Too Near the World

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, Cal. · Jul 29, 1875

Too Near the World.

ARE not many professing Christians living very near to the world? It does seem so, from the signs of the times. "Be not conformed to this world," says St. Paul. "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world," says St. John; and he goes on: "If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof; but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever." For this it is manifest that a professing Christian who lives near to the world cannot do the will of God, and therefore cannot abide forever, in the sense of this passage.

It is truly sad to think how near many professed Christians come to the world in great numbers of their doings. In popular amusements there are hundreds of thousands in all the Christian churches who live as the world lives. They go to operas, and circuses, and theatres, and to dancing parties; and no one can tell which is the worldling, or which is the Christian in such places. In their social entertainments, a great many professedly Christian people are just like the people of the world. If one should step out of the house where the church-member gives his party, and into the place where the worldly man gives his, what difference could he see? Very little, if any at all.

Wine-drinking, dancing, jewels, and gold, over-loaded tables, costing a great deal of money that could be better used in feeding the hungry and clothing the naked, and all the accompaniments of a gay and frivolous worldly scene, he would behold.

In the plans used for raising money for benevolent purposes, professed Christians come very near to the world; indeed, they sometimes follow its example fully. We too often, hear of juvenile operas; and at fairs, lotteries, and other arrangements by which money is to be realized for God's work, a genteel work of gambling is indulged in. Quaint and ridiculous customs and manners to match, are often assumed by professedly Christian young men and women, while the elder members look on with approving smiles and words, glad to hear that a vast amount of money has been taken in their silly shows; but never thinking, alas! of the number of souls taken in the meshes of sin in the midst of such scenes, or of the lowering of the standard of purity and faith in those who are trained to regard these methods as legitimate in helping forward Christian work.—Golden Censer.