Then he prayed. Lucy lived to be an old lady, but she never forgot her good father and her Christian home.

When Lucy was seven years old, her father died. Then it was necessary for the children to help earn a living. So the family moved to Lowell, Massachusetts, where the older children might work in the cotton mill. Lucy’s mother boarded a whole houseful of happy girls from the mill.

Lucy was too young to work in the mill, so she went to school. She loved books and school. When she was only three years old, she could read in the New Testament. Her Aunt Hannah was the teacher. Aunt Hannah was like all the other teachers in those days. She thought the best way to teach children was with a stick. She rapped them on their knuckles with a stick if they missed their lessons.

One day, when little Lucy came home, she said, “Aunt Hannah punished the scholars with the pudding stick.” At this the whole family burst out laughing. The stick Aunt Hannah used in school looked to Lucy like the stick they stirred the pudding with at home, and she thought Aunt Hannah had taken it to school to use.

When Lucy was only three or four years old, she began to memorize hymns. She said she was going to learn all there were in the hymn book! But when she found out that there were a thousand, she thought that would be too many.

“I’ll give you a nice book, Lucy,” said her sister Emilie, “if you learn fifty hymns. And if you will learn one hundred, I will teach you to write, besides.”

Lucy wanted the book, and she wanted to learn to write. So she began to memorize hymns. When she was five years old, she had learned between one and two hundred. Then Emilie gave her a book of poems, and taught her to write.

Before Lucy was seven years old, she had read “Pilgrim’s Progress,” and at least a dozen other books that people nowadays think interest only grown-ups.

“Let’s write some poetry, Lucy, just for fun,” said her brother John one day.

“What fun that would be!” said Lucy.

They both began to write. John soon got tired of that kind of fun, but Lucy wrote two stanzas:

“One summer day,” said little Jane,

“We were walking down a shady lane,

When suddenly the wind blew high,

And the red lightning flashed in the sky.

 

“The peals of thunder, how they rolled!

And I felt myself a little cooled;

For I before had been quite warm;

But now around me was a storm.”

John was delighted. He thought his sister Lucy was a wonderful little girl. He was so proud of her that he read her verses to the family and to all the neighbors.

When Lucy was thirteen, she had to stop going to school, and begin to work in the cotton mill with the other girls. These girls were bright and interesting. They decided to publish a magazine. They named it The Lowell Offering. They tried hard to write interesting stories for their magazine, so every one would like to read it.

Lucy wondered if she could write some poetry that would be good enough to print in the magazine. She decided to try. She thought hard. She wrote. She corrected. Then she tried again. She had never been so happy in all her life as she was when she saw one of her own poems in the magazine.

After that, Lucy often wrote poems that were printed in The Lowell Offering. They were the best things in the magazine. Everyone liked to read them. The great poet, John G. Whittier, was delighted with them. He asked who wrote them. He said she would one day be a great poet. And she was. She wrote so many beautiful poems that someone said her whole life was a poem. People enjoyed her poems so much that they soon forgot she was once only a poor factory girl.

True Education Reader, Fourth Grade, Pacific Press Publishing Association, © 1931, 116–121.

If I Were a Sunbeam

If I were a sunbeam,

I know what I’d do;

I would seek white lilies

Rainy woodlands through;

I would steal among them

Softest light I’d shed,

Until every lily

Raised its drooping head.

 

If I were a sunbeam,

I know where I’d go:

Into lowliest hovels,

Dark with want and woe:

Till sad hearts looked upward,

I would shine and shine;

Then they’d think of heaven,

Their sweet home and mine.

 

Art thou not a sunbeam,

Child whose life is glad

With an inner radiance

Sunshine never had?

Oh, as God has blessed thee,

Scatter rays divine!

For there is no sunbeam

But must die, or shine.

—Lucy Larcom

This World Is Not My Home

by

As long as there are people in this world willing to do evil, there will be chaos, deceit, hate, anger, sorrow, death, oppression, destruction, cruelty in all forms. And without the power of the Holy Spirit working continuously in our lives, we could be one of those people at any time.

We see so many things happening in the world today:

  • Disease, selfishness, political unrest, gradual eroding of constitutionally-guaranteed freedoms, including freedom of religion and speech.
  • Dissatisfaction, inequality, oppression, depression and abuse abound with so many voices straining to be heard, but not one ear on this earth to hear.
  • The careless disregard of life of any kind, to the point that life is little more than an inconvenience.
  • People reaching a breaking point, engaging in and displaying dangerous and destructive behavior toward themselves and others.

For a description of these people, let’s look at Romans 6:16: “Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey … ?” They believe they are free, but in reality, they are held tightly in bondage to their master.

“Satan often finds a powerful agency for evil in the power which one human mind is capable of exerting on another human mind. This influence is so seductive that the person who is being molded by it is often unconscious of its power. God has bidden me speak warning against this evil, that His servants may not come under the deceptive power of Satan. The enemy is a master worker, and if God’s people are not constantly led by the Spirit of God, they will be snared and taken. For thousands of years Satan has been experimenting upon the properties of the human mind, and he has learned to know it well. By his subtle workings in these last days, he is linking the human mind with his own, imbuing it with his thoughts; and he is doing this work in so deceptive a manner that those who accept his guidance know not that they are being led by him at his will. The great deceiver hopes so to confuse the minds of men and women, that none but his voice will be heard.” Our High Calling, 110.

