What I Have Seen | AdventAI

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Oct 18, 1870

What I Have Seen.

I HAVE seen a woman professing to love Christ more than the world, clad in a silk dress costing $75; making up and trimmings of same, $40; bonnet (or apology for one), $35; velvet mantle, $150; diamond ring, $500; watch, chain, pin, and other trappings, $300; total, $1,100—all hung upon one frail, dying worm. I have seen her at a meeting in behalf of homeless wanderers in New York, wipe her eyes upon an expensive embroidered handkerchief at the story of their sufferings, and when the contribution-box came round, take from a well-filled portemonnaie, of costly workmanship, twenty-five cents to aid the society formed to promote their welfare. Ah, thought I, dollars for ribbons, and pennies for Christ.

I have seen a man who had long been a member of the visible church, rush to his business after a hastily-swallowed breakfast, without a prayer in his family for God's blessing through the day, spend hours in the eager pursuit of that which perishes with the using, speaking not a word save of stocks and bonds and mortgages, and when business hours were over, return to his home exhausted and petulant, to turn away from a sad story of want and suffering with, “I am tired and cannot hear it!” I have seen him sleep away his evening without a pleasant word for either wife or children, retire to rest with no more apparent thought of God his maker, than if his meeting him at the last great day were an idle tale. Ah, thought I, days and years for mammon, but not a moment for Christ.

I have seen a lady who had taken the solemn vows of God upon her, rise late in the morning, and without time for more than a hasty word of prayer, go forth to shop, drop in to chat with friends, come home to dine, go out again to ride, and return to make an elaborate toilet, for an evening party, pausing longer over the great question, “What shall I wear?” than her conduct seemed to evince she had over “What shall I do to be saved?” I have seen her when asked to take a class in the Sabbath-school, to point them to the Saviour she had vowed to honor before the world, shake her head and answer, “No, I cannot; I have no talent for that kind of thing.” Ah, thought I, is there not danger that at last she will find that, like the foolish virgins, she has no oil in her lamp?

I have seen a professedly-Christian mother more wrought up over the mud brought in upon her carpet by her boy's shoes, than over the lie which sullied his conscience, and proclaimed him a coward. I have seen her exhibit more anxiety when detained from church, to hear from her daughters' lips how this and that one was dressed, than what the man of God said concerning the themes of death and eternity. Ah, thought I, will she, through her instrumentality, find these children at the right hand on the last great day?—Western Missionary.