Signs of the Times, Vol. 2, No. 14. (3/9/1876)

Signs of the Times

Mar 9, 1876

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · Mar 9, 1876

UNITY OF THE CHURCH.

By Ellen G. White

BY MRS. E. G. WHITE.

Dear Brethren:—As all the different members of the human system unite to form the entire body, and each performs its office in obedience to the intelligence that governs the whole, so the members of the church of Christ should be united in one symmetrical body, subject to the sanctified intelligence of the whole.

The advancement of our church is retarded by the wrong course of its members. Uniting with the church, although an important and necessary act, does not make one a Christian or ensure salvation. We cannot secure a title to Heaven by having our names enrolled upon the church books, while our hearts are alienated from Christ. We should be his faithful representatives on earth, working in unison with him. “Beloved, now are we the sons of God.” We should keep in mind this holy relationship and do nothing to bring dishonor upon our Father’s cause.

Our profession is an exalted one. As Sabbath-keeping Adventists, we profess to obey all God’s commandments, and are looking for the coming of our Redeemer. A most solemn message of warning has been entrusted to God’s faithful few. We should show by our words and works that we recognize the great responsibility laid upon us. Our light should shine so clearly that others can see that we glorify the Father in our daily lives; that we are connected with Heaven and are joint-heirs with Jesus Christ; that when he shall appear in power and great glory, we shall be like him.

We should every one feel our individual responsibility as members of the visible church and workers in the vineyard of the Lord. We should not wait for our brethren, who are frail as ourselves, to help us along, for our precious Saviour has invited us to join ourselves to him, and unite our weakness with his strength, our ignorance to his wisdom, our unworthiness to his merits.

None of us can occupy a neutral position, our influence will tell for or against. We are active agents for Christ or for the enemy. We either gather with Jesus or scatter abroad. True conversion is a radical change. The very drift of the mind and bent of the heart should be turned, and life become new again in Christ.

God is leading out a people to stand in perfect unity upon the platform of eternal truth. Christ gave himself to the world “that he might purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.” This refining process is designed to purge the church from all unrighteousness and the spirit of discord and contention; that they may build up instead of tear down, and concentrate their energies on the great work before them. God designs that his people should all come into the unity of faith. The prayer of Christ to his Father, just prior to his crucifixion, was that his disciples might be one, even as he was one with the Father, that the world might believe that he had sent him. This most touching and wonderful prayer reaches down the ages, even to our day, for his words were, “Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word.”

How earnestly should the professed followers of Christ seek to answer this prayer in their lives. Many do not realize the sacredness of their church relations, and are loth to submit to restraint and discipline. Their course of action shows that they exalt their own judgment above that of the united church; and they are not careful to guard themselves lest they encourage a spirit of opposition to its voice.

Those who hold responsible positions in the church may have their faults in common with other people, and may err in their decisions; but notwithstanding this, the church of Christ on earth has given to them an authority that cannot be lightly esteemed. Christ, after his resurrection, delegated power unto his church, saying, “Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained.”

A relation to the church is not to be easily canceled; yet some professed followers of Christ will threaten to leave the church when their path is crossed, or their voice has not the controlling influence which they think it deserves. True, in leaving the church, they would be the greatest sufferers themselves, for in withdrawing beyond the pale of its influence, they subject themselves to the full temptations of the world.

Every believer should be whole-hearted in his attachment to the church. Its prosperity should be his first interest, and unless he feels under sacred obligations to make his connection with the church a benefit to it, in preference to himself, it can do far better without him. It is in the power of all to do something for the cause of God. There are those who spend a large amount for needless luxuries, and to gratify their appetites, but feel it a great tax to contribute means to sustain the church. They are willing to receive all the benefits of its privileges, but prefer to leave others to pay the bills. Those who really feel a deep interest in the advancement of the cause, will not hesitate to invest money in the enterprise whenever and wherever it is needed.

They should also feel it a solemn duty to illustrate in their characters the teachings of Christ, being at peace one with another and moving in perfect harmony as an undivided whole. They should defer their individual judgment to the judgment of the body of the church. Many are living for themselves alone. They look upon their lives with great complacency, flattering themselves that they are blameless, when in fact they are doing nothing for God, and are living in direct opposition to his expressed word. The observance of external forms will never meet the great want of the human soul. A profession of Christ is not enough to stand the test of the day of Judgment. There should be a perfect trust in God, a childlike dependence upon his promises, and an utter consecration of self to his will.

God has always tried his people in the furnace of affliction, in order to prove them firm and true, and purge them from all unrighteousness. After Abraham and his son had borne the severest test that could be imposed upon them, God spoke through his angel unto Abraham, “Now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me.” This great act of faith causes the character of Abraham to shine forth with remarkable luster. It forcibly illustrates his perfect confidence in the Lord, from whom he withheld nothing, not even his son of promise.

There is nothing too precious for us to give to Jesus. If we return to him the talents of means he has intrusted to our keeping, he will give more into our hands. Every effort we make for Christ will be rewarded by him; and every duty we perform in his name will minister to our own happiness. God surrendered his dearly-beloved Son to the agonies of the crucifixion, that all who believe on him should become one through the name of Jesus. When Christ made so great a sacrifice to save men and bring them into unity one with another, even as he was united with the Father, what sacrifice is too great for his followers to make, in order to preserve that unity?

