Men and Things by Dudley Marvin Canright

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jul 11, 1871

Men and Things.

By Dudley Marvin Canright

A Creed in the Constitution.

That the final end of the present movement for a religious amendment of the Constitution will be a creed is easy to be seen. Thoughtful men see this now and lift their voices against it. The Christian Union says:—

“For even if the demand of the reformers were reduced as nearly as possible to the first principles of natural religion, the inevitable tendency would be (as in this experiment it has been) toward an increase of that amendment until it would attain to the proportions of a creed.”

This is what is surely coming. When that is done, how easy to make Sunday laws and erect an image to the beast. The work moves on, and we have reason to thank God and take courage.

Resignation.

We are not prepared to confess our faith in “the decrees,” but yet we like the principle which Mr. Beecher lays down in these remarks. He says:—

“Another thing I perceive. It is always fair, as my father used to say, to fight the decrees, as long as you can; or as long as you do not believe that they are decrees; but when the thing is done, when the law of God is revealed by the happening of facts, one of the most striking evidences of sonship in any person is the completeness and the sweetness of his submission to the will of the Lord.

“As long as the child was alive, David fasted, and prayed, and threw himself on the ground; but the moment the child was dead, and every one else began to mourn, he got up, and washed his face and dressed himself like a man, and asked for something to eat. The servants said, ‘What does that mean?’ And he—sensible old man that he was (he might teach a valuable lesson to many modern Christians)—said, ‘As long as the child was alive, how did I know but God would have mercy and spare him? but now that he is dead, that ends it. I shall go to him. He will not return to me.’ So he accepted the event, and went on his way.

“So long as events that threaten our peace and prosperity have not happened, and are only threatening, we have a right to oppose our caution to them; but the moment a thing has happened, then it is the will of the Lord; and the next step is simply to bring ourselves into such a state of mind that we can say, with all our soul, ‘Let the will of the Lord be done.’”

“Oh! how much rather should we, as soon as the Lord has overturned our plans, throwing us down with raw edges, begin to clothe ourselves with contentment, with resignation, with hope, and with all the sweeter Christian emotions! There is nothing better in this world than a great calamity dressed out in Christian experience. There is nothing that testifies of God more, there is nothing that so manifests grace in the soul, as standing right in an accomplished trouble, and saying there, not because we have to say it, but because the heart wants to say it, ‘The will of the Lord be done.’”

“It is no use to cry over spilt milk,” says the old adage. There is sound philosophy in this. When a thing is done beyond a hope or possibility of undoing, then it is no use to fret and worry and chafe over it. No, it is high time then to be about something else; viz., if we have erred and sinned, to frankly and fully confess it, and try to do better. If we have simply made mistakes, then let us learn by them not to commit similar ones in the future. Life is too short to be spent in regrets and repinings.

Piety at Home.

Happiest of all places this side of Heaven is a pious and peaceful home. Says Theodore Parker:—

“Religion is majestic in the State; it may be grand in the church; in the church, building a great institution; in the State, swaying the destinies of millions of men. But piety looks lovelier and sweeter at home; not arrayed in her court dress, nor set off in her church regalia, but dressed in her homely week-day, working clothes. It is a little striking that the word piety, which so often rings in the Christian church, is mentioned only once in the English Bible, and then coupled with the admonition to show itself first at home.”

What shall we say to the piety of that husband and father who is all politeness and smiles away from home, but the moment he enters his own house puts on a frown, finds fault, has the blues, and makes all feel unhappy around him? That is a spurious article. It wont stand the fire.

D. M. Canright.