General Conference Bulletin, vol. 4

BIBLE STUDY

A. T. JONES

7 p.m., April 4.

THE book of Genesis gives the history, the means, and the process of creation. But that book was not written at creation. I call your attention now to that fact, and want you to think for a while upon the meaning of that fact. I will state it again: The first chapter of Genesis gives the history, the means, and the process of creation; but it was not written at creation. Then is it not plain that, since the account of creation was not written at creation, but a long time afterward, there was a purpose in the writing of it beyond its being only a record of creation? GCB April 7, 1901, page 101.1

If the first chapter of Genesis had been written the next day after creation, it might be said that the primary purpose of the writing of it, was to give men an account of creation, but since it was not written until nearly two thousand years afterward, it must be plain that, since the people all this time had gotten along without any written record of creation, the primary purpose of the written record was beyond—the same thing, and more—than to tell how creation was wrought. For if I could get along all right for forty years without a certain record, and then God should cause that record to be written for me, would it not be plain that I needed that record for something more than simply the record? Very good. GCB April 7, 1901, page 101.2

When was Genesis written? Of course we can not tell the exact year, but the period. We can know the great thought that was before the world in the time when Genesis was written,—the coming out of Egypt. Genesis was written by Moses during the forty years he was keeping the sheep of his father-in-law; but that was after the message had come to bring the people out of Egypt. The Lord had called Moses to deliver the people, but Moses had not yet learned just how. He made a misstep the first thing, and had to take forty years of instruction before this deliverance could be wrought; and in this forty years he wrote the book of Genesis. The book of Genesis was, therefore, written at the time of coming out of Egypt, when God was to deliver his people from Egypt and set them a light in the world for all the world forever. GCB April 7, 1901, page 101.3

In order to set before you the next particular thought, I shall read again a certain scripture that was read night before last, and I think referred to again last night, in the fifteenth of Exodus—the song of Moses and the children of Israel after the crossing of the Red Sea; for that gives to us the statement of what it was to which God was bringing his people when he brought them out of Egypt. GCB April 7, 1901, page 101.4

In Exodus 15:13 we read: “Thou in thy mercy hast led forth the people which thou hast redeemed, thou hast guided them in thy strength unto thy holy habitation.” Next two verses: “Fear and dread shall fall upon them: by the greatness of thine arm they shall be as still as a stone; till thy people pass over, O Lord, till the people pass over, which thou hast purchased. Thou shalt bring them in, and plant them in the mountain of thine inheritance, in the place, O Lord, which thou hast made for thee to dwell in; in the sanctuary, O Lord, which thy hands have established.” GCB April 7, 1901, page 101.5

This is emphasized in Revelation 15, in the record of that company which stands on the sea of glass, “having the harps of God,” and who “had gotten the victory over the beast and over his image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name,” singing “the song of Moses the servant of God.” GCB April 7, 1901, page 101.6

First, Thou shalt bring them into thy holy habitation—to the place where God himself inhabits; secondly, into “the mountain of thine inheritance [the land of God’s inheritance], in the place, O Lord, which thou hast made for thee to dwell in.” What place is that holy habitation, that place of God’s inheritance, that place which is made for him to dwell in? Revelation 21, you know, tells it. The time comes when it it said, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.” GCB April 7, 1901, page 101.7

“In the sanctuary, O Lord, which thy hands have established.” Of all people, we are the ones who should know for a certainty what sanctuary that is; for “of the things which we have spoken this is the sum: We have such an high priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens; a minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man.” GCB April 7, 1901, page 101.8

