IT PAYS | AdventAI

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Aug 14, 1868

IT PAYS.

Reader, it pays to be a thorough Christian. It pays to repent and be converted. It pays to serve Christ. I do not tell you that it pays in money; I do not tell you that it will increase your income. But I do tell you that it pays in happiness, in peace and hope and inward comfort, it pays a thousand times over. The service of the world is utterly unprofitable. It is a service in which there are plenty of promises, and very little performance. No wonder that Paul asks the Romans, “What fruit had ye in the things whereof ye are now ashamed.” Rom. vi, 21. Be like the many around you, a thoughtless, careless, prayerless child of the world, and you will find one day that it does not pay at all. Be like the few who serve Christ, a humble, penitent, believing, praying, Bible-reading Christian, and you will most certainly find that it pays. Out of all the millions who have turned to God, and repented, and been converted, who ever repented of repentance? I answer boldly, not one. Thousands repent every year of folly and unbelief. Thousands mourn over time misspent. Thousands repent their drunkenness and gambling, fornication and neglected opportunities. But no one has ever risen up and declared to the world that he repents of repenting and turning toward God. The steps in the narrow way of life are all in one direction. You will never see in the narrow way the steps of one who turned back because the way was not good. All find it pays to serve Christ. I remember of reading of a remarkable event that occurred in a place of worship where a puritan minister, Mr. Doolittle was preaching, two hundred years ago. Just as he was about to begin his sermon, he saw a young man, a stranger, coming into his church. He guessed, by the young man’s manners, that he was anxious about his soul, and yet undecided about religion. He took a remarkable course with him, he tried a curious experiment, but God blessed it to the young man’s soul. Before Mr. Doolittle gave out his text, he turned to an old Christian whom he saw on one side of his church. He addressed him by name, and said to him: “Brother, do you repent of having served God?” The old Christian stood up manfully before the congregation, and said: “Sir, I have served the Lord from my youth, and he has never done me anything but good.” He turned to the left hand where he saw another Christian, and addressed him the same manner. “Brother do you repent of having served Christ?” That man also stood up manfully and said: “Sir, I never was truly happy till I took up my cross and served the Lord Jesus Christ.” Then the preacher turned to the young man and said, “Young man, will you take up your cross, will you this day begin to serve God?” The Lord sent power with these words; the young man arose and said in a humble tone, “Yes sir, I will.” Reader depend upon it, the two answers which Mr. Doolittle got that day, are the experience of all true Christians. Depend upon it, no man ever repented of repentance, no man was ever sorry that he had served the Lord. No one ever said, at the end of his days, I have read my Bible too much, I have thought of God too much, I have prayed too much, I have been too careful of my soul. Oh! no never. The people of God would say, Had I to live my life over again, I would walk far more closely with God than I ever have done. Reader, cast fear away and begin to be a true Christian without delay. There may be trials to be borne, and battles to be fought, in the way to Heaven, but it pays.—Selected.