A Delusion by S. S. Times

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Feb 7, 1884

A Delusion.

By S. S. Times

WHEN one thinks that he sees an opportunity of doing God service by disobeying the Lord's plainest commands, he need not hesitate a moment in deciding that that seeming opportunity is only a delusion of Satan. A year or two ago a young man, now a preacher of the gospel, fancied that he saw a chance to better his own circumstances, and to help on the Lord's cause, by undertaking a piece of work which his Christian consciousness condemned. He consulted several persons on the point of conscience which troubled him, and received advice, good and bad. At last that question was settled for him, by a plain query from one of those to whom he spoke, asking point blank whether his ruling motive in going into the proposed work was gain to himself, or gain to the Lord's cause. He frankly replied that his chief motive was personal gain, and he added that he would at once decline the proffered opportunity. This suggests a right and ready method for deciding in all such cases. Do you wish to do the questionable thing principally for your own sake, and incidentally for the Lord's? If so, don't do it. Is your principal motive for this doing, the gain it will bring to the Lord? If so, be sure that you cannot do better for the Lord than by obeying him at all hazards, and trusting him for the results.—S. S. Times.