Again: in Acts 7, as you know, it is said, “When the time of the promise drew nigh, which God had sworn to Abraham, the people grew and multiplied in Egypt,” and then the deliverance came. God had sworn to Abraham, and had promised to give his seed the land which he saw, the world to come. And in Exodus 6:2-8 it is spoken: “And God spake unto Moses, and said unto him, I am the Lord: And I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by the name of God Almighty, but by my name Jehovah was I not known to them. And I have also established my covenant with them, to give them the land of Canaan, the land of their pilgrimage, wherein they were strangers. And I have also heard the groaning of the children of Israel, whom the Egyptians keep in bondage: and I have remembered my covenant. Wherefore say unto the children of Israel, I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will rid you out of their bondage, and I will redeem you with a stretched out arm, and with great judgments; And I will take you to me for a people, and I will be to you a God: and ye shall know that I am the Lord your God, which bringeth you out from under the burden of the Egyptians. And I will bring you in unto the land, concerning the which I did swear to give it to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob; and I will give it you for an heritage; I am the Lord.” GCB April 7, 1901, page 101.9

When God gave that promise to Abraham and gave his oath, it was to Abraham and his seed; not to the seed without Abraham, or to Abraham without his seed. So when God was to bring them into the land which he sware unto Abraham and Isaac and Jacob to give it to them, they were all to be together. That is enough then. God was to bring his people, whether immediately or in process of time, is not material. The great object which God had in bringing the people of Israel out of Egypt was to bring them into the land which he had sworn to give to Abraham, and that land he says is his holy habitation, the place which he made for himself to dwell in, the mountain of his own inheritance, and in the sanctuary which his own hands had established. GCB April 7, 1901, page 101.10

Since that was God’s object in bringing the people out of Egypt, and that promise to Abraham is the new earth which God will create, do you not see the object in the giving of Genesis then? It was so that they should become acquainted with creation, with creative power, so that God by his creative power might recreate them and bring them into the new world, which he was to create and give to Abraham, according to that which he had promised him? Do you see it? GCB April 7, 1901, page 102.1

The object of God’s giving Genesis just then was that the people might be prepared for the work which he had to do by them for all the world; the work by which he would prepare them for the work which he was to do by them. For God’s work is always creative. GCB April 7, 1901, page 102.2

What God does is always by creation. The great thing of all to which God was to bring his people, was the newly created world. But it was impossible that they should come to that without being newly created themselves. Therefore, in order that they might have instruction in creation, he wrote out an account of creation as an object-lesson, a school of instruction for every soul, that all might become acquainted with God’s processes, with God’s means, with God’s creative power, so that God’s work by them might be accomplished through its first being wrought in him. GCB April 7, 1901, page 102.3

And there was “the church in the wilderness.” Jesus Christ took his place there as the Head of the church. And here again we see his own processes of organization. He continued it, and kept it up until he came into the land of Canaan, and we have heard as to what God’s object was in the land. But the people missed God’s object, and his purposes in their organization in the land; and they, missing God’s object, and failing to see God’s purposes in the instruction which he had given them, began to organize themselves. And the organization which they accomplished when they did it themselves was what? What did it end in even in their own day? A kingdom. They must have a king. Don’t forget that; remember it as you walk along the street, wherever you may be,—never forget that the ultimate of every organization that ever man accomplished is kingship. Monarchy. And that among men is despotism,—and that is ruin. All that was worked out in Israel. And yet to us, years ago, God spoke that unless a different course were followed, “the follies of Israel in the days of Samuel” would be repeated among his people. GCB April 7, 1901, page 102.4

So much for that. That is the situation. So there the Lord took charge of his church; but instead of their finding God’s organization and holding fast the Head, they turned and made a head of their own, that they might be like all the nations. They became like all the nations, and came to an end, as did all the nations—destruction to the first ten tribes and then the destruction of all the tribes at the destruction of Jerusalem by their choosing Caesar instead of God. For when Pilate had put before them the challenge, “Shall I crucify your King?” they said, “We have no king but Caesar.” GCB April 7, 1901, page 102.5

