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THE GOSPEL

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Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Oct 28, 1880

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 6, No. 40.

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THE GOSPEL

By A. S. Hutchins

BY ELD. A. S. HUTCHINS.
The work of the gospel ever has been, and ever will be, a work both of separation and of union. Those who receive the gospel and take upon themselves the duties it enjoins must separate themselves from the world. It is also true that they must and will separate themselves from those who oppose God's truth, though such may profess to love and serve him.
In the opening of the gospel to the Gentiles, we learn that God visited them "to take out of them a people for his name." Acts 15:14. Christ speaks with great distinctness on this point: "Think not that I am come to send peace on earth; I came not to send peace but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a man's foes shall be they of his own household." Matt. 10:34-36.
These are the words of the Prince of Peace—one who knew well the force of every word spoken. Now, we ask, if former organizations and fraternities are severed for light, truth, and duty's sake, where lies the fault? In those who gladly accept the plain teachings of the sacred Scriptures, or those who reject them?
An easy illustration may help the mind here: We suppose friend A has four sons. In the morning he requires them to go into the field and perform, each one, a certain and reasonable amount of labor, the work to be done being in two different localities. These youths are charged not to separate, but labor together, performing the work in one locality first, and then together go and complete it in the other. In good time and in a proper manner the duties are closed at the first point, when one says, We will proceed, agreeably to direction, to the other place. Three raise their objections to this, persistently refusing to go. The purpose of the first is fixed. He proceeds to perform his share of the work, while the voices of the others are ringing in his ears, "You will get the punishment, while we shall be free; for father's orders were not to separate. You have left us, while we remain firm and fixed on the ground where we started."
If one can decide which would here meet the approval of the parent, we may decide with equal clearness who will receive the approval of our Heavenly Father when we separate from former brethren and unite heart and hand on the great principles of present truth. God has made precious promises to such. See Micah 4:6, 7.