TRUE TO GOD by Dr. Goulburn

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Mar 9, 1888

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 14, No. 10.

TRUE TO GOD.

By Dr. Goulburn

NEVER lower your principles to this world's standard. Never let sin, however popular it may be, have any sanction or countenance from you, even by a smile. The manly confession of Christ, when his cause is unpopular, is made by himself the condition of his confessing us before God. If people find out that we are earnestly religious, as they soon will if the light is shining, let us make them heartily welcome to the intelligence. And then, again, in order that the lights may shine without obstruction, we must be simple and study simplicity.

This is by no means so easy as it at first appears; for in this highly artificial and pretentious age, all society is overlaid with numerous affectation. Detest affectation as the contrary of truth and as hypocrisy on a small scale, and allow yourselves to be seen freely by those around you in true colors. There is an affectation of indifference to all things, and a lack of sensibility, which is becoming very prevalent in this age, which is the sworn foe to simplicity of character. The persons who labor under this moral disorder pretend to have lost their freshness of interest in everything; for them, as they would have it believed, there is no surprise and no enthusiasm.

As Christians, we must eschew untruth in every form; we must labor to seem just what we are, neither better nor worse. To be true to God and to the thought of his presence all day long, and to let self occupy as little as possible of our thoughts; to care much for his approval, and comparatively little for the impression we are making upon others; to feed the inward light with oil, and then freely let it shine—this is the great secret of edification. May he indoctrinate us into it, and dispose and enable us to illustrate it in our practice.—Dr. Goulburn.