“The following is culled from a recent letter from Elder W. S. Hyatt, president of the South African Conference:—
During my stay of seven weeks in Natal, I visited Durban, Pietermaritzburg, Ladysmith, Gray Town, and also an American mission station twenty miles south of Durban. I had been in Maritzburg but a few days when I had openings for five evening cottage meetings or Bible readings each week. From ten to twenty persons were usually in attendance. Fourteen were keeping the Sabbath, some of whom had recently begun its observance; and there were others from Johannesburg who needed further instruction in the truth. This I gave them, and left them all united. One became interested, and accepted the truth during my stay. Several others are investigating, and we hope that Brother Schmidt, through the blessing of God and the help of the brethren, will be able fully to establish these.
About three years ago, a gentleman from this place went to Germany on account of ill health, and took a course of treatment, which cured him. He studied the methods, and upon his return began to give treatments. Soon there was a demand for a building. This he bought, and can now accommodate sixteen or eighteen persons. His building is full, and many others come to him for treatment. Through the providence of God, Brother Schmidt, a young man who went to Maritzburg to canvass, was invited to hold Bible studies at his place, for the benefit of the patients. The gentleman himself and one of his assistants accepted the truth. In every part of Natal I find that hundreds are becoming interested in these treatments and in the subject of health.
I was invited to go to Durban and deliver an address on this subject. Some of the leading men of this place are adopting hygienic principles, the editors of two of the principal papers being of the number. About seventy-five were present at the lecture, and gave good attention. They are starting treatment rooms and a vegetarian restaurant. They have sent for nuts and a mill, and are making nut butter. They have also sent to Battle Creek for samples of the foods, hoping to make some of them here. I never before witnessed such enthusiasm on the subject. They want some one to teach them the fundamental principles. We ought to be in that field to instruct them. There should also be a good, wise man to teach the truth. Little or no prejudice exists against Seventh-day Adventists. I regard this as one of the best openings to begin work I have ever seen, and I feel that either Elder Hankins or myself must return in a few weeks.
While there I met a minister who has been in the colony for many years. He has preached for two denominations, but now has an independent church. He is said to be a fine old man, but peculiar in his views. I compared views with him, and found that he believes all the leading features of our faith—the Sabbath, nature of man, baptism, coming of the Lord, the two judgments one thousand years apart, etc. He says that he has hoped that God would send some one to raise up a Sabbath-keeping church. I preached seven sermons for him. Twice he told me that he must soon discontinue the work, and he would be glad if I could take his flock and care for them. Several of them already believe the Sabbath. I was offered the use of his church whenever I wished it. Here is another wonderful opening.
I think that this field will support a minister from this time forward. All accept the tithing, and take joyfully the spoiling of their goods for Christ’s sake. An expense fund is being raised to meet emergencies. The Sabbath-school contributions were over nine pounds last quarter. On the last Sunday I baptized seven persons—three men, three women, and a girl of seventeen, who is in the canvassing work, and doing well. Thus the Lord has opened a door for us.
During my stay in Natal I preached ten sermons, gave thirty Bible readings, made thirty family visits, and Brother Schmidt and I together took fifty-three subscriptions for the Sentinel, besides a club of twenty-four. Now is the time to work in this colony, but it will be a long time before we can do much in Orange River Colony or in the Transvaal. I am sorry the work has to stop in Natal. We ought to have a minister and two or three laborers who can canvass and do Bible work, and a man to start the health work.
THE FAITH OF JESUS
“LET this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery [“a thing to be seized upon and held fast”] to be equal with God: but emptied himself, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men.” Phil. 2: 5–7.
He was made in the likeness of men, as men are, just where they are.
“The Word was made flesh.” He “took part of the same” flesh and blood as that of which the children of men are partakers, as they are since man has fallen into sin. And so it is written: “When the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son, made . . . under the law.”
To be under the law is to be guilty, condemned, and subject to the curse. For it is written: “We know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that . . . all the world may become guilty before God.” This, because “all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.”
