Exploits | AdventAI

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Mar 12, 1885

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 11, No. 11.

"Exploits."

THERE is a very suggestive passage of Scripture (Dan. 9:32) in which this word occurs. "The people that do know their God shall be strong and do exploits." There is an idea that it is only in times of violent persecution that martyrs are developed; and that an "exploit" is an action which is characterized by some splendid display of physical courage, or some heroic manifestation of faithfulness, such as is seen in the life of some Daniel, Samson, David, or Stephen. But is not this a mistaken idea? It is true that the sword is not now invoked by some infidel or apostate power against the church of God, nor do men and women now have to confess Christ with the certainty of bonds and imprisonment awaiting them, or even scourgings and cruel mockings. But are there no other circumstances surrounding the Christian life which give opportunity for exploits on the part of the true disciple?

It is said that in the first ages of Christianity Satan sought to destroy the church by persecution, and failed; but that, when he joined the church and began to patronize it with world power, he succeeded in well nigh smothering the life out of it. Is it not largely so now? Our danger does not lie in the fact that our lives are put in jeopardy every day; but it does lie in the way of false doctrine, in a corrupting alliance of the church with the world, in an easy, albeit respectable indulgence of the unrenewed nature yet within us. The church and the world have become wedded. Their lines, which at first crossed each other at the perpendicular, have now well nigh coalesced into parallels. Doctrine is toned down to meet the requirements of a skeptical age, and the life of Christ in the person of his disciples has been largely accommodated to the demands of the worldly patrons of the church. Is there no opportunity for exploits here? We do not mean with the sword or with the ox-goad, as in Shamgar's hand, nor in a lion's den or furnace of fire, as in the case of Daniel and the Hebrew children; but in a quiet, but none the less heroic, determination to keep ourselves unspotted from the world; to maintain a pure spiritual doctrine and life which shall stand out in contrast to the easy-going, careless, worldly thing that passes current for Christianity with the church, but which the world itself detects, and, while well pleased with it, despises and brands as hypocrisy.

Is there no opportunity for some Christian men to do exploits in stemming the tide of greed and lust for gold and world power which seems to possess all mankind, both in and out of the church? We do not say that there are none such; but they are few in number in comparison with the many who are swept away in the strong current of the times in which we live. It is undoubtedly considered an exploit for a man so to manage his business as to amass a fortune of millions in a few years; and he is heralded as a marvel and published as a philanthropist, if, out of these millions, a few thousands find their way into some channel of benevolence. Might it not have been a greater exploit, and one that would have found a record in God's book of remembrance, if he had had the courage not to have massed those millions by the questionable methods which the church, half asleep, has winked at as she has dozed? Is there no opportunity for a Christian mother to do an exploit by refusing to be dictated to by the ungodly world in the matter of the way in which her children shall be educated and trained for the world? Is there no opportunity for a young man to do an exploit, as did Daniel, in refusing to eat the king's meat, or to give up his prayer, three times a day, in his chamber, with his windows opened toward Jerusalem? Is there no opportunity for a multitude of Christian men and women of time and means to do exploits, by giving themselves to some quiet, personal work for the Lord, among the poor and lowly, the destitute and friendless, rather than idling and dawdling away their time in the drawing-rooms of the fashionable world? Is there no opportunity for some of our large and small churches to do exploits in the way of a consistent and vigorous prosecution of the work of the Lord in a church too largely at ease?

There are one hundred, if not five hundred, agents of the devil at work every day and night to allure young men into the ways of vice and wickedness, where there is one Christian to draw them aside from the pathway that goes down to hell. Is there not an opportunity for our Christian young men to do exploits in this direction? We see many young men coming into the house of God Sabbath after Sabbath alone, when each one might be accompanied by one, two, or three of their acquaintances, if they were courageous enough to seek them out and confess Christ before them. On the other hand, we may safely venture to say that the unbelievers have been far more successful in carrying (professedly) Christian young men into the theaters and other worse places. To stand alone and apart, if needs be, and maintain a consistent Christian life in this day is, for a young man, as great an exploit as it was for Jonathan to scale the wall with his armor bearer, and put to rout the Philistines. Oh, let us up, and be doing exploits in this day of worldly compromises and lukewarmness!—Independent.