Doesn’t this sound frighteningly familiar? So many voices declaring this is the truth, no this is a lie, this is the way it happened, this is the person you should listen to, these are the facts. On and on until they make true the words found in Romans 1:22, 25, “Professing to be wise, they became fools … who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator.” And as a result God will give them up to live their lives as they choose. Oh, the baleful results as described in verses 26–32. Shouts demanding acceptance of and tolerance for the great many sins that have filled this world reverberate everywhere you turn. But this shouting will one day be turned against the people of God who cannot be faithful to Him and accept or tolerate sin. However, we are instructed: “Although we should hate the sin, we should love the souls of those for whom Christ died. And then we should feel most grateful to God that we have One who is pleading in the heavens above in our behalf.

“Jesus knows the worth of every soul because it is He who paid the price for everyone. When He was in His agony at the crucifixion, He prayed there for His enemies and He said, ‘Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do’ (Luke 23:34).” Christ Triumphant, 75.

There is a conspiracy afoot in this world, one 6,000 years in the making. It’s a successful one, too, in part because it is the natural outworking of what troubles this world, but also because the main protagonist is so accomplished at it and his followers so willing to do what he dictates. They think they are strong and in control, but are in fact, held so tightly in the grip of their master, that they do not realize what they are doing. They believe they are making a difference, but oh, what kind of difference!

Let’s look at the master to whom these individuals, and possibly even ourselves, have bound themselves. “I was shown Satan … the expression of his countenance is full of anxiety, care, unhappiness, malice, hate, mischief, deceit, and every evil [everything we see in the world today]. … I saw that he had so long bent himself to evil that every good quality was debased, and every evil trait was developed.” The Story of Redemption, 45.

Is it any wonder the people of the world who serve Satan, some in ignorance, exhibit these same traits?

Friends, we must remember that this world is not our home. We are only sojourners here, passing through this place to a better home. It is easy to become entangled in the troubles and efforts of the world, but we must always remember that the problems of the world are a result of sin and there is only one remedy for sin, Jesus Christ. We must keep our eyes upon Him if we wish to see Him one day as a loving Father and not an avenging Judge.

Mrs. White says of those who choose to know the truth and follow God, “When we are clothed with the righteousness of Christ, we shall have no relish for sin; for Christ will be working with us. We may make mistakes, but we will hate the sin that caused the suffering of the Son of God.” The Faith I Live By, 118.

“The gospel of Christ is to be wrought into our everyday experience. The mind must be in a state to appreciate the divine claims of the gospel. It must be girded about, and disciplined to habits of self-control and obedience. …

“The teachings of the living oracles cast down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. Satan has great power over the soul, to drag it down to a low level. Those who really want to learn of Christ will have to empty the soul of all its proud imaginings, that there may be room to enthrone Him there.

“The controversy between Christ and Satan is not yet ended. The latter is constantly seeking to establish his own power and authority. If he can entangle minds, he will do it. … The deceptions of Satan are manifold, but the Lord will be our helper if we seek Him earnestly.” Our High Calling, 110.

Our responsibility now is to allow the Holy Spirit to develop the character necessary to be worthy of a place with Jesus for eternity and to share the gift of salvation with everyone we can. There was a time when people at least knew about God and the sacrifice Jesus made to save them. But these days it seems that there are so few who have any concept of spiritual things in general, let alone what Jesus did for them on Calvary and what is truly available to them. There is a world to warn.

All my life I’ve heard that Jesus is coming soon and for just as long I had thought it probably would not happen in my lifetime. Look how many people have believed this same thing and they are long gone. Mrs. White talked about how bad things were during her lifetime, that surely Jesus must be coming soon. But friends, He is coming now. I can hardly believe that He will wait much longer. He is waiting for the message of salvation to be given to all the world so that everyone has a chance to choose to be His child. How will they know, if we don’t tell them?

Our efforts while on this earth are to show those held captive in Satan’s thrall that there is a God in heaven and that He loves them. By our words we can tell them, by our lives we must show them. “… many of the world … will see Christ revealed in your daily life. You will be a living epistle, known and read of all men.” Lift Him Up, 213. Satan seeks only to destroy, but Christ offers life abundantly (John 10:10).

“His heart of divine love and sympathy is drawn out most of all for the one who is the most hopelessly entangled in the snares of the enemy. With His own blood He has signed the emancipation papers of the race.

“Jesus does not desire those who have been purchased at such a cost to become the sport of the enemy’s temptations. He does not desire us to be overcome and perish. He who curbed the lions in their den and walked with His faithful witnesses amid the fiery flames is just as ready to work in our behalf, to subdue every evil in our nature. … He turns no weeping, contrite one away.” My Life Today, 317.

It is true that one day, not far off, those voices demanding acceptance and tolerance will be turned against God’s people shouting intolerance because they will not bear to hear the truth. But until then, we are encouraged by God’s loving voice saying, “Do not be conformed to this world; but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God” (Romans 12:2).

 “As I realize how much has been done for us to keep us right, I am led to exclaim, Oh, what love, what wondrous love, hath the Son of God for us poor sinners! Should we be stupid and careless while everything is being done for our salvation that can be done? All heaven is interested for us. We should be alive and awake to honor, glorify, and adore the high and lofty One. Our hearts should flow out in love and gratitude to Him who has been so full of love and compassion to us. With our lives we should honor Him, and with pure and holy conversation show that we are born from above, that this world is not our home, but that we are pilgrims and strangers here, traveling to a better country.” Early Writings, 113.

How are we to let our hearts flow out in love and gratitude to Him and how do we honor Him with our lives? “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15). Some will listen, some will not. Of these, verse 16 says, “He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned.”

