WHOLE-SOULED RELIGION

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Sep 16, 1880

WHOLE-SOULED RELIGION.

SATAN is a shrewd strategist. His policy is to divide and conquer. All he asks of the sinner is to give him room enough to pitch his tent inside of the walls, and to occupy a part of the heart's territory. He has no objections to a man's going to church for an hour or two on the Sabbath, and reading a chapter in the Bible occasionally, and even having a serious thought once in a while. As long as Christ does not get the whole heart, he is quite satisfied that ultimately it will be all his own. In the fabled race for the crown, the golden apples of the Hesperides tossed down upon the course diverted the attention of the combatants, and he who stooped to grasp an apple lost the prize. Satan keeps tossing his glittering allurements upon life's highway; if he can keep the soul from "pressing towards the prize of the high calling in Christ Jesus," he counts that soul sure for hell.

Christ, on the other hand, demands the whole heart. "No man can serve two masters." "He that is not for me is against me." How sharply and clearly he cuts the dividing line. It is death to all compromise. "Whoso would be my disciple let him leave all and follow me. He that taketh not his cross and followeth after me is not worthy of me." This demand of the Lord for the complete lordship of the heart runs through the whole Bible. The chief commandment is, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and all thy might, and all thy mind and strength." One of the richest promises in God's check-book for us to fill up "on demand," is this one, "Ye shall seek me and find me when ye search for me with all the heart."

The model characters in the Bible are the whole-souled Christians. Caleb is one of these; for it is written of him that "he followed the Lord faithfully," and in another passage it reads, "he followed me wholly." While the half-hearted and the cowards perished in the wilderness, loyal old Caleb survived to possess his fruitful acres in full sight of the vineyards of Eshecol. Hezekiah is another of these splendid characters whose entire reign was an unbroken line of holy achievements. His very name signifies "strength of Jehovah." The secret of his success is given in one golden line, "he did it with all his heart, and prospered." Daniel, the uncompromising hero of Babylon, belongs to this same company of choice spirits.

These are the type-men for our times. What we want to make our churches vigorous and successful is not the pine-shaving piety that blazes up only during the brief periods of revival excitements, but the solid anthracite that is always glowing at a red heat, with "patient continuance in well-doing." We want the full following of Christ with the whole heart, for the whole time, and for the whole life. This requires a thorough regeneration at the start. Half-way converts make half-way Christians. Mr. Finney always urged anxious inquirers to dig deep and build solidly upon Christ as their bed-rock. Unless the conversion is radical and thorough, unless the submission of the soul to Jesus is unreserved and complete, there will be half-heartedness and halting to the end. We do not wonder that some professors complain that they "do not enjoy their religion," for they have so little to enjoy. Instead of being filled with the fullness of God, they never had more than a pint measure at the outset, and the scanty supply soon ran dry.

My friend, the reason you are not a Christian is that you are not willing to give Christ your whole heart. A fragment of your thoughts and affections, a few hours on Sabbath, an occasional good resolution, you are offering to him in return for an eternal Heaven. You keep back your heart. He asks everything. You refuse it. And in your eternity of dark despair you will discover that you have lost everything, and forever!—Rev. Theo. L. Cuyler, in Christian Weekly.