p. 11 | Is It Right? by Mrs. E. M. Peebles

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D.C. · Feb 25, 1904

Is It Right?

By Mrs. E. M. Peebles

MRS. E. M. PEEBLES

We believe that we have a special message for this generation, the most solemn one that has ever been given to man, even that “the hour of his judgment is come;” and that just as John the Baptist was forerunner of Christ’s first advent to this world, so this people carrying this message is the forerunner of his second coming; and that John’s message was a type of ours, and just as surely as John was the voice of one crying in the wilderness, “Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God” (Isa. 40:3), so we are to be a voice in this wilderness of sin, a voice calling the people away from the world, with its tumult and folly, away from the crowds who are going downward to destruction. We are to call them into the only safe place, “the secret place of the Most High,” to dwell under the shadow of the Almighty when the storm of his wrath shall burst with unrestrained fury upon the unprepared. We believe that we are in the watching time,—a time corresponding to that just before the crucifixion, when our Saviour begged the disciples to watch with him one hour while all the powers of darkness were arrayed to overthrow the plan of salvation, or else to cause that even the very closest of his followers should sleep at their post of duty, only now such a sleep would prove fatal, the waking only to be in eternity; then, there was time for repentance.

We know that we are in the great antitypical day of atonement, when every Israelite was to “afflict his soul,” and if he neglected to do so, he was cut off from his people. We read in Joel 2: “Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble,” and both ministers and people are called upon to turn to God “with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning.”

We can see the terrible judgments of God being visited upon the world, hurling thousands into eternity unprepared. These things tell us plainly that mercy is being withdrawn from the sinner. We see the forces of evil carrying the multitudes along, all either giddy with their downward flight or else wailing and moaning with a weight of sorrow which is too great to be borne, so that death by their own hands seems to them the quickest and easiest way to end it all; and is even advised by some of the leaders of the people.

We see “Ethiopia stretching out her hands to God,” and millions of her sons and daughters—the colored people of the South—are our near neighbors.

We hear heart-rending stories of suffering from famine in different parts of the world, of a “million a month in China who are dying without God,” of India’s child widows and wives who need scores of our sisters to tell them the gospel.

Without asking again the question, Is it right? we ask another: Can we enter even the outer circles of this great maelstrom (which is simply made up of independent and yet connected smaller circles, all sweeping on together with overwhelming power) to find for a few moments enjoyment and rest?

Can we find there an inspiration to the voice we must be in the world or else fail of our mission? Do we say we are tired and need a good intellectual treat, which, by the way, usually turns out to be mostly foolishness, and entirely of the world? When the disciples were weary, Jesus said to them, “Come ye yourselves apart . . . and rest awhile,” but we do not read that he went somewhere to be amused, but on the contrary—

“Cold mountains and the midnight air Witnessed the fervor of thy prayer, The desert thy temptation knew, Thy conflict and thy victory too.”

Is he less anxious now than then for the salvation of souls? He partook of the hospitality of the rich, but it was to preach his message; and he was present at the marriage at Cana, but to manifest his saving power, and bear witness to the “present truth;” and “as he is, so are we in the world.”

We believe that even now “the roll is being called up yonder.” When they come to my name, shall it be said, She is in such or such a place to be amused? Would not my Saviour have reason to be ashamed of me before the Father and the holy angels? The circus or the theater, the social game of cards or the dance, or even the worldly musicale and declamatory entertainments can not give the peace of mind and the spiritual rest and strength that are to be obtained by communion with God. How, then, can Christians go to the world for rest? Jesus says, “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”

Again: if it is right for one to gratify his desire to be amused and entertained as his taste indicates, is it wrong for another? Where shall the line be drawn? And if one Sabbath-keeper pays fifty cents in one year to see the show or to hear the declamation, fifty thousand Sabbath-keepers would pay two million five hundred thousand cents—and what a help that would be in finishing our work!

Are not these things worth thinking of? Christ says, “I have chosen you out of the world,” and so let us go into it only to carry the message he has entrusted to us, but not to partake of its spirit.