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Conversion

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Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jul 2, 1872

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 40, No. 3.

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Conversion.

By Stephen N. Haskell

“Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of Heaven.”
The production of the natural heart is evil; for “the heart of the sons of men is full of evil.” It is the entrance of the spirit of God that renovates the heart, changes the affections, and prepares the soil to bear the fruit of the Spirit, which is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance.” But “the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other.”
Therefore unless an individual has felt the transforming influence of the grace of God upon his heart he cannot bring forth the fruit of the Spirit, and thus please God. “Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.”
The great object of life before the individual is to prepare for the kingdom of Heaven by forming a character so that the spontaneous outgushing of the soul will be the fruit of the Spirit.
Adverse, trying, and perplexing circumstances in this life are well calculated to make manifest the real condition of the human heart, and without this, we never should know ourselves; for “the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” There should be a continual watchfulness on the part of the remnant of God, that the fruit of the Spirit may ever abound. Let the mind dwell upon that which makes for peace. “Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good reports if there be any virtue and if there be any praise, think on these things.” If the mind is permitted to dwell on things opposite to what the apostle has said, it will be sowing evil seed that will surely bear a plenteous crop of the fruit of the flesh, and it will have its moulding effect upon the character.
A spirit that can ever discern evil in others can always see insurmountable difficulties in the way of the work of God, and there is a constant proneness to dwell upon them. Under whatever may be the pretense by which they think they are serving God in these things, are altogether mistaken in the nature of Christianity, and need to learn its first principles. They give the clearest evidence of a defiled conscience “for unto the pure all things are pure: but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure; but even their mind and conscience is defiled.”
The words of God are pure; they are tried words. “He has magnified his word above all his name.” The truth that relates to these times and the obligations we are under to faithfully discharge our duty are of sufficient importance to be the absorbing theme of the mind. Therefore whenever the heart gives evidence of its unsoundness in the cause of God by its proneness to dwell upon that which does not make for peace, or for the upbuilding of the work of God upon earth, it should lead to a humbling before God and a seeking for the transforming influence of the Holy Spirit.
We cannot afford to be negligent, or in any way careless in the work of overcoming. Altogether too much is pending. It is the salvation of ourselves and of our fellow-men; and if darkness and gloom are emitted by the course pursued we are a dead weight to the cause of God, and co-workers with evil angels and shall have no part or lot in the kingdom of glory. But if like the meteor that leaves a trail of light in its track we are ever found with kind and encouraging words, favorably impressing others with the truth we profess, ever bearing the precious fruit of the Spirit, we shall not only find much sweet even in this life, but joy in the world to come. S. N. HASKELL.