p. 101 | Men and Things by Dudley Marvin Canright

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Mar 12, 1872

Men and Things.

By Dudley Marvin Canright

WHAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN.

How sad to look back upon life and see where we have made great mistakes, now past remedy, and then think how different might have been our lot if we had only used wisdom, and taken the right course at the proper time. What soul does not at times feel thus? The following lines seem to express this thought very touchingly:

“It might have been! Alas the thought, It thrills through all the lives of men, And from the dreary paths of life Comes up the cry, It might have been!”

“It might have been! No more in life The precious boon comes back again, But weary, hopeless retrospect And bitter tears. It might have been!”

“It might have been! My heart will break, The thought wells up again—and then In vain are all my sighs and tears; My hopes are lost— It might have been!”

“It might have been! The prayer goes up, O Father, guide in wisdom then! Help me to trust upon thy word, And calmly say, It might have been!”

Keenly as we may feel these things here, how much more terrible will that soul feel who is finally lost, after having had every opportunity to gain Heaven and eternal life. To look upon the holy city, to see all its glory, to behold others in possession of the prize, to know that it is lost forever, and to realize that it was once freely offered to us—oh! with what anguish that soul will go down wailing, “It might have been!” Reader, however much occasion we may have to know the meaning of these words now, may we not have to say them then. “Behold, now is the day of salvation.”

FOR MONEY OR FOR SOULS?

If we judge from the actions of many churches around us, it would be a question which was their grand object, money or souls. Indeed in many cases there is no room to doubt, as every effort is made and their highest energies bent to get money. Everything is shaped to this end. Here is a little item from the report of a church. It is only a sample. “The ladies worked with a will. We had a concert that winter, a flower festival in the spring, a fair in midsummer, and a series of tableaux in the fall. They netted altogether $431.75, according to the report.”

How much “fun and feasting,” how much begging and teasing, how many grab games and wire pullings, are covered in that little report. What was all this for? To catch that $431 from a set of worldly, fun-loving young men whose only object was to have “a good time,” caring little who got the pay for it, the church, or the saloon, God, or the devil.

Is God pleased with such offerings as these? Not unless he has changed much since Bible times. Said the Lord:

“You shall not offer bread to your God, from the hand of a stranger, nor any other thing that he would give; because they are all corrupted and defiled; you shall not receive them.” Lev. 22:25, Douay Translation.

From this it is evident that God is not well pleased with offerings obtained in this manner. Moreover, covetousness is at the bottom of the whole of it. If church members would pay up liberally as they ought, would be contented with plain churches, and the minister would live on apostolical salaries, there would be no need of all this money catching to sustain the cause of religion. “Covetousness” with the preacher and members, “pride” with the congregation, and the love of pleasure” with the contributors, are the necessities which have invented this money-making system.

D. M. CANRIGHT.