p. 8 | Never Retrograde by J. W. Lowe

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Dec 17, 1912

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 39, No. 49.

Never Retrograde

By J. W. Lowe

AFTER you have been placed on a higher plane of life, through your acceptance of Christ, do not allow yourself to go back to the old and lower life from which you were redeemed. It would be like a slave giving himself back into the hands and ownership of his cruel master, after he has been freed from that master's power.

After you have been lifted from participating in that which is cheap and frivolous and vulgar and low, and enjoyed the atmosphere of thinking and talking of things that are good and pure and important, never permit yourself to degenerate into the former condition of thinking and talking. It would be like a man that had been purged from his rags and bodily filthiness and given a neat, clean suit of clothes, discarding the new suit and going back to his rags and former filthy condition.

After you have been brought out of spiritual darkness and error and superstition into the light of the gospel and knowledge of truth, never lose your hold on Christ and His truth and retrograde into your previous lost condition. It would be like a criminal sentenced to solitary confinement in a dark cell and afterward pardoned by the governor, refusing to retain his liberty, and going back to his prison cell whence he was taken.

J. W. LOWE.