WHY NOT FOUND OUT BEFORE?
By L. H. Church
OFTEN when the claims of God's holy and just law are presented, and its clear demands upon us to keep the seventh day are brought before the people, we are met with the query, "If these things are so, why were they not found out before?" Many are willing to rest the whole matter right there, thus showing that they have found it out now sooner than they wished. There is a mystery enveloping ignorance as dark as the shadow of night. For nearly six thousand years our fathers cut grain with a knife, or cycle, and threshed it with a stick, or flail, not knowing anything about headers, harvesters, and threshers. Why did they not find them out before? Our mothers and sisters went to the woods for ages and gathered thorns to fasten their clothing, because no one had used mechanical skill to make a simple pin, or run a pin factory. Why did they not find it out before? There was just as much metal in the world before as now. Our brothers and sisters were sent to the neighbors for generations to borrow fire, because the intelligence of the world had not learned to make a match. Why did they not find it out before? There was just as much sulphur in the world in ages past as now. Again, the planets were whirling through space for thousands of years before Galileo turned his telescope upward; there was just as much power in steam before Watt saw the teakettle boiling; as much gravity before Newton saw the apple fall; as much electricity before Franklin flew his kite; and the human heart beat and throbbed, and sent its life current through the body, long years before the days of Harvey. Why were not all of these things found out before? It surely was not because the knowledge of them would not have been of value to the human family. Indeed, in every walk of life we meet the same question. A man starts in business, invests a large amount of capital and much time, is unsuccessful, and at last finds out it don't pay, and we hear him exclaim, "Why did I not find this out before?" He starts on a journey, gets on the wrong road, and after traveling a distance he finds it out, and as he turns around to retrace his steps we hear him mutter, "Why did I not find this out before?" It is just the same in every case. There is darkness in ignorance, and light in knowledge. Why darkness and ignorance should have hovered over the world for centuries, and "knowledge increased" in "the time of the end," is a mystery, but nevertheless a truth. We can only say that it was in the providence of God. Light, or knowledge, is the voice of the Lord to this generation, saying that the Lord is coming, and a greater light is soon to break upon the inhabitants of this earth. It is to prepare "the children of the light," who are "to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light," to see the Lord of light, and "be like him, for we shall see him as he is." The promised blessing has been echoing down through all these ages. "Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light." Eph. 5:14. "Light is sown for the righteous," and "the truth shall make us free." Before it darkness and error vanish away, and "the ruler of darkness" is subdued by "the True Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world." John 1:9. Why people should have been enshrouded in such perpetual darkness so long is a mystery, but it is a still greater mystery why they should prefer to linger under the hellish shadow of the prince of darkness after infinite Mercy had scattered it sufficiently for them to see the blazing light of truth.