Swallowing Camels by G. B. T.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Tacoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Mar 16, 1916

Swallowing Camels

By G. B. T.

SPEAKING to the Pharisees of his time, the Saviour said, “Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel.” Matt. 23: 24. In these words the Saviour gives a solemn warning against a tendency of the human heart, which is especially manifest in the lives of those who have lost their own spiritual eyesight. These blind guides, while usually quite concerned over the nonimportant things which have to do with the outward appearance of sanctity, are often full of vileness within. They “strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel.”

This is well illustrated in an incident which I read recently. A lady in one of the foreign capitals left her friends, and engaged a hack to take her home. The driver, instead, drove her to a lonely part of the city, murdered her for her jewels, and threw her body into the canal. When arrested shortly afterward, and asked why he did not eat of some pie which the woman had in her basket, the murderer said, “It was Lent. How could I think of eating that! It may have contained meat, and I am, thank God, a good Christian.”

The Pharisees stood in the market place, and with feigned humility prayed, yet cherished in their hearts the selfish desire of having the uppermost room at feasts. They made long, sanctimonious prayers, as is common to hypocrites, yet robbed the widows of their homes. Their outward appearance was clean, they looked like true believers, and were very zealous for the law and for all the traditions and rules of the church, while their hearts were full of extortion and excess. They were tithe payers, even down to the most fractional part, and could criticize those who in their judgment failed in this divine obligation; but they left undone the weightier matters of the law—judgment, mercy, and faith. Though strict tithe payers, they were cold, harsh, and merciless, full of covetousness, and were continually judging those who were far more worthy in God’s sight than themselves. While appearing righteous and straining out every gnat from their own and other people’s experiences, they swallowed without any compunction of conscience the camels of hypocrisy and impiety. They garnished the tombs of the prophets, and with fine speeches and most glowing epithets, held up as an example the pioneers in the church, from the days of Moses down to their own time; yet they criticized unsparingly the greatest Prophet of all times, who was living among them. Finally they stained their hands with the most awful tragedy ever enacted, and while swallowing this camel of sin, assumed all its consequences by saying, “His blood be on us, and on our children.” Well, indeed, might the Son of God denounce such hypocrisy, and ask those who were guilty of it, how they could escape the damnation of hell.

This instruction is for all time. It is written for our admonition. These outcroppings of the natural, deceitful, and depraved heart are still seen. Pharisaism is still manifested among God’s professed people. We need to be warned and admonished, lest we take part in this awful sin, and merit the condemnation and displeasure of him who denounced it. This is one of the things which will interfere with the spiritual progress of the church till the end. It is easy to criticize and pick out supposed flaws in the lives of others—now as then to strain out the gnat and swallow the camel.

When we see in the church some who on a few minor points are not so careful as we think they should be, and cannot take that radical position that we feel clear to take, it is easy to conclude that they are hindering the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, while we ourselves are

carrying in our own hearts the camel of criticism, of judging and condemning others. There is no sin denounced in severer language by the Lord himself, and rebuked more faithfully in the Testimonies, than that of criticizing others. Indeed, it is among the most common sins in the church, and productive of the greatest evils. Those addicted to it are usually quite active in pointing out the mote in the eyes of others, and condemning them, publicly and privately, in the most severe terms, while a beam is in their own eyes.

It is a source of much surprise that this camel of iniquity and sin can be swallowed so easily, can be carried in the heart through months and years without any special remorse. But the admonitions of Jesus show that it is possible, while criticizing others, to be a whited sepulcher ourselves, full of dead bones and of all uncleanness. One may be very particular on some point and yet not be a victorious Christian in some other things of equal importance.

We believe in a high standard, in a particular life, in a life victorious in the smallest things, a life delivered from all sin. We believe the Lord will weigh in the judgment the smallest acts, the secret things of our lives. He will weigh in the balance of the sanctuary the words, thoughts, and motives of the heart, and it is for us to gain the victory over every wrong word and act. But it is not our business to take the place of God and determine who are the saints and who are not. We ought not to seek to assume this prerogative of the Almighty. Those who judge others, we are told, do the very things they condemn. Rom. 2: 1.

We are told to examine ourselves. In this we should do faithful and thorough work. In dealing with ourselves we can be unsparing, and in the secret place lay before the all-seeing eye of God the things that have been revealed in the most remote and secret recesses of the heart, where the cobwebs of sin have long been hidden. We should be careful not to excuse sin in ourselves in the least degree. We should ask God to reveal to us the utmost depravity of the soul; and when revealed, it should be confessed, despised, and forsaken. We should learn to deal with ourselves faithfully and truly, and should realize that other people have consciences, and access to God, and the same light that we have, and are equally accountable to the great Judge. In this way we ourselves shall grow in grace, and the church of God will prosper.

G. B. T.