Forsaking the Message by L. A. S.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D.C. · Apr 6, 1905

Forsaking the Message

By L. A. S.

FROM the nature of the message which Seventh-day Adventists bear to the world it is evident that this denomination must be the last which in the order of God’s providence can arise upon the earth. Its message relates to the end of the world; it heralds the coming kingdom of Christ, and calls men to a reformation of life preparatory to that event. No message can go beyond this; for when this message shall have done its work, time itself will have reached its termination.

We are now in the time of the “restitution of all things,” and about this last message cluster all the truths of divine revelation. All the glory and the beauty of the gospel system are concentrated here. Those who will let this message do for them what God designs it to do for such as receive it, will be made perfect, fitted to stand in righteousness through the period when Christ shall have put off the mediator’s robes in the sanctuary, and is arraying himself in the garments of vengeance and kingly glory.

To what, then, can any one turn who renounces the company of those whom this last gospel message has called out from the world? How can Christians marching under the banner of this message become dissatisfied, and turn to another quarter for truth of a more satisfying nature? Can there be anything better to the Christian than the “blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ,”—that to which God’s servants in all

ages have looked forward? Can there be anything better to those who love the Lord than the assurance that they are soon to see him, soon to be made like him, soon to be taken, with all the righteous dead, to see that glorious land that is very far off,—the home of the saved, where neither sin nor death can come? Can there be anything better to those who love God and their fellow men than the assurance that the long reign of sin and evil has nearly run its course in the earth, and that soon the saints of the Most High are to take the kingdom, and possess it forever and ever? Any one who can find truth more acceptable to his mind and heart than this, by that token may know that he is not a Christian, whatever may be his profession.

Can there also be anything better calculated to quicken the believer and give him zeal in the service of God than the thought that this dark world now lying in sin must be warned of this most glorious and most solemn event, even in this generation?

And where in the system of divine truth can any doctrine be found that more exalts Christ and more fully reveals him in his true character and office than the doctrines of the creation Sabbath, of immortality through Christ alone, and of the sanctuary in heaven, which are so prominent a part of this message? He who is not charmed by the light and beauty of these truths may thereby know that he has no real love of divine revelation.

Much rather will the true Christian put up, if need be, with some things that are disagreeable, than avoid the latter by leaving the standard of this truth. Much rather will he, if necessary, overlook the conduct of his brethren who may treat him unkindly, than separate from the company that have “the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus,” and whose hope is that of his appearing. There can be no greater mistake than that made by such as leave this message to find a better system of truth and stand in a more acceptable relationship with God. L. A. S.