And the guilt of sin brings the curse. In Zech. 5: 1–4 the prophet beheld a “flying roll; the length thereof . . . twenty cubits, and the breadth thereof ten cubits.” The Lord said to him: “This is the curse that goeth forth over the face of the whole earth.”
This roll represents all the curse that is upon the face of the whole earth. And what is the cause of this curse over the face of the whole earth? This: “For every one that stealeth shall be cut off as on this side according to it; and every one that sweareth shall be cut off as on that side according to it.”
That is, this roll is the law of God, and one commandment is cited from each table, showing that both tables of the law are included in the roll. Every one that stealeth—every one that transgresseth the law in the things of the second table—shall be cut off as on this side of the law according to it; and every one that sweareth—every one that transgresseth in the things of the first table of the law—shall be cut off as on that side of the law according to it.
The heavenly recorders do not need to write out a statement of each particular sin of every man, but simply to indicate on the roll that pertains to each man, the particular commandment that is violated in each transgression. And that such a roll of the law does go with every man wherever he goes, and even abides in his house, is plain from the next words: “I will bring it forth, saith the Lord of hosts, and it shall enter into the house of the thief, and into the house of him that sweareth falsely by my name: and it shall remain in the midst of his house.”
And unless a remedy shall be found, there that roll of the law will remain until the curse shall consume that man, and his house, “with the timber thereof and the stones thereof;” that is, until the curse shall devour the earth in that great day when the very elements shall melt with fervent heat. For “the strength of sin” and the curse “is the law.” 1 Cor. 15: 56.
But, thanks be to God, “God sent forth His Son, made . . . under the law, to redeem them that were under the law.” Gal. 4: 4, 5. By His coming He brought redemption to every soul who is under the law. But in order perfectly to bring that redemption to men under the law, He himself must come to men, just where they are, and as they are, under the law.
And this He did; for He was “made under the law;” He was made “guilty;” He was made condemned by the law; He was counted, “made,” as guilty as any man is guilty who is under the law. He was counted, “made,” under condemnation as fully as any man is under condemnation because of his violation of the law. He was counted, “made,” under the curse as completely as any man in the world has ever been, or ever can be, under the curse. For it is written: “He that is hanged [“on a tree”] is accursed of God.” Deut. 21: 23.
The Hebrew makes this stronger still; for the literal translation is: “He that hangeth on a tree is the curse of God.” And this is exactly the strength of the fact respecting Christ; for it is written that He was “made a curse.” Thus, when He was made under the law, He was made all that it means to be under the law. He was made guilty; He was made condemned; He was made a curse.
But bear in mind forever that all this He “was made.” He was none of this of himself, of native right; but all of it He “was made.” And He was made it all for us: for us who are under the law; for us who are under condemnation because of transgressions of the law; for us who are under the curse because of swearing, and lying, and stealing, and committing adultery, and all the other infractions of the roll of God’s law that goeth with us and that remaineth in our house.
He was made under the law, to redeem them that are under the law. He was made a curse, to redeem them that are under the curse because of being under the law.
But for whomsoever it was done, and whatsoever is accomplished by the doing of it, there must never be forgotten the fact that, in order to the doing of that which was done, He had to be made that which those already were for whom the thing was done.
Any man, therefore, in all the world, who knows guilt, by that very thing knows also what Jesus felt for him, and by this knows how close Jesus has come to him. Whosoever knows what is condemnation, in that knows exactly what Jesus felt for him, and so knows how thoroughly Jesus is able to sympathize with him and to redeem him. Whosoever knows the curse of sin, “the plague of his own heart,” in that can know exactly what Jesus experienced for him, and how entirely Jesus identified himself, in very experience, with him.
Bearing guilt, being under condemnation, and so under the weight of the curse, Jesus, a whole lifetime in this world of guilt, condemnation, and the curse, lived the perfect life of the righteousness of God, without ever sinning at all. And whenever any man knowing guilt, condemnation, and the curse of sin, and knowing that Jesus actually felt in His experience all this just as man feels it, then, in addition, that man can know in his experience the blessedness of the perfect life of God, in righteousness in his life, to redeem him from guilt, from condemnation, and from the curse; and manifested in his whole lifetime to keep him from ever sinning at all.
