Loyalty to a Cause by F. M. W.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Apr 29, 1909

Loyalty to a Cause

By F. M. W.

THIS is an age of much-vaunted loyalty to men, to principles, and to movements. With loud acclaim zealous advocates protest their loyal adherence to various causes. If the cause be a righteous one, the ardor of its supporters is to be commended; if, however, the loyalty be given to unrighteous principles, it is as greatly to be deplored.

There is much that passes for loyalty which is such only in name—a mere sentiment, moving the emotions and impulses only, and not affecting the deeper and truer purposes of the life.

Sometimes this sentimental loyalty is made the garb of disguised disloyalty and apostasy. Clothing itself in the habiliments of professed reverence for God and devotion to his truth, error has ever found the most effective ways of gaining entrance to the heart, and consummating its purposes in the life. In these last days we find its advocates professing allegiance to the truth, but at the same time they seek to undermine faith in its fundamental principles. They claim for themselves loyalty to Christ, and charge those who differ from them with being “loyal to a cause” merely.

What is comprehended in this charge which some now make? Is “loyalty to a cause” loyalty to Christ? That depends, of course, upon the character of the cause. Loyalty to an evil cause most certainly would not be loyalty, but disloyalty, to Christ. But loyalty to Christ’s cause is the highest type of loyalty to Christ. We can not separate Christ from his work; his own life is bound up in it. Apply the principle still closer: Is loyalty to this cause of the third angel’s message loyalty to Christ? What does this cause embrace? The answer to this last query must determine the answer to the former question. This cause embraces the grand and final proclamation of the gospel message, of which Christ stands as the great central figure. The glad news of Christ’s return, the reformation regarding the law of God, the solemn warning against the wicked combinations represented in the dragon, the beast, and the false prophet, the exposure of Spiritualism and its seductive allies, the development of a class of people keeping the commandments of God and having manifested in their midst the spirit of prophecy, and finally the ministry of the Lord Jesus himself as our great High Priest, the work of the investigative judgment conducted by the Father and the Son with the holy angels, the redemption of the saints with their promised inheritance, and the destruction of Satan and the finally impenitent,—these mighty and gracious principles are comprehended in the message now going to the world. In the carrying forward of this work God has developed in various ways among his people a heaven-born system of organization and support. This constitutes the bone and sinew of the message, through which its proclamation is hastened, and its forces directed.

This chain of truth, together with the organization which, under God and guided by his Spirit, makes it effective, constitutes the cause, which, pre-eminent over all other considerations, should receive the faithful, loyal support of every Seventh-day Adventist. This cause is the cause of Christ. It has for its foundation divine revelation, for its Author

the Lord himself. Can it be truly said that he who is faithful to this cause and to the only organization and church which stands as its conservator, is “loyal to a cause” merely, and not loyal to Christ?—Nay, verily. Disloyalty to this cause and to the church and people carrying it forward is the highest kind of disloyalty to Christ. The god of such a one is not the God of the Scriptures, not the Lord Jesus Christ, but the god of his own vainglory and evil imagination. Nor is such a one the minister of God for good, but the emissary of the evil one, seeking to disrupt God’s work and bring into it alienation and confusion. No matter how soft his speech, how retiring and modest his disposition, how gracious his manner, or how sympathetic his spirit, the advocacy of such insinuating and insidious principles stamps him as a subtle deceiver, and every grace of speech or person, and every profession of loyalty to Christ, but makes more potent his power to deceive the unwary.

Such was the character of Lucifer’s efforts in the beginning of evil. He set in operation his wicked designs against heaven under a “specious profession of loyalty to God. He claimed to be seeking to promote the honor of God, the stability of his government, the good of all the inhabitants of heaven. While instilling discontent into the minds of the angels under him, he had artfully made it appear that he was seeking to remove dissatisfaction.”

The same tactics have been employed by human leaders of rebellion. Korah and his associates carried on their nefarious warfare against the church, while at the same time “professing great interest in the prosperity of the people. Their insinuations were so readily received that they ventured still further, and at last they really believed themselves to be actuated by zeal for God.” Sympathizing with those in wrong and deserving of reproof, they secured their co-operation in the work of rebellion. “There was greater union and harmony among the discordant elements of the congregation than ever before.”

In all the ages the advocacy of truth has been associated with some system, some people, some organization, which stood as its conservator in the earth. That movement constituted for that period the cause to which the promoters of truth gave their allegiance. The work of Satan has ever been to ensnare, to corrupt, and to weaken the church by sophistical arguments, and always under the plea of great loyalty to truth and to God. Nehemiah promoted in his day a cause. Moses was faithful to a cause. Paul was true to a cause, and for its purity he contended most zealously against those who would weaken it. Thus did Luther and Wesley and William Miller and Joseph Bates and James White. The cause for which they gave their lives was the cause of Christ, though it had to do with finance and management and church discipline. They could not separate their loyalty to Christ from their loyalty to the work Christ gave them to do. No more can we to-day.

Only that man should receive recognition as a teacher or leader in this movement who is true to that for which this movement stands, and to the principles it embraces. Of those who do not do this, the apostle John advises: “If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him Godspeed: for he that biddeth him Godspeed is partaker of his evil deeds.” In the times before us we shall need to heed this counsel. The strait truth of God will cause an alignment of forces. Already the line of demarcation is being drawn. The strength of Israel is being tested.

Loyalty to-day, and as applied to this work, means a decisive, clear-cut stand for Christ as against Satan, for truth as against error, for order as against anarchy, and for the leadings of a sound mind, directed by the Word and the Spirit, as against the vain imaginings of men and the sophistries of the evil one. True charity is not a “good-Lord-and-good-devil” policy; not a commingling of the evil with the good for the sake of harmony. Those who stand with the spirit of Elijah will not be “milk-and-water” men and women, but they will stand with all the faith, humility, and unswerving loyalty of their prototype of old; combined with meekness and humility will be moral backbone and strength of character. May God make us loyal indeed to him, to his truth and people, to his work in the earth. In this loyalty to his cause we shall give highest proof of our loyalty to Christ. F. M. W.