True to What?

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · May 19, 1909

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 36, No. 20.

To be true to oneself is a good thing if one’s self be true. But, in the language of old, “Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean?—Not one.” “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” “They are all gone out of the way.” Essentially, human nature apart from God is untrue. Sin is missing the mark. It is being not true to the right line. Froward in desire and purpose, finite in knowledge and power, man is a creature of faults, and “faults” and “false” have the same root, fallo, “to deceive.” To be true to oneself is therefore to be essentially false. It is to follow the changing moods of finite, wandering man. And yet self, self-hood, self-interest, self-exaltation, self-advancement, at the best self-effacement by self, is the root and ground work of all the false religions of the present day.

To be true to God is to be true to truth. God is infinite in love and wisdom and power. He always does just right, purposes just right, acts just right. He is always consistent with Himself, for He is never selfish. His acts are ever in harmony, whether man, with nature keyed on the low, imperfect scale of sin, can recognize the harmony or not. He who is true to God will never fail, for God can not fail.

God is not only essential truth, but He will make of the truth every one who will yield to Him. “Ye shall know the Truth, and the Truth shall make you free.” “If the Son make you free, ye shall be free indeed.” “He that doeth the will of God abideth forever.” As, therefore, God is truth, and he that is in harmony with the truth is free and abides forever, it follows that he who is true to God, regardless of self and selfish interests, is working for his own eternal good. Be true to something, but let that something be eternal and essential Truth.