DARE TO DO RIGHT by M. D. Amadon

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · May 5, 1868

DARE TO DO RIGHT.

By M. D. Amadon

NEVER did such a solemnity seem to rest upon us as at the present time. Often does the impression come home with terrible force. Our hope of salvation depends upon our actions now. We cannot pass on asleep to the great work of preparation going on for God's people, only at our peril. We have the warning, that but few will live out the truth, and overcome at last. “But few, who profess the truth, will be reinstated in the new earth.” Terrible warning! But why is it thus? Because the tender love and compassion of God toward his people have ceased? or that the way is so straight as to be impassable? or that his commandments are so severe that we cannot obey them? No, no; not this. We have the same compassionate Father in Heaven to serve; the same merciful High Priest to intercede for us, with a just God; the same number of ministering angels to watch over and guard us, holding us back in hours of danger, and encouraging us on in the way of truth and holiness. Then, why are we in so great danger? Why is our salvation so doubtful? Not because of any failure in the plan of salvation; but has there not been a departure from God? Have not his people wandered from him? Once they were a plain, humble people. The world scoffed at them for being such. Then, they felt that it was wrong to mingle with the gay and vain, wrong to join with the light-hearted and foolish. Pride was scarcely seen in their gatherings. Then, every energy was bent to advance the truth; and, if the presence of God's Holy Spirit was not felt in their meetings, how they mourned its absence, and sought it again. But how is it with us now? How often we hear the foolish laugh and jest! The society of the world is sought, and even courted. Pride is common everywhere. Where are the self-sacrificing ones, who are only glad when the cause of God is prospering, and sad when it is not? Where are those who are seeking to be living Christians, whose lives are a reproof to the ungodly, and who dare to do right, in the face and eyes of the world? Where is the moral courage necessary to let the light of truth and reform shine out before the world? Is there not a great lack here?

Why should we start back with wonder that crosses, which are calculated to separate us from the world, are presented to us to bear in this time, if crosses there be? And why should we feel that they are crosses? Heaven is reaching out to us blessings, and it is only for us to reach up, and take them. Blessings indeed! Who, that has started out in the pathway of health reform, and has arrived where he has seen its true merits, will not call each step a great blessing? Ask those servants of God, who have used up one life in the cause of truth, and have looked to be just on the verge of the grave, who are now renewing their strength to engage still more ardently in the last conflict, and which of them will call any of it a cross? Is it not time that we, as a people, were whole-hearted in the work of reform? that we felt the weight of responsibility resting upon us, and the worth of souls around us? that we had lost sight of the idea of our gratifying self, and were loving the reform with all the heart? Is it not time that the derision of the world was no more to us than the idle wind?

I have often felt to pity those who are mincing the matter in the dress reform. Such know not the worth of moral independence; not a brassy boldness, but a mind that looks above and beyond the foolishness and extreme vanity of these last days. We have had, now and then, a glimpse of what moral courage would do for us, as a people, were we possessed of it. Not long since, I was happy to meet a young bride, who had, meanwhile, done honor to the reform dress. She told me that she had, during the past winter, been teaching school among the world, and had not worn a long dress once during the term of school. But what was the effect? Was it to call down upon her derision and contempt? No, indeed; but, before she closed her school, nearly every family in the district had worn it more or less. But what if she had worn the long dress, and only now and then put on the short one, as some do; would she have shown her moral courage? No; far from it. The satisfaction that follows right-doing, would not have been hers, as it now is.

A sister teaching in No. 3, Union School, in Battle Creek, was invited, with all the other teachers connected with the schools, to spend an evening at the house of the principal. She hesitated at first, as they were to have a nice supper; and then, to carry out her principles, she must wear the reform dress. But she decided to go, and take her principles of reform with her. She did so, arrayed very neatly in a short dress, which stood out in wide contrast with those of her associate teachers, many of them trailing half a yard on the floor. When the supper was passed, consisting of three rounds: 1st, white biscuit and butter, and pickles, 2d, frosted cake, 3d, ice cream—she said, “No, I thank you; I do not take supper.” But what was the effect? Did it excite scorn and ridicule? No; not a disrespectful word was met, and some, at least, were favorably impressed. Did she dishonor herself in doing this? I trust not in the sight of God or man; for she dared to do right. “But,” say some, “it is wrong to go to such gatherings.” So it is, and do as the world do, and dress as they dress, and eat as they eat. But, if one has moral courage to let his light shine, let him do so. Christ mingled with the world, not to conform to the world; but it was to save some out of the world, and to let his life be a reproof to the world. There is danger in associating with the world; great danger, because we at once become contaminated with its dreadful influences; and how can those who do mingle with the gay and vain, love its flattery, and imitate its fashions, hope to join the pure and holy when Jesus comes? Where, oh! where is the moral courage of God's people? When shall we come up, and be as a city set upon a hill, whose light cannot be hid? Is it not time that we were awake? that we were fully aroused to our lukewarm condition? What if souls should be lost by reason of our example and influence?

The work of reform is a great work. It is like emerging out of a wilderness into bright sunlight. But what if, when the light shines, we do not walk in it? Will it not surely become darkness? And then, how great is the darkness! May God help us as individuals to help each other, and not, as Paul says, be an occasion to fall, or a stumbling block in our brother's way. God has condescended to tell us what is for our good, and shall we be wiser than he, and think a digression from the way will answer? God does not speak to us in these things, and then say it is no matter if you do not heed it. The pride and stubbornness of the human heart is great, and he knows just all we need to subdue it. But the grace of God is sufficient, and, though we cannot conquer all at once, he gives us time, and little by little, step by step, we may overcome, and be conquerors at last.

“Heaven is not reached at a single bound, But we build the ladder by which we rise From the lowly earth to the vaulted skies; And we mount to its summit, round by round. “I count this thing to be grandly true, That a noble deed is a step toward God, Lifting us up from the common end To a purer air and a broader view.”

M. D. AMADON.