Letters and Manuscripts — Volume 25 (1910 - 1915)

Ms 73, 1910

Talk/Thoughts on Acts 1

Oakland, California

March 19, 1910

Previously unpublished.

Acts the first chapter: “The former treatise have I written, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach, until the day in which He was taken up, after that He through the Holy Ghost had given commandments unto the apostles whom He had chosen: to whom also He showed Himself alive after His passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God.” [Verse 1.] 25LtMs, Ms 73, 1910, par. 1

What a grand thing that was for the disciples before they were left and Jesus ascended—that He stayed with them, revealing Himself unto them for forty days. How gracious the Lord is with us who are oft so unbelieving! He wants us to have that confidence that we will receive the evidences He has left for us. 25LtMs, Ms 73, 1910, par. 2

Verses 5-8. There is such a thing as being so inquisitive that we shall not feel the importance of relying upon a living faith, upon the promises of the Scriptures. So there are things that we may greatly desire to know that are not given to us to know. We must walk by faith; we must understand and know that it is our privilege to walk by faith and to take God at His word. 25LtMs, Ms 73, 1910, par. 3

“Ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria.” Shall we stop there? No. “Unto the uttermost part of the earth.” [Verse 8.] There is no easy chair for you to sit down in here. Christ has given His own life an infinite sacrifice to save the people that were in their sins, that they should not perish, but have everlasting life. We have no right to let our influence be on the side of contention, and to be contending one with another. No, indeed. Time is passing; time is precious. In a little time this world will be largely in the possession of satanic agencies. It is largely controlled by them now, but we do not realize it. Today the picture is presented, showing some wonderful thing to imperil lives, to show something that no one else has shown. What foolishness! 25LtMs, Ms 73, 1910, par. 4

In the world we see the spirit of opposition to one another, striving for the mastery, striving to be exalted above somebody else. What is our business? To look unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith. It is not to take part in this hubbub and all this confusion that is taking place in our world today. Every individual soul is to form a solid character according to the Word of God, that they may have an assurance that they will have an entrance, according to His Word, into the kingdom of God. You want to know for you individual selves whether you have that faith that works by love and purifies the soul. What we want is a living religion. You want it every day of your lives, for you know not when you go out of your house whether you will come in again alive. 25LtMs, Ms 73, 1910, par. 5

Satan is taking possession of the minds of his party, and he is determined to have the control. And we put off and put off what Christ has told us to do. What is it? To go into the world and to preach to all classes. This is our work, and He gave us an example. And this seeking to get an easy place where you will be exalted or extolled—have nothing to do with it at all. That is what the devil puts into the mind, but you must not do that thing. What we want is to walk in all humility before God. What we want is to be companions with Christ in His sufferings. 25LtMs, Ms 73, 1910, par. 6

Christ said, “I am the true vine, my Father is the husbandman; every branch in me that beareth not fruit, he taketh away; and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.” [John 15:1, 2.] How is that possible? How is it possible that He purgeth it? It is just as possible as it was for Christ to endure what He endured in coming into the world, to make it possible for you to endure suffering. How? By perfecting a Christian character—not to detract from it, but to perfect it, because you show the Christlikeness. If they abuse you, you will not retaliate. God wants every soul of us to come into right relation to Him. Without being exalted and bolstered up, He wants us to know Him, and to show by a living example what we will do to be partakers with Christ in His sufferings. Our work is before us. 25LtMs, Ms 73, 1910, par. 7

I do not pay the least attention to all these little things that are done to try to hedge up my way. I know that I have a connection with the God of heaven, and I am so thankful for it that I have been willing to go from place to place when I am in my eighty-third year. For five months I labored and went from place to place, traveling and laboring every day, that I might go to the places where they begged me to come. It was hard for me to keep changing and traveling, and I am still suffering from the labors put forth at Lodi and Mountain View. Yet I have ventured to speak twice to a congregation as the college, but have not dared to speak long at a time. 25LtMs, Ms 73, 1910, par. 8

I want to tell you that I thank the Lord I can say a few words. And I want to tell every one of you that unless you come into closer connection with God, your faith will be so weak that when the fiercer trials come you cannot endure them. But you say, I will be a partaker with Christ in His sufferings. 25LtMs, Ms 73, 1910, par. 9