“If you have accepted Christ as a personal Saviour, you are to forget yourself, and try to help others. Talk of the love of Christ, tell of His goodness. Do every duty that presents itself. Carry the burden of souls upon your heart, and by every means in your power seek to save the lost. As you receive the Spirit of Christ—the Spirit of unselfish love and labor for others—you will grow and bring forth fruit. The graces of the Spirit will ripen in your character. Your faith will increase, your convictions deepen, your love be made perfect. More and more you will reflect the likeness of Christ in all that is pure, noble, and lovely.” Christ’s Object Lessons, 67, 68.

“We need to contemplate Christ and become assimilated to His image through the transforming power of the Holy Spirit. This is our only safeguard against being entangled in Satan’s delusive snares.” The General Conference Bulletin, April 23, 1901.

“We must keep separate from the world, if we would have the love of God abide with us. As soon as we begin to be conformed to this world, just so soon God’s Spirit begins to depart from us. But if we keep humble, live holy, harmless and separate from sinners, we shall see of the salvation of God. Let us strive to be Christians (Christ-like) in every sense of the word, and let our dress, conversation and actions preach that Christ is formed within, the hope of glory, and that we are looking for that blessed hope and glorious appearing of Jesus. Let us show to those around us, that this world is not our home, that we are pilgrims and strangers here. …

“Let those who break God’s law and teach others to do so, denounce us as fallen from grace because we keep all ten of His immutable precepts, it will not harm us. We have the satisfaction of knowing, that while they curse, Jesus has pronounced a blessing. Says the true Witness, the only Begotten of the Father, ‘Blessed are they that do His [the Father’s] commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the City’ (Revelation 22:14).

“Think ye that the commandment-keepers will be sorry, and mourn when the pearly gates of the Golden City of God are swung back upon their glittering hinges, and they are welcomed in? No, never. They will then rejoice, that they are not under the bondage of the law, but that they have kept God’s law, and therefore are free from it. They will have right to the tree of life, a right to its healing leaves. They will hear the lovely voice of Jesus, richer than any music that ever fell on mortal ear, saying, There will be no more sorrow, pain or death; sighing and crying have fled away.” The Review and Herald, June 10, 1852.

“Christ is waiting with longing desire for the manifestation of Himself in His church. When the character of Christ shall be perfectly reproduced in His people, then He will come to claim them as His own.

“It is the privilege of every Christian not only to look for but to hasten the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, (2 Peter 3:12, margin). Were all who profess His name bearing fruit to His glory, how quickly the whole world would be sown with the seed of the gospel. Quickly the last great harvest would be ripened, and Christ would come to gather the precious grain.” Christ’s Object Lessons, 69.

“Our eyes shall then, with rapture,

The Saviour’s face behold,

Our feet, no more diverted,

Shall walk the streets of gold;

Our ears shall hear with transport

The hosts celestial sing,

Our tongues shall chant the glory

Of our Immortal King.”

Ellen G. White, The Review and Herald, June 10, 1852

(Unless appearing in quoted references or otherwise identified, Bible texts are from the New King James Version.)

Judy Rebarchek is a member of the LandMarks team. She can be contacted at: judyrebarchek@stepstolife.org

The Law of the Harvest

by

The flood had done its work and the earth had been devastated. The ark had rested upon the mountain and Noah and his family stepped out to see the devastated wilderness before them wondering what lay ahead. The Lord spoke to them in Genesis 8:21 and 22 NKJV saying, “The Lord smelled a soothing aroma. Then the Lord said in His heart, ‘I will never again curse the ground for man’s sake, although the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth; nor will I again destroy every living thing, as I have done. While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, winter and summer, and day and night shall not cease.’ ”

The first principle of the law of the harvest is the principle of faith. Imagine how much faith it took for Noah to believe what God said. Every living thing, man and beast, had gone out of the ark, but there was still something very precious remaining in the ark: seed. What would they do with that seed? If they decided to eat it, they would survive for a while. If they planted it and it did not grow, the human race would come to its end right at that point. Would they believe God and bury that precious seed in the earth and believe that it would grow and provide food for the family, just as God said?

Seed was the most precious thing in the ark. Have you considered that no seed is sown in knowledge, but rather in faith? Today, the most precious thing in all the storage houses and warehouses of America is still seed. Automobile factories could close and all of the lots be emptied of cars; steel mills and textile factories could close down. In fact, all industries could cease to produce, and we’d still get along. But if there is no seed, then mankind is finished. The most precious thing in all America today is seed; without it, there would be no food.

Remember, seed is sown in faith, not knowledge, so every time you plant a seed you are expressing your faith that seedtime and harvest will not cease. California grows one-third of all the fruit and one-fourth of all the vegetables that are eaten in the whole of America. The state also grows one-fourth of all the vegetables that are eaten in the 50 states. Ninety percent of the apricots, dates, figs, grapes, lemons, plums, dried prunes, walnuts, broccoli, avocadoes, nectarines, olives and almonds are grown in California.

What would happen to America if the farmers of California lost faith in sowing seed? What if they thought seed was too expensive, not worth the investment unless they know it was going to grow? The government would get itself together, all the way up to the president, who would call the governor asking what is going on in California. The governor would tell the president that the farmers have lost faith in whether the seed will grow, so they won’t plant until they know for sure. The president would insist that the governor find a way to get the farmers to plant the seed. But just how do you prove that a seed will grow? There is absolutely no way to prove it.

Every seed that has ever been planted, has been planted in faith that seedtime and harvest will not cease. Early pioneers carried seed in their wagons across the country so they could plant it when they reached their new home. One man, an apple producer from the East, wanted to move out West. He had developed some excellent apples, so he took a wagon, covered the whole bed with dirt and planted the apple seedlings in the dirt. He nurtured them all the way across the plains, finally settling close to Portland, Oregon, where he started the apple industry in the Northwest that still thrives there today.

