p. 58 | GETTING TURNED AROUND by Joseph Clarke

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Aug 15, 1878

GETTING TURNED AROUND.

By Joseph Clarke

Sometimes the wisest of men, in their travels in countries and places new to them, become bewildered as to the points of the compass, and it seems to such persons that the sun rises and sets differently from its usual regular course: all order seems set aside, and the sun has taken a strange freak, and has chosen a new course in the heavens. So, to one sailing along the coast the land seems to move past, and the boat seems to stand still; and to many minds it is a matter of certainty that the sun does revolve daily around the earth.

So of customs and habits: to the tobacco or opium or whisky consumer, it seems clear that he lives only by the vile habit which is really killing him. To the Sunday observer, all other days are working days, and Sunday is the only Sabbath; indeed, to him Sunday is the Sabbath of the fourth commandment. To another, a few drops of water sprinkled upon an infant is baptism; to another, this rite is the circumcision of the new covenant. To one, death is the new birth, and the resurrection; to another, a block of painted wood is a god; to another, Mohammed is a true and living prophet; to another, Mary is the mother of God, and a very convenient lady intercessor. So it is; the many are bewildered and turned around, like the man who has lost his compass. Joseph Clarke.