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HOW SHALL I RETURN?

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Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Nov 26, 1894

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 20, No. 55.

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HOW SHALL I RETURN?

By G. S. Honeywell

BY G. S. HONEYWELL.
“The ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads; they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.” Isa. 35: 10.
“Even from the days of your fathers ye have gone away from mine ordinances, and have not kept them. Return unto me, and I will return unto you, saith the Lord of hosts. But ye said, Wherein shall we return?” Mal. 3: 7.
I well remember, when but a small boy, the first time I left home to remain away for a considerable length of time, that I was taken suddenly ill. Doubtless many of my readers have shared with me the same trying experience, and may know how wretched was my condition. I was homesick. It was midsummer, and I had gone to assist a farmer during the busy season for one month. The distance from home was only three miles, but I did not find my new home as pleasant as I had expected; and I had been there but a very brief period until I began to realize that I was sick.
The malady developed so fast that by the middle of the afternoon it became apparent to my employer and myself that there was but one remedy that could “reach the case” and “cure the disease,” for the “whole head was sick and the whole heart faint.”
Finally I resolved what I would do. I arose, and said, “I will go to my father’s house.” Home seemed never so precious before. But in my delirium I lost my way, and my sorrow and sighing were suddenly turned into bitter wailing. In the anguish of my soul I sought relief and guidance from everyone I might chance to meet by the way. But, alas! each one only seemed to mock my grief, by directing me in the opposite direction from which, to my mind, relief must come. I was completely “turned round.” The most familiar places seemed strange to me. After many admonitions and entreaties from those whom I met in the way, and who could understand my lost condition, I was led to believe what I could not understand, and in due time I found through belief in the many concurrent witnesses the dearest spot to me on earth,—home.
I am fully persuaded that there are many people to-day in a similar condition spiritually to my boyhood experience. They have wandered from their Father’s house, and are homesick and bewildered, and would gladly learn the way back. They find themselves in a strange country, hedged in and surrounded on every hand by sin. And the word of the Lord comes to them, “Even from the days of your fathers ye have gone away from mine ordinances, and have not kept them.” Yes, a great many sins are of ancient origin. They date back into the remote history of the past; and our fathers have caused us to believe that they are sanctioned by divine authority. But the Lord, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined upon the bulwarks of superstition and error, and many find themselves on the side of the enemies of the cross of Christ, and they inquire, “Wherein shall I return.” Oh, that someone would acquaint me with the path of my wanderings, that I might return by faithful obedience unto all the requirements of God, is the sincere prayer of many a homesick soul.
For the benefit of all those who are inquiring after truth I will go back into the history of the past to the apostolic church, a “peculiar people,” of blameless deportment and unswerving faith, shining with such a steady and penetrating light as to become a potent disturber of the sinner’s peace. Persecuted for righteousness’ sake, they stood, “fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners.” “But as persecutions ceased and Christianity entered the courts and palaces of kings, she laid aside the humble simplicity of Christ and his apostles for the pomp and pride of pagan priests and rulers; and in the place of the requirements of God she substituted human theories and traditions,” as follows:—
  1. Leaving the humble simplicity of Christ, she compromised with paganism.
  2. Allegiance to the bishop of Rome.
  3. She cast out the Lord Jesus Christ, to enthrone the pope in his stead.
  4. Treating the word of God with indifference and contempt.
  5. Accusing its defenders as heretics.
  6. Forbidding the reading or possession of the Scriptures.
  7. So changing the law of God that it might conform to their false claims.
  8. Establishing the idolatrous worship of images by a decree.
  9. Making Sunday a festival of the resurrection, and the Sabbath (Saturday) a fast day.
  10. Making Sunday observance a divine institution.
  11. The union of Church and State. The penalty death for nonconformity.
  12. Faith transferred from Christ to the pope.
  13. The substitution of works for faith.
  14. The claim of perfection for the church thus corrupted.
  15. The introduction of the doctrine to the inherent immortality of the soul.
  16. Praying to the dead and the worship of Mary.
  17. The doctrine of eternal torment.
  18. The doctrine of purgatory.
  19. The doctrine of indulgences.
  20. The doctrine of transubstantiation.
  21. The doctrine of the inquisition.
  22. The indorsement of all past wickedness by the reaffirming of the infallibility of the pope in 1870.
Yes, this beautiful virgin daughter of Zion, the apostolic church at Rome, so corrupted her ways by substituting the wisdom of the world for the wisdom of God, as revealed in his word, that she fell—“fell like a snowflake from heaven to hell.” And the apostle John, looking down the stream of time in prophetic vision, beheld this once glorious Church of Rome supported by a scarlet-colored beast (the civil power), full of names of blasphemy. And the Lord writes upon her forehead, “MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.” Rev. 17: 3-5.
“How shall I return?”—Return with humility of heart to the word of God. The time has come when everyone should search the Bible carefully and prayerfully, that he may know whether or not he is standing on the sure foundation—the word of God. No other foundation will stand the great storm that is about to break upon all the inhabitants of the earth. “Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.” If we choose his ways and forsake our own, we “shall go out withjoy, and be led forth with peace.” Then shall ye know the Lord, whom to know aright is life everlasting.
43 Bond Street, N. Y. City.