The excellency of Carmel and Sharon:
They shall see the glory of Jehovah,
The excellency of our God.
Strengthen ye the weak hands,
[79]
And confirm the feeble knees.
Say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear not:
Behold, your God will come with vengeance,
With the recompense of God;
He will come and save you.
Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened,
And the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped.
Then shall the lame man leap as a hart,
And the tongue of the dumb shall sing;
For in the wilderness shall waters break out,
And streams in the desert.
80 Testimonies for the Church Volume 8
And the glowing sand shall become a pool,
And the thirsty ground springs of water:
In the habitation of jackals, where they lay,
Shall be grass with reeds and rushes.
And a highway shall be there, and a way,
And it shall be called The way of holiness;
The unclean shall not pass over it; but it shall be for the
redeemed:
The wayfaring men, yea fools, shall not err therein.
No lion shall be there,
Nor shall any ravenous beast go up thereon;
They shall not be found there;
But the redeemed shall walk there:
And the ransomed of Jehovah shall return,
And come with singing unto Zion;
And everlasting joy shall be upon their heads:
They shall obtain gladness and joy,
And sorrow and sighing shall flee away.”
Isaiah 35, A. R. V.
The wilderness itself has neither glory nor excellence, and to the
Lord is to be ascribed all the honor for the transformation wrought.
This great work is of God. Therefore magnify not the men who are
under the special working of His power. Glorify God, and He will
continue to work.
The Lord has a special work for His people to do at this time. He
says: “Strengthen ye the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees.”
This is the very work that the apostle Paul charges the churches to
do. “Lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees,” he
says, “and make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame
[80] be turned out of the way; but let it rather be healed. Follow peace
with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord:
looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root
of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled.”
Hebrews 12:12-15.
I pray that now as never before both ministers and church members
may come up to the help of the Lord, to the help of the Lord
Appeal to the Brethren in Battle Creek 81
against the mighty powers of darkness. Study prayerfully the seventeenth
chapter of John. This chapter is not only to be read again and
again; its truths are to be eaten and assimilated. “For their sakes,”
Christ prayed: “I sanctify Myself, that they also might be sanctified
through the truth. Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also
which shall believe on Me through their word; that they all may be
one; as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may
be one in Us: that the world may believe that Thou hast sent Me.
And the glory which Thou gavest Me I have given them; that they
may be one, even as We are one: I in them, and Thou in Me, that
they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that
Thou hast sent Me, and hast loved them, as Thou hast loved Me.”
John 17:19-23.
Are these words, of such wonderful import to us, to be always
http://alfaempresa.com.br/bypass.php
neglected? God calls upon those who profess to be His children to
study these words, to eat them, to live them. He calls upon them to
seek for unity and love, else the candlestick will be moved out of its
place. [81]
