GENIALITY

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Mar 14, 1878

Men like a genial life. Sunshine is as important in our social relations as in nature. A sour godliness chills and represses every bud of hope about us; a sunny soul kindles into a glow of life, and freshens the whole circle in which it moves. Men, like plants, reach forth toward the sun; they dread the darkness, the chill air; they seek warmth and light.

A demure, melancholy man is at a disadvantage. Men are repelled by his very aspect. They instinctively feel that he has no gospel for them, that he cannot possibly do them any good. Gloom is the livery of the devil, and in this guise a disciple of the Lord Jesus cannot properly set forth the glad tidings.

Your religion commends itself most when your own life is irradiated and glorified by it. Men want to see your gospel tested in your conduct and temper. They will not make great allowance for your sins; they expect the grace of God to eradicate sin, and to fill the soul overflowingly with God. They want to see your face shine, to observe the kindling of hope, the radiance, the glow, of sacred joy.—Sel.