I Die Daily by John Norton Loughborough

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jul 5, 1870

I Die Daily.

By John Norton Loughborough

THESE words are used by Paul as evidence of the sincerity of his faith in the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead. The peril which he braved of being liable any day to be put to death for his faith, standing “in jeopardy every hour,” was evidence to all that he earnestly believed the doctrines he taught. A principle animated him that would lead him to lay aside ease and self-serving, and life itself, if need be, that he might obey and teach the unpopular truths of the gospel. He speaks of his true condition as “persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed; always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. For we which live are always delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh.” 2 Cor. 4: 9–11.

What words are these! the life of Jesus to be made manifest in us. This indeed, is true Christianity, and nothing short of it is Christianity. To be a Christian is to be like Christ. Peter, who once was left to deny his Lord, when soundly converted drank deeply into this same self-denying, sacrificing spirit of the Master; “For this is thank-worthy, if a man for conscience toward God endure grief, suffering wrongfully. For what glory is it, if, when ye be buffeted for your faults, ye shall take it patiently? but if, when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with God. For even hereunto were ye called; because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps.” 1 Pet. 2: 19–21.

The work presented in the above scriptures is not congenial to the unregenerate heart of the pleasure-seeker. The times in which we live are described by Paul, as times when men should be “lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God,” yet “having a form of godliness.” In view of these things our Saviour has told us: “Take heed to yourselves lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life.”

Although, as yet, we are not required, as were the apostles, to daily jeopardize our natural lives, yet we have a work to accomplish which requires of us a spirit of sacrifice and self-denial which would lead us, if occasion demanded, to lay down our lives in the Master’s cause. It is one thing to sing: “Must I be carried to the skies, On flowery beds of ease, Whilst others fought to win the prize And sailed through bloody seas?” But it is quite another thing to have our hearts imbued with the true spirit of suffering that animates the song.

A writer, in speaking of pleasure-loving professors of this time, says: “Christians are called upon to suffer with Christ, but they shrink from even reproach.” What an effort is made to ease conscience by blunting the edge of those scriptures that tell us to be “separate from the world;” to not be “conformed to this world;” to “come out” and be “separate;” to not put on “gold” or “costly array.” When a contrast is made of this time of formality and selfishness, with times even thirty and forty years back, when it was expected that Christianity would entirely renovate a man’s heart and mind, and thus effect a change in his dress, actions, and entire character, we are told that “the church has outgrown some of its fogy ideas of propriety held by such men as Wesley.” Oh! that the spirit of humility, simplicity, and sacrifice, that animated those reformers, might penetrate the hearts of those who now name the name of Christ.

The writer of this article, not long since, after a season of meditation and prayer to God for true humility and simplicity, and a preparation to act a part in the short and solemn work before us, retired to rest, and dreamed that there was but little time in which to get ready, and warn our fellow-men to get ready for what is coming. I had in my dream a great anxiety to know what was most essential in this time to make progress in the work. A young man came to me and offered to show me. He pointed me to a large-faced clock. It lacked twenty-five minutes of twelve by the clock. I said, We are well along in the eleventh hour. While looking at the clock I discovered across the face from left to right, in square-faced gold letters, the word “humility.” A halo of light seemed to beam from it. The young man bade me look more closely. I did so, and discovered immediately back of the word humility, another set of letters inclined to the left at an angle of about 60°, in gold, polished more highly even than the others, the word “simplicity.” The light from the word simplicity shone through the word humility. Quite a company were present, all actively employed, all imbued with the spirit that seemed to come to them from a sight of those words, all realizing that they had but little time to work, all imbued with love, all cheerful and happy. I caught the spirit of the scene. I felt that I wanted everybody happy. Oh! I never seemed so small in my own eyes as in that dream, and yet every time I looked at the letters, a sense of their force would animate me more and more. Oh! I thought, this is the joy of Heaven; each trying in simplicity and humility to do all he can to make others happy. I awoke, but the facts of the dream I still call vividly to mind, believing that with me, and all, humility and simplicity, with firm reliance upon God, in this eleventh hour, will accomplish the work.

But I have digressed from the thoughts of my mind in the beginning of this article, “I die daily.” To daily be in a position, as was Paul, where even “The loss of all things we could bear, And glory in our gain,” must be preceded by an internal struggle,—death, a cleaving of the affections from earth, an entire resignation to the will of God in all things, a greater desire to have God’s will accomplished than our own will. A casting aside of sensual gratification, worldly pleasure and associations, that we may in our lives advance the cause of the Master. This death is the effectual eradication of sin from our members, as in the case of Paul in Romans 7, “Sin revived, and I died.” “I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. Oh, wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” Rom. 7: 9, 23, 24. He more fully elucidates the matter by saying, “For they that are after the flesh, do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.” Rom. 8: 5, 6. The struggle is between self-gratification in various forms, and such a yielding of ourselves to God, as shall cause us to put away from us everything that would grieve the Spirit of God from us, or hinder its effectual working in our mind. As death literally is “a total and permanent cessation of all the vital functions,” so this death is a struggle in ourselves by God’s grace to cause a permanent cessation of the vital functions of “sin in our members.” The daily effort of these passions to rise, to get advantage of us, gives us a constant battle to keep the “body under.” It is a daily warfare. “I die daily.” It is true in this matter that “eternal vigilance is the price of safety.” Self must be subdued, and God alone reign in us. When we get where we complacently sit down, thinking the work is done, we are deceived. “Thy arduous task will not be done Till thou obtain the crown.”

The thoughts, the words, the affections, and all our works, must be wrought in God. As Paul expresses it, “I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.” Gal. 2: 20. See also Rom. 6: 10; 2 Cor. 4: 10; 6: 9; Gal. 5: 24; 6: 14; 2 Pet. 2: 20; 1 Cor. 9: 27; Rom. 12: 1. May the Lord help us each in the work of “casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.” 2 Cor. 10: 5.

My desire is to persevere in this battle, and so effectually keep in the channel of humility and simplicity, that I may “die daily” to all else.

J. N. LOUGHBOROUGH.