Christ was made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law. And that blessed work is accomplished for every soul who will accept of that redemption.
“Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us.” His being made a curse is not in vain: it accomplishes all that was intended by it, in behalf of every man who will receive it; for it was all done “that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.” Gal. 3: 14.
Still, whatever was intended by it, and whatever is accomplished by it, there must always be borne in mind by every soul the FACT that, in His condescension, in His emptying himself and being “made in the likeness of men,” and “made flesh,” He was made under the law, guilty,—under condemnation, under the curse,—as really and as entirely as is any soul that shall ever be redeemed.
Having passed through it all, He is the author of eternal salvation, and able to save to the uttermost from deepest loss all who come unto God by Him.
LIFE INSURANCE
We are receiving so many inquiries regarding life insurance that we reprint the following from the “Testimonies for the Church,” Vol. I, pages 549-551:—
I was shown that Sabbath-keeping Adventists should not engage in life insurance. This is a commerce with the world which God does not approve. Those who engage in this enterprise are uniting with the world, while God calls His people to come out from among them and to be separate. Said the angel: “Christ has purchased you by the sacrifice of His life. What! know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you, which ye have of God; and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God; when Christ, who is your life shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory.” Here is the only life insurance which Heaven sanctions.
Life insurance is a worldly policy which leads our brethren who engage in it to depart from the simplicity and purity of the gospel. Every such departure weakens our faith and lessens our spirituality. Said the angel: “But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should show forth the praises of Him who hath called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.” As a people, we are in a special sense the Lord’s. Christ has bought us. Angels that excel in strength surround us. Not a sparrow falls to the ground without the notice of our Heavenly Father. Even the hairs of our head are numbered. God has made provision for His people. He has a special care for them, and they should not distrust His providence by engaging in a policy with the world.
God designs that we should preserve in simplicity and holiness our peculiarity as a people. Those who engage in this worldly policy invest means which belong to God, which He has intrusted to them to use in His cause, to advance His work. But few will realize any returns from life insurance, and without God’s blessing even these will prove an injury instead of a benefit. Those whom God has made His stewards have no right to place in the enemy’s ranks the means which He has intrusted to them to use in His cause.
Satan is constantly presenting inducements to God’s chosen people to attract their minds from the solemn work of preparation for the scenes just in the future. He is in every sense of the word a deceiver, a skillful charmer. He clothes his plans and snares with coverings of light borrowed from heaven. He tempted Eve to eat of the forbidden fruit, by making her believe that she would be greatly advantaged thereby. Satan leads his agents to introduce various inventions and patent rights, and other enterprises, that Sabbath-keeping Adventists who are in haste to be rich, may fall into temptation, become ensnared, and pierce themselves through with many sorrows. He is wide awake, busily engaged in leading the world captive, and through the agency of worldlings he keeps up a continual pleasing excitement to draw the unwary who profess to believe the truth to unite with worldlings.
The lust of the eye, the desire for excitement and pleasing entertainment, is a temptation and snare to God’s people. Satan has many finely woven, dangerous nets which are made to appear innocent, but with which he is skillfully preparing to infatuate God’s people. There are pleasing shows, entertainments, phrenological lectures, and an endless variety of enterprises constantly arising, calculated to lead the people of God to love the world and the things that are in the world. Through this union with the world, faith becomes weakened, and means which should be invested in the cause of present truth is transferred to the enemy’s ranks. Through these different channels Satan is skillfully draining the purses of God’s people, and for it the displeasure of the Lord is upon them.
THE PLAGUES
THE SECOND AND THIRD PLAGUES
By B. G. Wilkinson
We are definitely told who are to suffer the scourge of the first plague. It is those who have received the mark of the Beast and who worship his Image. Those who receive the succeeding plagues are not so distinctly mentioned, but they are easily discovered by the trend of the record. To escape these plagues it is important to know upon whom they will fall; and as great importance attaches itself to the time of their coming, this also should be ascertained; for the record of these plagues makes connection with other events, which, when examined, indicate the nearness of their approach.
