Emphasizing the Great Things by Francis McLellan Wilcox

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D.C. · Apr 3, 1913

Emphasizing the Great Things

By Francis McLellan Wilcox

This is an age of speculative philosophy. We see in the great Christian church a wide departure from the old fundamentals of faith and practise. Doctrines that a few years ago were counted as a part of cardinal faith are now relegated to the past as old-fashioned and out of date. While we see no tendency in the Seventh-day Adventist Church to discard or discount the great fundamental principles of the Word of God, we stand in constant danger of emphasizing them less strongly than we should. Satan is well pleased if he can divert our minds into the serious consideration of non-essentials, and lead us to spend precious time and energy in the discussion of many details.

Israel of old did this, and they did it in proportion as they lost out of their knowledge the power of the truth of God. In the same degree that their service became to them a form, it degenerated to meaningless ceremony; they spent their energies in the discussion of trivial details,—strivings about the law, questions of genealogy, abstruse questions of philosophy. These things engaged their minds to the exclusion of the vital truths of the gospel.

At the present time we hear of one church seriously discussing the question as to which is greater, God or principle. Another little company has been greatly exercised in seeking to determine who Melchizedek was. There are many questions, of this latter character particularly, that are interesting to consider, and in their proper place appropriate for study, but in the contemplation of some of the details of Scripture truth let us not lose sight of the great fundamentals of the Word of God.

God has called this denomination into existence to give the warning message for this last day and generation. The message to prepare a people to stand in the day of Christ's coming is a message of reform. Its purpose is to call men back to the old, forsaken paths of truth, and to a higher and holier plane of Christian living. It presents Christ as man's all-sufficient sacrifice and Saviour; his ministry as the only means by which the merits of that sacrifice may be made available; his righteousness, obtained through faith, as the one source of eternal life; his coming as the realization of the Christian's hope. It enjoins the binding claims of God's great law, restoring to its rightful place the downtrodden Sabbath of Jehovah, and warning men against the false claims of the counterfeit Sabbath and against its enforcement by legal enactment. It brings to view the work of the investigative judgment, the final reward to be given to the righteous, and the punishment to be meted out to the wicked at the last great day. This comprehends, in brief, the special message for this day.

Shall we neglect the study and presentation of these great truths, and spend our time in the discussion of some abstruse question of philosophy, like the one first mentioned, “Which is greater, God or principle”? Doing so shows that we fail to recognize the breadth and greatness of our work as a denomination, and the mission for which we have been called into the world.

Let us not seek to get away from the great fundamentals. In these fundamentals our churches to-day need to be grounded anew; in these our children and young people need to be instructed. They need to be emphasized in our training-schools. We can not afford to spend the time of the class in the discussion of unimportant details even though their consideration may be fascinating, while we neglect to place emphasis where emphasis belongs, upon the great fundamental principles.

We can find to-day many one-ideaed men, who will center upon details; who will ramble off into the speculative and unknown; who in assumed superiority of greater knowledge will seek to show their wisdom by haggling over this or that detail. We need to be accurate. We need to safeguard every expression. We need to become so well instructed that we shall be able to give a reason of our hope to every man that asks us; and with this we need to comprehend the truth of God in its magnitude, and fix our eyes, not upon some little detail and magnify that to the exclusion of all else, but upon the great fundamentals. In

these days of doubt and questioning and infidelity may God keep us true and loyal, firm and unwavering, in the carrying forward of the message of which he has made us the conservators. Let us pray Heaven to make and keep us well balanced, men and women of good sense and sober judgment. F. M. W.