Hastening the Coming by Editor

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D. C. · Oct 20, 1904

Hastening the Coming

By Editor

Editorial

Hastening the Coming

THE sending of more money and more laborers to the unentered and the unworked fields is a step which will hasten the coming of the Lord. An earnest effort on the part of the members of the home churches to reach the people about them by the circulation of our periodicals, books, tracts, and pamphlets is a step in the same direction. Those who truly desire to see this work finished will surely respond to the invitation to join in a great missionary campaign for the spread of the truth. This closing message must go “unto every nation and tribe and tongue and people,” and then shall the end come. “Men need to be aroused to realize the solemnity of the time, the nearness of the day when human probation shall be ended. Decided efforts should be made to bring the message for this time prominently before the people. The third angel is to go forth with great power. Let none ignore this work, or treat it as of little importance.” Let all unite in the work suggested for this fall and winter, and thus have a part in hastening his coming.

A Vain Effort

IT is utterly useless to try to combine the things of the world and the things of the kingdom. “Ye can not serve God and mammon.” It has been said that “the power of the world, the spirit of its literature, the temptations of business and pleasure, all unite to make up a religion in which it is sought to combine a comfortable hope for the future with the least possible amount of sacrifice in the present.” He who allows himself to be persuaded into this course will, in all probability, lose both religion and worldly pleasure. He does not have religion enough to make him happy, and yet he has too much religious conviction to be really happy in following the ways of the world. Whole-hearted, uncompromising Christians are especially needed at this time, when there is so much of the mere form of godliness, which brings true religion into reproach. That people who are preparing for the soon-coming Saviour should be ready to give all to buy the field. Let no one try to keep his hold on this world while professing to have transferred all his interests to the world to come. “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.” By giving all that we have we may win all that the Master has. It is a vain effort to try to keep what we have and yet to win what he has. Do not attempt it.

Loving and Obeying

GENUINE love is revealed in obedience. “If ye love me,” said Jesus, “ye will keep my commandments.” “For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments.” “And this is love, that we should walk after his commandments.” The man who really loves God is the man who obeys God. That professed love which chafes at obedience and prates about perfect freedom is selfishness under a false name. Some professed representatives of Jesus talk as if Jesus paid it all for the purpose of making it possible for man to lead a lawless life without the sense of responsibility before the judgment bar of God. Such teaching is responsible in some degree, and perhaps in a large degree, for that spirit of lawlessness which seems to be taking possession of such a large proportion of the men of this time. It is necessary to emphasize the truth that the God of love is a God of law, and that freedom from sin is freedom from transgressing the law of God. There is abundant grace for every sinner, and we are thankful that “we are not under the law, but under grace;” but “shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid.” We are justified by faith apart from the law, but the proof of justification is a life in harmony with God’s law. Such a life is the life of love, for “love worketh no ill to his neighbor: love therefore is the fulfilment of the law.” The Pharisees talked long and loudly about religion in the most public places, but violated every principle of true religion in their daily lives. The Saviour’s indictment against them was, “They say, and do not.” Such ostentatious piety, which is lacking in the essential principles of real Christianity, is displeasing to the Lord, and will end in disappointment. He who loves the Lord with all his heart will serve the Lord with all his strength, and that service will be in harmony with God’s will as revealed in his law. Loving is obeying.