Almost Saved by Lera E. Orton

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Sep 5, 1871

Almost Saved.

By Lera E. Orton

It is one thing to profess religion, and quite another to possess it. And how true, though sad, it is that many will, like Demas, be warm-hearted and zealous in God's service for a while, and finally, fail at some test, and casting their religious experience behind their backs, will turn again to the world they love so well.

Our having a name with this people, and bearing their reproach, is no evidence of salvation. A knowledge of the truth can never bear us to Heaven; but an every-day Christian walk and conversation is required; the world loves its own, and if we are favorites with worldlings, we may know that we are not right before God. How many are conscious that they do not live up to their privileges and obligations, but at some indefinite future day they intend to throw off the shackles of Satan and surrender themselves entirely to Christ. But if it needs our whole energies to-day with the help of good angels to overcome this powerful foe, how can we hope to conquer when time and habit have made the “cords of sin,” as bands of iron? “In this world we are always on the enemy’s ground; we breathe an unfriendly atmosphere; there are a thousand influences ever bearing upon us that tend to make us worldly and ungodly,” and we must go from victory to victory if we ever gain eternal life. We cannot afford to let the present pass unimproved. God’s grace is sufficient for us if our hearts are in his work, and we know when this warfare of a few short years, at most, is over, we shall dwell in a land where we are perfectly safe from Satan’s power—no more watching, lest we fall into temptation. Sin and evil can never cross the boundary of that beautiful country. Oh! if it were possible for us to conceive of the glory laid up in store for the faithful soul, I am sure there would be more persevering, whole-hearted efforts put forth to gain it than there are now! But we must give our whole attention to salvation, must be willing to bury worldly ambition, and take up cheerfully the crosses that lie in our pathway, and bear them to the end, or we shall find in the day of Judgment, that notwithstanding our high profession, and a name among commandment-keepers, we are only almost saved, and entirely lost!

LERA E. ORTON.

Winspear, N. Y.