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STAGGERING

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Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Mar 11, 1903

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 29, No. 10.

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STAGGERING

By H. A. St. John

Who has not seen a drunken man staggering from side to side, against the lamp-post, down in the filth of the street or gutter, then up and staggering again. It is utterly impossible for such a man to keep his feet in a narrow path, much less a path that is both narrow and straight.
Now the path that leads to life, eternal life, is through a straight gate and over a narrow way. And every traveler therein must needs make straight paths for his feet, lest he himself wander away, and lose the goal; and also lest he be the means of turning others out of the way.
It is written of Abraham that, “He staggered not at the promise of God, through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God.” Rom. 4:20. Hence the inevitable conclusion that every person who does not accept the promises of God at their full value, and show by his life that he does thus accept them, is, to just the extent that he doubts or questions, a staggering professor. If so, how painfully distressing must the Laodicean church appear in the sight of Heaven. No wonder the faithful and true Witness says of them that they are “wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked.” No wonder that they are so disgusting and nauseating to God that He will not bear with them long, but will “spew them out of His mouth.”
The sight of a man drunken and staggering, morally and spiritually, at the promises of God, in unbelief, before all the people, under the concentrated light of the Gospel of the kingdom, is a far more distressing sight than that of a staggering man on the streets of a great city in broad daylight.
Reader, are you staggering at the promises of God through unbelief? Are you still wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked, staggering in unbelief at the promises of God right before you, of “gold tried in the fire, white raiment, and eyesalve,” all of which may be obtained by faith? These promises, verified in your experience, will make you sober, children of the day, children of light, in whom the Lord shall delight, making straight paths for your feet, and turning the lame into the way, the bright and shining pathway that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.
When the remnant church shall cease to stagger in unbelief of the promises of God, and sober up, becoming strong in faith, and giving glory to God, then, very soon, will the whole earth be lightened with the glory of God.
H. A. ST. JOHN.