Mottoes by S. E. Lindsley

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jan 22, 1867

Mottoes.

By S. E. Lindsley

Mottoes are very numerous. Nearly all States, societies, and periodicals, have their mottoes. This is all right, provided the party which claims it, lives in accordance with its sentiment; for the motto should be the index of the aims and character of those who have chosen it.

But the mottoes which so particularly attracted my attention, a few evenings since, and have been a subject of pleasant contemplation, were those over the various departments of our enlarged Review. Surely better ones could not have been chosen. It seemed to me that No. 1, Vol. xxix, was the best one I had ever read. I was feeling somewhat sad, but, after feasting awhile on its contents, I retired with a grateful heart to thank the Lord for the Review. Its first motto has been worn too long, perhaps, to need comment, except it be for that very fact. Its mission is still the same. We are still in the “waiting time,” and have need of patience. “The commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.” Here are they who are striving to keep them all. Here is the religious Journal which has for sixteen years proclaimed them. Over the sermon is “Preach the Word.” By this means the scattered ones have the word preached to them unmixed with the popular theology and traditions of men which they are sure to hear among the popular churches. Thank the Lord for the sermon! The motto over the Commentary is truly beautiful and expressive. Over the News and Miscellaneous is, “Can ye not discern the Signs of the Times?” How suitable! How strange that any can read the news of the day and not discern that it is now as it was in the days of Noah! But then, we read, that they knew not till the flood came and took them all away. “Exhorting one another, and so much the more as ye see the day approaching.” There are many who cannot personally obey this injunction of the apostle. Here, then, is a channel open whereby the lonely ones may derive comfort and instruction from the exhortations of their brethren and sisters, and, in turn, exhort them. Over obituary notices are the consoling words, “Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth.” Oh! yes; well did the prophet “tremble within himself that he might rest in the day of trouble.” Then let us not grieve for our dear friends who rest in hope, as we would have done at any other period of time. They escape much which the living must endure. “They rest from their labors.” Only a little while and we, if faithful, will meet them where there will be no more death.

Next, the Publication Department with its motto, “Buy the truth and sell it not.” Precious truth! We love it! We rejoice in it! Every portion is to us “meat in due season.” Then let us not hide it under a bushel while our dear friends and neighbors are perishing in total ignorance of its existence. Let us buy it, not to keep it shut up in our library, or on our spare-room table, but to study thoroughly ourselves, and then scatter like bread upon the waters praying that it may bring forth fruit to the glory of God. Over the Appointments is, “And as ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of Heaven is at hand.” This was Jesus’ commission to his disciples, but now, how much more emphatically is it “near at hand?” Never before did I realize that the harvest is great and the laborers are few, as at the present time. It seems that the minds of the people are being prepared for investigation. Even here, in New Haven, the people are stirred up, and some honest souls, as I trust, who have been profane and irreligious, are seeking the Lord; but they know not that he has gone within the Most Holy place where is seen the “ark of his testament.” Oh! that some messenger laden with light and truth, might come this way. But alas! the laborers are few. Well may our earnest cries ascend to the Lord of the harvest, to send forth more laborers into his vineyard. Meanwhile, it is the duty of all to let their light shine. It is my earnest prayer, that I may not by a careless, and inconsistent course, reproach the cause of truth.

Next, the Business Department, with its appropriate motto, “Not slothful in business.” Methinks if the laborers at the Office were “slothful in business,” the Review would not be what it now is. Speed on your heavenly mission, O messenger of light and truth! Find your way to many homes which are ignorant of the light which thou bearest! May all who are blessed and cheered by your weekly visits, heed your faithful admonitions, and, at last, be presented faultless before the throne of God.

S. E. LINDSEY.

New Haven, Dec. 23, 1866.