Dying Devotion | AdventAI

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, Cal. · May 27, 1886

FromThe Signs of the Times, Vol. 12, No. 20

Dying Devotion.

THE detrimental effects of instability may be seen in its bearing upon the devotedness of those who may have become Christians, but do not excel as such, because they are so unstable. Sometimes the fixedness of heart with which the truly heavenward way is entered, relaxes, and the resolute become irresolute in their purposes and efforts so that they might properly take up as a sad refrain,

“And our devotion dies.”

Then there is no excelling in required fidelity, but rather a deplorable coming short of the most desirable excellence. This failure is far too common, so that there is too much occasion to ask, Why are not higher attainments made in true godliness, and better results of a “professed subjection to the gospel of Christ” witnessed? Certainly the absence of that which is so essential is not because of any deficiency in the provisions of divine grace. All may fully “lay hold on eternal life.”

But negligence is fraught with hindrance. In too many instances the beginning is better than the continuing. More frequently than should be the case, growth is interrupted. The charge might be preferred against not a few, that they have left their first love. Much, if not all, of this delinquency may come of instability. Undoubtedly the secret of the highest attainments, religiously, is found in a compliance with the exhortation of Barnabas to the disciples at Antioch, “that with purpose of heart they would cleave unto the Lord.” An inspired apostle says concerning him that “wavereth,” “Let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord.” No promises are made to the fickle and vacillating. Nothing worthy of honorable mention is recorded of them. The resolute and steadfast alone have excelled.

Manifestly the most eminent followers of Christ have not reached their glorious heights of attainment by being active one moment and inactive the next, or burning one moment and freezing the next, or living one moment and dying the next. Rather have they illustrated the truth of the apostolic saying, “It is good to be zealously affected always in a good thing.” It is not by any means to be implied that there are no unavoidable variations in Christian experience, involving higher and lower degrees of emotion and ardor; but rather should there be a prominent inculcation of the gospel truth that the work of sanctification ought to be ever progressive, so that it may be experimentally known that “the path of the just is as the shining light that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.”

The evils arising from merely periodical fervors and spasmodic activities can hardly be overrated; nor can there well be an exaggerated view of the importance of going from strength to strength, till hallowed exertions are crowned with what an inspired writer denominates, “Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.” But to so fight as to win, and so run as to obtain, requires great fixedness of heart, lest the success of overcoming be lost in the defeat of being overcome. There must be a forgetting of the things behind, and a pressing toward the things before, without the least parleying with the foes of spiritual progress, and with no relapsing or lingering; but with constantly increasing vigilance and exertion lest failure proclaim the incompatibleness of instability with excellence.

Unprogressiveness is the result of inconstancy. The waste attendant upon vacillation has something of illustration in the Cache River, a little stream that empties into the Ohio five miles above Cairo, and is said to be the most serpentine stream in America. From its mouth to its source is a distance of thirty-six miles. The stream, however, is one hundred and eighty miles long, showing a waste of one hundred and forty-four miles in crooks. Too much of many a Christian’s course is wasted in crooks, so that there is abundant occasion for an apostle’s appeal, “Ye did run well; who did hinder you that ye should not obey the truth? This persuasion cometh not of Him that calleth you.” Vacillation is hindering to the devotedness of which every follower of Christ should be distinguished.—Watchman.