Then God started his course with his church again, with Christ as the head and the organizer. And the mystery of God was manifested and made known unto the sons of men as it was not known unto the ages before, as it was revealed then unto the holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit. The mystery which had been kept secret in times eternal, was made known to his saints, which is Christ in you the hope of glory.” Christ was the head of every man, and the head of all by being the head of each. GCB April 7, 1901, page 102.6

But the mystery of iniquity arose, and put itself in the place of God, passing itself off for God; and hid again from ages and generations the mystery of God. But thank the Lord, the day has come, when the angel of the Lord lifted up his hand to heaven, and sware by him that liveth forever and ever, who created heaven, and the things that therein are, and the earth, and the things that therein are, and the sea, and the things which are therein, that there should be time no longer; but in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets. The mystery of God shall once more stand forth in its sincerity, in its purity, in its power, and that is the power of God. And the days of the voice of the seventh angel when we began to sound was sixty years ago, almost. GCB April 7, 1901, page 102.7

There is to be no more delay, thank the Lord; there has been too much. Now God has set his hand the second time to deliver his people who are scattered from Egypt and from Cush and from Pathros and from Shinar and from the islands of the sea. And he is to bring us into the land which he promised, which he sware to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. GCB April 7, 1901, page 102.8

But that is to be by creation only, for he that sits upon the throne, when that day comes says, “Behold, I make all things new.” So, then, we are to enter into the promises of Abraham only by the creation of God, and we are all to enter into that inheritance of Abraham only by the creation of God. GCB April 7, 1901, page 102.9

So, then, the first chapter of Genesis is written for us, because those for whom it was written in times past did not learn the lesson. It has been delayed, frustrated, thrown aside here, thrown off there, set aside in other places, but now the Lord has promised that there shall be no more delay. “Yet a little while, and he that shall come, will come, and will not tarry.” This is the time. Then, since God’s purpose in the writing of Genesis has been frustrated so far, and now the time has come when he says it shall be done, the book of Genesis, and of all things the first chapter of Genesis, is present truth to us. GCB April 7, 1901, page 102.10

Then let us study that first chapter of Genesis. What is in it? GCB April 7, 1901, page 102.11

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” And how did he do it?—“By the word of the Lord were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth;” “for he spake, and it was.” Now remember that is written not primarily as a history of creation, but primarily to bring to us God’s means, God’s process, of creation, and to make us acquainted with that process; so that he can bring us to the great creation which has been prepared and promised ever since the days of Abraham. GCB April 7, 1901, page 102.12

What does that mean to us?—In that first word in Genesis there is a lesson for every one of us. God created the heavens and the earth, by his word. What of us? 1 Peter 1:23-25: “Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away: but the word of the Lord endureth forever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.” GCB April 7, 1901, page 102.13

That word by which God created the heaven and the earth in the beginning, is the word of the gospel, which is now preached unto you. Then in the first words in Genesis, is the gospel. The first words of Genesis is the preaching of the gospel. And with that is connected Ephesians 2:8-10: “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.” GCB April 7, 1901, page 102.14

We are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus. Then the first step, you see, in Christianity, the first step in the course which God would have men take, can be taken only by creation, can be taken only by our being created. And the becoming a Christian is just as much creation as was the making of the world in the beginning. No man can ever become a Christian except by being created, as really as the world was created in the beginning. GCB April 7, 1901, page 103.1

And the great beauty of that truth is that it is so easy for it all to be done. For when we have it settled that it can be done only by creation, self is utterly lost, you see; he knows that there is no source of creation in him; he simply has to quit. And when he knows that it can be done only by creation, and is brought face to face with the Creator, then it is easy; for God can create simply by speaking the word. “He spake, and it was.” GCB April 7, 1901, page 103.2

Next: “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep.” Now we were all darkness; but God creates us new; and our lives, until God does create us new, are less than nothing, worse than nothing. Yet when God creates us new as for any life of righteousness, any life of godliness, what is the situation? Isn’t it formless and void? When God takes a man from the the world, from the darkness that may be felt, and creates him new, all that is before him is new. So I say as to that new life which the man is to find, and which is to be found in the man, what is his condition as relates to it except formless and void? But behold the next thing: “The Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.” GCB April 7, 1901, page 103.3

