Be Earnest by MARY STRATTON

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Dec 25, 1866

Be Earnest.

By MARY STRATTON

If ever there was a time when God's people ought to be in earnest it is now. If we are, as we believe with all our hearts on the very threshold of eternity; it is time to be awake, really. Shall we let this terrible lethargy of the last days stealthily creep over us without making a vigorous effort to arouse ourselves? My heart aches when I see my own unlikeness to Christ. To live like others around us will not do. We must be just as really good at home, as abroad; out of meeting, as in. Consistency is as much a jewel in religious, as in temporal things.

I remember being at a Quarterly Meeting and seeing there a brother who took great pains to get his family to meeting, and seemed to be quite zealous himself. On our way home we had occasion to stop with him over night, and when the time came for prayers we were surprised beyond measure to see that not one of the whole family kneeled down with us.

It will avail us nothing to have a good name abroad, unless we can claim the same at home. I would sooner have my nearest neighbor think me a Christian, than to be so considered by a whole congregation twenty miles from home. It is too late in the day to cover up our sins. In a little while the cloak will be removed, and he which is filthy will be filthy still. It is time to be honest with ourselves and with God. A dishonest Christian is a contradiction of terms. The term Christian can only be applied to those who are Christlike. Was he ever indifferent to the interests of his friends around him? No! Was he proud or selfish? Never! He was the personification of meekness and humility.

How glad I am that the last message to a perishing world has reached my ears so that I may get ready for the coming of the Lord. Nothing but right doing will give us a place with God's remnant people, and enable us to sing the new song, with the hundred and forty four thousand, which no others could learn.

MARY STRATTON.

Cornville, Maine.