Standing Alone by Joseph Clarke

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jun 7, 1883

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 9, No. 22.

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Standing Alone.

By Joseph Clarke

BY JOSEPH CLARKE.

"YET I am not alone, because the Father is with me." John 16:32.

"And I am left alone, and they seek my life." Rom. 11:3.

"At my first answer, no man stood with me, but all men forsook me." 2 Tim. 4:16.

It is not pleasant to stand alone—alone in your opposition to wrong. Your neighbors nearly all keep Sunday; why do not you? They belong to secret societies, and why do not you? They use tobacco and other stimulants, and why do you still speak against this popular vice? You know it will only bring reproach upon you. But are you alone? Is not God with you, and is not God a majority? How was it with good king Hezekiah, when his enemies taunted him with his helpless condition? That taunting, insulting letter was spread out before the Lord, and the invading army suffered a loss of 185,000 men in a single night. Isa. 37.

Sometimes it is well to be left alone with God, but never without him. The tree that stands alone on the plain, while it has to breast the storm and tempest, also receives the warm rays of the sun, with no shade to intervene, while the winds which rock it to and fro cause its roots to strike deeper and more firmly into the earth, and to cover a larger area.

We should never think for a moment that we are alone because no one of like faith is near us. God will not forsake his scattered flock; not a sheep of his fold will be left alone. We may be misunderstood and misrepresented; we may feel greatly the need of the sympathy and support of true friends; but this need not cast us down. At such times we may draw near to God, and ask him to do for us what no human power can do; then we shall feel the tender care our Father in Heaven has for his children; we shall be armed with fortitude, and consoled by His love who loved us before we loved Him. Man has but little regard or love for his fellow-man; the sooner we learn to rely solely upon God the better for us. Earthly ties may soon be broken; friends who are true may die, or be too far away to help or sympathize; but God is never too distant or too busy to help us or sympathize with us in our trials; he is subject to no accident or change; he invites us to a closer and more intimate acquaintance with him. We may walk with God as Enoch did; then we shall not feel that we are alone. Ah, dear reader, what a companion! You may walk in company with God! At your work, your plow, your wheel, or loom, you may walk with God!

Now, dear friend, let us stop a moment and consider what a thing this is, to walk with God; to feel his presence with you, in the house and by the way, at work or at rest, in solitude or in the crowded street. This thought constantly in mind will comfort us in our trials, will strengthen us in weakness; it will warn us of danger, and enlighten us in the darkness and ignorance by which we are surrounded. The constant sense of an ever-present God, who looks upon us with tender care, always our friend, to approve and encourage us in right doing, and to correct and reprove us when out of the way, and to help us in overcoming, will be to us a source of never failing joy, even though we may be separated from those we love, and among strangers. This assurance of the presence of God by his Spirit dwelling in the heart so elevates and fortifies the soul that hope becomes assurance, and theory changes to living faith; darkness is dispersed before the light. Then we cease to lean upon human agencies for succor, for we have learned to rely upon the Lord. And we may add, that sooner or later we shall see the necessity of such an experience if we would stand in the Judgment.

Nothing short of this will stand the final test, and give to each one lasting peace and enduring happiness. When we do rely thus solely upon God, we shall see the propriety of conforming ourselves wholly to his revealed will, and consecrating our all (not a tithe only) to the work of God; and we shall value the good and holy influence of the Spirit of God too highly to sell it for any earthly consideration.

The truth is, that there is no such pure, unalloyed, enduring peace and happiness, as that flowing from the approval of a conscience enlightened by the word and Spirit of God; and hence we see the necessity of imbibing and firmly adopting correct views of the word of God, and of holding ourselves always prepared to exchange error for truth; else we may grieve away the Spirit of God by our stupidity, and bigotry, or conceit. To-day we may feel the influence of the Spirit of God; by to-morrow we may grieve it to depart; if we refuse to reform our lives, or our creed, either may cause our overthrow.

I wish, dear reader, to show how I believe we may stand alone, yet not alone; having derived lasting benefit from these views of the word of God, upon which I rely for my prospect of eternal life, I feel a settled peace of mind in communicating to you. You are free to examine for yourself; but I would most earnestly entreat you to consider calmly, candidly, truthfully, and perseveringly, the word of God,—that book more abused than any other book; most and oftenest misrepresented, and made to say what it does not say; made to command what it does not command, and promise what it does not promise. Ah, my friend, what an account must those render to God who, by misinterpreting the word of God, have propped up their errors, and so sent them out to the world, and those who by their influence sustain error in any form, are collectively and individually responsible.

The Papal Church, by its craft and cruelty, had nearly exterminated true godliness from the earth, yet she by false reasoning claims the right to expound the inspired word aright; and now the Protestant sects claim each to do the same. Truly this is a very bad state of things; but the disorder and confusion around us should lead us to be the more on our guard, less by false reasoning we be led away from God. This is an age of great wealth; never before were rich men so rich, or poor men so poor, as now; never were men so wicked, and so bold in wickedness, as now; never were the great mass of mankind so well educated as at the present time, and never before so self-sufficient. If we would stand amid all the darkness and confusion of a world of educated, enlightened, and polished, iniquity, and refined hypocrisy, and bold, audacious, infidelity, and tradition, grey and bald and wrinkled with age, we must leave all our errors and sins behind, and press on into the clear light of truth.

To stand alone, as Christ stood, we need the purity of heart he himself possessed, and recommended to his followers; then we shall have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Sanctification implies continual growth in every grace, growth in knowledge, wisdom, and holiness; and true holiness recognizes the decalogue as its standard of perfection, and the blood of Christ as its remedy for sin. Any such thing as holiness of heart without the rule laid down in the two tables of stone written with the hand of God, or that fails to appreciate the remedy for sin, the sacrifice made by our Lord on the cross, and his pleadings for us—we say, that any such thing as holiness of heart that ignores any one of these principles is, to say the least, a very doubtful sort of holiness. Sanctification might be called a succession of steps to continue through life. Justification from past sins is a step, the first one taken in sanctification, then come many more in our course, —virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, godliness, brotherly kindness, and charity; all these make the cluster of graces which form the perfect fruit of the Christian character.

We are thus definite because we wish to show how we view the requisite preparation to stand alone, yet not alone, for, in such a state of mind the Lord is with us. To attempt to stand alone, or make any pretense to such a footing without the preparation here described, we, we believe, is dangerous folly.

To say as is sometimes said (often ignorantly) that we have attained to sanctification, in a moment, or an hour, or a day, or in a month, etc., is of itself an absurdity. We may be converted in a moment, as was Saul of Tarsus; but as were the multitudes on the day of Pentecost; but the work of sanctification is the work of a life-time spent in the service of God; not in the face of a backslider, but such a life as that of Paul, or John, onward and upward continually. Do not, my brother, mistake a flight of feeling for sanctification. You may be assured that the work of sanctification comprehends the whole education and experience of a Christian life, which, when it is over, will still be at fault but for the righteousness of Christ. Let us do all we can to build a character, so that we may stand alone, yet not alone, for the Father is with us.