ACTIVITY MEANS PURITY by L. A. S.

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Aug 20, 1901

ACTIVITY MEANS PURITY.

By L. A. S.

There can be no such thing as an inactive Christian. Christianity is only another name for activity in the service of God.

“God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.” He is the fountain of life, and life means activity. The being that is full of life cannot keep still. The Christian who is full of God—and that means every genuine Christian—cannot be idle. God cannot be idle, and it is well for us that He cannot, for our very existence, and that of all creatures, depends upon the continual exercise of His power.

Activity means purity. How forcibly nature speaks to us upon this point! Behold that rushing stream coming down from the hillside. Contrast it with yon stagnant pond in the valley, its surface covered with scum and slime. From which of the two would you prefer to take a drink?

The writer will never forget a stream near which he camped one summer in northern Michigan,—a stream noted as the home of that fastidious fish, the brook trout. Rapid River it was called, and it was rightly named. Clear as crystal, cool as ice, and pure as the sparkling dew, it came rushing through the forest, tumbling over fallen trees that lay thickly across its path, with a swiftness that nothing could impede. It was full of decaying logs, but it received no taint. Refuse thrown into it was either hurried swiftly away or held innocuous in its icy depths. To pollute that stream was impossible, so long as its fountain head remained pure. To drink from it was a pleasure, whether thirsty or not. It was a veritable fountain of life. And the secret of it all was its intense activity.

And that stream—and every other like it—is a fit symbol of the true Christian. Continually receiving pure spiritual life from the fountain head,—God,—he is continually passing it on to those beyond him. He does nothing to retard the flow of the life-giving current. He is a channel, and not a mere receptacle. No sediment can accumulate in a channel; it is continually washed clean by the ceaseless tide flowing through it.

Heaven is a place of activity. The inhabitants of heaven do not idly sit or stand about, waiting for something to occur. They are all channels of the ceaseless activity of God. No glimpse of heaven to seer and prophet given ever revealed a scene of idleness. The four “living creatures” about the throne of God “rest not day and night,” crying, “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come.” The prophet Ezekiel saw living creatures about the throne in heaven which “ran and returned as the appearance of a flash of lightning.” Eze. 1:14. Such is the activity of the Omnipotent, so far as it can be realized by human comprehension.

Stagnation in the Christian life, as in everything else, means death. It is an invariable law that the body of water which has an inlet but no outlet, gathers saltness and bitterness. There are many salty, bitter characters among people professing to be Christians. The matter with them is they have no outlet for the blessings of God. An outlet is just as important as an inlet.

Activity, activity! This is the watchword for every one who values purity of character. Get to work; do something. Open up; make an outlet equal to the size of your inlet. Become a channel. The very day that you shake off your inertia and become active for the Lord, you will find the sediment of self in your character being washed away, and continued activity will make the purification complete.

L. A. S.