The second principle is brought to view in Psalms 126:5, 6 NKJV: “Those who sow in tears shall reap in joy. He who continually goes forth weeping, bearing seed for sowing, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.” This is the principle of inconvenience. What this means is there is no easy way, no easy time, no easy place to sow a seed. If you’re not willing to accept the inconvenience, there will be no harvest. Seed sowing is not easy. Ask anyone who was raised on a farm and they’ll testify to that.

I remember well springtime on the farm. The tractor was used to work the fields, but the garden plot was too small for the tractor, so the soil had to be turned with a shovel or spade. Once the soil was turned, a rake was used to make it smooth, then you would use the hoe to make furrows in the ground. For tiny seeds the furrow would be shallow and once planted, the furrow would be closed by hand, with just a little dirt; otherwise, it would kill the seeds. The same process was followed for the larger seeds, but as you pull the hoe down the row, the furrows are deeper. Once these seeds are planted down the row, the hoe is used to pull the dirt back over to cover the seeds.

To plant potatoes, the potato is cut into sections with at least one growing eye sprout on each section. The sections are loaded into a bucket or a bag and carried down the row. To dig the hole for the potato section, you used a spade pushing it deep into the soil and rocking it back and forth. A section of potato is dropped into the resulting hole, the spade removed, and the dirt packed down over the potato. This is repeated for every potato section planted.

All that digging and turning the soil and dragging the hoe back and forth from one end of the garden plot to the other begins to make you feel all twisted around and makes your muscles ache. And burying that spade deep into the soil and rocking it back and forth and packing it back down with your foot only adds to the ache.

Planting tomatoes is harder. Tomato plants are delicate and must be handled with great care. If you were planting a whole field of tomatoes, you could use a tractor or a team to create the furrow, but you would still have to handle the plants by hand. Once the furrow has been made, the tomato plant is placed carefully into the soil, gently gathering earth around it with your hands. You then move on placing one plant after another into the ground.

It doesn’t take long to begin to feel that all this bending and standing is hard on the back and maybe a waste of time and energy, so you stay bent over until finally even that begins to cause an ache and you end up on your hands and knees crawling down each row until you just have to go to the rag box in the house and find rags to tie around your knees. Can you imagine the amount of crawling you can do working on a farm? Miles and miles on your hands and knees. There’s just no easy way to sow a seed. If you do not accept the principle of inconvenience, you will never have a harvest.

The third principle of the law of the harvest is brought to view in 2 Corinthians 9:6 KJV – the principle of apparent waste. “But this I say, He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully.” He that soweth sparingly shall reap sparingly.

While teaching at Atlantic Union College, I decided to look for a small church not far from the college to do some seed sowing. I found one about 50 miles away in Haverhill, Massachusetts. It was a small church with seven elderly members. I took some students with me to the Haverhill Church to see if we could get something going. We gathered the members together and laid out our plan to do outreach in the community, maybe pass out some literature. But the members said they had tried to hand out literature about ten years before and it didn’t work.

Let me ask you, how much success would a farmer have if he sowed seed once in ten years? All nature testifies with a resounding voice on this subject. If you could ask an oak how many acorns it drops in one year to make sure another oak tree grows, what do you suppose would be its response? That tree might say 10,000 every year.  Friends, “He that soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly, and he that soweth abundantly shall reap also abundantly.”

My wife had a rose bush in our front yard. I asked her how many roses she thought that bush typically produced. She said probably 100 three or four times a year. Let’s do some calculating. The rose bush produces four or five hundred flowers each year and every flower becomes a seed pod with at least 30 or 40 seeds in it. How many seeds is this one rose bush producing every year to make sure that another rose bush grows?

Count the seeds in an apple. I’ve been told there are eight. I talked to a man who had an apple tree in his yard. He gave it very tender care and said that in one year he got 52 bushels of apples off that one tree. If there are about 40 apples in a bushel, that’s more than 2,000 apples and 2,000 apples multiplied by eight seeds will make 16,000 seeds from that one apple tree just to make sure that the apple trees don’t die out. All nature testifies with a single voice and the principle of apparent waste dictates that you must sow many, many, many seeds.

There is a difference in seed sowing in the ground and seed sowing in human hearts. The ground stays there. You put seeds in the ground, and you can watch what happens. But you can’t do that when you’re sowing seed in human hearts. You can put a seed in someone’s heart today, but they may not stay put; in fact, you might never see them again. But that doesn’t invalidate seed sowing. Remember, the principle is of apparent waste, not of actual waste. It’s not wasteful to sow that many seeds because the seeds are being watched over by the Holy Spirit and the Lord has promised that seedtime and harvest will not cease.

The final principle is found in Matthew 13:1–8 KJV, where we read the well-known parable of the sower who went forth to sow. “The same day went Jesus out of the house, and sat by the sea side. And great multitudes were gathered together unto Him, so that He went into a ship, and sat; and the whole multitude stood on the shore. And He spake many things unto them in parables, saying, Behold, a sower went forth to sow; And when he sowed, some seeds fell by the way side, and the fowls came and devoured them up: Some fell upon stony places, where they had not much earth: and forthwith they sprung up, because they had no deepness of earth: And when the sun was up, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away. And some fell among thorns; and the thorns sprung up, and choked them: but other fell into good ground, and brought forth fruit, some an hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold.”

One day at Princeton University a little white-haired man went to the blackboard and carefully wrote down, “E=mc2.” And he stood back and looked at that for a while and he said, I think that’s it. That formula produced the hydrogen bomb, the atom bomb and nuclear fission. Powerful, formula. I’d like to suggest that Matthew 13:1–8 contains a formula greater than that, the One=3030.

