p. 281 | SPIRITUAL "NIHILISM."

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jun 23, 1881

SPIRITUAL "NIHILISM."

WHO of us does not feel pity for the Czar of Russia, as we read the bold and continued attempts at his life? Have we ever tried to put ourselves in his place? Think for a moment what each day of his life must be! Who, of all his attendants, can he feel sure of? What meal can he sit down to and feel safe? What can he take into his hands but with the thought that some fiend, in human shape, may have charged it with death? What building can he enter but with the horrible thought that his going in may be the signal for the explosion of a "mine"? On what path can he set foot, or on what road can he ride, but with the feeling that the next step may be into eternity? We are told that "he eats and drinks nothing that has not been tasted in his presence; that he never steps into a bath until it has been examined, and seldom approaches a stove or fireplace lest some explosive material concealed among the fuel should burst." Oh, surely such a life must be dreadful in the extreme!

And this organized fiendishness, ever spreading its nets for him, is called "Nihilism." We draw a sigh of relief at the thought that few, comparatively, are the victims of such cruel malice as is the crowned head of Russia! But what, now, if it should be proven that we, each of us, were encompassed by a "Nihilism" more artful, more cruel, deadlier by far, than that of which we have been speaking; and having in purpose for each a loss, a ruin, beside which the mere loss of the physical life would be of but a feather's weight? And that such is the fact have we not the most abundant proof in God's word? Yet how blind, how dull, to this truth of infinite moment to us all are! In nothing else do men show such criminal indifference. They are keenly alive to the dangers of material losses by fire, or flood, or frost; the dangers to the body by contagion, epidemic, disease; the dangers to society by bad men and women, and other evil influences; but to the most powerful, best organized, vigilant, superhuman scheme of evil, and bearing with next to infinite power upon themselves, men are asleep!

What is the remedy? Paul wrote the Corinthian Christians that "he was not ignorant of Satan's devices." A knowledge of our enemy and his "devices" is the first thing to be gained in order to successfully meet him. Clearly, then, we must come first, and chiefly, to the Bible, for our knowledge of these. And we would suggest to Christians that they take this theme as the topic of Bible study, after the manner that Mr. Moody and others recommend. Let our ministers preach upon it, and let it come up in our social meetings, till we give it the place in our thoughts that God gives it in his word. Paul was afraid that Satan might "gain an advantage" over the Corinthian church; and we are satisfied he has gained a tremendous advantage over the churches of our own day, because they have "let slip" the revealed truths concerning him and his co-workers.—Christian at Work.