Little Sins by J. S. Miller

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · Apr 17, 1879

Little Sins.

By J. S. Miller

THERE are a few stereotyped expressions which I have noticed that nearly all opposers of reform use when arguments fail. The following are some of them: "If I ever get to Heaven it will never be asked what day I kept." "If I never do anything worse than working on Saturday I guess I shall be saved." "I do not believe that chewing or smoking a little tobacco will shut me out of the kingdom." "I do not believe the Lord cares about my drinking a cup of tea." And so each one finds an excuse for whatever sin he may choose to commit because it is in his own estimation a very little one. It is true, no questions will be raised about the day we kept or failed to keep, or any other sin we have committed or overcome; not, however, because such sins are of no consequence, but because all investigations with regard to our fitness for Heaven will be in the past, and the fact that we are there will show that we have stood the test.

I have often wondered why people who talk sensibly enough on other subjects can thus talk without reason in matters of duty to God. And the only conclusion I can arrive at is, that it is because "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked." Jer. 17:9. Such persons do not seem to understand that God will accept nothing short of perfect obedience. They do not realize that with God there are no small sins. The wages of sin, however small, is death. If one sinner deserves that infliction of more pain than another, it will be meted out to him, either in the act of dying or previous to that event. But one event will happen to sinners of every grade—they will all lose eternal life.

If we will but for a moment look at the principles on which the government of God is based, I think we cannot fail to see that this must be so. God's law is a golden chain which binds him to his subjects and his subjects to him. Now any farmer or mechanic will tell you that a chain is useless if one link is broken. It is of no use whatever since its binding power is gone. "The law of the Lord is perfect," and when perfectly obeyed it binds us so securely to our heavenly father that "neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor thing to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus." Rom. 8:39. I think that all can see that if God can excuse the little (?) sins of Sabbath-breaking in one, of intemperance in another, of profanity in another, and so on, then Universalism is correct and all men may be saved irrespective of character. But who would care to see all the sins we witness here carried into the eternal world with no hope of a better state of things? Would it not be better to quit guessing that we shall come out all right and to keep on in transgression? Would it not be better to confess and forsake our sins, seek pardon through Christ, and in future strive to render perfect obedience to God's perfect law?

J. S. MILLER. Mooseup, Conn., March, 1879.