Make the World Better by C. E. C.

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Feb 21, 1871

Make the World Better.

By C. E. C.

“We must take the world as we find it,” says one. “Life is what we make it,” says another. There is truth in both remarks; but more, I think, lies between the two. We can never make our lives what they might be under more favorable circumstances. Were we ushered into a world, in which a sin was seldom committed; where all, by common consent, were actuated by a love of the good, the true, and the beautiful; it would be much easier for us to lead lives in conformity with these principles than it is to do so in a world where wickedness abounds. In this view, life is not altogether what we make it; but, in part, is what we find it. We may deplore the wickedness of the world, as it is, and wish it were better; but to spend our time in lamentations, or unavailing regrets, would be to neglect making our lives what they might, and ought to be.

I fear many of us are apt to think that what one individual in the humbler walks of life may say or do, is of small account; what one may enjoy or suffer affects but little the sum total of human happiness. But is this so? Is it true that each individual, however humble his or her position in life, has an influence for good or ill? If so, are we obliged to take the world as it is? or is it our privilege to do something to make it better? Let us look to it then that our actions are regulated by the principle of Christian integrity, that our motives are all pure, that our record for each day is what it should be, and that our influence tells, every time, on the side of truth and right. We can do something, if but little, to aid the cause of true reform. The cause is made stronger by every champion who joins its ranks. The light shines forth with greater brilliancy with every added ray. May it not be our privilege, then, to light our taper, and, placing it upon a candlestick, thus assist in dispelling the darkness of human ignorance, and lessening the amount of human woe? It is our privilege to increase our own happiness and the happiness of all around us, by seeking the path of righteousness, and walking therein; and, ever relying upon divine guidance and the grace of God, to go forward, not taking the world as we find it and leaving it as, or worse than, we found it; but with every effort in our reach striving to better its condition, and leave it improved for our having lived in it.

C. E. C.

Battle Creek, Mich.