A TOMB OR A THRONE? by F. D. Starr

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jan 2, 1900

A TOMB OR A THRONE?

By F. D. Starr

F. D. STARR.

The following item is clipped from the Christian Guardian of Nov. 1, 1899:—

That is not the best type of Methodism which is always looking sadly back to John Wesley's tomb, and never gladly up to John Wesley's throne. Is John Wesley in a grave or on a throne now? We prefer to think of Wesley as leading Methodists now, and on into the next century; of Martin Luther as leading Protestants now, of Carey as leading Protestant missionaries now. If we see not these invisible hosts filling the mountains of the Lord, then unbelief and sin are blinding our eyes. If we see not our invisible Leader, the risen Christ, leading us on to greater services than ever, with all his servants, apostles, prophets, martyrs, reformers, evangelists, pastors, teachers, about him, then, beloved, what of the promise, “Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world”?

If the belief in the immortality of the soul were correct, then this would be logical reasoning. If the dead are conscious, then why should they not return to earth to assist in, and take charge of, human affairs? Thus would the teachings of Spiritualism in reference to this matter be established. But with the plain assertion that “the dead know not anything,” that they have no more “a portion forever in anything that is done under the sun,” that they are not cognizant of the honor or the misfortune of remaining friends here on earth, we may be fully protected against this delusion, first introduced by him who said, “Ye shall not surely die.”

This pretended intercourse with the dead, so strictly forbidden in the Scriptures, is coming to be a very important factor in modern religion, having many adherents among those who do not claim to be Spiritualists as well as among those who do. The statement that sin and unbelief are blinding our eyes if we can not see these dead men now acting as leaders in the cause of God calls to mind the statement in “Early Writings” that it would yet be considered blasphemy to speak against the Spiritualist rappings, by which the living are supposed to obtain communication with the dead. Shall the living seek unto the dead for information and assistance? “Should not a people seek unto their God? . . . To the law and to the testimony.”