Men and Things by Dudley Marvin Canright

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jul 4, 1871

Men and Things.

By Dudley Marvin Canright

WALK BY FAITH.

One class of Christians are always measuring their progress by their feelings. If they feel well and happy, they are satisfied that all is well, and that they are in the right path—Heaven is sure. If trials, temptations, and sorrows, come, then they are cast down and discouraged. These do not walk by faith, but by feeling. Beecher well illustrates these things thus:—

“A man starts from here to go to Liverpool, and he finds the blandest weather and the serenest heaven all the day that he sails out of port, and all the next day, and all the next day; and every day he says, ‘I know I am steering right, because I have such beautiful weather, and because I am having such a charming time.’ Three days afterward, another man starts for the same place; and there is an east wind; and it storms all the first day, and all the first night, and all the next day; but still he watches his compass, and holds on to his course. It seems as though the spirits of mischief were in the air. He has been out a whole week, and has not seen the sun once. He has been out ten days, and has been driven hither and thither all the time. But he has kept on the right course. And he says, ‘I will keep right, anyhow, notwithstanding the weather.’ What has the weather to do with it? A man who has a compass knows how to steer whether the weather is good or bad. It is better if it is fair; but if it is foul, it is the man’s business to make his way straight across the sea. So, if a man has laid his course for the heavenly land, if he has taken Christ as his star by which to steer, he is to go by his sailing directions. And it does not make any difference whether he is happy or not, so far as the fact is concerned that he is putting for the Christian life and for a Christian destiny; and that is the thing which he is to labor for.”

HINTS TO PREACHERS.

The Advance thus plainly and truly points out the prevailing lack among preachers of the gospel, the reason why so little good is done. May we lay it to heart and avoid the same pit of corruption:—

“There is much mere goodish preaching and exhortation, both by ministers and laymen, in which one hears scarcely anything except a mention of God’s compassion, of Christ’s willingness to save all who trust in him, and of the ease and pleasure of a religious life. There is truth in these representations; but how much, and with what limitations, or with what relationships to other truths, no one can understand without a deep work of conviction, wrought by a clear presentation of fundamental doctrines. Men must see the vile character and ruinous nature of sin; the holiness of God, and his sure purpose to punish persistent sinners; the entirely fallen condition of man, and the necessity of a complete renewal of character by the Holy Spirit; the coming fact of a final judgment and of eternal awards of destiny; and the positive need of redemption by the blood of Christ. Those who slightly realize their guilt and danger, will slightly appreciate the fullness and grace of Christ’s salvation; and thus their purpose of a new life will be feeble, their joy will be faint, their gratitude will be small, and their testimony of little power. Deep plowing requires the preaching of law as well as of grace; of hell, as well as of Heaven; of divine severity, as well as of divine compassion; of unconditional, whole-hearted consecration, as well as of forgiven sin. Did not Jesus himself so preach? Did not the most fearful warnings fall from the same lips which uttered the tenderest invitations? Did he not say that the Holy Spirit, when given, should ‘reprove [or convince] the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment’? Did not Paul make the dissolute Felix tremble, as he ‘reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come’? And did he not cry aloud, ‘Behold, therefore, the goodness and the severity of God’? Let us have deeper plowing, and we shall see more marked and abiding results. Men have not changed; the gospel has not changed; and in its grand characteristics, the utterance of the pulpit should not change.”

Yes, brethren, let us not be frightened out of preaching the law because it hurts hypocrites, and they make a fuss about it. Cry the louder.

THEIR SPIRIT.

The following from the Christian Statesman, in an article on the Sunday question, shows the deep feeling they have on this question, and that when they get the laws in their hands, Sunday-breakers need expect no mercy of them. It is the old spirit of persecution. It says:—

“The true ground, the only stable ground, for the maintenance of the Sabbath laws, is that the prosecution of common labor or amusement on that day is wickedness, an offense against morals, like blasphemy, licentiousness, or theft. We must have regard in our legislation not to a Sunday ‘holiday,’ but to a Sabbath of the Lord, for rest and worship. On no other ground can our laws be successfully defended.”

A MARK OF CONVERSION.

Brother, do you want to know whether or not you have really been converted? Do you long and pray for the sure evidence? Well, here is an infallible test: How do you treat your family since you sought the Lord? Beecher illustrates it thus:—

“And let me here say, that when a man who has not cared much for his family is converted, it is like taking a lump of sugar and putting it in a cup of tea. There is no great flash or flame there; but that tea is sweet. If a man who never made his home happy is converted, you may depend upon it that house will become sweeter. As his heart dissolves under the divine influence, he will sweeten everything about him.”

The fact holds just as good with regard to any other relation in the family, as of brothers and sisters, &c. If your religion does not make you good, kind, gentle, and forbearing, in the family, it is a failure.

THE SUNDAY-SABBATH LAW.

The stone keeps rolling, the agitation still goes on. The parties are becoming warm, and their statements stronger, and their positions more radical. A strict Sunday law put through by a religious party is bound to follow. In an account of a late convention, the Methodist gives these items:—

“1. That the sacred observance of the Sabbath is a divine command, obligatory both upon the individual and society. “2. That the desecration of the Sabbath is an evil so flagrant that it should be the subject of legislative enactment.”

Brethren, let us make God our trust and calmly wait the soon-coming storm.

D. M. CANRIGHT.