p. 69 | EXPERIENCE by JOS. CLARKE

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Mar 2, 1876

FromThe Review and Herald, Review and Herald, Vol. 47, No. 9.

EXPERIENCE

By JOS. CLARKE

“Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works.” Rev. 2:4, 5.

The backslider is here directed to call to mind early experience, as if this were the speediest and surest means of returning to God. Those who have had no good experience are not here addressed. The persons addressed had passed through a marked and decided change of heart, and the experience connected with it was of the most ennobling, elevating, and purifying nature. When called to mind by the Spirit of God, it had a tendency to win back this priceless jewel, the love of God.

The apostle did not direct his brethren to make past experience a continual theme of contemplation, but to call it to mind. Like the seed by the wayside it had been gathered up by the fowls of the air, or smothered down by worldliness.

Paul says, in Philippians 3:13, “Forgetting those things which are behind;” Paul does not mean that he has forgotten his first experience; for he often related it, and it was not tiresome, except to the enemies of Christ. By forgetting, he means that he labored to advance daily, step by step. Nevertheless he did relate the account of these successive steps in the boldest and most lucid manner, in public and private, as occasion required.

Caution may well be used in relating an old experience, even if it be good; but to call it often to mind, and thank God for it, and beg of him to restore that first love, is a good thing. David called to remembrance his song in the night. Paul exhorts Timothy (2 Tim. 1:5), to put him in remembrance that he should stir up the gift of God within him.

To relate an old experience before scoffers is like casting pearls before swine; but there are times when it is welcome; and, to the people of God, how inspiring it is to read of the experience of such persons as Luther, Wesley, Martyn, and William Miller. But to relate an old experience to apologize for a wicked life is an intolerable offense. JOS. CLARKE.