BURIED

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jul 27, 1876

Precious treasures are sometimes covered with the filth of earth; grains of gold lie hidden deep beneath the worthless sand. Thus the vile and the worthless cover the valuable. And so it is with the truths of the Bible. Error and tradition take the place of its plainest teachings, and carnality and care are sufficient to bury deep its most solemn warnings.

The message to the Antediluvians was rendered worthless to them by their being so much absorbed in the things of this world and so busy about them; and they “knew not until the flood came and took them all away.” According to the account given of the cities of the plain, the same scenes were there acted over: “They did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded,” driving God and his truth out of their minds, until suddenly they were overtaken by the storm of the fire that destroyed them and the objects of their affection and attention. What profit to them were their articles of merchandise, their builded houses, their planted vineyards and orchards, in this hour of overwhelming destruction? None whatever. If anything, they increased the flames that were sent to destroy them.

We can see what a sad mistake the Antediluvians and the inhabitants of Sodom made. They buried the special message and truth of God for them in the pleasures and cares of this life. Shall we profit by their experience? The same scenes are to be acted over again. Note well what the Saviour says, “Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed.”

In the third angel’s message of Rev. 14: 9–12, the last great truths for the world and the last warning of its coming doom are embodied. There the coming of the Lord is brought to view, and special attention is called to the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. The Sabbath of the fourth commandment received a burial at the hands of the papacy years ago. Tradition and custom would fain keep it there. The faith of Jesus, which embraces the pure, practical teachings of the New Testament, is fast being buried by the selfishness and pride of this generation. But the message is going, and, as in other generations, a few are receiving it. This should encourage us.

Is there any danger for those who receive the truth? Let Jesus answer: “Take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares.” It is a superabundance of care, and a gratification of the carnal desires, that will cause some to bury this solemn message, who once received it with joy. This one fact I would have you mark well: The very things that bury the truth of God to individuals open to them his wrath. “But and if that evil servant shall say in his heart, My Lord delayeth his coming [thus burying the warning], and shall begin to