GOD’S WAY OF REFORM by M. E. K.

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Dec 23, 1897

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 23, No. 50.

GOD’S WAY OF REFORM.

By M. E. K.

EVERY great reform that has blessed and benefited mankind has had a humble origin. Rich and titled personages rarely lead out or take part in reforms. Such persons are too engrossed with the things of the world to take anything more than a passing interest in the great problems of society, or to lay plans for the betterment of mankind. When the greatest Teacher that the world ever saw inaugurated a reform, the introduction of which has marked the greatest epoch known in the history of the world, he chose twelve men from among the common people,—men of humble occupations,—to disseminate his doctrines. He was compelled to this because no others at that time believed in him or in his doctrines.

This feature of the reformation wrought by Christ has been repeated in his church every time it has been necessary that a great reform should be wrought in it, and for the same reason, that the great, possessing so much to enjoy, have no disposition to enter upon a path where sacrifice and suffering must be experienced for the defense and propagation of the truth.

Moreover, there is a divine purpose underlying every true religious reform, which necessitates that it be carried on in this way. God is the real originator of every true reform, and it is ever his purpose that its strength shall be in its inherent truthfulness and righteousness, that it may attract and draw to it those who love the right and the truth; that those who will not receive the truth for the love of it alone may be repelled from it, so that each era of reform may also be an era of separation, and thus by the cleavage which the truth makes God’s host may be separated and known from all others. An apostle has therefore truthfully said, and his words apply to every succeeding age and era as well as to his own: “For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called; but God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; and base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to naught things that are; that no flesh should glory in his presence.” 1 Cor. 1:26-29.

Those who engage in such works of reform, working in union with God and under his direction, tho perhaps looked upon by the world with contempt, and derided as imbeciles or fanatics, are really benefactors of mankind. The world persecuted and put to death the apostles, but what would the world have been to-day had they never lived, preached the Gospel of Christ, and attested in life and death their faith and the power of the Gospel? And whenever in any age there may be found men who are willing to die, if need be, for the defense and propagation of a righteous principle, we may be sure that that principle will not die, but that it will grow stronger and stronger.

“They never fail who die In a great cause; the block may soak their gore; Their heads may sodden in the sun; their limbs Be strung to city gates and castle walls— But still their spirit walks abroad. Tho years Elapse, and others share as dark a doom, They but augment the deep and sweeping thoughts Which overpower all others, and conduct The world at last to freedom.”

In illustration of the truths above stated we can do no better than to insert here the words of a well-known historian: “The multitude lays its homage at the feet of those for whom the world has done much; whose path it has made smooth with riches; whose head it has lifted up with honors; and for whom, while living, it provided a stately palace; and when dead, a marble tomb. Let us go aside from the crowd; let us seek out, not the men for whom the world has done much, but the men who have done much for the world; and let us pay our homage, not indeed to them, but to Him who made them what they were. And where shall we find these men? In king’s houses? in schools and camps?—Not oft. In gaols, or at the bar of a tyrannical tribunal, or before a bench of Pharisees, or on a scaffold, around which mobs hoot, while the executioner stands by to do his office. These are not pleasant places; and yet it is precisely there that those great examples have been exhibited which have instructed the world, and those mighty services rendered which have ennobled and blessed the race.”—Hist. Prot., vol. 1, p. 383.

Such scenes have often occurred in the history of the world, but the cause for which these witnesses for the truth gave their lives has always survived them. “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.” Paul stood before Nero in Rome, and, witnessing to the truth, went to his death; but the truth he preached survived, and planted Christianity in Rome. Later, that Christianity becoming corrupted, Louis Pashole, a Vaudois pastor, a man upon whom the mantle of Paul had fallen, stood in Rome in the presence of Pope Pius IV, as Paul had stood before Nero, and died as Paul had died for the Gospel. But the Gospel light has been passed on and is still preached as the “power of God unto salvation,” a savor of life to those who love and embrace it.

At the present time we see in the fulfilment of the proclamation of the Gospel warnings and messages predicted in Rev. 14:6-12, the peculiar reformation necessary to prepare a people for the coming of the Lord. This reformation is being carried forward in a similar manner to those which have preceded it. Calvin, in the dedication of his “institutes” to Francis I. of France, declared that if the reformers whom the king was burning at the stake were in the king’s eyes but the “scum of the earth,” yet their cause was great, for, said he, “it is exalted far above all the power and glory of the world; for it is not ours, but that of the living God and his Christ, whom God has made king to rule from sea to sea, and from the rivers to the ends of the earth.”

And we may say the same of the proclamation of the soon coming of Christ in the fulness of the preaching of the everlasting Gospel, and the reform upon “the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.” Rev. 14:12. The men who are engaged in this work may be small in the eyes of the world, as the world measures greatness by its own standard, but their cause, being God’s cause, is great, and those are honored of God who have a part in it. That in this age of science and worldly wisdom God’s special work in the earth can, and is, being done by humble and unpretentious men attests the holy character of the work and the power of God, which is its support.

This work being the last work of reform wrought in the earth before the coming of Christ, its victory will not be celebrated in the same way as have the preceding victories of the Gospel, but in a far better and grander way; for, translated to heaven, and standing upon the sea of glass before the throne of the infinite Creator, those who have engaged in it, with the true saints of God of all ages, who like them have fought the good fight and gained the victory, will celebrate the triumphs of redeeming love, which in many ages, and through great tribulations, has blessed, comforted, and sustained those who, in obedience to God’s Word, and under the influence of his Spirit, have separated themselves from the world in the acceptance and defense of the Gospel.

M. E. K.