Hold to the Affirmative by Mary Stuart

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Mar 30, 1916

“Hold to the Affirmative”

By Mary Stuart

MARY STUART

WHAT does it mean to hold to the affirmative? How can one do it when opponents are to be met? Does it mean that one should never state errors, not even in order to refute them?

These are some of the queries that may arise in the mind when one reads a statement like this: “Hold to the affirmative. . . . Dwell not on the negative points of questions that arise, but gather to your minds affirmative truths, and fasten them there by much study and earnest prayer and heart consecration.”—“Testimonies for the Church,” Vol. IX, pp. 147, 148.

I have heard ministers of the gospel, even our own ministers, in the pulpit tell the most ridiculous stories,—the deductions of evolution; the vagaries of Theosophy, Christian Science, or New Thought; the theories of geology and higher criticism,—stories that many in the audience would never otherwise have heard, stories that were so absurd that they could not help but create a laugh, their very absurdity helping to fix them in the memory.

And it is not only persons of mature mind and judgment who listen to these tales, but youth with plastic minds and immature judgment, who find it difficult to understand even the simpler principles of Christian living.

This is where one of the greatest evils of restating errors comes in—their influence on the young. Such stories stick in the memory, even against the will, and sometime in the future they may be used by the enemy as a net to catch the souls of our youth, and drag them down to ruin. Stories that seem to us so ridiculous that no one could believe them, may strike the fancy of some one in the audience, even as they have seemed true to those who seriously promulgated them, and that person may be lost in consequence. Another may be led to doubt the truth of the Bible, should temptation come in some subtle form, such as Satan knows so well how to use.

“If Christ had not held to the affirmative in the wilderness of temptation, he would have lost all that he desired to gain. Christ’s way is the best way to meet our opponents. We strengthen their arguments when we repeat what they say. Keep always to the affirmative.”—Id., p. 148.

“It has been a great error to publish to all the arguments wherewith opponents battle against the truth of God; for in so doing minds of every class are furnished with arguments which many of them had never thought of. Some one must render an account for this unwise generalship.

“Arguments against the sacred truth, subtle in their influence, affect minds that are not well informed in regard to the strength of the truth. The moral sensibilities of the community at large are blunted by familiarity with sin, . . . so that God’s truth is not discerned.

“In giving publicity to the erroneous arguments of our opponents, truth and error are placed upon a level in the minds of the people, when, if they could have the truth before them in its clearness long enough to see and realize its sacredness and importance, they would be convinced of the strong arguments in its favor, and would then be prepared to meet the arguments urged by opposers.”—“Gospel Workers,” pp. 379, 380.

No, it is not always necessary to state a false position in order to refute it. Keep stating the truth, and the truth will expose the error every time. Do not put into the minds of our youth deadly weapons which may be turned to pierce their own hearts and yours.

In a powerful sermon on the Bible, the Rev. C. H. Spurgeon, London’s noted divine, sounds a strong note of warning on this point:—

“There is never any necessity for Christian ministers to make a point of bringing forward infidel arguments in order to answer them. It is the greatest folly in the world. Infidels, poor creatures, do not know their own arguments till we tell them, and then they glean their blunted shafts to shoot them at the shield of truth again. It is folly to bring forward these firebrands of hell, even if we are well prepared to quench them. Let men of the world learn error of themselves; do not let us be propagators of their falsehoods. True, there are some preachers who are short of stock, and want them to fill up; but God’s own chosen men need not do that; they are taught of God, and God supplies them with matter, with language, with power.”—Sermons, First Series, 1858, pp. 27, 28.

One more quotation from the pen of the servant of the Lord:—

“Christ imparted only that knowledge which could be utilized. His instruction of the people was confined to the needs of their own condition in practical life. The curiosity that led them to come to him with prying questions, he did not gratify. All such questionings he made the occasion for solemn, earnest, vital appeals. To those who were so eager to pluck from the tree of knowledge, he offered the fruit of the tree of life. They found every avenue closed, except the narrow way that leads to God. Every fountain was sealed, save the fountain of eternal life.”—“Testimonies for the Church,” Vol. VIII, p. 310.