p. 692 | AT EASE IN ZION by B. Taylor

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Nov 16, 1888

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 14, No. 44.

"AT EASE IN ZION."

By B. Taylor

WE find this phrase but once in the word of God. Zion, as the word is used in it, means the true church, whether Jewish or Christian. Hence, to be at ease in Zion is to be at ease in the church, not out of it. This latter state is full of danger, but it may admit of question whether the former is not more dangerous and less hopeful. Ease is rest, or a quiet, undisturbed state. As applied to the body, it is freedom from pain, disturbance, excitement. As applied to the mind, it is freedom from anxiety, solicitude, or any thing that frets and ruffles it.

To be at ease in Zion, or the church, is to be free from care or anxiety about the spiritual state of the church as a whole and of the individuals who are connected with it. It is to have little or no concern about its purity, soundness in the faith, or growth. It is to be indifferent to its best interest. Though of it in name, those at ease in it seem to care little for it. Having become members of it, they expect to be carried to Heaven as a matter of course, as those expect to be carried to their destined port who have paid their fare and gone on board the vessel about to sail to it. They may be wrecked before they reach that port, but they do not expect to be.

Those at ease in the church do not add to its strength, but spiritually encumber and weaken it. Whatever they may do financially, spiritually they are dead weights rather than helps. . . . They might do their best to rescue one whose life was in danger, though a stranger to them; but they have not a word of warning for friend or foe who is perishing in sin.

Their own impenitent children are seldom if ever told of the danger to which they are exposed. In a word, much as they might do to relieve those in temporal distress, they do not utter a word to save the impenitent from the destruction that awaits them. Though God has made us keepers one of another so far as we have or might have influence one over another, those at ease in Zion seem to say, "The spiritual state of others is no concern of ours. We will go on in our own way and leave them to go in theirs." The father who does not care for himself or for his children is not likely to care much for others. And the church member who is so much at ease that he cares not for the spiritual interests of his church, is not likely to care for the best interests of those who are beyond its pale. Hence, so far as those at ease are concerned, their impenitent friends and neighbors have occasion to say, "No one hath cared for our souls." A revival is not likely to begin among those who are at ease in a church, or to be continued by them should God be pleased to revive the church to which they belong. As far as the members of a church are at ease, the church is in a dying state. Its light is hid, if it has light. It is of no benefit to others or the world at large.

And what is the divine word to those who are at ease in Zion? By one of his prophets God says, "I am very sore displeased with the heathen that are at ease." He is not likely to be less displeased with the impenitent in a Christian land who are at ease. What then must be in store for those at ease in the Church? God tells us in one word: "Woe to them that are at ease in Zion!" And woe means grief, sorrow, misery, a heavy calamity, a curse. Such are the things that await those who continue at ease in Zion. God says it, and his word will not return to him void. There is but one way to escape these direful calamities, and that one is to cease to be at ease in Zion.—B. Taylor, D. D., in Occident.