Because men would enforce upon God's people a mark which Babylon, apostate Christianity, has adopted, but which God has forbidden, the first angel comes from the temple to mark those men with a grievous sore. While the sore was preying with deadly effect upon the lawless, the second angel started from his position in front of the temple. “And the second angel poured out his vial upon the sea; and it became as the blood of a dead man.” Now will all lands be awakened to realize that heaven has a controversy with the earth. As these plagues are not universal, all men may not have witnessed the deadly effects of the first plague upon the objects of God's wrath. It will not be so after the outpouring of the second. As the sea washes the shores of all continents, no country can longer remain ignorant that the day of God's “vengeance has come, and the year of recompenses for the controversy of Zion.”
Why this plague? Against whom has God sent this calamity? Surely, it can not be against the sea; for why should God punish an inanimate substance? Neither is it against the souls of life within the waters of the deep. That these innocent creatures should be destroyed is not the purpose of the plague. Their death is recorded simply to show the imparted deadliness of the waters.
It is Babylon whom this plague affects. Her ships sail all seas and visit all shores. And “in one hour so great riches is come to naught. And every shipmaster, and all the company in ships, and sailors, and as many as trade by sea, stood afar off, and cried when they saw the smoke of her burning, saying, What city is like unto this great city. . . . Alas, alas that great city, wherein were made rich all that had ships in the sea by reason of her costliness! for in one hour she is made desolate. Rejoice over her, thou heaven, and ye holy apostles and prophets; for God hath avenged you on her.” Rev. 18: 17-20.
Babylon, whose plagues were to come in one day, has been reveling in the luxury of all lands. And Babylon has shed the blood of saints and prophets. Now she can gaze upon a sea which has become as the blood of a dead man. She can witness this condition of the sea consuming her traffic. Evidently few ships will leave the shore. Communication by cable may be continued, but few cargoes can be interchanged. Terrible suffering must surely follow. With the sea full of blood; the pangs of thirst will begin to be felt; with no food but the insufficient home supply in many lands, distress by hunger will be felt.
Yet no better condition is to prevail on land. Another stroke is to follow. Five angels are yet before the temple. While men, driven from the sea, are huddled upon the land, “the third angel poured out his vial upon the rivers and fountains of waters; and they became blood. And I heard the angel of the waters say, Thou art righteous, O Lord, which art, and wast, and shalt be, because thou hast judged thus. For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and thou hast given them blood to drink; for they are worthy.”
How gladly would every one now be among the righteous! For this plague, falling upon the land-locked nations, does not strike the saints. It is specifically mentioned that this calamity is prepared for those who have shed their blood. The saints, then, must be excluded. But blood must all the slayers drink; since they have poured out the blood of the saints, blood from the vial is poured out upon them. They have given the earth blood to drink; now the earth gives them blood to drink.
The address spoken by the angel to God, ushers us into the living issue. The plague is aimed at those who have shed the blood of saints and prophets. The angel calls them “they.” If we can discover—and the word of God is always clear—who “they” are, we can at once open to view the scenes of this wicked work. The expression would seem to mark them as already well known. In the preceding narrative of this chapter there are only two agencies to whom the term “they” could refer. These are the seven angels of verse 1, and in verse 2 the men who had received the mark of the Beast, and who worship his image. Now it would be folly to say that the angel called himself and his co-angels “murderers of saints and prophets.” Only one party remains who could meet the case—even the men who had received the mark of the Beast.
In our examination of the first plague, the testimony of the Scriptures revealed the mark of God to be his Sabbath day, and the mark of the Beast a counterfeit sabbath. Now if those who shed the blood of saints and prophets are they who have received the mark of the Beast, then the observers of a false sabbath will be found to be the guilty ones. Does the further record of the plague confirm or contradict this? Should it contradict, then we may breathe easy, and once more begin our search. But if it confirms, then evidence is doubly riveted that by the testimony of present events probation's close is near at hand, and that the plagues are about to begin. May all give close attention to the angel's words.
