Counterfeits | AdventAI

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Aug 21, 1884

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 10, No. 32.

Counterfeits.

I ASKED a man on the bank of the Illinois River, a swearing, Sabbath-hating man from New England, something concerning his observance of Bible precepts. He raised his broad face with a satisfied grin, and asked me which Bible. He stated that the Mormons had a Bible, and that being a poor, illiterate man, he was unable to decide which was the word of God. The exultation within him seemed to say: “I have at last found out how to cast away that thirty years of preaching which I was compelled to hear in the land of the Pilgrims.”

The following are some of the facts which I was able to see plainly before me at that time:

1. This man is very capable, when it is necessary to distinguish between a valuable horse and one that is inferior. He can tell a dollar of real silver from one of copper, only plated with silver, as speedily as many a chemist.

2. He is a better judge of a good or a bad bargain than many of the most able arithmeticians of the nation. It would be easier to cheat many a profound mathematician than to overreach him. He has labored to qualify himself in many things, and has succeeded so far that his knowledge in these matters surpasses that of millions of his race.

3. He has not striven to acquaint himself with the Bible; for, although reared in a land of Bibles and of schools, he is not able to tell the most common incidents on the holy page. Of the chronology of scriptural events, he is perfectly ignorant. He does not know whether Abraham or Cyrus of Persia lived first. You might tell him that Pilate and Cæsar were Israelites, and he would know no better.

4. If he had put forth one-half of the vigorous research after Bible knowledge which he has expended after skill in gainful pursuits, he would not have been ignorant; yet his ignorance is now his excuse why he is unable to judge concerning revelation.

If we were to receive a kind letter from some powerful earthly monarch, some splendid king, making us many very rich offers, and proposing to us honor and wealth, telling the terms over and over, that we might not mistake, it would be expected of us that we should inform ourselves perfectly as to who brought it, its contents, its authenticity, etc. If we were to have it a full year, and never read it at all, it would be deemed strange indeed.

5. Most unbelievers, like this man, do not know one-fortieth part of the great King’s letter, nor one-fortieth part of the evidence of its genuineness, nor one-fortieth part of its beauties, its grandeur, its proposals, promises, or threatenings; while one-half the time they waste in wickedness, or at least in nonsense and frivolity, would be enough to furnish them with that knowledge the want of which aids in their ruin.

Finally, the decisive characteristics and distinguishing marks between the true and false religions in the world, are more numerous and more notorious than are the marks between counterfeit coin and pure gold or silver; yet men become judges in the last case, and remain uninformed in the other.

If a young man were to hold up an article formed of brass, but made to resemble gold, and were to exclaim: “I can see but little difference between this and gold; I do not know that there is any; this seems as bright, and as smooth, and as beautiful as any I have seen,” his friends would tell him that there was a difference between pure and pretended gold—that they were to be distinguished by the sight, and by the ring, and by trial or chemical tests. They would tell him that unless he should inform himself in this matter, he must suffer; but that by noting two or three signs scrupulously, he might decide without danger.—Nelson on Infidelity.