PRIVILEGE OR DUTY

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Sep 8, 1881

PRIVILEGE OR DUTY.

Personal religion is regarded too much as a privilege, not as a duty which has passed into a privilege because it is enjoyed, but as a privilege which can be waived. Many seem to think that if they choose to be irreligious and take the consequences, it is an affair of their own, and that they ought to be let alone. Hence they get impatient at any urgency in attempting to turn them to the Christian life. They say, practically, "You need not worry about me. You have warned me of my danger. You have given me the invitation. You have done your duty, and cleared your skirts." This plea also seems many times to satisfy those who are attempting to lead men to the Christian life. The spirit seems to be, "I have done my duty by him, and now if he chooses to go to perdition, let him go." The mistake is made on both sides of regarding personal religion as simply a privilege, just as it is one's privilege to secure his rights in a court of justice. If a man owes one a debt, and attempts to cheat him out of it, it is the creditor's privilege to call the power of the State to his assistance in enforcing his just claim, even though it be for a very petty sum. No man in the entire State, be he Governor or Judge, has any right to deny him that privilege. But he can waive his privilege. He can say, "I would rather be cheated out of my just dues than go to the law." Whether he will go into court or not depends upon his choice. Not so with honesty or truthfulness. If a man is in a right moral condition it will be a privilege to him to speak the truth and to deal honestly, but not a privilege in such a sense that it can be waived. He may refuse going into the law and take the consequences, but he may not refuse to be honest or truthful, and take the consequences. Duty has a grip upon him in reference to these, and the only way to get along comfortably with duties is to choose to go the same way with them.

So if the gospel were exhausted in the invitation, "Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest," we might be content with simply and earnestly joining in Paul's beautiful and touching plea, "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God," etc., and give up all souls that would not heed his appeal to the motive of gratitude and to their higher self-interest. But duty to God and duty to fellow-men remain, whether a man will take care of his own interests or not.

One who is not a Christian may be a better father or a better mother than another who is, or who professes to be, a Christian, but this one cannot be as good a father or as good a mother as he or she would be if an earnest and faithful Christian. And it is every one's duty not only to be better than somebody else in their relations, but to do the best possible. Therefore no father or mother has a right to take the risk of neglecting to be a Christian. The interests of the child are jeopardized thereby. Duty to the child has a demand to make. The same is true of other relations. The claim of God, and the claims of fellows, as well as self-interest, must be pressed upon men, and accepted by them.—Golden Rule.