God’s (Jehovah’s, Yehuwah’s) Word opens to us the wonderful conflict between Light and darkness, good and evil, Heaven and hell. We are each on the battle ground, and Satan is striving for the victory. We should never lay a stumbling-block in the way of one who is fighting the battle with the powers of darkness and his own carnal heart; But we should help one another in the close, hand-to-hand fight with the deceiver of souls, in which we are engaged.
I wish we could see this matter in its true light. A man sees himself in slavery to sin, led captive by Satan at his will, and he tries to break the chain of sinful habits by which he is bound. He flees to Jesus as his Helper; and our all-pitying Saviour undertakes his case, and enters the field of battle in his behalf. It is the Son of God combating the prince of darkness; and the prize for which they contend is the soul of man. If the sinner trusts implicitly to the Mighty Helper, through His strength he becomes a Conqueror . . . for we are more than Conquerors through Him that loves us . . . and wins the prize of everlasting life.
Thus the battle is fought over and over again, and with what interest angels watch the warfare. And when through earnest faith and prayer man obtains the victory, there is joy in the presence of God !
“Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of GOD (Yehuwah)!” Romans 10:17
But too often man looks with cold indifference upon the conflicts through which his fellow-man is passing, as though these fierce struggles with the powers of darkness were nothing that concerned him. When we see the pine condescension, the sacrifices and sorrows, to which the Son of the infinite God subjected Himself in order to accomplish the Salvation (deliverance, rescue, freedom, healing, and restoration) of the fallen race, how can we remain indifferent?
Should not the tenderness, pity, and love of Christ take hold of our very hearts, and lead us to manifest the same spirit toward every soldier in the ranks of our great Captain? Should we not remember that we too are weak, and that in the warfare we are waging we need help and sympathy?
Those who are co-laborers with Christ will exercise that carefulness, manifest that love, in dealing with their fellow-men, of which Christ has given us an example in His life, and which He has impressed upon our hearts by the lessons of His Word. But our work does not end here. The poor, straying, lost sheep are to be hunted up, and brought back to the fold. They are to be cared for, strengthened, and encouraged. We each need a Saviour, and we each need the sympathy, watchcare, and love of our brethren. As we are brought together in church capacity, we pledge ourselves to be faithful one to another; and any failure in our duty here, any wrong done to our brother, is registered in the books of Heaven as a wrong done to Christ in the person of His saints.
If we had a true sense of the work of Christ, we should appreciate the worth of souls for whom He died. “Love one another, as I have loved you,” said Christ. “Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us” I John 4:10. As we see the love which Christ has shown for fallen man, the pine compassion which He has manifested for the weak, the erring, and the most sinful, how it should humble our proud hearts, and awaken in them a deep, earnest, and far-reaching love for souls.
From – Special Testimonies, January 6, 1887