p. 3 | Are You a Christian? by F. M. W.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Feb 17, 1916

Are You a Christian?

By F. M. W.

THIS is a personal question. It is a question which we wish to address to each one of our readers. It is a question which involves your present relationship to God. Perhaps you will answer, “I am a church member.” It is well that you should belong to the church. Church membership, we believe, is not only helpful but necessary in the development of Christian experience. But it is not safe for you to conclude that because you are a member of the church you are therefore a Christian, because the whole history of the church shows that many have formally enrolled under the banner of Christ who knew but little of his saving power in their lives.

You may say, “I hold credentials from the conference,” but this does not prove that you are a Christian. Your brethren in ordaining you to the gospel ministry may have mistaken your call to this sacred office. The Lord may have been pleased to work through your instrumentality for the salvation of others, while you yourself are unsanctified, even as he spoke his word through Balaam; even as Judas went forth with his companions preaching the gospel of the kingdom. It is possible, as stated by the apostle Paul, for one to preach to others, and yet be a castaway himself.

You may answer that you are president of the conference, or that you occupy some other high official position. The position which one occupies in the church does not necessarily determine his character. Korah, Dathan, and Abiram were leaders in Israel; so were the two hundred and fifty princes who joined the rebellion, men of renown in the congregation. But the positions they occupied were not a guaranty of their Christian integrity.

Do you observe the Sabbath, pay tithes into the church treasury, and give liberally to foreign missions? You may do all this, and yet fail of being Christlike in character. Israel of old, according to the confession of Christ, were zealous for the law, earnest in missionary labor according to their own standard, scrupulous in the payment of tithes, and yet the Lord declares to them that they were hypocrites ; that they “omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith.” Matt. 23: 23. Is your life devoid of these Christian graces? The apostle Paul declares that though he were to speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and that though he had the gift of prophecy and understood all mysteries, and though he should bestow all his goods to feed the poor and give his body to be burned; yet if love did not prompt this service, these attainments and this sacrifice would be in vain.

To be a Christian one must be Christlike. The great test of Christianity is in the home and in the everyday life. The best human judges of our Christianity are the members of our own families, our neighbors, those with whom we do business. If your wife, your husband, your children, were to express their honest sentiments as to your Christianity, what would be their verdict?

Reader, are you a Christian? Face yourself with this simple, direct question. Consider it in the light of what you know to be Christian duty. Consider it not from the standpoint of your reputation, of what your brethren think you are, but from the standpoint of what you know you are, of what God knows you are. Gauge your answer by what you know to be the motives and purposes ruling your life. It is from this standpoint that you will have to answer the question sometime. Why not consider it now?

These are days of peril and uncertainty. We know not what this year may bring to any of us. Today the Spirit of God appeals to us. Today we have the use of our reasoning faculties. Let us face this question, not in any sentimental way, but squarely and frankly. Wherein a close scrutiny of our lives reveals that we are not fully conforming to the divine standard, may God grant that while there is still opportunity we may avail ourselves of the cleansing blood of Christ, and by faith bring his life into our experience to keep us and to hold us from all the power of iniquity. “Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.” “Today if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts.”

Marriage and Divorce

THE home relationship is a primary one. Wreck the home life of the people and every other human relationship is endangered. To the extent that lax ideas prevail regarding the sanctity of the marriage relationship, to that extent will the moral tone of society be lowered, the effectiveness of the church weakened, and the stability of the state threatened.

An article in a recent number of the Christian Statesman, by Attorney W. H. Thomas, judge of the superior court in the State of California, gives some enlightening statistics on this subject. He declares that “more divorces are granted in the United States than in all the rest of the Christian world, Protestant, Catholic, and Greek; more than in all Europe outside of the Balkan Peninsula, all civilized Australia and America.” He quotes the United States Census Bulletin No. 96 on “Marriage and Divorce,” stating that—

during the twenty years, from 1887 to 1906, an average of one marriage in twelve ended in divorce. If the number of divorces in proportion to the population had been the same in 1905 as it was in 1870, the number of absolute divorces reported in 1905 would have been only 24,000, whereas it was, in fact, 67,791. In 1906 the actual number was 72,062, while the ratio of 1870 would have resulted in only 24,398. From 1860 to 1870 there was one divorce to one thousand of our population. From 1870 to 1880 there were two divorces to each one thousand of our population. From 1880 to 1890 there were three divorces to one thousand of our population. From 1890 to 1900 there were four divorces to one thousand of our population. In 1905 there were three times as many divorces in proportion to the population as there were in 1870.

The editor of the Christian Statesman adds:—

This condition is more pronounced today than ever before in history. It is appalling, even of contemplation, when confronted with the figures, to be compelled to admit the inroads of this cancer in the body of the American family, for these figures not only indicate but they show that should the increase of the recent past continue for one hundred years, more marriages would end by divorce than by death.

As regrettable as these conditions are, and as greatly as we desire that they might be otherwise, we must recognize them as the fulfilment of the prophetic

Word. The Scriptures of Truth liken the last days to the days of Noah and Lot, when the hearts of men were set upon buying and selling, eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage. See Luke 17:26-30. Marriage is an ordinance after God’s order. Into this holy estate it is entirely proper for men and women to enter so long as they do so in the fear of God. It is the hasty, unwise unions which constitute the menace, unions formed from caprice rather than from love. Out of these unions the majority of divorce cases grow. Let us exalt in our teaching and by our example the sacred relationship of the marriage ordinance. Let us teach our youth that it is not merely a civil or social compact, but a union into which they should enter in the fear of God and from motives of truth and purity.

F. M. W.