“For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets.” Who are these saints whose blood, spilt like Christ's, has incurred this guilt? The angel knew; for standing with the six others at the opening of Revelation 15, he had received his commission. Together they had just turned from witnessing the scenes of chapter 14. He had just heard God's final approval pronounced: “Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.” He saw that commandment-keeping marked these people as saints. He also heard the divine threatenings which preceded this approval, and these threats he heard uttered against those who had just pronounced death upon the ones refusing to receive the mark of the Beast—that false commandment. Then how well he recognized the saints, whose blood it was decreed to shed, as those who obeyed God's commandments. And how well he knew that “they” who would shed this blood were the advocates of a false sabbath. They were guilty not so much because they had recognized this false command, but because of their destroying zeal. For such the third plague is prepared.
The saints, then, were commandment-keepers. But who were the prophets? These also the angel of the waters knew. He had beheld that anxious struggle enacted in Revelation 12. There he saw that “the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.” And knowing what a co-laborer announced in Revelation 19: 10, that “the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy,” he finds among these commandment-keepers whom the dragon would persecute, “prophets.”
Those who in the eyes of God are His saints and prophets, seek to keep His commandments. “They” upon whom the angel pours out this vial are determined that death shall be the portion of these saints and prophets. Having rejected the collected light of time, they urge on their blind purposes just before the outpouring of the plagues. Therefore the decree of death against the approved people of God merits the accumulated guilt of ages. But as the three Hebrews were snatched from the burning furnace, so will Christ appear, to translate these faithful ones. It was no fault of Nebuchadnezzar that the three Hebrews did not perish. His guilt was deep. He had neglected the previous entreaties of God; so blinded he became that his opposition even attempted the death of the righteous. How like is the case of these! How sad their darkness! how deep their guilt! They have let pass unheeded the lessons of ages, and have done no better than the wicked of former times. So do they sanction the deeds of Cain and all like him, and come in to close the column of time's added guilt. They would even shed the blood of saints and prophets.
Who, then, would deny the justness of the third plague? So terrible is it that the angel seems urged to justify this judgment, and he proclaims it “true and righteous.” But terrible as is the plague, the guilt is more terrible. Who shall escape if acting with these God-dishonoring processions? If the danger of participating was far removed, all might be at ease. But the battle is now going on. Behold the multitudes trampling under foot God's command. See the terrible half-hearted Christianity everywhere prevailing. Consider the beckoning signs swiftly and surely unmasking events, and revealing the destined end of prophecy.
The marshaling of the kings on the shores of the East is certain evidence that the struggle is here. For did not John say that one of the only three agencies causing this mustering array was a spirit from the mouth of the Beast? The world knows, and the people see, that the Eastern complication of nations is the great problem of statesmen, and the topic of news agencies. Yet this is none other than evidence that the Beast is still here, and that the evil spirit from his mouth is pushing the work. Now will the Beast thus engaged forget the great task of enforcing his mark?—No.
The vigorous way in which he carries his campaign in other quarters warns us that the struggle is on. Everywhere the papacy is re-ascending to his sway. In England the prodigious growth of convents, and the yearly increase of ten thousands of confessors, heard in the English Church; France returning from infidelity to the bosom of Catholicism; the conversion of the gifted Swedish poet, August Strinberg, and other gifted and prominent men; with other numerous and multiplying signs, all signify the great movement toward Rome.
And the question of enforcing Sunday by law, so violently agitated a few years ago, will soon be revived. Lincoln, Neb., is not a city unknown in the United States. Yet it was here that on a recent Sunday the writer heard a conspicuously advertised lecturer call for the enforcement and wide enactment of Sunday laws. The movement must succeed. For if the spirits had influence enough over the kings to gather them to the East, they will have enough influence over these same kings to secure the enforcement of the mark of the Beast.
