CHANGING

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jul 19, 1877

“But,” shouts a man, “what would you do, when the gospel line is run, if you should find yourself on the wrong side of the line?” Simply what the man did who had his land run off, and found his cabin was on the wrong side of the line; he moved over the line, on to the right side, and on to his own land.

“But,” says a man, “I despise to see a turncoat, a man leaving one church and going to another.” True, there is something a little unpleasant in turning one’s coat. Still there is one thing more ridiculous than a man’s turning his coat, and that is to see a man so obstinate as to wear his coat wrong side out rather than to turn it. It is much wiser and better to turn it, than to persist in wearing it wrong side out, even if some bigot should say, “A turncoat.”

If you make a mistake in roads, and go a wrong road several miles, it is unpleasant to turn and go back to the place where you got out of the road; but it is much wiser and better to do it than to continue on in the wrong road. Who will not admit that Luther did better, in turning, than he would have done had he continued in Romanism? The matter of turning all depends on the question whether you are right or not. If you are right, then by all means never turn. If you are not right, then turn, the sooner the better.—Sel.