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WHAT IS BEST?

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Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Mar 12, 1901

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 78, No. 11.

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WHAT IS BEST?

By L. A. Reed

BEFORE God finally chose what themes He should present to men in the literature of the Bible, He called into council with Him His only Son. And “that which in the councils of heaven the Father and the Son deemed essential for the salvation of man, was defined from eternity by infinite truths [themes] which finite beings can not fail to comprehend.” — “Special Testimony on Education,” pages 6, 7.
“He who came forth from God to our world gave instruction on every subject [theme] about which it is essential that man should know in order to find the pathway to heaven. To Him, truth was an ever-present, self-evident reality; He uttered no suggestions, notions, or opinions; but presented only solid, saving truth.” — Id., page 4.
What are the great themes of Biblical literature, and of what do they treat? It is evident that if we study these themes, and abandon our minds to them, they will absorb all our thoughts and become the stimulus of our lives. I read that “eternal interest should be the great theme of teachers and students.”
Therefore, I take it, that whatever these themes of Biblical literature may be of themselves, and however many of them there may be, they all relate to eternal interest; and eternal interest should be our one great theme.
Why not? All other themes must eventually get out of date. But all that God does in thought and act is done in the light of eternity, with a purpose that is eternal, and with a meaning, therefore, that is infinite.
But some will say, “Very well, in Biblical literature we study that which will save our souls, and in the world’s literature we learn things helpful in other ways.” But with God there are no ways but eternal ways; and so it is impossible to find things helpful in other ways. Everything we do, whether we eat or drink, or whatsoever we do, should be done for eternity.
We can learn nothing but that it will in some way affect our salvation. It must be either for or against our eternal life. Every thought that we think is a help or a hindrance to our walk with God, for as a man thinketh, so is he.
If the thoughts of other men are not positively harmful, yet in order to think their thoughts, we must for the time being fail to think God’s thoughts; and for us to go one moment without thinking with Him is for us to go for so long a time without God; it is for us to walk alone. But Enoch walked with God, and he had this assurance that he pleased God, and God took him, and so he still walks with God.
Furthermore, for every moment that we leave God’s thoughts out of our minds, we are weakened in the combat with sin. Ah, if we knew what we have to do yet in order to remove the marring effects of sin, we should not fritter away one precious moment in anything that would not be for our direct advancement heavenward. “Eternal interest should be the great theme of teachers and students.”
All the noble themes worth consideration are in the literature of the Bible. For, “from God, the fountain of wisdom, proceeds all the knowledge that is of value to man, all that the intellect can grasp or retain.” What do you care then for other knowledge, when all that is of value to you comes in His word from God? And how much more than “all that the intellect can grasp or retain” do you expect to get into this mind of yours? L. A. REED.