p. 22 | Truth by J. R. Trembley

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jan 3, 1871

Truth.

By J. R. Trembley

THERE are truths which pertain not to this life alone, which, if received, will, with the blessing of the Holy Spirit, bring man from darkness to light, from death unto life eternal.

The world knows not God as it has need to know him. Gross darkness covers the people. They stand sadly in need of the means of deliverance from spiritual darkness, from sin, and death; and in what direction shall they look for it?

On Sinai’s top, by the voice of God, was proclaimed a law. It was graven with his own finger on tables of stone. “And the Lord said unto Moses, Come up to me into the mount, and be there; and I will give thee tables of stone, and a law, and commandments, that thou mayest teach them.” Ex. 20:12. This law, which was given by Jehovah to his servant Moses, and which has been handed down from generation to generation, and miraculously preserved by the power of God through ages past, has been sadly trampled upon by its enemies. Satan, the author of error, has sought to place his cloven foot upon it. Vain, sinful man has disregarded it, and thus forfeited his right to the mercies of its Author. But all efforts to make any real change in this law have proved ineffectual; for the Scriptures everywhere teach that the law of God is unchangeable, and that not one jot or tittle shall ever pass from it till all is fulfilled. Yet so long as Satan can so darken the minds and pervert the ideas of those to whom this law is given as to cause them to disobey it, his ends are answered, he is satisfied. It matters not to him how near man gets to Heaven’s door so long as he fails to enter in.

And now we will inquire, What is truth? This is, indeed, an important question; and more especially so in these last days. Not that truth is changeable, or ever ceases to be truth; but that ideas have become so perverted, there is a failure to understand what it is. As the Saviour came to earth to “bear witness unto the truth,” let him answer the question. This he does in the following language addressed to the Father: “Thy word is truth.” All may understand by this that the word of God is truth. But simply a knowledge of this fact is insufficient. Theory alone is valueless. But a strict adherence to the principles of truth in every-day life, aided by the influence of the Holy Spirit, will lead to a close walk with God—will serve to extricate man from the filthy ditch into which error has plunged him.

He who seeks for truth in the love of the truth will find consolation in the fact that life and immortality are brought to light by the gospel. And if there be any truth, the acknowledgment of which should lead to a sense of its importance, or a feeling of its power, it is surely that of the death of Christ as a sacrifice for the sins of men. And who is there that, in their search for divine truth, can pass by Calvary, and there behold the sufferings of Christ, without pondering deeply on the guiltiness of the transgression of the Father’s law, which nothing but the voluntary death of his Son could expiate? and on that infinite goodness and love which gave the ransom whereby, though guilt could not go unpunished, the guilty might be saved?

Truth is elevating. It is ennobling. Angels of light love and cherish it. Yet few, very few, of the human race believe this. Some do not believe it, because they will not. It is easy to exclude light by closing the eyes. It is easy to resist the clearest truths by hardening the heart against it. Oh! would that the friends of truth were not so few. Would its enemies were fewer. And would that those who do have some love for the truth, would be earnest, united, and persevering, in their efforts to bring others to a love of it. Their labors shall not be in vain so long as they yield obedience to that word which is the charter of their salvation. “He that doeth truth, cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.” John 3:21.

And, friends, let us pray unto our Heavenly Father that wherever there is light, we may see it; wherever there is truth, we may know it; and that we may be saved from the delusion of vain imaginations, from all darkness of the understanding, from all perverseness of the will, from all the deceitfulness of the heart, and that we may learn to love and obey the truth, “even to the saving of the soul.” J. R. TREMBLEY. Battle Creek, Mich.