We will use the lowest factor that Jesus gave, the thirtyfold. Jesus said, the one seed that grows will produce thirtyfold. Take a piece of paper and lay it on a large table. In the center of that piece of paper make a dot to represent the one seed that grew. Around that dot make thirty more dots and that’s the principle of one equals thirty. But remember, this is to the 30th power because every one of those 30 seeds is a good seed. We’re ignoring the ones that are wasted because you scattered your seed like the seeds of autumn and so you have one good seed in every one of those 30 positions. Make 30 dots around each of those 30 dots. Now you have 900. And then you make 30 dots around every one of the 900 dots; now you have 27,000. Then you make 30 dots around every one of those 27,000 dots and you come up with something like 810,000. That is the principle of enormous power.

You may not see it because man doesn’t stay in one place all the time, so you have to go by faith; you have to believe that the Lord of the harvest has guaranteed that when the seed is sown there will be wonderful fruit. For example –

A Seventh-day Adventist lady had some tracts and while shopping at the little grocery store in the small town where she lived she said to the grocer, “You might like to read this” and she lay the tract on the counter. The grocer glanced at it, but wasn’t interested. When the next customer came by with her bag of groceries, he picked up the tract and put it in her bag. She got home and emptied the bag and said, “Where did that thing come from? Well, it’s some kind of a religious tract. I’m not interested in it, but my neighbor across the fence is a religious man.” He was out working in his backyard, so she went out and leaned across the fence, “Would you like to have this, neighbor? It’s a religious tract of some kind.”

“Sure, sure, I’d like to have it.” He read it. Long story short, he was converted by that tract and subsequently, not only did he become a Seventh-day Adventist, but he also became a Seventh-day Adventist minister. His name was Leo Wheeler and through his ministry W.H. Smith and another man named Ashton, came into the faith and they also became Seventh-day Adventist ministers. Through their preaching, a man named Charles Longacre came into the faith and became a Seventh-day Adventist minister. For years he was the Secretary of Religious Liberty in the General Conference relating to the congressmen on questions of religious liberty. Under his preaching two other men became Seventh-day Adventists and became union presidents and one of the men became the president of the Inter-American Division, and he brought in others, seven ministers, two union presidents, one division president and one general conference secretary that we know about, and many, many others we don’t know anything about. That’s what one tract did, just one good seed.

Some years ago, in Colorado on the western slope hill country, two young Seventh-day Adventist ministers went into a small town, pitched a tent and held evangelistic meetings. Attendance was poor. Nobody decided to be baptized. There were only a couple of interested ladies left behind when they left. As they made their way down the mountain, they felt defeated and discouraged even discussing going into other lines of work. They left that small town, but the Holy Spirit stayed back to nurture the seeds sown.

One of the interested ladies was Mrs. Johns. She had two sons, Varner and Alger. Those two sons went on to pastor some of our largest churches for many years.

A gentleman in the town was concerned about Mrs. Johns after she began to keep the Sabbath. So he took his Bible one Sunday afternoon and went to her house to straighten her out. It wasn’t long before he was keeping the Sabbath. He sold his lumber yard, got what training he could get and became a Seventh-day Adventist minister. His name was Vandeman. He had a son named George, George Vandeman. All of that came from what appeared to be apparent waste up in the hills of Colorado.

I had the opportunity at a northern California camp meeting to talk to Alger Johns. I wanted to verify this tent meeting story. Alger Johns told me I didn’t know the half of it. Between him and George Vandeman they were able to name 14 individuals who through the influence of that little tent meeting became Seventh-day Adventist ministers. You see the principle of enormous power goes on and on.

On a smaller scale, I am reminded of my own mother’s experience. She married my father, who was superintendent of a logging camp in Falls City, Oregon. One Sabbath afternoon, two boys about 12 years old, came to their door passing out tracts about the Sabbath. My mother took one. Being a very devout Methodist, she instantly recognized that it was mistaken and sat down with her Bible to prove it wrong. Before very long she was keeping the Sabbath and while that didn’t make very much difference for a while, by the time she died at 88 years of age, there were 30 of her family keeping the Sabbath. And because of her, through my evangelistic work, a few more than 5,000 people were brought to the truth. Some of them became pastors and have spread the message. All from two little boys handing out tracts in a small town in Oregon.

“The good seed sown may lie some time in a cold, worldly, selfish heart, without evidencing that it has taken root; but frequently the Spirit of God operates upon that heart, and waters it with the dew of heaven, and the long-hidden seed springs up and finally bears fruit to the glory of God.” Evangelism, 64.

Years ago, I was doing evangelistic work in the Hawaiian Islands. We pitched a tent on the Makaha shore. There were probably 35 persons baptized as a result of that series. But there was a young college student spending the summer out on the islands. He came to the meetings, talked to us a great deal and asked a lot of questions. I really wanted to see this young man serving the Lord. But he disappeared, apparently back to the States. I assumed I would never see him again.

Twelve years later found me teaching in the Bible department at Atlantic Union College in Massachusetts. There was an evangelist in Vermont whom I knew slightly. It was near Christmas one year when he walked into my office and asked me if I remembered a young fellow who had come to the meetings in Makaha, Hawaii. I did remember him, I said. The evangelist told me the young man was now a Doctor of Science at the University of Vermont. The evangelist related that as he talked with the man, he asked if this was his first exposure to the truth. The man replied, “No, twelve years ago I spent a summer in the Hawaiian Islands and there was a fellow named Larson who was preaching in a tent on the Makaha Reef and that’s where I first heard the Adventist message.” It took twelve years for that seed to grow. But that young man, his wife and their 12-year-old daughter were all baptized together.

