Our Day of Humiliation.
By John Nevins Andrews
THE REVIEW, containing the appointment of the first Sabbath in the year as a day of solemn humiliation before God, came to hand a few hours before the commencement of that Sabbath. Nothing could have been more congenial to my heart than such a recommendation as this. I hope it has been very generally regarded by all our people. The goodness and mercy of God, and our own failure to appreciate that mercy, the sacredness of the work, and our general failure to set ourselves apart from every evil thing to faithfully fulfill that which God has committed to our trust, constitute weighty reasons for the deepest humiliation before God. It is very necessary that we often stop and take time for consideration with respect to our own standing before God. The work will give us pain; for it will reveal our faults. But people who expect to come to the Judgment should consider that the discovery of sin must be made sometime, and that it better be made while there is time for repentance. And this brings to view a part of the work which is quite generally left undone. After the day of humiliation is passed, the work is considered finished. The truth is, that after our work of heart-searching and self-examination comes the real work of repentance. This is the change of our conduct in all those things which we have found faulty before God. This is what is meant by our bringing forth fruits meet for repentance. This kind of work gives us lasting employment. The genuineness of our humiliation is shown by the extent of the reformation which follows it. If we set ourselves to the work of correcting the errors which we have found in our hearts and lives, we shall have a work which will demand our best energies till God shall give us another lesson in the knowledge of ourselves. If we are faithful in this kind of work, when we come to another season of humiliation and self-examination, the Spirit of God will meet us again and give us another lesson. It will not take us over the same ground, but it will give us a deeper lesson with respect to our own hearts and our own conduct. It will show us blemishes where we did not suspect their existence, and it will show us self in many things that we did not suppose it had entered into. And then will follow in order our work of deeper repentance before God, and so the work will continue till our preparation for the Judgment is accomplished, if we follow on to know the Lord. Most earnestly do I entreat every reader of the REVIEW to make this work the business of life. We are hastening to the Judgment. What we do for ourselves or for others we must do now. Success in our work means a place at Christ’s right hand. Failure means a part in the lake of fire. Our own destiny is in our own hands. The REVIEW is filled with practical matter of the highest value. To me it is very precious. I watch the extension of the work with the deepest interest. For every part of the work my heart goes out to God in earnest prayer. Our paper on the Pacific Coast is a credit to the cause in California, and a light to the people in all the great harvest field. Surely, the hand of God is in this work. If we are truly workers together with God, his work will prosper in our hands. But God will not be with us if we grieve his Holy Spirit by our course of action. I hope the day of humiliation which we have passed will be followed by such a work of genuine repentance as will bring us into a purer atmosphere, and upon a higher plane of action, and into more intimate connection with the Holy One of Israel. J. N. ANDREWS. La Coudre, Neuchatel, Jan. 6, 1876.