p. 196 | YOUR RELIGION

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · March 25, 1880

FromThe Review and Herald, Vol. 55, No. 13

YOUR RELIGION.

What good comes of it? Do you simply profess it? or do you really possess it? Does it make you more amiable? Or are you just as harsh, petulant, and irritable as the unregenerated? Does it make you more kindly, forgiving, and generous, with a spirit which wishes well to all mankind? Or are you selfish, narrow-minded, unforgiving? Does it resign you to the inevitable? Is it a comfort in times of affliction? a support when you meet with losses, reverses, and calamities? Can you contemplate death with composure and equanimity? Do you believe “in the promises,” that all will be well with the good? Are you resigned? Can you truly say, “Thy will be done”? If you are a Christian, you will “do as you would be done by,” seek the good of others, rather than personal gratification—will be just, hopeful, forgiving, cheerful, trusting, charitable. A Christian will carefully regulate his propensities, guard against a sordid love of money, vain pride or egotism, an acrimonious temper, fault-finding, unjust suspicion, jealousy, deception, or double-dealing, or doing anything which the great Teacher, Christ himself, would not have approved.

A truly vital religion elevates and improves; spurious religion, or hypocrisy, corrupts and leads downward. A true Christian worships God “in sincerity and in truth,” and looks more to the adornment of his mind than his body.

A contemporary says: “I have seen a woman professing to love Christ more than the world, clad in a silk dress costing $75; making up and trimming of same, $40; bonnet (or apology for one), $35; velvet mantle, $150; diamond ring, $500; watch, chain, pin, and other trappings, $300; total, $1,100—all hung upon one frail mortal. I have seen her at a meeting in behalf of homeless wanderers in New York, wipe her eyes upon an embroidered handkerchief—costing $10—at the story of their sufferings, and when the contribution box came round, take from a well-filled wallet of costly workmanship twenty-five cents to aid the society formed to promote their welfare. Ah, thought I, dollars for ribbons and pennies for Christ’s children!”

How is it with the men? What amount do they spend on their indulgence in costly dinners, wine, liquor, and tobacco, that should be used for good purposes? How much for mere pleasure excursions, visiting watering-places, and in dissipation and flirtations? How much for fast horses, stylish equipages, and vain display? Are the clergy themselves exempt from all these things? Are vestrymen, deacons, and other church officers, all circumspect and consistent Christians?

Are all those who sing praises to Him in sacred song actuated by an exalted Christian spirit? or are they ambitious for worldly honors, eager for wages, or for the praises of flattering tongues? How shocking to a devout mind it is to witness the utter want of reverence in a person approaching his Maker with a manner of indifference, as though he were an auctioneer about to harangue a body of tobacco-buyers. Such scenes may be witnessed not a thousand miles from New York.

True religion is not a cloak to cover up sin, though impostors so use it. Nor is it a means by which the purse-proud, the arrogant, or haughty Pharisee can secure happiness here or hereafter. True religion brings blessings to its possessor, let his worldly circumstances be what they may. Reader, be not deceived; see to it that your religion is founded on the truth, With Christ for your guide, teacher, companion, you cannot remain in error nor go far wrong.—Phonological Journal.