KNOW THE REASON by S.

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jul 10, 1901

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 27, No. 28.

KNOW THE REASON.

By S.

A PROMINENT New England minister, speaking recently before a men's club, asked the question, “Is life worth living?” and frankly admitted that he did not know. Now, it is the privilege of every one who has named the name of Christ to know not only whether or not life is worth living, but to know profoundly and triumphantly that life is worth living. He who is out of Christ may question. He who is in Christ has no occasion for question. He knows. If the Word of God and all the glorious hopes it holds out were untrue, there would be reason to question; but they are true, and it is the true Christian's blessed privilege to know they are.

Unbelief whispers all manner of questionings, and when asked to give a reason of the hope that is within, has none to give, for it has no hope. The honest questioner comes to the doubting professor, receives a doubting answer, and becomes a doubting questioner. The melancholy questioner comes to the doubting minister for hope and consolation, and the doubting answer doubles his gloom. How many such questioners there are, only Heaven knows; but they number a mighty host. How disloyal to God to give a doubting answer to men, when we might have set their feet upon the solid rock. Of course, he who doubts can not do that; but the Christian has no business to doubt—he has no reason to doubt. He is set in the world for a light to the feet of the lost, the straying; not for a mesh to entrap them in their bewilderment; not for a fog to enshroud them on the precipice of ruin. It is the Christian's glorious privilege to “bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound.” But how can we do it if we answer the questioner's question with a doubt? A doubting Christian may be the devil's prime minister in the flesh. There is no need to doubt. The Word of God is verified by evidence both internal and external; and they who are Christ's have the witness of the Spirit, which no shadow of darkness can ever quench. The words of Peter are to the point, and they apply here: “Sanctify the Lord God in your hearts; and be ready always to

give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear.” 1 Peter 3:15.

The language of a great army of suicides is, “I am going to end it all. I don't believe life is worth living.” It is the Christian's privilege to be able to answer, first, that this rash act does not “end it all;” and second, that the hope set before us is worth more than the greatest sacrifice ever made by man in living on the earth. The glorious hope contained in the declaration, “I go to prepare a place for you,” outweighs the severest trials man has ever been called upon to pass thru. Then, for the sake of Him who died for you, don't allow yourself to add to the numbers of that melancholy army by not knowing whether life is worth living. In other words, don't be doing the devil's work while professing to follow Christ.