THE TEMPLE IN HEAVEN by W. H. Littlejohn

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Tuesday, March 10, 1885.

FromThe Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, Vol. 62, No. 10. Whole No. 1605.

THE TEMPLE IN HEAVEN.

By W. H. Littlejohn

DR. CROSBY ON THE CONDITION OF THE CHURCHES: THE ARGUMENT ON THE SECOND ANGEL’S MESSAGE CONCLUDED.

BY ELD. W. H. LITTLEJOHN.

Mr. Biblist.—At the close of our last interview I read to you some bold words in regard to the situation of things in the churches, taken from an address delivered before a convention of ministers convened in Philadelphia. Let me re-read several lines in order to refresh your memories in regard to the general character of that address. Here is something which will present in a few words the sum and substance of what the Rev. Mr. Pierson said in reference to the moral condition of the great majority of church members:—

“Four-fifths of the nominal membership of our churches add nothing to their real power; they are either a dead weight, or a positive hindrance to the advance of the gospel; they help to fill up the gulf between the churches and the world, and break down the distinction between the truly regenerate and the enemies of God and the truth.”

This is a startling picture; no more so, however, than is found in the words of another distinguished clergyman, which I will proceed to read to you. If I mistake not, I have the extract somewhere right here. Yes, this is it. It is clipped from a lecture delivered by Dr. Howard Crosby in New York City during 1883. The Doctor says:—

“The great bulk of the Protestant Church is identified with the world. It has a name to live while it is dead. It has turned its doctrine into naturalism or rationalism, and its life into selfishness. The old landmarks are gone. Family prayer is given up. Sunday newspapers are read, prayer-meetings are ignored, worldly partnerships are formed, social sins are connived at, even excused, the pulpit is made a stage on which to strut and pose before a gaping world, and religion is made one of the instruments of fashion. We may not cure this dreadful evil, but we may ourselves avoid it and its doom. We may look to ourselves and to our families, that we go not with the multitude of Christians to do evil, and to perish in the hour when Christ shall come as a thief to their dismay.”

The closing words of this extract seem to be almost prophetic. They intimate the Doctor’s conviction that the evil is incurable, and that the present condition of things in the churches will continue until the Lord shall come. In this the clerical lecturer was right. The Revelator saw that in the days just preceding the advent, the great body of Christendom would depart so far from God that they could not be healed en masse, and that the only remedy would be found in calling out the people of the Lord from this latter-day Babylon, and uniting them under a standard which God should erect for that purpose. What that standard was to be, will appear hereafter. We have already reached the time of the advent, and if we do not find the precise state of things in the popular churches of to-day which the inspired penman predicted, then it is useless to look for them elsewhere. If affiliation with Rome, toleration of Spiritism, general unbelief in the cardinal doctrines of Christianity, rejection almost universally of the Bible record of the creation, the prevalence of worldliness to that extent that, as the Rev. Mr. Pierson puts it, “four-fifths of modern church members only serve to fill up the gulf between the church and the world,”—if all this, I say, does not indicate an order of things such as might be expected to call out just such a message as that found in Rev. 14:8, then I repeat that it is difficult to see what could do so. I will leave the subject of the fall of the churches right here, therefore, with the remark that the task of their impeachment has been by no means a pleasant one to myself. Protestantism had a noble mission, and for a time did a grand work. It is a sad thought that it could not have continued faithful to the end. Its victory proved its defeat. It was when it was weakest that it was strongest; when it was few in numbers, that it was a mighty host. Within its borders there are still many noble, God-fearing men and women; but they present to the whole a proportion so small that they are powerless to withstand the tide of worldliness and immorality that is sweeping in upon them from every side. If they will but listen, they will hear the voice of God saying, “Come out of her, my people.”

Mr. Thoughtful.—I do not exactly understand you, sir.

Mr. B.—I mean this: God sees that the preponderating influences in the popular churches of to-day are so strong and so worldly that it is of but little or no use for those who are really spiritually minded to endeavor to bring into them those converted through their labors; as they would be almost certain to be swept along by the current which is ever moving in the direction of the great maelstrom of pride and dead formalism. In order, therefore, to save the workers themselves, and place them in a position where he can use them to a greater advantage in laboring for the salvation of others, God has caused the trumpet to be sounded outside the camp of modern orthodoxy for the purpose of separating from that mixed multitude all those who have enough faith in the word of God to accept its teachings as correct, and obey its precepts at the sacrifice of worldly prosperity and applause, if need be.

Mr. T.—I think I understand you now. You mean that God has virtually cast off the orthodox churches, and is raising up a new church outside of them, through which he intends to work hereafter.

Mr. B.—Well, yes, that is substantially correct; though as I have stated before, you should remember that God has not cast off a single one of those in the popular denominations who at heart are genuine Christians. He loves them as well as ever; and it is because he loves them that he is endeavoring to separate them from their unfavorable surroundings. The moral atmosphere in which they live is not the only thing that is inimical to spiritual growth. They are constantly imbibing false doctrines also, which produce fatal results in time. To counteract this latter evil, God has seen to it that those who represent the nucleus around which the church of the last days is being formed should have their faith winnowed of at least those grosser errors that have contributed so largely to the fall of Babylon.

Mr. T.—I see, I see. You mean that Seventh-day Adventists constitute the church through which God is especially working at the present time.

Mr. B.—There you are just right. That is precisely the idea that I designed to convey.

