“IF WE ARE ONLY SINCERE.”
By C. W. Stone
It is a very common thing in presenting the truth to be met with the argument, or rather, ghost of an argument, that it makes no difference what we believe if we are only sincere. The evident distrust with which this is sometimes brought forth clearly shows that the individual is a little uncertain as to the soundness of his reasoning, yet there is no doubt that others who have used the argument longer have come really to think it good. And that very circumstance illustrates the very point at issue. You have heard it said that if a man tell the same lie about forty times he will come to believe it himself; and there is much truth in the saying. It is just so with the entrance of false doctrines. The individual allows a suggestion of error to come into his mind. He wishes that it might be true; for it seems pleasing for the time. “It is so much easier,” he reasons, “to live out the principles of such a doctrine;” and he beats about to find a prop for his new idea. He begins to argue for it, and he soon quells all his inward thoughts that rise up in favor of the truth, and comes really to believe the lie. From whence did it start? It originated in a dislike for the truth. When we believe and love a false doctrine, choosing it deliberately in preference to the truth, we deliberately disbelieve God; and though we train and accustom ourselves to believe that error with all our soul, yet God will never be pleased with all our devotion to it, nor will he save us for it. Will God save the heathen mother because she is so devoted to her false god that she will drown her babe to please that god? Yet who will deny her sincerity? Eve was deceived by the devil. She doubted that she should die if she ate of that nice-looking fruit. She began to believe that God had not told her the truth. She acted upon her belief. Did her sincerity save her? We must be careful how we let doubts enter the mind. At first they ask only a little corner. They come as gentle insinuations, little callers. They come oftener, and stay longer; and soon they make their home with us. We lodge and feed them for their pleasing company, while all the time they are laying a mine under our souls to blow them into perdition. They begin like a little leak in a dam. It excites no fear, for it is so very small. Gradually the little stream wears away its boundaries. The careless bystander hardly sees it increase, so slowly it gains. By and by a solid stone that has been trembling for its lost support gives way, and the water gushing through with irresistible fury tears out the whole structure, and speeds on its work of devastation to the vale below. Scores of lives might have been saved had the man been alive to the danger of the first little leak. So with doubts. Before we know it they have undermined our faith, and we are ready to pour out a torrent of unbelief, endangering the souls of all who come within the influence of its current. Our belief affects, yes, utterly controls, our general actions. It is impossible to act without belief of some sort. The farmer would not sow his seed if he had no faith. If he believes potatoes will be a failure, and that corn and oats will produce well, he will plant but few potatoes, and will sow more grain. If a man believes it unnecessary to be a Christian, he never will be one. If a professor of religion believes it sufficient that the minister prays, he will not pray himself. The stream will rise no higher than the fountain, neither will our actions be purer than our faith; therefore, “without faith it is impossible to please God.” Thus we reason; and that our reasoning is scriptural, we will show from the words of Paul. Many of Paul’s letters are prophetic. In 2 Thess. 2:9-12. Paul refers in unmistakable terms to the working of spiritualism. We are surrounded to-day by its “lying wonders.” Paul says that the coming of Christ is the next event in order—“is after” this working of Satan. Verse 9. Then he speaks of a class living at the same time, who “received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved”; and he says, “For this cause shall God send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie, that they all might be damned, who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.” Their first fault is that they do not love the truth, and that they have pleasure in unrighteousness. God permits them to take their choice, and leaves them to the delusions of the devil. Satan deceives them, and they believe a lie, actually believe it. They come to be sincere in that belief; but their sincerity does not save them: no; they believe the lie, and are damned because they do believe it. It makes a difference what you believe, and your sincere belief in an error will never save you. God will save many who have lived in times of darkness, who held wrong beliefs on some points; but it will not be for their sincerity in error, but for their firm adherence to what truth they did have. God saw in them a love for the truth, a principle of obedience to it; and if the light we now have had shone upon their path, they would have hailed it with joy and been obedient to it. “Sanctify them through thy truth; thy word is truth.” John 17:17. C. W. STONE.