If the world sees a perfect harmony existing in the church of God, it will be a powerful evidence to them in favor of the Christian religion. Dissensions, unhappy differences, and petty church-trials dishonor our Redeemer. All these may be avoided if self is surrendered to God, and the followers of Jesus obey the voice of the church. Unbelief suggests that individual independence increases our importance, that it is weak to yield our own ideas of what is right and proper, to the verdict of the church. But to yield to such feelings and views is unsafe, and will bring us to anarchy and confusion. Christ saw that unity and Christian fellowship were necessary to the cause of God, therefore he enjoins it upon his disciples. And the history of Christianity from that time until now proves conclusively that in union only there is strength. Let individual judgment submit to the authority of the church.

The apostles felt the necessity of strict unity, and they labored earnestly to this end. Paul exhorted his brethren in these words:

“Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.”

He also writes to his Philippian brethren, “If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies, fulfill ye my joy, that ye be like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves. Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.”

To the Romans he writes, “Now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be like-minded one toward another according to Christ Jesus, that ye may with one mind and one mouth glorify God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Wherefore receive ye one another, as Christ also received us, to the glory of God.” “Be of the same mind one toward another. Mind not high things, but condescend to men of low estate. Be not wise in your own conceits.”

Peter wrote to the churches scattered abroad, “Finally, be ye all of one mind, having compassion one of another; love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous: not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing; but contrariwise blessing; knowing that ye are thereunto called, that ye should inherit a blessing.”

And Paul in his epistle to the Corinthians says: “Finally, brethren, farewell. Be perfect, be of good comfort, be of one mind, live in peace; and the God of love and peace shall be with you.”

The Hope of the Resurrection.

The resurrection is one of the most precious doctrines of divine revelation. It is the hope of the believer, and is properly termed a “blessed hope.” Titus 2 : 13. It was fearlessly expressed by Paul, before Felix (Acts 24 : 15) and before Agrippa (Acts 26 : 6–8). He dwelt upon it in all his epistles to the churches, besides preaching it everywhere. Its importance to him appears in his language to the Corinthians: “If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.” After fully authenticating the resurrection of Christ, he predicates that of the believer thereupon, affirming that “if Christ be not risen their faith is vain.” The child of God lays hold of the life beyond, realizing that “it is not all of life to live;” but not so the enemy of God. Ask him “What is your life?” and he can only say: “It is even a vapor that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away;” or as the feeble flame of a lamp that a breath of air extinguishes. But ask the true child of God, “What is your life?” and mark the expression of his features as he replies: “When Christ who is our life shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.” But do you not enjoy life now? “O yes; I live, yet not I but Christ liveth in me; and the life that I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God; but I shall live hereafter in a higher, more blessed, and more perfect sense; for I know that my Redeemer liveth, and because he lives I shall live also.” This is the language of faith—that faith that enabled a child of God when about to die to compose this as his own epitaph: “The inn of a traveler on his way to the New Jerusalem;” and another to say of the death and burial of a traveler: “So they laid the pilgrim in a chamber whose window opened toward the sunrising, to sleep until the break of day;” and another to say of himself:

“Then let the worms demand their prey, The greedy grave my dust consume; With joy I drop my mouldering clay, And rest till my Redeemer come; On Christ, my life, in death rely, Secure that I can never die.”

And yet another, speaking of rest in the tomb, was led to remark: “I am not afraid to lie down to sleep even in a dungeon, when I know that a dear friend in whom I trust, holds the key, and that he will not only watch over me during sleep but unlock the door as morning breaks, and permit me to go forth a free man. And so I am not afraid to lie down in the tomb when I can do so with the assurance that

“Christ, my Redeemer, lives And e’er from the skies Will watch my sleeping dust Till he shall bid it rise.”

The British Workman referring to a seed found in the hand of a mummy two thousand years old, which, when planted, bloomed into a beautiful flower, thus beautifully expresses the gospel hope:

“Two thousand years ago a flower Bloomed brightly in a far-off land; Two thousand years ago its seed Was placed within a dead man’s hand. Before the Saviour came to earth, That man had lived, and loved, and died, And even in that far-off time, The flower had spread its fragrance wide. Suns rose and set, years came and went; The dead hand kept its treasure still; Nations were born and turned to dust While life was hidden in that shell. The shriveled hand is robbed at last, The seed is buried in the earth, When lo! the life long hidden there Into a glorious flower bursts forth. Just such a plant as that which grew From such a seed when buried low, Just such a flower in Egypt bloomed And died two thousand years ago. And will not He who watched the seed And kept the life within the shell, When those he loves are laid to rest, Watch o’er their buried dust as well? And will he not from ’neath the sod Cause something glowing to arise? Aye, though it sleep two thousand years, Yet all that buried dust shall rise. Just such a face as greets you now, Just such a form as here we wear, Only more glorious far will rise To meet the Saviour in the air. Then will I lay me down in peace, When called to leave this vale of tears, For in my flesh shall I see God, E’en though I sleep two thousand years.”

—Messiah’s Herald.

Christ’s Soon Return and Reward

“Behold, I come quickly, and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be.” Rev. 22:12.

The Signs of the Times

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Past and Present.

By Watchman

Do not crouch to-day, and worship The old Past, whose life is fled. Hush your voice to tender reverence; Crowned he lies, but cold and dead.

For the Present reigns, our monarch, With an added weight of hours; Honor her, for she is mighty: Honor her, for she is ours.

See the shadows of his heroes Girt around her cloudy throne; Every day the ranks are strengthened By great hearts to him unknown; Noble things the great Past promised, Holy dreams, both strange and new; But the Present shall fulfill them, What he promised she shall do.

She inherits all his treasures, She is heir to all his fame; And the light that lightens round her, Is the luster of his name; She is wisest with all his wisdom, Living on his grace she stands, On her brow she bears his laurels, And his harvest in her hands. —Watchman.

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