An Objector Answered

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Aug 31, 1882

An Objector Answered.

"I don't like so much talk about religion," said a rude stranger in a city boarding-house to a lady opposite, who had been answering some questions in regard to a sermon to which she had been listening. "I don't like it; it's something that nobody likes. It's opposed to everything pleasant in the world. It ties a man up hand and foot. It takes away his liberty, and it isn't natural."

"O, no!" answered the lady, "it isn't natural. We have the best authority for saying so. 'The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, neither can he know them, for they are spiritually discerned.' True religion is rowing up stream; it is sailing against wind and tide."

A pause for a few moments followed; then the stranger began again:--

"People who speak so much about religion are queer, anyhow. I wish they could only know how people speak and think about them; nobody likes them, for they are like nobody; they are so very peculiar."

"Allow me to interrupt you again, sir," said the lady, "but I am so impressed with the manner in which your language accords with Bible language that I shall have to introduce another quotation from that blessed book. 'Ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a peculiar people.'"

"Does the Bible say they are peculiar, then? That's odd. That book, somehow, has got a dose for everybody. Yet, ma'am, you must allow that the commands that book lays upon us poor sinners are hard. It's thou shalt not, and thou shalt not, all the time. Why, its precepts and views of things are narrow, very narrow."

"Yes;" replied the lady, "they are narrow, for the Bible says they are. 'Strait is the gate, and narrow is the way that leads to life.' We have to struggle to keep in this narrow way, if we once get in it. It is too narrow for pride, worldliness, and sloth. It is too narrow for the service of two masters. It is too narrow for envy, covetousness, and all other evil passions. Hatred can find no place for so much as the sole of its foot in the narrow way. Good deeds, kind words, faith, hope, and charity occupy all the ground, and will continue to hold it to the end."

The stranger listened, surprised and annoyed, and at last arose and left the room, apparently a more thoughtful, if not a better man.—American Messenger.