WANTED — A POSITIVE RELIGION.
By A. J. B.
LIFE and light are positive. Death and darkness are negative. Faith and love are positive. Doubt and suspicion are negative. Health and cheerfulness are positive. Disease and dread are negative. The great need of to-day is for something positive. The world is tired of “Don't's,” and longing for a positive religion — positive Christianity. The surest way to make children disobey is to fill their heads full of negative commands. On the other hand, nothing will make them obey so promptly as the offering of a few positive suggestions calculated to draw the mind over to a different line of thought. The evil thought must be replaced by a good thought. But appearances are often deceiving. Some things which, in form, appear negative are, in reality, positive. For example, “anti-wrong” is always equivalent to “pro-right.” The Ten Commandments are negative in form, but positive in essence. Jesus himself defined the summing up, or essence of the commandments in the following terms (Matt. 22:37-40), than which nothing could be more positive:— “Thou SHALT LOVE the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. “This is the first and great commandment. “And the second is like unto it, Thou SHALT LOVE thy neighbor as thyself. “On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” To all who have been delivered from the bondage of sin the Lord still says: “I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt [spiritual darkness], out of the house of bondage.” To all such the Ten Commandments themselves become GLORIOUS, POSITIVE PROMISES, instead of negative commands or prohibitions. It is a blessed thing to thus behold God's law as a chain of golden promises. The teachings and the life of Jesus were positive. The teachings and daily life of the Pharisees were negative. Jesus told the people what to do to be saved. He pointed out the true way. The Jewish leaders told the people what NOT to do, but failed to tell them what to do. The writer once heard a Methodist bishop tersely define the difference between love, which is positive, and hatred, which is negative. Said he: “Love INTERPRETS. Hatred MISUNDERSTANDS.” Christian positiveness comes from true power. The only source of TRUE POWER, whether in things material or things spiritual, is KNOWLEDGE of the truth concerning the things in question. Therefore, he who would be truly positive as a Christian, must have within him a saving knowledge of the truth itself. Christ was filled with the truth. He was, therefore, a great power in the earth — a greater power than the combined power of all his enemies. In positiveness lies safety — temporal and spiritual. The mariner's compass is a positive affair. It tells him positively WHERE safety lies, WHICH41direction to steer, WHAT to do. It points out to him the true way. A boat-load of compasses telling him just where he should NOT go, would never bring the lost mariner into port. What a man does NOT believe, will never save him. The evil that one sees in others will never save one. Negative fault-finding starves the soul. Brooding over evils does not improve them. It makes one negative. Of all people, Seventh-day Adventists should be filled with positive religion — positive information concerning the Third Angel's Message — concerning all truth. And that Seventh-day Adventist will succeed best who fights error and darkness by preaching in a quiet, positive manner, truth and light.