AGITATE!

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jan 20, 1876

“What good is there in agitation? it only stirs up opposition,” is a familiar declaration to those engaged in the work of moral reform. It was frequently heard during the slavery controversy, and now it is familiar to those engaged in the temperance reform. We know, however, that agitation is desirable in the natural world. Not the running brook, but the stagnant pool, produces malaria and its resultant fever; not the fresh blowing winds, but the close, breathless atmosphere, engenders disease and death. So it is in the moral world: agitation is life; stagnation, death. Let wickedness alone, do not expose it, and its promoters will be satisfied, and widespread moral ruin will be the result.

On the other hand, agitate! expose wickedness by bringing the light of God’s holy law to shine upon it, and good will be the result.