Our Situation by Jos. Clarke

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, Cal. · Aug 19, 1875

Our Situation.

By Jos. Clarke

If we could be for one hour, translated to some distant planet, where the inhabitants have never sinned, and where Edenic beauty reigns, and the glory of God is seen and enjoyed by celestial beings, without a single accident or error to mar the place, and could we from that sublime and heavenly standpoint, look through some celestial telescope, and view the toiling millions of earth, as they rush along in hot pursuit of wealth, or renown, or pleasure, or as they sit down and complacently enjoy their several gifts, or as they murmur at their hard lot, how would we long to stir this multitude to better thoughts.

At such an altitude how would earthly objects dwindle into a speck or into naught. Earthly honor or fame, earthly pleasure or wealth, or grandeur, how small would it all look compared with the state of those beings who were the happy citizens of that distant planet.

How came this evil here? how came this evil into my heart, and to the world? how can it be eradicated? and how can we best extricate ourselves from the pit into which we have fallen? These questions would seem sensible when put by beings placed as we are in a world of sin and sorrow.

Is there a better world, a better state? can I aspire to a higher state where sin will no more mar the face of nature? and where man will no more war with his fellow-man? Is there a kind Creator somewhere in this universe, and can I find him? will he consider my case, and befriend me? One would think that such would be the natural outspoken thought of the miserable crowd which daily fills the street or spreads out its countless numbers into the country and over the vast oceans.

But as you spend one happy hour in that far-off planet, and with that celestial telescope view the movements of the crowd which moves daily along upon the earth’s surface, how few seem to think of the terrible accident which has befallen them. With the exception of a few here and there whose eyes are directed upward occasionally as if in a fit of absent mindedness and then are attracted to earth again, all seem to think it a matter of course, and one in which they have no particular interest. You discover that even the few who look up occasionally seem to be deadened to the real state of things, and to see only as in a dream.

Now you see the crowd, as they rush eagerly for imaginative prizes. You see earth, a vast cemetery for the dead; and the living dropping one by one into it, yet they laugh and sport just as before. You see misery in the presence of wealth, and want in the presence of plenty, for the greed of the covetous. You have seen armies destroying armies, for lust of power and lust of wealth, and for anger and spite; and all this and more, of untold misery and sorrow, yet the inhabitants of earth do not look beyond their present abode.

Now, how would you wish to leave that beautiful abode of the good, that you might wake the slumbering millions of earth from their state of mental stupor and spiritual death to see the beautiful world which you have visited, and to consider the offers of escape from this low estate into which they had fallen.

Those who looked occasionally upward, and were immediately attracted back to earth again, you would exhort to continue their upward aspirations until they, too, might be favored as you had been with a visit to such a planet, where they might also look, as you had, through a heavenly glass at earthly things.

Such a look, with the aid of a telescope like that, would, you believe, clear the mental vision of all who were favored with such a view.

Now, how is it with us? Is it a fact that we are the beings seen from Heaven, and that from the distant planets the angels and others are peering down upon us with their heavenly eyes, and wondering at our stupidity?

Is there a beautiful planet not far from the orbit of our earth, perhaps filled with intelligent people who have never sinned? Perhaps Heaven has arranged it so that that planet shall be nearer to us now than it has been for many years, that its celestial brotherhood may view more clearly the sublime scenes of the advent. Be that as it may, we are a spectacle to the universe, and shall we be seen stupid, ignorant, wicked, covetous, vain, proud, disobedient, treacherous, worldly minded now, lovers of the world, lovers of pleasure, lustful, boastful, ill-tempered, morose, or shall any wicked thing darken our characters now? God forbid.

Now is the time for the church to put on her cleanest attire, her whitest robes, and to go out free from the chains of sin, which have bound her to the man of sin who has corrupted the earth by fraud and craft.

Let us look upward until we see that celestial beings are viewing us, and more than all, that their God and ours is looking down upon us to see if we will appreciate the situation, if we will believe his word, and obey its precepts.

Let us look upward until we can catch the heavenly fire, and keep it burning within us. Let us look up to the sanctuary where Jesus is, and let us secure the intercession of our great High Priest, and the benefits of his mediation.

Not Heaven alone, but the universe, is interested in us. Do we take an interest in the daily and weekly news from foreign parts? and do not all the intelligent beings in the universe of God take an interest in us? How closely and with what interest they watch the work of God in this sin-cursed earth, it is not for us to determine; but we may very safely conjecture that no one is an uninterested spectator.

May God help us all so to walk in humility and love and faith, as to honor his truth and name, and that as God, and angels, and all the universe of intelligences look down upon us, they may not be pained at our stupidity or neglect. Jos. CLARKE.