Tests of True Piety by T. L. Cuyler

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Apr 27, 1882

Tests of True Piety.

By T. L. Cuyler

TRUE religion is imitation of Christ; the true Christian is a follower of Jesus. Following implies a continuity. The train is not merely attached to the engine; it pursues the same track over which the engine leads. Following implies obedience; for no soldier can follow his commander unless he obeys orders. It also implies imitation. Learn of me, says the Master, and, as the scholar who would be a good penman keeps his eye on the copy, so the Christian must keep his eye on his Model. Jesus as a loving Saviour died for me; but Jesus as a living man teaches me how to live. The inward fountain of affections must be cleansed, and the will must yield its helm to the commands of Christ. Sagacious Paul describes it as “putting on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.” The evidence of this “new man” is to love righteousness and to hate iniquity.

The man who keeps Christ’s commands simply for selfish objects does not keep them; for the essence and flavor of all holy actions lies in loyalty to Christ, and to do right for his own sake. “Not with eye service, as men pleasers, but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart,” is the rule of true holiness. “Whatsoever ye do, do it unto the Lord, heartily”—because ye love to do it. The moment that any religious service becomes the mere tug and strain of enforced obedience, all the godliness has gone out of it. Adoption makes children, not slaves. Love of Christ is the only consecration.

To practice righteousness and resist sin, requires the indwelling strength of God. “Renew a right spirit within me,” prayed the Psalmist. The original word signifies a firm, constant spirit, that has no waverings. A steady hand writes a clear, strong line; the shaking, tremulous hand, makes the crooked scrawl. Faith is likened to an anchor, because it has a holding power; and that comes from the hold which God has upon the man who exercises it.

The surest preventive of sin is the practice of holiness. When the mind is full of joy in serving God, it pays no heed to the devil’s bribes. The young man who enjoys a prayer-meeting has no temptation to go to the theater or the gaming-room. He who walks in the Spirit is not likely to stoop to fulfill the lusts of the flesh. Instead of picketing the whole road to the kingdom of Heaven by sharp prohibitions, the word of God puts faith at the entrance gate, and lines the pathway with the rewards of obedience, and makes crosses to turn to crowns, and keeps in view the “prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” Before us ever walks our Lord and Master. His winning command is, “Learn of me.” His promise is that we too shall be anointed with the oil of gladness, if we love righteousness and abhor iniquity. And to those who fulfill these two tests, an abundant entrance shall be ministered into the kingdom of Heaven.—T. L. Cuyler.