DEADLY APATHY | AdventAI

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Oct 17, 1900

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 26, No. 42.

DEADLY APATHY.

ONE of the most grievous things manifest in these days of preparation for Christ’s coming is the apathy, the lack of feeling, the want of moral sensibility, which exists among professed Christians, even among those who profess to believe that Christ’s coming is near.

Evidences of the nearness of that great event are neither few nor uncertain. More than twelve different lines of prophecy are about to culminate in the forthshining of Christ’s literal presence. A score of last-day, specific signs, foretold from 3,000 to 1,800 years ago, reveal to all who will to see that Christ’s second coming is near, "even at the doors." There are multitudes of possible immortals who profess to believe these things, yet who are passing on, utterly oblivious to spiritual things and moral regeneration. The spirit of the world possesses them. Greed is a destroyer of grace. Pleasure in the indulgence of natural lust perverts purity of heart. Indifference breeds indifference and cuts off all inspiration. The heart is laid open to the world, and becomes hardened in contact therewith. The spiritual eyes become blinded, so that the glories of God can not be seen. The spiritual hearing becomes so dulled by the din and tumult of earth that the still small voice of the Spirit can not be heard.

It is a sad, sad condition of things which the Christian worker faces. We are passing over "the enchanted ground." Everything in this world of sin tends to indifference. Satan has planned and perverted to this very end. God permits the awful catastrophes which are taking place that men may be aroused to see the insecurity of all earthly things and the uncertainty of human life. But these things startle the world for a day, and the mad rush goes on, with conscience more benumbed and heart harder than ever. Like Ephraim and Judah of old, the very goodness exercised is like the morning cloud and early dew, it soon passes away.

The heart of the earnest worker for Christ longs to do something to save men from their stupor. He can only do this by the power of God. Human devices will not move men rightly. Human wisdom and discernment can not fathom the depth of Satanic guile and deception upon the world. Human power can not save. It must all be wrought through the preaching of Jesus Christ, "the power of God and the wisdom of God." Let the earnest servant of God labor on, pray on, and proclaim faithfully the Word of God. "The prophet that hath a dream, let him tell a dream; and he that hath My Word, let him speak My Word faithfully. What is the chaff to the wheat? saith the Lord. Is not My Word like as a fire? saith the Lord; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?"