A Religion to Use

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Apr 21, 1874

A Religion to Use.

The following forcible expression occurs in a letter from a pastor’s wife. “It seems to me people do not use their religion in earnest nowadays, but do as they please in spite of it. It disheartens my husband sorely, and I am sure it does me.”

Is religion something to be used in every-day life? or is it an ornament, or an implement, to be laid away for an emergency? The apostle James certainly presents it as a practical principle, when he pronounces a man’s religion vain which consists in a mere creed without consistent conduct accompanying it, and declares that pure religion consists in the denial of self, as well as in purity of heart and life. And this, we suppose, is what our friend meant by using religion in earnest—working out the principles of faith in our daily conversation and conduct. If we believe the declarations of God’s word, that the fashions of this world pass away, that riches are deceitful, that all earthly pleasures are transitory, we should remove our affections from “those things that may be shaken” to those which “can not be shaken,” and “remain.”

If we believe that Christ calls us not alone for salvation, but for service, we should busy ourselves with the multiplied opportunities of usefulness which he gives us. If we are assured that we are our brother’s keeper, that our influence tells either for or against Christ, we should be reverently careful how we walk, lest by an indiscreet act, a questionable amusement, a single self-indulgence, we should betray our trust, and lead our unsuspecting brother into sin. And if we believe that time is short, life uncertain, and our eternal destiny self-made and irrevocable, we should walk each day as if it were our last, and so occupy ourselves that we may step unhesitatingly from time into eternity.

Have we any reason to think we have any true faith or religious principle if we only seek to please ourselves? Jesus says, “Whosoever doth not bear his cross and come after me cannot be my disciple;”; and, “Except your righteousness exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees [mere formalism], ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of God.” No wonder the devoted pastor is disheartened, who, while striving to lead his people up to the heights of holy living, feels them continually dragging back, groping in the low, murky atmosphere of worldliness and self, “doing as they please in spite of” teaching, conviction, and profession. And can we think it strange that such professed disciples of Christ know so little of joy in the Lord and have so little power for good in their daily lives?

“If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him;” and if love be wanting, faith, which works by love, must be equally so, and all the blessed fruits of faith must be lacking too. Barren and unfruitful indeed is the life of the Christian who never uses his religion, and who does as he pleases in spite of it. May the Holy Spirit convert such, and give to the hearts of godly pastors and their companions the pure, sweet joy of leading their people, no longer self-pleasing, into the green pastures and beside the still waters of holiness.—Advocate and Guardian.