PROPS by Joseph Clarke

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jun 13, 1878

PROPS

By Joseph Clarke

“Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord. For he shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when good cometh.” Jer. 17:5, 6.

Weakness ever seeks support. The trailing vine, as it aspires to climb the trunk of a neighboring oak, clings closely to the tree. So weak, puny man, cast adrift in this dark and unfriendly world, finds he needs help; for dangers and perils are all around, and he stands dismayed at the prospect. Fear of future evils causes him to seek for protection somewhere; and how few, in this emergency, repair to God, who alone is a safe and secure retreat from the storms of life, and who alone can insure complete safety in all the changing phases of human life. In sickness or in health, in poverty or in wealth, in peace or in war, at home or abroad, in life or in death, God is a sure refuge, an unfailing support.

To sustain himself in this world of sorrow, and make the most of life, man betakes himself to various supports rather than to God. Some trust in riches or popular favor; others, fearing late reverses, trust in the oaths of secret societies. Arms and armies are the defense of nations; and empires rely upon the support of navies, forts, arsenals, and men of war; or they hope for security in the ability and forecast of wise statesmanship, and in the strength of parties or the power of the ballot.

The great error into which we as fallible mortals are in danger of falling, is that of losing our hold upon God, who alone is able to protect and lead us and sustain us in all emergencies; and having forsaken God, we lean on a staff that will eventually fail us when we most need support.

We may not rely, even upon the best of men, in the sense here spoken of. What could even good old Noah do for his friends after the Lord had shut him in the ark? or what could the prophet Jeremiah do for the people of Israel after the decree had gone forth that his people should be carried captive to Babylon? The parent may anxiously bear his burden, and commit his child to God; but the child cannot trust in his parent to save him in the day of God’s wrath; the child has to exercise faith and trust in God, if he would gain the blessing from God.

Were all the good men who have ever existed still on the earth, and were they all to unite their efforts to save a single individual from the wrath of God, and were that person to trust in the friendship, love, prayers, and good offices of those good people, instead of leaning upon the Almighty Arm, that soul would not only fail of eternal life, but the curse pronounced in our text would fall with all its weight upon him.

There is but one hope for man, that is in God. Our kind Heavenly Father will provide for us many ways of protection, and comfort, and guidance; but we should look through them all to him. Have we friends? They are gifts from God. Have we of the things of this life, so that no want presses wolf-like upon us? This is a special favor of God. Have we character, standing, favor? This is of God, who can lift up or pull down. Health, strength, gifts mental and physical, skill, wisdom, talent,—all are from him. Man may deck his brow with all the gems of thought and learning, wisdom and excellence; he may adorn his home or his country with his wealth, his works of science and art, or his inventions; and he may say, as did the proud monarch of Babylon, Is not this the work of my hands, and the product of my labor? and all the while he may forget God who made him what he is, and who gave him the little skill and ability of which he is so vain.

How natural for man to lean upon his own supposed strength, and upon almost any support rather than upon God. God alone should be our trust. Taking his word as our guide, we find he has given us all the directions we need. He has conferred

upon us many favors; but we should look upon these gifts with gratitude to God, and should appreciate them. The ancient people of God fell, because they forgot his benefits and slighted and misused his prophets; they trusted in false gods and in their own resources.

This is the great error and delusion of man in every age,—a tendency to make man his trust. Few of any age or nation are in the habit of daily looking up to God with pure confidence and trust. The faith of this age is a mixed faith, and much of it is so diluted with faith in other objects that it has become an idolatrous faith. Pure and unmixed trust in God does not undervalue the means he has appointed to save men. No, verily; but this faith causes a still higher appreciation of all the gifts which God has ordained for the edification of his people. We are directed by the word of God to view all these as so many agencies ordained of God to lead his people to cultivate a faith that looks within the vail to Jesus, who is the Mediator of the new covenant. JOSEPH CLARKE.