p. 83 | Are We Like Them? by H. A. St. John

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Aug 27, 1872

Are We Like Them?

By H. A. St. John

“When he slew them, then they sought him: and they remembered and inquired early after God. And they remembered that God was their Rock, and the high God their Redeemer.” Ps. 78 : 34, 35.

THIS inspired language has reference to the Israelites while passing through the wilderness. When the judgments of God rested heavily upon them, they sought the Lord with diligence. When hundreds were dying from the effects of the bite of fiery serpents, when destroyed by the plague, when slain by their enemies, and at many other times when afflictions pressed them sore, how earnestly in their distress did they seek the Lord. And he, being full of compassion, forgave their iniquity, and destroyed them not utterly. Yea, many a time turned he his anger away, and did not stir up all his wrath. Many of the people of God have departed from him in prosperity, and with bitter repentance returned again in adversity. King David testifies of himself that “before he was afflicted he went astray.” Jonah, by reason of his affliction, cried unto the Lord out of the belly of hell. But it is very dangerous to thus grieve the Lord and provoke his displeasure. To presume upon his mercy is attended with great peril.

We are prostrated upon the bed of languishing, and death stares us in the face; how earnestly then we cry unto God that we may be prepared to die. Does death enter our family and snatch from our embrace a loved one; then, with tears of contrition, we seek God early. Are our earthly prospects suddenly blighted, and anticipated pleasure or enjoyment dispelled; then we feel the need of trusting in God, and of having a treasure laid up in Heaven.

Reader, let me appeal to you, and answer me in the solitude of your own thoughts. Are you the most thankful to God when the blessings of life are most abundant? When no visible mark of God's displeasure rests upon you, are you then the most grateful?

When health, happiness, and prosperity, attend you, do you then delight yourself most in the Lord? When seas are calm, and skies are clear, is it then, more than at all other times, that your soul is filled with a sense of the goodness and love of God? Do you love the service of God, the place of secret prayer, and communion with saints, most of all when your pathway is strewn with heavenly benefits? In short, does the goodness of God lead you to repentance and consecration! If you cannot answer the above questions in the affirmative, then is it not obvious that you need to seek at once for a hungering and thirsting after righteousness, a new conversion to God, that you may feel as did the psalmist when he exclaimed, “I will bless the Lord at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth.” Ps. 34: 1. Are we like ancient Israel? If so, will we not be zealous and repent before we are spewed out of the mouth of the Lord? H. A. ST. JOHN.