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A TREMENDOUS JUMP

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Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Aug 31, 1876

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 48, No. 10.

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A TREMENDOUS JUMP.

By Uriah Smith

WE do not refer to the tragic event that gave the name to that notable spot called “The Lover’s Leap,” nor to the vaulting of one Mr. Samuel Patch over Niagara or Genesee Falls. We refer to a more wonderful jump than either of these; and that is, the jump some people make to reach a conclusion.
We had an illustration of this at the late camp-meeting in Ohio. There was a Universalist upon the ground; and one of the methods of argument by which he sought to sustain his belief was this: Said he, “Does it not read that God is kind to the unthankful as well as to the thankful, and that he sends his rain upon the unjust as well as the just? and is he not the same yesterday, to-day and forever? I think,” said he, “that if God is kind to all men here in this life, he will be kind to them hereafter.”
What a conclusion to draw from such promises! This is a period of mercy, long-suffering, and probation. God waits for men to repent, telling them meanwhile what they must meet if they do not. Sentence is out against every evil work, but is not immediately executed; and because it is not, some are ready to conclude that it never will be. And now, because God is kind and merciful to all during this period, shall we conclude that he will deny himself, and turn from the penalty he has threatened against sin, though he bears long with it?
In this the reasoner endeavors to vault clear over the dark and fathomless abyss that was made between earth and Heaven when this world fell into revolt from the government of God. To reach Heaven and life and happiness hereafter we must in some way pass this yawning chasm. Christ by his intervention in our behalf has bridged it over; and on him alone can any man safely pass to the other side. All who attempt in wild recklessness to leap it, will find themselves swallowed up therein. There is none other name under Heaven through which salvation is to be found. A living, personal interest in him, manifested by the public and outward acts of faith, is our only passport to the proffered boon of life. Christ is the only ladder from earth to Heaven. Let us shun the fatal step of trying to leap the gulf and gain Heaven without him. U. S.