The Daily Life by Editor

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jan 9, 1908

The Daily Life

By Editor

Editorial

ANY interpretation of the revelation of God which robs us of a childlike trust in his fatherly care, and which requires us to deal with a scientific personality instead of with a person, is a perversion of the gospel of our salvation, an enemy of our peace, and a false guide. Let us “ask for the old paths, where is the good way.”

No form of godliness, not even the right form, will take the place of the fruits of righteousness in the life. The divinely prescribed form of godliness ought to be simply the channel of expression for a life in harmony with the will of God—the revelation of the indwelling Christ. “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father who is in heaven.”

THERE is much comfort and assurance to the child of God in that promise, “For I am the Lord, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.” In dealing with Jacobites, persons in whom is found that spirit of scheming and twisting to carry out their own plans, God manifests an unswerving, straightforward course, founded in his own attribute of eternal truth. Therefore, unconverted professors are not consumed. But salvation is not found here. The experience of Israel, that of wrestling until victory is obtained, must be experienced. The attribute of unswerving truth must be inwrought into our characters also.

Such will not be tossed about, to and fro, by every wind of false doctrine raised by him who has no truth in him—the one possessing the very opposite attributes of our God who “changes not.” By walking in the truth, we may become like Jesus, who “is the same yesterday, and to-day, and forever.”

The Daily Life

IT is for the common experiences of life that we need the grace of Christ. To be patient under trial, to be kind to the unthankful and the unfriendly, to be faithful in little things, to refrain from saying or doing the things which worry and annoy, and to cultivate an atmosphere of contentment and hope,—these are the evidences of Christianity which, in the daily association of the home and the neighborhood, will far outweigh in their convincing power all the formal arguments of the theologians. “It is easy to join in devotional exercises, to quote promises, to extol the beauty of the Scriptures; but there are many who do these things whose religion utterly fails them in the very places and at the very times when it ought to prove their staff and stay. . . . It is no heroism to live patiently where there is no provocation, bravely where there is no danger, calmly where there is nothing to perturb. Not the hermit’s cave, but the heart of busy life tests as well as makes character. If we can live patiently, lovingly, and cheerfully amid all our frets and irritations day after day, year after year, that is grander heroism than the farthest-famed military exploits; for he that ruleth his own spirit is better than he that taketh a city.”

“If only we strive to be pure and true, The foam of the sea will lower its crest, And the weary waves that we used to breast Will sob and turn, and sink slowly to rest With a tender calm all over and through.”