Mr. T.—But are they not a very small people?

Mr. B.—Yes, sir; but that is rather in their favor than against them. The world has never yet seen a genuine reform which was popular at the outset; neither has it ever produced a church which has not steadily declined in moral power when it reached that point in the matter of numbers that it could be said to be strong.

Mr. T.—What do Seventh-day Adventists number at the present time?

Mr. B.—All told, probably not more than thirty thousand.

Mr. T.—How do you know but that they will fall in turn?

Mr. B.—It is not at all unlikely that they might, were it not for the extreme brevity of the time that lies between us and the advent, and the great unpopularity of their views.

Maud.—I do not see, father, what the unpopularity of their views has to do with their fall.

Mr. B.—Much in various ways, Maud; first, that unpopularity, as a rule, prevents men from uniting with them who are not deeply in earnest in the service of God. Secondly, it furnishes an almost certain guarantee that those among them who may backslide will separate themselves from the church at an early date. You know that lukewarm Christians would not be very likely to remain in any church a great while at the cost of reputation and pecuniary advantage.

Mr. T.—What do you mean by pecuniary advantage? I do not see why it should cost any more to be a Seventh-day Adventist than it would to be a Methodist or Baptist.

Mr. B.—Nevertheless, it is true that it does. This is particularly so of the dependent laboring classes, such as mechanics, hired men, servants, clerks, teachers, etc. The last day of the week is the busiest day of the week in most communities. That is the day which Seventh-day Adventists observe as the Sabbath. As a consequence, they are out of joint with the public two days out of seven: Saturday and Sunday,—Saturday, because they cannot conscientiously work on that day themselves; Sunday, for the reason that it is the day which the majority of the community celebrate as the Sabbath, and therefore are not willing that others should work for them on that day. Not having had any experience in that line, you have little conception of the amount of annoyance which this discrepancy between employers and employees frequently occasions. I have known of scores of our people who have been compelled many times to forego the opportunity of getting desired employment because they were observers of the seventh instead of the first day of the week. Many of our young people, for example, are well qualified to act as clerks in stores; but it is very seldom that they can secure such positions, because, as already remarked, Saturday is the best day of the week for business, and their absence from the place of business on that day renders it inconvenient, if not unprofitable, to employ them. Whenever they are engaged to fill such positions, however, it is because their reputation for honesty and industry outweighs all other considerations.

Mr. T.—I begin to feel the force of what you say about mechanics, clerks, and common labor; but I do not perceive just how seventh-day observance should prevent those engaging in it from securing employment as teachers. I am not aware that any of our schools are kept open on Saturday.

Mr. B.—What you say in regard to the fact that schools are generally closed on Saturday is correct. The obstacles in the way of our people as it regards the matter of their obtaining schools, do not originate in any incapacity on their part to meet all the requirements of the situation. It springs rather from the bigotry or narrow prejudice of those first-day observers who have more charity for conscientious young men and women who suffer loss rather than to go against their convictions of duty, than they have for those who are either infidels or who at least make no profession whatever.

Mr. T.—That seems to be almost too much. Most of us find it hard enough to do right when it is to our pecuniary advantage to do so.

Mr. B.—Very true. My heart has been made to ache again and again as I have seen our men and women rejected on the score of their peculiar faith from opening after opening. It would seem that they were doomed to want, although anxious to labor for an honest livelihood.

Mr. T.—Did you ever know any of them to go to the poor-house for want of work?

Mr. B.—No, sir, I never did; but I have known many cases where such a thing would have been inevitable had not the Lord specially provided for the persons in question.

Mr. T.—What is the effect of these differences upon your people? Do many of them give up the faith in consequence of them?

Mr. B.—In all my experience I never knew one to do so who was living as near the Lord as he should. Usually these trials but serve to make them more and more firm in the truth. If, however, a man becomes backslidden in heart, he is very apt to make the prospect of coming to want a pretext for giving up the Sabbath. And as our people, being strictly temperate and industrious in their habits, are quite thrifty in their pecuniary affairs. As none of them use liquor or beer, and but few of them drink tea or coffee, their living expenses are small, comparatively speaking.

Mr. T.—Did I understand you to say that none of your people use tobacco or liquor in any way?

Mr. B.—Yes, sir.

Mr. T.—That is remarkable, indeed. I have often heard your denomination spoken against; but what you have said to-night concerning their self-sacrifice and their denial of appetite for sake of principle, makes me desire to know more.

Would you have any objection to a brief sketch of their rise and history?

Mr. B.—Not the slightest, sir. Indeed I could not avoid doing so, as I have already promised you an explanation of the third angel’s message with which they are inseparably connected. Perhaps I had better not enter upon that to-night, however, inasmuch as it is already to-morrow evening, the Lord willing, I will tell you when and where Seventh-day Adventists meet, and give you something of an idea of a work which I believe to be one in which the hope of the church is centered more than in any and all things else besides. If it is, as I have endeavored to show in our conversation thus far, that we are actually in the hour of God’s judgment, and that it is about to come, then it is but reasonable that God must have a people somewhere on earth who are alive to the awful importance of the time, and are earnestly engaged in the work of endeavoring to arouse men to the danger of the situation. That mission, I believe in my heart, Seventh-day Adventists are fulfilling; and I shall hereafter address myself to the task of setting forth the Bible arguments in favor of such a position.