Now that word “moved” means “brooded.” It is the same thought exactly as Jesus spoke to the people of Jerusalem: “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her brood under her wings. [I would have gathered you; I would have brooded over you; I would have sheltered you and brought from this brooding that newborn thing, to the glory of God]; and ye would not. Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.” GCB April 7, 1901, page 103.4

The thought that Jesus expressed in these words about Jerusalem is precisely the thought that he spoke in the second verse of Genesis. The Spirit of God brooded upon that created thing, which, until the Spirit of God came upon it, was without form and void. But when the Spirit of God came and brooded over it, organization began. Then began God’s course of organizing. GCB April 7, 1901, page 103.5

And this subject to-night, you see, is a continuation of the same subject of organization that we had the other evening. You see that it comes to the individual first of all, and from him is carried forward with the body. And, brethren, God has begun that blessed work. We studied the other night that that must come from the Head. God’s organization must come from the Head, which is Jesus Christ, the Head of the church, and it reaches to the individual. GCB April 7, 1901, page 103.6

Now see the step that was taken in General Conference to-day. I want you to see how certainly that can never stop until it has reached each individual, and brought him face to face with God, to stand there alone only with God. There was presented to-day, and indorsed, an appeal for local self-government in a certain place. Very good. And then it was said here that that was to be adopted in other parts. Very good. And when that district shall be organized, there will be a local self-governing district; but the same process must go farther—each Conference must be a self-governing local Conference, and each church must be a local self-governing church, and each individual must be a local self-governing individual. GCB April 7, 1901, page 103.7

But no man in this world can be a self-governing individual except as God in Jesus Christ is his Head, and the man is governed by the power of God. The only self-government, true self-government, in this world is a man standing in the liberty wherewith Jesus Christ has made him free, master of his worst self, and living in the divine self, which is Jesus Christ. Then he has met the enmity, the evil, and has it underfoot; and there he stands in the heaven-born liberty with which God has made him free,—a free, self-governing individual, as God made him to be in the beginning, and as he makes him to be when he makes him again. GCB April 7, 1901, page 103.8

Now do you not see that this step that we took to-day never can stop short of that? Is not that plain enough? Then, brethren, the thing for each one in this Conference to do is to get there just as quickly as possible. Each one, then, must have set up in himself, and must be in himself, a local self-government, to the glory of God. But no man can ever do that, as I have said, except by the power of God in him; and no man can do that and remain a local self-governing man, except he stands alone with God, apart from everybody else, and everything else, in the wide universe. GCB April 7, 1901, page 103.9

Now that does not separate him from all other people. Our truest unity, with other people is our sole loneliness with God. Our truest fellowship, our sincerest love, our tenderest sympathy, reaching out to all people, is found only in standing absolutely alone, separate from all other things, with God. GCB April 7, 1901, page 103.10

I say again, the step taken to-day should never stop until every Seventh-day Adventist is brought face to face with God. Each for himself alone, and alone with God. And for what shall we be brought face to face with God?—To find our bearings, which we have been exhorted to find. And having found our bearings, then let God in Christ be the Head, and the grand organizer. GCB April 7, 1901, page 103.11

But this—this only is by the Spirit of God; the Holy Ghost, the Spirit of God, who broods upon all. Jesus went away. He was here. He was Head of the Church when he was here. But he said, “It is expedient for you that I go away;” it is not good for you that I stay; I must go. “For if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you: but if I depart, I will send him unto you.” There are more reasons than one; but the reason which concerns us just now, why Jesus should go away that the Comforter should come, is that Jesus in the flesh could not be in all places at once. He could not be with the brethren in Australia, and with the brethren here just now in the flesh; but when he went away, he sent us the Holy Spirit, which broods over all God’s creation: and by that Spirit, Jesus Christ can become the Head of every vestige of his creation. Then when any soul, any individual on the earth, has found this creation, has become a part of the creation of God, the Holy Spirit broods over him: and so Christ becomes the Head of that individual, and that man has a Counselor who is more capable of giving counsel than is any man ever seated in Battle Creek. GCB April 7, 1901, page 103.12

