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Master or Servant

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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Nov 14, 1907

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 84, No. 46.

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Master or Servant

By C. M. S.

THE moderate drinker says, “I can drink, or I can let it alone.” He goes on drinking, and when outraged nature compels him to own that he is ruining himself, and he tries to “let it alone,” he finds entwined with every fiber of his being invisible cords that are stronger than steel. It is not his hands, his limbs, his feet that are bound about by the unseen net; but every quivering fiber is caught in the cruel meshes, till the feet are forced to run at the behest of the appetite, and the hand is forced to lift the crime-breeding liquor to the lips. Desire is his master, and even his mind is not his own. His thoughts revolve around the one idea, gratification of his uncontrollable appetite. He imagined himself free until he attempted to prove his freedom. Then he found that the soft words of his own desire had trapped and caged his manhood, and made him a slave.
Just so it is with all sin and sinful pleasure. Men dally with it, and think it is their servant. They play with it as a fish nibbles at a tempting bait; but when they have swallowed the hook, they find that the barb is fastened in their soul. The servant has become the master, and the master takes the place of servant; and to break away from the cord that binds them, from the hook that holds them, requires a power that they do not possess, a power which they have hitherto spurned; and too often it is the case that they have no desire for release, no desire to know and utilize the only power that can set them free and keep them so.
Tarry not at the wine; have no fellowship with the pleasures of sin. Are you free? Then may God keep you so, for he alone can. Are you struggling to be free? Then reach up, and by faith lay hold of the arm of God; for he alone can free you. Are the pleasures of sin sweet to you? Then know this, that when the great net of sin has fully encircled you, there will be a bitterness and disappointment in store for you which only a look into the abyss of eternal death can make you realize. Tarry not; turn from it; pass not by it; set your face “as a flint Zionward;” speed for the goal—speed and slumber not.
C. M. S.