I was sitting in my chair just before starting on a long journey, and I lost myself, and I will tell you what was presented to me. “I am the true vine. ...” [Verse 1.] Whatever your disposition, whatever your temperament, unless you are molded and fashioned after Christ’s likeness you will never meet Him in peace. “I am the vine,” was presented in such clearness. Those that promise to bear fruit, to work to the glory of God, He pruneth, that they may bring forth more fruit. Now do not consider your trials are an abuse to you. They are to bring you into living connection with God. They are to teach you to resist the devil, and to cling to Jesus Christ. You want to get rid of your old hereditary tendencies and passionate disposition, and learn of Jesus to be meek and lowly. Why? Because there is a heaven to win and a hell to shun. You cannot afford to miss obtaining victories. May God put His Holy Spirit upon you and me, that we may fight the battles of the Lord and come off victorious. 25LtMs, Ms 73, 1910, par. 10

Now it is stated here, “It is not for you to know the times or the seasons.” [Acts 1:7.] What you want to know is that you are a branch of the true vine. Now, do not get discouraged at the pruning. God help us that we may bind up with Jesus Christ, and be partakers of His sufferings. What did He suffer for? He had not done a thing but try to win souls to Himself, to His Father through Himself. 25LtMs, Ms 73, 1910, par. 11

Satan is constantly working, and now is the time that Satan is seeking to take possession of the minds of the whole world, and he flatters himself greatly on account of what has taken place here since the destruction of San Francisco. Since then the wickedness has increased in a tremendous manner. They are working along that line, and it is our business to work just as zealously on the other line, to work for Jesus Christ and to bring in all the examples in faith and truth and holiness by our own words and our own works, by our looking unto Jesus, who is the Author and Finisher of our faith. Every one of us has battles to fight. 25LtMs, Ms 73, 1910, par. 12

The gospel is to be preached “unto the uttermost part of the earth.” [Verse 8.] Christ died for the world, and we do not realize it. We do not seem to understand that we are to be co-laborers with Christ. You are to save that dollar that you would spend needlessly for dress or some other thing. What are you to do with it? You are to place it where it will be the means of bringing some light to some soul that needs the truth, but who cannot get it unless it is sent to him by our doing self-denying work and letting the light come in. We have no right to hoard means. “Does not Sister White?” you ask. No, indeed, she does not. I am getting my books out, and hiring the money to send them out all the time. That is what I am doing. I am not hoarding up money. We want to understand that there is a world to be saved. 25LtMs, Ms 73, 1910, par. 13

When I stand before the people, and especially when I see schools such as I saw at Lodi, I have a tremendous intensity of feeling that these may be carried on in right lines, that they may enjoy the most blessed experience that the Lord is willing to give them day by day. 25LtMs, Ms 73, 1910, par. 14

“I am the true vine ... beareth not fruit.” [John 15:1, 2.] They do not see that there is a world to be saved. The pruning hurts, but if you will endure it, you will understand that it is to perfect a Christian character. It is to work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. We have a heaven to win, and may God help us that we shall not miss the opportunity when we have it. In the world there is every possible invention to keep up an excitement and to divert the mind and to call people to one pleasure after another. That is just preparing for the coming of the Lord. He will come with power. He will come to put these things to an end. But it will be too late for you to work on the side of Christ then. You will have finished your period that God has given you to bear fruit. We want to bear fruit to His glory now. Every one of us wants to stand in right relation to God. 25LtMs, Ms 73, 1910, par. 15

You and I are to put an estimate on the souls that Christ came into our world to save. He went on foot from place to place with the Word in His hand, to express that Word, to explain that Word to the people as He traveled, until five thousand were gathered about Him. There were those who hated Him just as badly as they will hate you if you try to win souls to Christ. And if you will give up your trying to be first, God will place the first just where He wants them. He will not ask you about it. He knows you do not know. He knows a good many of you would place them wrongly. 25LtMs, Ms 73, 1910, par. 16

He has left the old hands, gray-headed men, in the work, that they might give the benefit of their experience from the first; and I have given to them what God has given to me. They are to stand as God has appointed them, to understand the incoming of the enemy and what he would do. Be very thankful for the gray-headed men that are in your midst, and try to hold up their hands and help them. God has appointed them, and He wants every one of you to stand in a position where you will be a blessing to the gray-headed men who have had an experience from the very beginning of the work. They are acquainted with the opposition and all the varied experiences that have come to us, from their boyhood when they stood together with those a little older, and the light of truth has come that they had a message to carry. The Lord enabled them to try to place themselves in that position where they could bear the message. 25LtMs, Ms 73, 1910, par. 17