One great advantage, too, one of the chiefest advantages in that, is that Jesus Christ, the Head of that individual by his Holy Spirit, can give counsel and send help immediately, just when the help is needed; and that is an immense advantage over having to write a letter to Battle Creek, where it takes at least a month to come, and then a month is lost in answering the letter to get it to the boat that carries it back, and then a month to get it through—and you have got your answer in three months, to know something about the work that you needed to do three months ago. May the Lord join us to himself! may we find that creative power in God, by which each soul shall find Jesus Christ, his Head and his Counselor, day and night forever. And this is the process. GCB April 7, 1901, page 104.1

Again to the first of Genesis: “And the Spirit of the Lord brooded upon the face of the waters.” God said, “Let there be light; and there was light,” and the light was the life. But creation was not finished. The creation was not completed; it was not perfected even now when the Spirit of God was brooding upon it. Other steps were taken. I need not follow each one in detail, I want simply to get the fact before you. Think. The next thing was the firmament; then, the next day, the waters gathered together into one place, and the dry land appeared; then the next day the earth brought forth fruit; and so on through the six days. GCB April 7, 1901, page 104.2

Now these steps were not taken—watch this thought closely, and carefully, for it is a subtle thing, and requires a subtle mind to catch it; but when it is caught, it is forever. Those successive steps in the creation of the world, through the whole process of the creation, were not taken by growth from the original creation. The successive steps of the first chapter of Genesis were not taken by growth from the original chit of creation. [Voices all over the house: Amen.] Do you see? How were those steps taken?—By successive creations. That says to you and me this: We become Christians only by creation; we remain Christians only by creative power; we grow in Christian grace only by successive creations of God. There is no development in Christian life except by the direct creative power of God from heaven, through his word, by the Holy Spirit. GCB April 7, 1901, page 104.3

Now do you not begin to see the philosophy of giving to Israel as they come out of Egypt, the record of creation? God wanted each individual of Israel to know the creative power of God abiding in his life day and night. So that that creative power of God should be his life. But that has been delayed, delayed, delayed, and it has now come to you and me: and we are the people now to whom God has written the first chapter of Genesis. GCB April 7, 1901, page 104.4

By the way, there is another thing in this. It is exceedingly important to note that just at this time, when the first chapter of Genesis is set aside, and everything is made to be by evolution instead of creation, and all the world and the churches are running to that. It is time that God should reveal to his people the true philosophy of the first chapter of Genesis; so that God, in his people, may hold up before the world his light and the power of his creation, against the insidious deceptions of Satan, that are leading away the world into the everlasting abyss. That is what is in this; and God wants every one of us, his people, to become thus connected with that creative power, to find that creative power living in us, as the only means of our progress, of our Christian growth, in order that we can stand in the light of God, and upon that firm foundation of the word of God, and certify to the word in such a way that the world can not doubt it. They may reject it by not choosing to surrender to it; but they can not doubt it; the power will be in it. He wants us to certify that this new philosophy of the first chapter of Genesis is a false philosophy, and merely so-called science. He wants the true science of Genesis to stand out. He wants the true philosophy of Genesis to be light to the world. The true science and philosophy of Genesis is creation. And no man can teach it, no man can set it forth, unless he knows it in his own life. GCB April 7, 1901, page 104.5