By faith, we must accept the fact that God is doing something we cannot see, but one day we will see the whole harvest and we will be astonished.

We read in Christ’s Object Lessons, 38: “A sower from a higher world, Christ came to sow the seeds of truth.” A humbling work for the King of the universe to come to sow seeds in the hearts of men.

“Christ had come, not as a king, but as a sower; not for the overthrow of kingdoms, but for the scattering of seed; not to point His followers to earthly triumphs and national greatness, but to a harvest to be gathered after patient toil and through losses and disappointments.” Ibid., 35.

“The same laws that govern earthly seed sowing govern the sowing of the seeds of truth.” Ibid., 33.

Remember the four principles of the harvest:

  • Act in faith. No seed is ever planted in knowledge; it’s always done with faith in the word of the Lord.
  • There is no easy way, no easy time, no easy place to sow a seed.
  • Apparent waste. All nature says with a single voice, scatter the seed everywhere, the harvest is sure.
  • Enormous power. The Holy Spirit nurtures the seeds planted and they grow exponentially.

Dr. Ralph Larson completed forty years of service to the Seventh-day Adventist church, as pastor, evangelist, departmental secretary, and college and seminary teacher. His last assignment before retiring was chairman of the Church and Ministry Department of the Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary Far East. Upon retirement, he continued his service, diligently working with and giving counsel to those within the historic movement.

Endowment of the Holy Spirit

by

“Christ, the Great Teacher, had an infinite variety of subjects from which to choose, but the one upon which He dwelt most largely was the endowment of the Holy Spirit.” Selected Messages, Book 1, 156. [Emphasis supplied.] While we cannot prove it, it seems from this sentence that the endowment of the Holy Spirit was Christ’s favorite subject, and we know that He dwelt on the subject more than any other. Continuing in Selected Messages, Ellen White says, “What great things He predicted for the church because of this endowment.” Ibid.

When the Holy Spirit is given to the church which then exhibits the characteristics of the Holy Spirit, wonderful things will happen in the church. At a personal level, every person who receives the Holy Spirit will be saved. No exceptions. But without the Holy Spirit, the church will not experience the wonderful things that come with the presence of the Holy Spirit and not one person will be saved.

Consider these questions: Do Seventh-day Adventists have the truth? Yes, it’s just a fact; we do. So, if I know the truth, will I be in heaven? Is the truth all I need? The devil knows the truth. Will he be in heaven? No. Why? The devil doesn’t have the Holy Spirit. He is possessed of a different spirit. So, if just having the truth isn’t enough, what is it that will make it possible to be in heaven? The apostle Paul talks about this in 1 Corinthians 9:24–27. He said, “I keep my body under subjection, lest, having preached to others, I myself might be rejected” (verse 27, literal translation). If the apostle Paul could be rejected, unsaved, could it happen to us? Yes, because one must have the Holy Spirit to be in the kingdom of heaven.

For as long as I can remember, there has been a tremendous amount of theological debate and controversy within Adventism regarding who is saved and how, and who is not and why. Some say you cannot be saved unless you profess faith in Christ; others state that there will be heathens who never knew the name of Christ who will be in heaven and they support it from The Desire of Ages. But there will be millions of people who profess faith in Christ, who talk the talk, but who have not received the Holy Spirit and they will go down into the lake of fire. And there will be people who have never heard the name of Christ who will be saved, because they will accept the leading of the Holy Spirit as He reveals the truth to them in other ways.

A Seventh-day Adventist physician went to a heathen country as a missionary with his family. Before he had an opportunity to unpack, he was called to an emergency medical situation. He hired a heathen man, explaining that he had to be away for an emergency and his wife would be left with the unpacking. He wanted the man to help her unpack, so he made all the arrangements with the man, paid him and set off. It was after nightfall before the missionary returned home. When he arrived home, the man was standing outside the gate waiting for him. He said, “I was not able to help your wife unpack; she did not want my help, so here is your money back.”

The physician was astonished; he could not comprehend a heathen man not just taking the money. So he asked him, “How can this be?” The heathen man said, “I studied, I looked at the sun, I looked at nature, I realized there was a Great Spirit that made this and so I gave my life to the Great Spirit. And the Great Spirit came into my heart, into my mind, and made me all white and clean inside.” He said, “I don’t chew betel nut like other men do; I don’t sleep around with women like other men do, and I don’t lie and I don’t steal.” He didn’t know who Jesus was by name, but he received the Holy Spirit.

Jesus tells us in Matthew 25:31–46 that He will separate everyone into two groups—sheep and goats. The sheep are the people who have received the Holy Spirit. The goats are the people who have not received the Holy Spirit. It’s just that simple. One group will have eternal life, the other group will have eternal death.

I am not condemning anyone; I want to tell you the best news ever. Now is the time, right now, that you can receive the Holy Spirit. It does not matter what you have done, what your past has been; all that matters is have you, will you, receive the Holy Spirit? The offer of eternal life is the gospel message to be given to everyone, even to the most sinful people in the world. Let’s look at some examples from the Bible.

“There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, ‘Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs [miracles] that You do unless God is with him.’ Jesus answered and said to him, ‘Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God’ ” (John 3:1–3). As a leader of God’s chosen people, Jesus told Nicodemus that he would have to be converted or he would not be in heaven.

Nicodemus did not like hearing that. He was a member of the Sanhedrin, a Pharisee, a ruler of the Jews. And Jesus tells him he won’t be going to heaven unless he’s born again. Nicodemus’ response was, “ ‘How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born’ ” (verse 4)? Nicodemus was irritated. He probably wondered if Jesus knew who he was. The problem for Nicodemus was he knew what was written in the Torah and he believed his life was in harmony with the law, but at that moment, he had not received the Holy Spirit and until he did, he could not understand what Jesus was trying to tell him.

