Spiritual Apathy by A. Smith

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Feb 18, 1873

Spiritual Apathy.

By A. Smith

In religious social meetings, complaint of spiritual apathy is frequently heard; and, without discerning the true cause of it, resolutions to be more attentive to the duties of religion are expressed, and the following Sabbath witnesses to confessions of broken promises, and renewed resolutions to amend. Vainly do such wait for some compelling power to rouse them from their stupor, overlooking the true and only means which God has provided to effect it.

He designs that we should make ourselves useful in his vineyard. If we would increase the glow of our spiritual fervor, there is nothing like disinterested efforts to rescue our fellow-men from their lost condition. The sympathetic tear; the warm pressure of the hand; the word fitly spoken; the meek reproof; the tract or book judiciously given; the helping hand—food, raiment, money, influence, muscular strength—all are potent agencies in reclaiming the straying and lost, and raising us to a fellowship with the benevolence of Christ.

It is hard work to learn the lesson of being “instant . . out of season.” The cold, the heat, the storm, our feelings, the appearances, the probabilities, all, in order, are against us. Our efforts at times to accomplish the desired good may prove unsuccessful. For,

“Many a flower is born to blush unseen, To waste its fragrance on the desert air.”

Is it therefore less acceptable to Him who formed it?

“In the morning sow thy seed, and in the evening withhold not thy hand.” God giveth the increase. It is sufficient that we labor as he directs. “Did ever any labor in his harvest who were defrauded of their wages? Is the labor hard and wearing? It will be forgotten, by very contrast, in the joy of the harvest feast.

A. SMITH.