Now, these successive steps in creation were not by growth from the original in the beginning of the heaven and the earth; but each step was taken by a direct creation by God speaking the word. God said, “Let there be a firmament,” and it was so. “And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear; and it was so. And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth; and it was so,” and so on. But when we have to grow, brethren, by trying to do better, and swearing off this, that, and the other, by going to do better, etc., etc., it is a wearisome, tiresome, and fruitless process. O when we know that the true progress, the true growth of Christian life, the true development of the Christian heart, is by the successive creations of God through his spoken word in the Spirit, then all that is needed is to find the word; and it is done. Here is the true remedy. GCB April 7, 1901, page 104.6

Have you found yourself barren? have you found items in your life that, so far as you aim, you wish in righteousness, was concerned, were void—failed? Now the remedy: When I find a lack in my life,—that which is not of God, that which is not a reflection of the word of God,—I must search the Scriptures till I find the word of God speaking to me on that question, and then that word creates me new in that thing, and the old is passed away, and all has become new. GCB April 7, 1901, page 104.7

[Voices: Amen!] GCB April 7, 1901, page 104.8

That is the philosophy of searching the Scriptures. O, to search the Scriptures for doctrine, to search the Scriptures for sermons, to search the Scriptures for arguments, is all vanity, vexation of spirit, and idolatry. But to search the Scriptures to find the creative word of God, to choose creation, the righteousness of God in the place of my sin,—that will put the power of God, the strength of God, in the place of my weakness; that will make God appear in the place of myself—that is the searching of the Scriptures, that is the salvation of the soul. And is there not room enough? Is there not sufficient ground for us to begin that kind of searching of the Scriptures? GCB April 7, 1901, page 104.9

But is it not a blessed prospect, is it not a message of good cheer, to every soul who finds himself destitute, who finds himself cast down, who finds himself the victim of the power of the enemy,—is it not a blessed message that God sends, that “He spake, and it was done?” Only find the spoken word of God, and your infirmity is gone before his creative power, as in the spoken word through the Spirit. GCB April 7, 1901, page 104.10

[Voice: Amen!] GCB April 7, 1901, page 104.11

“He spake, and it was;” and this word of God, which we read from day to day in the Bible, is just as much the spoken word of God as was that word which he spake in the beginning, that created the heaven and earth. GCB April 7, 1901, page 104.12

Again to Genesis: This process of successive creations went on until God’s ideal appeared, the perfect man. There he stood, the perfect man, created by the power of God; and he stood, the Son of God. Did he not?—“Which was the son of Adam, which was the Son of God.” “Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.” And then God rested. The Sabbath was the seal,—the delightful, refreshing rest which God took, beholding the finished creation from the beginning unto perfection. GCB April 7, 1901, page 105.1

So we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus. The Spirit of God broods upon this new creation, causing the spoken creative word to bring to perfection this new creation “a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.” Then the seal of God will be affixed. GCB April 7, 1901, page 105.2

Then the Lord will rest again, and will joy over us with singing. He will rest. “He will rest in his love.” God is to rest again. You know that when Jesus came here, he said, “My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.” But the time is coming when he will rest again. In the original creation, the Father worked, and Jesus worked, through the Holy Spirit that accompanied the work and and perfected the creation, in which God rejoiced, and from which he rested and was refreshed. But that creation thrown all over, and God began again to create, and he has kept it up till now, and soon it is to be finished, and then when it is finished,—let us read the word of God,—Zephaniah, the third chapter, 13th verse. GCB April 7, 1901, page 105.3

“The remnant of Israel shall not do iniquity [the remnant that keeps the commandments of God, and has the testimony of Jesus Christ]—the remnant of Israel shall not do iniquity, not speak lies; neither shall a deceitful tongue be found in their mouth: for they shall feed and lie down, and none shall make them afraid. Sing, O daughter of Zion; shout, O Israel; be glad and rejoice with all the heart, O daughter of Jerusalem. The Lord hath taken away thy judgments, he cast out thine enemy: the King of Israel, even the Lord, is in the midst of thee.” Let us rise into the liberty wherewith he hath made us free, by casting out the enemy. “The King of Israel,”—the true God,—“The King of Israel, even the Lord, is in the midst of thee: thou shalt not see evil any more.” Bless the Lord! “In that day.” Here is what is before us. Now hear the word: “In that day it shall be said to Jerusalem, Fear thou not, and to Zion, Let not thine hands be slack.” The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; he will save, he will rejoice over the with joy; he will REST in his love. [Congregation: Praise the Lord!], he will joy over thee with singing.” GCB April 7, 1901, page 105.4