Luke 18:10, 11 KJV tells us, “Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican [tax collector]. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, ‘God, I thank Thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican.’ ” Among the Jews, if you were a tax collector, you were considered the lowest of the low because you were cooperating with the Romans. (The Romans were not a righteous people. A secular historian described Rome as, “the sewer of the nations.”) If a woman was a prostitute, they felt that she was the lowest of the low. So when Jesus said, “The prostitutes and the tax collectors are going to go into the kingdom of heaven before you” (Matthew 21:31), the Jewish leaders were ready to kill Him.

Were prostitutes sinners? Were tax collectors sinners? Yes. Is God going to take any sinners into the kingdom of heaven? No. Then how could Jesus say that the prostitutes and the tax collectors would be in the kingdom of heaven before the religious leaders? Matthew 21:31, 32, first part, explains: “Jesus said to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you that tax collectors and harlots enter the kingdom of God before you. For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him; but tax collectors and harlots believed him.’ ” When John the Baptist came and showed them their sins, the tax collectors and the harlots repented. They realized they were sinners, but they didn’t want to be that way anymore. They wanted to be changed, but were helpless to help themselves. They knew they were in bondage and wanted to be free.

So Jesus said, “I’ve come to set at liberty the people that are in bondage” (Galatians 5:1). This irritated the Jews, especially the Pharisees. They said to Jesus, “We are Abraham’s descendants [seed], and we have never been in bondage to anyone” (John 8:33). They were, when they made this statement, in bondage to the Romans, so that was not true. But Jesus pointed out to them that He wasn’t talking about physical bondage. In verse 32 He said, “ ‘And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.’ ” Notice that the Jews said they were already free and didn’t need to be made free. Jesus answered them, “ ‘Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin’ ” (verse 34). Sin brings a person into bondage; a bondage from which they cannot free themselves.

There are millions of people in the world that have decided that they will be good people, but they found out that they can’t be good people. From the outside, many appear to be good people, but these “good people” know that on the inside they are not righteous. The Bible says in Jeremiah 17:9, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?”

The fact is that no human being can know their own heart. The Bible says, “Who can know it?” and the answer is, nobody. Moses was one of the wisest men that ever lived and he said to the Lord, “Please don’t let me know my own wretchedness” (Numbers 11:15). You and I do not know what evil we are capable of doing. If you do not receive the Holy Spirit, you cannot know where the devil might lead you. The heart is deceitful above all things. The Hebrew word translated desperately wicked is something that is incurable. You cannot make it better. It is impossible. That is why Jesus says we must be born again. The Holy Spirit has to create a new heart in you because the one you have is no good. Paul said that the old man has to die (Romans 6). And you must be born again.

Paul wrote to the Christians that in the flesh you are dead, but in the Spirit you are alive (see Romans, Colossians, Galatians). He used this language because man’s natural way of thinking and feeling has to die and he must receive from the Holy Spirit a new mind, a new heart, a new spirit. If that doesn’t happen, a man will be lost.

In the parable of the Pharisee and the Publican, “ ‘The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, “God, I thank You that I am not like other men—extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess” ’ ” (Luke 18:11, 12). This prayer was a speech to God of all the good things that he did daily.

However, the tax collector knew that he was wicked. “ ‘The tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, “God, be merciful to me a sinner!” I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted’ ” (verses 13, 14). Do you want to be saved? The Lord can save you. Here is how:

First, we have to recognize our sinful condition and that we need to be saved from our sins. God does not save people in sin; He saves people from sin (Matthew 1:21). The Bible exposes “the lie” that is still believed by the majority of the Christian world today, the idea that a person can continue to sin and everything will be fine as long as he confesses those sins. That is not Bible religion, but the lie of the antichrist. As long as a person is living in sin, they are not born of the Holy Spirit. Once born of the Holy Spirit, a man will repent and turn away from sinning.

Zacchaeus was a tax collector and a very rich man. But when he heard John the Baptist preach, he repented and told Jesus, “ ‘Lord, I give half of my goods to the poor; and if I have taken anything from anyone by false accusation, I restore fourfold’ ” (Luke 19:8). As soon as the Holy Spirit comes into a person’s life, he stops sinning. A man is changed inside and doesn’t live the way he used to live.  Everything is changed and sin becomes a thing of the past.

Around 1907, a group of Adventists planned a six-month series of evangelistic meetings. They rented a big auditorium and on the first night the people came and the evangelist began his sermon. He covered how to become a Christian, how to be born again and how to be converted. But he didn’t stop there. He also covered the state of the dead, the Sabbath, the Mark of the Beast; in fact, he covered everything in one night. At the close of the meeting, he made a call for people to make a decision that night and a whole group of people came forward. His workers questioned him as to why he had preached everything in one sermon, but he didn’t know why; he had been impressed to do it. A terrible earthquake occurred later that night and some of the people who had come forward died in the earthquake; but they had been saved that night from their sins.

I read a book written by a lady involved in the New Age Movement. She didn’t know the Lord, knew nothing of the Bible or Christianity. She had met a man and they were living together. An acquaintance persuaded them to come to a Christian meeting. The speaker was an evangelist.

The couple decided to attend the meeting. It wasn’t a Seventh-day Adventist meeting, but this evangelist understood about a one-night evangelistic series. This was like Jesus’ discussion with Nicodemus and Paul’s talk with Felix. The couple decided to become Christians that night when the altar call was made. The evangelist hadn’t had the time to explain to them everything about the Christian religion, but he explained how they could give their lives to Jesus and choose to follow Him. He told them that Jesus loved them so much that he died on the cross for them, that He would forgive their sins and that they could have eternal life.