What do these evidences foreshadow? As surely as they shall pass into the movements opposed to God, so surely will they bring the plagues. The result of present events, interpreted by men, may not be clearly seen. But in the light of God's word, they nevertheless read out the coming end. It is not for present prosperity to blind the eyes; this time of peace is given only for unobstructed work. The evidences of the approaching struggle are trumpet blasts, calling for present decision, for consecration now. When the struggle begins, unhappy will be the state of these who now allow the time of peace to pass unimproved. And the evidences of the nearing struggle are the reminders of the approaching plagues. They will surely come, for the Scripture can not be broken.
B. G. WILKINSON.
EDITORS' NOTE: This is the fifth in the series of eight studies on The Plagues. The next article will be “The Fourth and Fifth Plagues.” Your friend should read these articles. Invest twenty-five cents in a two-months' subscription for him. If you can invest fifty cents to send these eight articles to TWO friends, so much the better. We can furnish the back numbers. You may pay the postage stamps if you wish.
RUNNERS HINDERED
By Uriah Smith
To some of the Christians in Galatia, Paul wrote as follows: ‘Ye did run well; who did hinder you that ye should not obey the truth?’ Gal. 5:7. In this declaration, we have a sample of the apostle’s tact and skill in reproving sin, yet trying to win the sinner, and bring the erring one back to the right way. The Galatians had been guilty of a very vexatious fault; for they had known the truth, and had run in the right way; and it is much more trying to the friends of truth to see those who have once known it, and loved it, and walked in it, turning away, and becoming indifferent to it, than it is to see those doing this who have never known the way of truth, and have never shown any interest, or manifested any desire to assist or promote its progress, and share in its blessings. And how could anything be more grievous to the Lord than such a course?
So the apostle might have assailed them with a great deal of sharpness and acerbity, and reproved them with cutting words, for their unfaithfulness, heaping upon them grave charges and stinging sarcasms, reproaching them with the miserable work they were doing in the world. He might have said that which would have had a tendency to stir up every evil trait in their natures, and caused a terrible root of bitterness to spring up in their hearts, to bear its baneful fruit.
But he did not do this. Rather he looked around, and first sought for something that he could commend. Having found it, then he was ready to speak; and he spoke of that, ‘Ye did run well.’ Is not this a plain lesson, to all who speak in public of their brethren to-day, against indulging in indiscriminate censure? Is it not a lesson to recognize and praise that which is good, giving due credit for that, thus showing that everything has had due consideration in our minds? May we not thus, with better effect, reprove and remove the evil? There is more of commendation than might at first appear in the apostle’s language. The Galatians had not been idle nor sluggish in their Christian exercises, but had been earnest and active, so much so that they could be commended as ‘running well.’ It is a source of much pleasure to those who have the cause of God at heart, to see Christians running well. The way in which they run is the way of truth; and the ‘running’ is obedience. These Galatians, then, had been running the right road; they had run straight forward; they had run perseveringly, with a good pace, with their eyes fixed on Christ. If they had not so run, they had not run well; but Paul says, ‘Ye did run well.’
But, alas! they had been hindered. ‘Who did hinder you?’ Their experience may be repeated in our lives, if it has not already been. Will it not be well, therefore, to consider what these dangerous things are which may act the insidious part of hindrances to us in the Christian life, that we may avoid or overcome them? Anything to cause us to stumble would, of course, be a hindrance in our religious growth. This is why Paul so earnestly enjoins caution on this point among Christ’s disciples. He says: ‘Let us not therefore judge one another any more: but judge this rather, that no one put a stumbling block or an occasion to fall in his brother’s way.’ Rom. 14:13.
One of the principal evidences that we are not running well, but are being hindered, is that failure with which the Faithful Witness charged the church in Ephesus: ‘I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love.’ This is one of the prevailing dangers of the last days. ‘Because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.’ Matt. 24:12. When love begins to grow cold, we may know that something is hindering us in the Christian race. All the earnest warnings and exhortations of the Scriptures against backsliding, come in here.
Another indication of hindrance is given in the text itself: it is disobedience to the truth: ‘Who did hinder you that ye should not obey the truth?’ They were once running well, sound in the faith. But when they were hindered, they did not obey the truth. They began to leave the old established faith for new notions. There are well-established truths which are not to be abandoned. Do not give up these for unproved novelties. This is one of the ways to be hindered from running well.
