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Dangers of the Way

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Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Aug 8, 1871

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 38, No. 8.

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Dangers of the Way.

By Jos. Clarke

ALL situations in life, all the professions, and arts, and employments, in which we as citizens are engaged, have each their peculiar temptations.
The farmer, the mechanic, the man of traffic, the laborer, the teacher and the pupil, the master and his servant, the man of learning and the ignorant man, the professional man, and the capitalist, are all brothers, with like weaknesses and frailties.
About each employment and business of life, Satan has woven a web of temptation, and has artfully set his hidden traps and nets. The servant is taught to practice eye-service; and the master is prompted to tyranny and oppression. The mechanic and merchant are taught to overreach and deceive; and the farmer is urged and inflamed to murmur and complain of the weather and the seasons, of blight and mildew, and of all the drawbacks which come to us in the wake of Adam's first sin; for which, thorns and thistles were the first installment, received in the line of recompense; and now ungrateful man gloomily and Cain-like, tills the earth with oaths and blasphemy, cursing his teams, his men, and even his God.
The man of trade by ingenious artful silence, or open deceit, fills his pockets with ill-gotten gains, or murmurs at the gales, which wreck his ships, and swallow up his treasures.
The teacher pines, or is angry, at the apathy, or ill temper of his pupils; while the pupil is stirred to rebellion, by the requirements of his teacher.
The minister who preaches the truth to others may fail to apply it to his own heart; or he may be so intent upon establishing the truth of, and explaining, disputed points, that the more practical points are in danger of being forgotten, overlooked, and neglected, leaving him in worse than Egyptian darkness.
The greatest danger to which all are exposed, arises from the fact that we do not often discover the peril until the disaster is upon us.
Our business, whatever it may be, is so pleasant to us that we devote to it nearly every moment of time, and thus little is left for the more important affairs, of devotion, self-examination, and prayer.
The heart and heart-work are neglected; the Bible, and especially the more practical portions, are too much neglected. How many who are thoroughly posted upon the prophecies, and other disputed points, are mere babes and novices in those portions which treat upon personal, living experience.
Were the authors of such works as Flavel upon Keeping the Heart, Mason upon Self-knowledge, Doddridge's Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul, to rise from their graves, and re-assume their testimony where they laid it down in death, what a shaking would their searching, close, practical, but sweet discourses, produce among us.
What we want is, discernment to know the work of God's Spirit, and to distinguish it, even when obscured by the imperfection and frailty of the erring one. No amount of ability and knowledge, will atone for want of discernment (the eye-salve); and especially when religious teachers are in the fault, will such a lack be disastrous.
A living daily experience (not of self-flattery, but) of humility, and self abasement, an experience of victories over the pride of one's own heart (not over others), an experience won by prayer and meditation, by watching and self-denial, and productive of good results, will bring about a state of things in the heart, fitting it for labor or rest.
Sweet is the sound of that voice which brings liberty and peace to the soul bound by sin.
Oh, the precious fruits of the Spirit! God grant that they may be revived. Had the friends of Job possessed the humility which the publican did, they would not have made so great a mistake, in their labor with Job; they came to him in pride, but they knew it not. They needed humility, a knowledge of the plague of their own hearts, and with it a knowledge of the work of God in the heart.
It must be admitted that professors of religion need to begin the Christian life anew. It is greatly to be feared that the teaching alluded to in the former part of this article, would not be relished by many religious people.
It is true, that all of these authors were more or less in the dark, upon some points of present truth; but we well know how to account for this; their blemishes we need not notice. Their depth of experience, their close study of their own hearts, and their knowledge of the things of God, we cannot afford to lose. Their mode of applying the word of God, practically, we should all understand; especially those intrusted with the care of souls.
What a responsibility! yet what a privilege to move aright in this matter! What a terrible mistake, to mislead others; yet we may do this, while confident that we are doing just right. Let us all strive to realize this as we shall when probation closes, and so fit ourselves for the work that our works may bear the test of the Judgment.
JOS. CLARKE.