TAKE HEED by Joseph Clarke

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Feb 1, 1877

TAKE HEED.

By Joseph Clarke

“Take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares. For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth. Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man.” Luke 21:34–36.

Precious words—words of light and truth, upon the very subject in which every true child of God is deeply interested; words of warning, information, and instruction, as to the church in the last day; words of comfort and consolation; for what is there so comforting, as to think of the fact, that our Lord takes such a deep interest in our welfare as to warn us beforehand? Nearly nineteen centuries ago, these sweet warnings and instructions fell from his lips; and now right here, we may see and feel how very applicable and appropriate they are to our times and to the church of God wherever its members are scattered.

Take heed! Be on the watchtower of observation; watch closely the fulfillment of prophecy and the indications of the approaching end. Take heed! Do not close your eyes and ears and hearts to the signs spoken of in the verses foregoing, but note carefully the words just spoken, and their fulfillment, the signs in the sun, moon, and stars, and the strange condition of affairs upon the earth.

Take heed! Dangers are in the way: 1st, of surfeiting; 2nd, of drunkenness; 3d, of cares of this life. Never was there a time, when such warnings were as much needed as at the present time. Gluttony, drunkenness, and a worldly minded spirit, are the prevailing sins of this age. The luxuries of the table pave the way for the intoxicating cup, and the various openings for the pursuit of wealth and pleasure call loudly to the carnal mind.

Cheap lands rising in value, mines of gold and silver, commerce by land and sea, trade and manufactures, and a vast variety of openings and opportunities for speculation—these and many other flattering prospects entrance and bewilder the public mind until it is unfit for the calm consideration of the Scriptures and the searching investigations of the prophecies which our times demand. Also the pride of life, and the display which many think indispensable to a proper and dignified position in society, cause an outlay of means, which calls for the whole energy and force, mental and physical, which can be brought to bear upon an increase of income; and in the wild pursuit of wealth, men deem it an honor and a virtue to be indefatigable, zealous, enthusiastic.

There is an excitement in all this, a delightful sensation of joy, as success crowns, or seems to crown, the efforts put forth. As one treasure is secured, and another, and still another, these as mental stimulants only strengthen the winner for a renewal of the race; and thus success does not satisfy, but rather increases, the cravings of the mind for worldly good. No time for prayer, no time for meditation or reading the Scriptures, no desire for eternal life,—all these things are forgotten and despised. The signs of the times are entirely overlooked, and those who do notice these signs are esteemed as lightly as was the pilgrim Hopeful in Vanity Fair.

As the lightning train bears its living freight swiftly over the iron track, so does the worldly spirit of the present age impel the whole body social and political over the track of life, past its weeks, months, and years, with a speed that is fearful. Hardly do the passengers on this train have a moment to consider the situation; but on, on, they plunge with maddening speed, and that, too, with a feeling of safety.

Just at this crisis the Saviour’s injunction comes in appropriately: “Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man.” Let us heed this warning, and think much, and often, and prayerfully, upon this subject; and may the Lord help us to get all the good we can from his teachings.

JOSEPH CLARKE.

“AT EVENING TIME IT SHALL BE LIGHT.”

The morning dark and dreary, The clouds all leaden gray, So pitiless and rainy, A dark and cheerless day; But lo! at time of evening What glory fills the sky! The sun in gold is setting, And all the shadows fly.

So with us, in the morning And noontide of our life, There often is the darkening Of sorrows many, rife; But lo! at time of evening The clouds all disappear, The sure and steady shining Of light serene and clear.

So let us never falter, But live in cheerful hope; For us the blessed Master Will golden treasures ope— With them will crown our evening, And, when we come to die, His gracious light, consoling, Shall fill our sunset sky. N. Y. Observer.