DECISION by John Nevins Andrews

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Apr 6, 1869

DECISION.

By John Nevins Andrews

Wherever success is possible, the man who is determined to win at any cost will surely succeed. Nay, he will succeed in many cases where it even seems that there is no possible chance of success. Obstacles give way before the man who is determined that they shall not check his progress. He will even convert them into helps for the accomplishment of his purpose. Decision of character makes a man mighty among common men. The same noble element makes a Christian, who has it in his character, eminent among Christians. He is the man that nothing can daunt. He will not turn out of the path for fear of lions. He means to win the kingdom of God and the crown of life. He never loses sight of the object. He counts nothing too dear to be sacrificed for its accomplishment. He thinks nothing accomplished so long as something still remains to be done. He subjects his conduct to the most rigid scrutiny. He determines that self-love shall not cause him to think his case better than it is. He knows that to live to God he must die to self. He fixes the firm purpose that self shall be crucified. And when sharp trials do, with keen anguish, drive the nails into his flesh, he holds still. The burdens, trials, crosses and afflictions of the way he feels as deeply as other men; sometimes even more than they, but they seem to him as so many nothings, so fixed is his purpose to gain the kingdom, and so vast and infinite to him does the final reward appear. To spend a long life filled with labors and sacrifices is to him like bearing a light affliction only for a little moment. For he sees the far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, and he counts everything else as nothing if he may only win that.

He never says, I will endure so much, but if it require still more of toil and suffering, I cannot go further. Far from this. He says, rather, I have gone too far and suffered too much not to go clear through and win the last victory. I have set out to win the prize. Come joy, or come sorrow, I never will relinquish the purpose. He does not ask to find the easiest way; but the surest and most direct course. He does not desire to ascertain how many small sins he can cherish, or how many non-essential duties he can neglect. He asks, rather, how he can follow the Lord fully, without a single deviation to the right hand or to the left. He knows that to be saved, he must live by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. Others may take a different course, but this is the only one that will answer for him. He means every night to pitch his tent a day's march nearer the city of God. He means that every step shall count. He means that every battle shall be a victory. Nay, should he from the subtlety of the foe suffer defeat, he will snatch victory from defeat. Such a man never can be conquered. He will hold on his way and grow stronger and stronger. He will go on from strength to strength, till he shall at last appear in Zion before God. This is the kind of Christian to whom the Master shall say, “Well done.” Reader, are you such a Christian as this?

J. N. ANDREWS.