But ‘who did hinder you?’ Was it any one of your brethren? You ought to be proof against any of them, not to let their course or influence have an effect upon you to slacken your pace in the heavenward journey. Did the world hinder you? Then why give the world so large a place in your affairs as to let it mold you in the wrong direction? Did the devil do it? We have this plain instruction respecting him: ‘Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.’
Did you not do it yourself? More likely, now, the question comes nearer the truth. Did you not become overcharged with the cares of this life, and perhaps with the surfeiting and drunkenness associated therewith in the prophecy, and so lose your hold on religious things? Did you not by pride and self-righteousness become so self-satisfied as to stop running? Did not self-indulgence come in to act its part? Did you not neglect prayer, Bible reading, public worship, and other means of grace? Arouse then from this condition, and do not hinder your own soul. Did false teachers do it? Then turn away from them, and listen only to the word of God.
When one has less inclination to secret prayer and the study of God’s word, and abbreviates his seasons of devotion, spending fewer moments in self-examination, meditation, and earnest supplications for himself and others, and this, not because he has less time, but only less inclination, he has need to be alarmed; he is being hindered. Is not the Holy Spirit more displeased when neglected by one on whom He has effectually wrought in times past than when slighted by another who has always resisted all impressions for good, and never wooed nor welcomed His presence? The lukewarm person is useless to himself and to others. His religion will never save himself; and he can not be the means of saving others.
The text is an effectual bar against the doctrine of ‘once in grace, always in grace,’ or the idea that every one must be saved who has ever enlisted in the service of Christ; for that which will hinder one from running well, for a time, may continue so long, and increase to that extent, as to cause him to fall beyond the possibility of rising again. To be hindered is to be led into the first step to final apostasy. The evil is that the natural tendency with one hindered will be to let the power of the hindrances increase, so that there will be less and less inclination to try to rise above them, and our condition become more and more dangerous still.
How many professed Christians there are in the world, with no outbreaking sins upon them so far as man sees, but who are yet without one grace of the Spirit to adorn their lives. In the sight of heaven their lives must be a complete blank. Man, to be sure, may see no fault in them; but at the same time God sees no fruit in them. And what will be taken into the account in deciding the eternal destiny?—It is not what man sees, but what God sees. Can a more obnoxious condition in the sight of heaven be imagined? No wonder the Faithful and True Witness tells the Laodiceans that he will spue them out of His mouth.
Many stumble by exposing themselves to temptations under which they have fallen before. Here one becomes weak, and temptations have the strongest power. When persons repent of sin, they do not mean to fall into that sin again. But tinder will catch on the smallest spark. The soul that has known sin may be excited by that which recalls the past sin. Recovered grace is an awful responsibility. It is a great condescension on the part of God to intrust us again with that grace which we had before forfeited. The more carefully, then, it should be guarded. ‘Carelessness before a fall,’ says Dr. Pusey, ‘may be ignorance, passion, an infirmity of nature. But carelessness after you have been restored from falling is sin against light. It is to reject the mercy of God in Christ.’
The people of India have a maxim that ‘it is better to walk than to run, and better to stand than to walk, and better to sit than to stand, and better to lie than to sit.’ But such is not the rule of the gospel, nor the instruction of the Bible. David likens the sun to a strong man that rejoices to run a race, not shrinking away within itself, but glad that it can dispense abroad its beams to gladden and vivify the earth. ‘Let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus,’ is the instruction of the apostle.
Have some standard by which you can take observations to judge how far you have separated from the world, and how you are running in reference to it. This is illustrated by the remark of a sailor, who said: ‘Sailing from Cuba, we thought we had gained sixty miles in one day. But at the next observation we found that we had lost more than thirty. It was an undercurrent. The ship had been going forward by the wind, but going back by the current.’
So a man’s course in religion may often seem to be right and prosperous, while the undercurrent of his sins may be driving him in the very opposite direction.
U. S.