Everyone who came forward on the altar call received a Bible. This lady had never read the Bible. Later that night before she went to sleep, she decided to read a little bit in this new book. She opened the Bible to one of the Gospels where Jesus was talking about the sin of adultery. She slammed the book shut and thought, “I can’t read this book!” A few days later her curiosity got the better of her and she opened the Bible again at random. There it was again, talking about the sin of adultery and fornication. Once again, she slammed it shut. Every few days she would wonder what else was in the Bible, but anywhere she opened to, it condemned her.

The man she was living with was having his own experiences, but they each were reacting quite differently to their individual experiences. One day they talked and she told the man that her conscience was bothering her day and night and that she couldn’t continue with their relationship as it was. The man asked what she thought they should do. Her conclusion was that they either would have to marry or split up and after some consideration, it was decided that they would split up. She wrote in her book that was a turning point in her life.

In John 3:4 after Nicodemus asked Jesus, “ ‘How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?’ ” Jesus said, “ ‘Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God’ ” (verse 5). You are born of water when you are baptized.

1 Corinthians 12:13 tells us, “For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and have all been made to drink into one Spirit.” Notice, Paul says, “By one Spirit [that is, the Holy Spirit] we have all been baptized into one body.” Baptism by water is a symbol of being baptized by the Holy Spirit. If you are baptized by the Holy Spirit, you will be in the kingdom of heaven.

Paul in Acts 19 and Peter in Acts 2 both speak about the baptism of the Holy Spirit. In Acts 19:2–7, we find the account of the two men who had been baptized “into John’s baptism,” but had never heard of the Holy Spirit. He told them that “John indeed baptized with a baptism of repentance, saying to the people that they should believe on Him who would come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus” (verse 4). When the men heard this, they were baptized in the name of Jesus and when Paul “laid hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them” (verse 6).

In Acts 2:38, Peter was speaking to people guilty of crucifying Jesus Christ. They were pricked in their hearts and didn’t know what to do. Peter said to them, “Repent [that is, sorrow enough for your sins to quit] and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”

Without the Holy Spirit, you are lost, and you will remain lost until you do receive the Holy Spirit. Jesus called this the new birth. When the Holy Spirit comes into a person’s life, that person will be born again and the spiritual image of Jesus Christ will be formed within. But before the birth can take place Paul says, “My little children, for whom I labor in birth again [labor pains] until Christ is formed in you” (Galatians 4:19). I labor with people that have been involved in every kind of sin that you can imagine. I preach the gospel to them because the gospel can save them, if they are willing to receive the Holy Spirit.

Are you tired of the person you have become on the inside? Do you want to be changed? Have you realized that you are helpless and hopeless in your present state? Are you willing to be born again? If you will receive the Holy Spirit in your life, you will be changed.

You cannot change yourself, but it doesn’t matter how dark your past is or what you’ve done. All you need to do is turn to Jesus, surrender your life to Him and say, “Lord, I want to have a new heart, a new mind. I want to be born again. I want to receive the Holy Spirit.” There is no other way. If you choose to surrender your life to Christ, He will hear and a miraculous work will be done in your life.

Dear Lord, send Your Holy Spirit to each of us. Show us the things that must be changed in our lives. Help us to surrender all of ourselves to You. Give us new hearts and minds and restore in us Your image.

(Unless appearing in quoted references or otherwise identified, Bible texts are from the New King James Version.)

Pastor John J. Grosboll is Director of Steps to Life and pastors the Prairie Meadows Church in Wichita, Kansas. He may be contacted by email at: historic@stepstolife.org, or by telephone at: 316-788-5559.

Editorial – The Future of Our Great Cities

by

What has happened in the past is soon to happen again in the future. What happened to Sodom in Abraham’s day, what happened to Jerusalem in Jeremiah’s day is going to happen again in the cities of our world.

LOT

“Then the men said unto Lot, ‘Have you anyone else here? Son-in-law, your sons, your daughters, and whomever you have in the city—take them out of this place! For we will destroy this place, because the outcry against them has grown great before the face of the Lord, and the Lord has sent us to destroy it.’ So Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who had married his daughters, and said, ‘Get up, get out of this place; for the Lord will destroy this city!’ But to his sons-in-law he seemed to be joking” (Genesis 19:12–14).

JEREMIAH

“The word of the Lord also came to me, saying, ‘You shall not take a wife, nor shall you have sons or daughters in this place.’ For thus says the Lord concerning the sons and the daughters who are born in this place, and concerning their mothers who bore them and their fathers who begot them in this land: ‘They shall die gruesome deaths; they shall not be lamented nor shall they be buried, but they shall be like refuse on the face of the earth. They shall be consumed by the sword and by famine, and their corpses shall be meat for the birds of heaven and for the beasts of the earth.’ For thus says the Lord: ‘Do not enter the house of mourning, nor go to lament or bemoan them; for I have taken away My peace from this people,’ says the Lord, ‘lovingkindness and mercies’ ” (Jeremiah 16:1–5).

TODAY

“When God’s restraining hand is removed, the destroyer begins his work. Then in our cities the greatest calamities will come.” Manuscript Releases, vol. 3, 314.

“The end is near, and every city is to be turned upside down every way. There will be confusion in every city. Everything that can be shaken is to be shaken, and we do not know what will come next. The judgments will be according to the wickedness of the people and the light of truth that they have had.” Ibid., vol. 1, 248, 249.

“O that God’s people had a sense of the impending destruction of thousands of cities, now almost given to idolatry.” Evangelism, 29.