Moral Courage by Wm. Penniman

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jun 27, 1871

Moral Courage.

By Wm. Penniman

THIS principle is very essential to enable one to withstand the trials and difficulties of life. True moral courage will remove mountains which stand in the way of progress. All great reformers have had a good share of this quality, and it has enabled them to “face the music” of many a hard-fought battle with error.

In these last days when Satan has so much power, those who do not possess this principle, and do not cultivate it, will not be able to stand the test.

That young man or woman who knows that it is wrong to go to a theater yet does not resist the temptation and refuse to comply with the invitation of friends, lacks moral courage. They may say they have never attended one and wish to learn something. Alas! that man should long for such knowledge. Those things which he never ought to know he is desirous of knowing, and willingly remains ignorant of what he should know. Poor excuse for yielding to temptation! The man who cannot resist the social glass, the cigar, or chew of tobacco with a friend, lacks this principle.

That brother or sister who will not heed the injunction, “Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers,” is in danger of apostasy, and should cultivate moral courage.

The man who has been awakened by the Spirit of the Lord to seek salvation, and has become interested in present truth, and knows it is his duty to keep God’s law, knows that he is trampling upon his Sabbath, acknowledges that the whole law is binding, and would be ashamed to be caught stealing a horse; yet this same man has not the moral courage to keep the Sabbath because it is not popular, or his wife may oppose him, and he has not the bravery to resist her. There are many of this class. May God help them to arouse, is my prayer. Oh! that I could speak to them with the voice of an angel, and with a “tongue of fire,” that every word might burn. In the spirit of Christ I would try to constrain them to awake, put on their strength, and no longer consult with flesh and blood when their duty to God is clear. If necessary, we should have the moral courage to forsake all for God, and we shall have the reward. Our Saviour said, “Verily I say unto you, there is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my sake and the gospel’s, but he shall receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecution, and in the world to come, eternal life.” Mark 10:29, 30. Wm. Penniman.