TAKE HEED by C. S.

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Aug 21, 1900

TAKE HEED.

By C. S.

These words mean “to regard with care and consideration; to be circumspect, and treat with earnest thought and attention.” The Scriptures are full of this injunction. It applies to occasions where there is danger and peril, and where there is great good to be obtained; where to follow the wrong would result in eternal loss, and to follow the right would secure infinite good. If men would conscientiously act upon the admonition, they could scarcely go astray. For all along the pathway of human history, at every turn in the road, at every new epoch and era in man’s history, and at every stage of the pilgrimage of the church, this sign is erected on all sides for the benefit of the willful or unwary,—“Take heed! Take heed!”

Thus Moses addressed the people of his time: “And Moses, and the priests the Levites spake unto all Israel, saying, Take heed, and hearken, O Israel; this day thou art become the people of the Lord thy God. Thou shalt therefore obey the voice of the Lord thy God, and do his commandments and his statutes, which I command thee this day.” Deut. 27:9, 10.

The building of the temple, to be the sanctuary of the Lord, was an important work; and this solemn charge was given to Solomon, in regard to it: “Take heed now; for the Lord hath chosen thee to build an house for the sanctuary: be strong, and do it.” 1 Chron. 28:10. If they who built the sanctuary were to take heed to the matter, and artisans were especially endowed by the Holy Spirit for the sacred work they were to perform (Ex. 35:30–35), certainly the people in whose behalf its ministrations are carried on should take heed, and relate themselves properly to its sacred work.

The matter of judging the people is another solemn charge to which this exhortation applies: “And [Jehoshaphat] said to the judges, Take heed what ye do: for ye judge not for man, but for the Lord, who is with you in the judgment. Wherefore now let the fear of the Lord be upon you; take heed and do it: for there is no iniquity with the Lord our God, nor respect of persons, nor taking of gifts.” 2 Chron. 19:6, 7.

Emphasis is laid on the keeping of the commandments of the Lord. Thus Joshua addressed the people: “But take diligent heed to do the commandment and the law, which Moses the servant of the Lord charged you, to love the Lord your God, and to walk in all his ways, and to keep his commandments, and to cleave unto him, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul.” Joshua 22:5. “Neither will I any more remove the foot of Israel from out of the land which I have appointed for your fathers; so that they will take heed to do all that I have commanded them, according to the whole law and the statutes and the ordinances by the hand of Moses.” 2 Chron. 33:8.

The exhortations to “take heed” become more numerous, and are made more emphatic, as we come into the perils of the last days. “Take heed,” said Christ, instructing his people in reference to the closing scenes of time, “that no man deceive you.” Matt. 24:4. This throws every one directly back on the testimony of the word of God, and his own understanding of it, for his knowledge of this crowning event, the coming and kingdom of our Lord. For it does not matter who is trying to instruct us, nor how; we are to be so well acquainted with the Word that we shall be able at once to detect any variation from the word of the Lord, and know that one is trying to palm off upon us a deception. We are to take special heed that we are not misled by any deceptive preaching of this kind.

And these teachings, says our Lord, will spring from the doctrine of false Christs and false prophets, agents elsewhere said to be able to do great marvels and to work wonders. Pay no attention, says our Guide-book, to any wonders, however supernatural they may seem, which exhibit only power, but no love. Disharmony with truth condemns

everything. Truth will stand; all else will be shaken out and pass away. Miracles may be false, because wrought by a power that manifests itself for the very purpose of misleading the mind, and so inducing one to disbelieve what God has set forth in his word to be the truth for this time. On this point, therefore, take heed. Bring everything to the test of the Word. If it is not in accordance with this, it is because there is no light in it. This injunction is many times enforced upon us, in reference to the last times, as in Mark 13:33: “But take ye heed, watch and pray: for ye know not when the time is.”

The range of subjects to which this instruction is applied covers the whole field of Christian duty and experience. It rebukes self-confidence, and puts us on the very intensity of watchfulness. It says, “Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.” 1 Cor. 10:12.