Well, He wants every one of us to come into a position where He can lend us His grace and His power to carry forward His work. He says we are to work in the uttermost part of the earth. We are trying to carry forward the work just as hard as we can, to get the knowledge of the truth to various places. 25LtMs, Ms 73, 1910, par. 18

[Acts 1] Verses 9-15. Mary, the mother of Jesus, saw the Saviour, not in His glory but in His sufferings. Now, that chapter is enough to give you an understanding of just what should be. 25LtMs, Ms 73, 1910, par. 19

We do not want to bring too many things before you, but we want to tell you it is best for everyone to cultivate the knowledge that Christ has given us in regard to His second appearing. Search the Scriptures. As I read the papers, I know that conditions are just as they have been presented to me time and time again that they would be in San Francisco and Oakland. Wickedness will increase, but we want to get ready, and we want to do the very work that God has appointed us to do. 25LtMs, Ms 73, 1910, par. 20

We want to walk in all humility of mind so that Jesus can work with us, not to have a strong will of our own to go and come just as we please, but to be in perfect harmony in the work, to help one another, to strengthen one another, to pray with one another. And although there may be those who will carry their reports about this and that and the other, are you to pay attention to it? Are you to stop your work to listen to the reports that are made concerning you and your work? You would not be doing anything for the Lord then. 25LtMs, Ms 73, 1910, par. 21

Get your eye fastened upon the Lamb of Calvary who for our sakes gave His own life that we might be saved. He is a true Branch, and as I sat in my chair and this was presented to me, I thought I never saw anything so beautiful in my life. I lost all consciousness of everything around me. Strive to be a true branch of the living vine. Let men and women report what they will; they will have that to answer for, but we will not suffer on that account, religiously, unless we give ourselves up, taking heed to it. Think of Christ’s sufferings. Could we suffer more? He hung on Calvary’s cross, our Redeemer, the nails driven through His hands and feet, the Pharisees mocking and deriding Him. And you will have just such experiences, but what then? We have a heaven to win. We have a Christ to look to. We have One that will uphold and sustain us at every step. Well, then, let us not give up to any discouragements. 25LtMs, Ms 73, 1910, par. 22

Acts 2:1-11. All these different nationalities were there, that they might hear in their own tongue; and that would carry conviction to them; that was to go broadcast everywhere. The time will come when we shall have just such representations, if we follow on to know the Lord. 25LtMs, Ms 73, 1910, par. 23

Verses 12, 13. We will go no further on this, because I have talked as long as my strength will permit me to go; but I want to tell you, my brethren and sisters, this gospel is to go to all parts of the world. When I see our cities unworked, I cannot sleep. I have been night after night, night after night, sleeping perhaps three hours, and some nights not sleeping at all, but talking with the Lord about it and asking that He would give His people an awakening of their minds, that they may not keep them buried up in little items here in this life, letting those that are within our reach go without personal labor, and sending our missionaries away to do work. I have given the message over and over and over, and yet we see so little arousing to take hold of the work. Why, I have lain night after night, wringing my hands in distress, saying, Will they never awake? Will they never awake? Can we say or do anything to arouse them? 25LtMs, Ms 73, 1910, par. 24

They sometimes say to me, “Do you know such a one said this and that?” “Yes, I know, but that does not trouble me. I know all about that. If you have something new, I will listen to it.” “Well, do not you care anything about these reports?” “No; only for themselves.” Let us every one of us close our lips to tattle. There is a world to be saved. If you want to help in the saving of the world, become converted and go right out from place to place, and you will become so interested in the work that all your tattle and all these things will be forgotten. You cannot think of them. You will have something higher to think of. 25LtMs, Ms 73, 1910, par. 25

Let us lay hold of the work in earnest. Let us go where they have not heard the truth, where they will be glad to have the truth presented. The cities are unworked. I have called attention to this again and again. I have told them that I would take my printed books and let them have them to dispose of in the cities. Go right into the houses and take them the light that God has given you through these books, and then leave the book with them. If they will buy the book, take the money. What we want is to see true conversions, and that will crowd out the tattle of the wicked-minded better than anything else can. Let the Lord work, and we will work wherever we are, and we will see the salvation of God. There is much more I could say, but I think I have said enough. 25LtMs, Ms 73, 1910, par. 26