STOLEN THOUGHTS by M. W. Howard

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Dec 7, 1869

STOLEN THOUGHTS.

By M. W. Howard

“Unfortunately, many persons inherit thought, religious thought with the rest, as it were ready worn, hardened, and annealed, and so well worked, that the heirs seldom take the trouble to unwind their inheritance, and trace it to its source. So they go on in the same groove, until at last it gets so narrow and deep, that some child, born into it, finds the channel of thought so far down that he feels suffocated, and longs to get up to the level of his own soul, and start out on a new and fresh trail across the plain of existence.”

As I read the foregoing quotation, the query was suggested, What constitutes a Christian? One writer has said, “The children of Christian parents should be expected to grow up Christians, without ever thinking otherwise.” Now this is true; yet we ask for more than the semblance of Christianity. There is a solemn danger in the present day to the children of Christians. They often grow up zealously attached to the sects of their parents, and in due time feel impressed to connect themselves with the church, as the visible expression of their Christianity; and often with an “empty lamp,” slumber in fatal security. Thus securely sleeping for a time, without oil, they waken to become discouraged by their repeated failures in their attempts to imitate vital Christians.

Satan, ever prompt, whispers, “Delusion, myth, or sham,” and too often their lamp is snuffed out in infidel darkness! “What convulsions must then be in one’s heart, when those over-wrought fancies die out, and there come in gloomy reaction, questionings, misgivings, and doubts,” if not antagonism and hatred! But if Christ and his salvation be really in the heart, it will necessarily flow forth in a righteous life; for cause cannot fail to produce effect.

And what constitutes Christ a saviour is that “he saves his people from their sins”—and resulting from this “saving” comes salvation from the consequences of sin, and the felt want of the mind is obtained, not as an aim, but as a result. Solidity and firmness of religious character is thereby attained, resting upon the firm foundation of the immutable truths of God.

“The Stumbling-block,” was the title of a well-written and well-meaning article that came under my notice not long ago. The following paragraph is its introduction. “‘Endless punishment is an absurdity,’ say flippant declaimers against the clear statements of the Bible;—endless suffering in a benevolent administration is absurd and impossible!’ And such bold assertions have been echoed and re-echoed, until good men, who have no wish to disbelieve the Bible, have been disturbed by them and shaken in their belief.” At first view, this would seem occasion only of regret. Or if it occasion rejection of the Bible, or of Christianity, it is greatly to be deplored. But if it lead to investigation of the true teachings of Scripture, then good, not evil, is accomplished; for all should be led to think for themselves, and be able to affirm whereof they believe; thus fixing that stability and firmness of which I have spoken, and avoiding the wavering that stands confessed, in the suggestion to Puncheon, the great speaker, that he “stick to rhetoric and sentiment, for his arguments for Christianity, were enough to make a thinking man skeptical.” Now this should not be, nor do I believe it would be, only that mankind have suffered their theological biases to warp their judgment; or, in the words of Christ, “are teaching for doctrine the traditions of men.”

M. W. HOWARD.

Malone, N. Y.