The light shed upon our pathway by the lamp of prophecy is to be taken heed unto. For the apostle-prophet says: “We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place;” or, as the Revised Version reads, “We have the word of prophecy made more sure,” that is, by the wonderful transfiguration scene just alluded to by Peter. Not that the prophecy itself is made more sure, but a better and clearer idea of it is given by an object lesson setting it forth to the very senses; just as Paul’s description of the sanctuary in heaven, though as vivid as language can make it, in the book of Hebrews, is beautifully supplemented by John’s vision on the Isle of Patmos, wherein he was permitted to look into heaven itself, and behold, in actual perspective, the objects that Paul so fully and definitely described to the Hebrews.

And when we have received the light, we are to cherish it, and foster it with the utmost care: “Take heed therefore that the light that is in thee be not darkness.” Luke 11:35. How can the light that is in us be darkness?—When we refuse to follow the light, and the mind becomes darkened, that which before seemed clear, and to point out the way, becomes perverted, and seems capable of some other application, which leads to still further confusion of ideas, and dimness of perception. This is brought about by letting what the Bible calls “thorns” grow up and choke the good seed, so that it becomes unfruitful. Matt. 13:22.

Against this a special warning is uttered: “Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip.” Heb. 2:1. Some who have well learned the truth for this time, and have apparently been full of interest and love for the cause, we are sorry to see letting these truths slip from their minds, or letting them run out, as the original word signifies, as water from a leaking vessel. It does not run out all at once; but the result is the same. Just as the truth slips out of their hearts, they are slipping out of the truth; and when we see one after another departing from the faith, we, in whose eyes the gospel telescope still retains its focus, ought to give the more earnest heed to strengthen our grasp on that which remains. “Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain,” says “He that hath the seven Spirits of God, and the seven stars.”

We are warned against errors and heresies. “And he charged them, saying, Take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, and of the leaven of Herod.” The Pharisees were the formalists of the first century; and the Herodians, the unprincipled and worldly politicians. And what Christ here warns against is formalism and pretence in religion, and cunning and craftiness in worldly things. These evils press upon us to-day as heavily as they did on the people when Christ spoke the words, and the scripture was written. Take heed and beware of them. The caution applies to all false teaching of this time as well as others; to all the false lights held up to lure us upon the rocks; to all the false voices raised to charm us with their siren songs.

It is as important now as it ever has been to obey the instruction given to Timothy: “Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine.” 1 Tim. 4:16. All latter-day Timothys should do the same. Doctrine needs to be guarded on every hand.

We are to take heed how we hear, and how we build up work, which is to stand the test of the great day. Luke 8:18; 1 Cor. 3:12. Disunion and alienation in the church are warned against: “But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another.” Gal. 5:15.

But this list of warnings would hardly be complete without referring to another special charge regarding the nature of the times and dangers in the last days: “And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares.” Luke 21:34. To be overtaken by that day unawares is to be lost. We are also to take heed and beware of covetousness, which is a besetting sin of the latter days, and which is idolatry. 2 Tim. 3:2; Col. 3:5. Covetousness, saving self-love, heads the sins that are to characterize those who, in the last days, have a form of godliness, but deny the power thereof. Of this we are to be particularly aware. Luke 12:15; 2 Tim. 3:2.

The apostle Paul gives another very comprehensive caution in Heb. 3:12: “Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.”

Is there any sin that these admonitions do not cover? any dangers against which they do not warn us? Ministers and hearers are admonished. 2 Tim. 4:1, 2; Matt. 7:24–27. A young man is told how to cleanse his way. Ps. 119:9. The perils and dangers of the last days are pointed out, and we are told how to avoid them. And we are warned against the spiritual evils and temptations that beset the best men, and are told how to overcome them. “Take heed” is the voice that sounds above the carnage of war and strife, and the roar and rattle of business in the busy marts of trade. In view of all this testimony, what excuse will one give, in the Judgment, for failure?—He will simply have to answer that he loved self more than he loved God; and, moreover, that he didn’t believe what God had said about these things, any way. But “God is not mocked,” says the apostle; that is, no man can treat him thus with impunity. C. S.