God is going to rest again and be refreshed, when this creation which he has brought to us is finished under the blessed brooding of the Spirit of God. Brethren, that is so. You know it is written that in the last times God’s people are to be covered with the covering of his Spirit; and now is the time. So, brethren, the thing for us to do here—the whole audience all together, but of all things the delegation—is to recognize that fact, recognize this creative power of God, find it for ourselves, creating us new, and ever walk, ever dwell, in the presence of that brooding Spirit. [Congregation: Amen], so that as we come together.—even before we separate now,—we shall sit, think, speak, and dwell in the presence of that brooding Spirit. GCB April 7, 1901, page 105.5

As we are dismissed and separate, as we walk to our rooms, let it be in the presence of that brooding Spirit. As we are in our rooms we dwell in the presence of that brooding Spirit. As we come to Conference day by day, as we go into our committees to prepare, O let each one walk in the presence of that brooding Spirit: and then it shall be true of every soul (that which was spoken to Mary is a true of us as it was of her), GCB April 7, 1901, page 105.6

“The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee; and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.” [Congregation: Amen.] For that brooding Spirit is a fructifying Spirit. Then we shall exclaim, and sing with joy: “Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God!” Then it will be true also that “the world knoweth us not [thank the Lord!], because it knew him not.” GCB April 7, 1901, page 105.7

Brethren, the world has known us too well. It has had cause to know us. We have been so much like the world, that the world recognized us: but the Lord will deliver us from all that, and the world shall know us no more, because it shall not be able to recognize us as of the world. It will know that we are not of the world; that our fellowship is not with the world; that our interests are not centered in earthly things; and that brooding Spirit will put upon us such a character and will cause us to speak such words, and will give to us such an appearance in the world, that nothing but heaven can recognize us; and that recognition is enough. GCB April 7, 1901, page 105.8

This is the beginning of Genesis. It is not all the book. Remember, all the book was written while Moses was there keeping the sheep, and all the book belongs to us now. But none of the rest of the book will count for us, unless we find the science and the philosophy of the first chapter of the book: for that is the beginning of God’s creation and God’s processes and of everything, and nothing is found as it truly is until we find that. In the light of that, then all the rest is plain, and all the rest is ours, thank the Lord. GCB April 7, 1901, page 105.9

Let us search the scripture. Let us read the first chapter of Genesis. Let us all read it before we come to-morrow morning. A good plan to follow (I have practiced it enough to know that it is a good thing to recommend) is to read over and over, over and over, the first chapter of Genesis, until we shall see in it, with our eyes shut, Christian experience in every verse, and in our own lives day by day. Then, O then, the Spirit of God will brood upon that creation which God is carrying on to bring us unto perfection in Christ Jesus, so that the work of God shall be done, the triumph of the saints shall come, and we shall rejoice before the Lord now and forevermore. Then the church shall indeed grow into an holy temple in the Lord; and this church, Christ shall present to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing, but shall be holy and without blemish. GCB April 7, 1901, page 105.10

Obedience is the best success. Christ did not tell us to win the world to him, but to preach the gospel to every creature. GCB April 7, 1901, page 105.11

Let us be silent as to each other’s weakness,—helpful, tolerant, tender toward each other. May we put away from us the satire which scourges and the anger which brands: the oil and wine of the good Samaritan are of more avail.—Amiel. GCB April 7, 1901, page 105.12