p. 778 | DO GOOD by Allen C. Brown

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Dec 3, 1901

DO GOOD.

By Allen C. Brown

ALLEN C. BROWN.

(Lacon, Ill.)*

The admonition, “Trust in the Lord, and do good” (Ps. 37:3), is well worthy of our consideration in this age of selfishness and pleasure-seeking. Many would have it read, Trust in the Lord, and feel good. The worldly Church is seeking this good feeling by every device possible; and many have come to think that because they are feeling good, they must be doing good. They heed not the two small words, Do good.

Many times when one is doing good, he will be far from feeling good. Our Saviour went about doing good, but He suffered everything at the hands of cruel men. He even endured the shame of the cross for the sake of doing good, for the sake of saving a lost world. In order to do good we have to trust in the Lord, then sacrifice self completely. In other words, if need be, we have to give up that good feeling of ease and comfort, and perhaps even forego a pleasant service in the house of God, in order to do good by ministering to another’s needs; or we may have to lay aside a soul-inspiring book, which we are enjoying on a gloomy day, cozily seated by an open grate, which of course makes us feel good, to help some one in distress, thus heeding the command, Do good. It will not make us feel good at the time to leave our comfortable place. But James sums it up in these words: “Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.”

Not one word does he say about that good feeling: we are to do good whether we feel good or not. Leave the feelings with the Lord. “Let us not be weary in well doing; for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.” If one has a good feeling all the time, watch out; for the Word says, “All that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution,” which expresses the thought that all who do good shall suffer persecution. We may have peace of mind,—that certainly is our privilege,—but we must not expect always to feel good. Not that we shall have no good feelings when we are doing well, but let us not be disappointed if we do not experience them all or any of the time. We should ask ourselves, Can I do good by doing such an act? Will it be for the glory of God or my own selfish pleasure? Let us even ask ourselves what our motive is in going to divine worship on the Sabbath day. We should go to do good, and with the Lord’s blessing get good, otherwise it is from a selfish motive, and the Lord cannot bless us while in that condition.

The time is coming, and we trust very soon, when all those who do good in this present evil world will both do good and feel good all the time; for we read in 2 Cor. 4:17: “For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.”

So those who are not seeking for comfort and pleasure and good feelings in this present experience have for their consolation the assurance that they will be numbered among those spoken of in Rev. 3:21: “To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in His throne. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.”