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Optimism and Pessimism

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Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Aug 16, 1910

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 37, No. 32.

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Optimism and Pessimism

By Editor

OPTIMISM is defined as “the doctrine that everything is ordered for the best; a disposition to take a hopeful view of things.”
“Pessimism” as “a temper of mind that looks too much on the dark side of things; a depressing view of life.”
Optimism is from the Latin optimus, “best;” pessimism from pessimus, meaning “worst.”
There may be a true optimism and a true pessimism held by the same person, but the common terminology of the present day does not know them.
To illustrate: Here is a man sick with the typhoid fever. He has been a dissipated man. His constitution has been weakened by the ravages of vice. His blood is corrupt. All the functions of the normal man were perverted before the typhoid fever germs laid hold upon him. Now his temperature is very high and has been for days. His heart action is very weak. He is suffering much pain with great local congestion. We would call that physician a deceiver who in the face of all these untoward symptoms and many others which the practised eye noted, would say that the patient was doing well and was sure to recover. We would not call him a pessimist if he told the family that they should be prepared for the worst.
If ever there was a time in the history of the race when men should weigh things calmly in the balances of eternal principles, that time is now. It is a divine admonition of universal application: “Be not deceived, God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth unto his own flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth unto the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap eternal life.”
That is the law universally and eternally applicable to every responsible soul. Let it apply.
“Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.”
Whatsoever a woman soweth, that shall she also reap.
Whatsoever a company, or trust, or nation, or government, or church, soweth, that shall it reap. There is no escape from the law.
How foolish it is, then, for a modern “optimist” to tell us that a church which is departing from the law of its life is somehow, someway, somewhere, to come out right and for the best for that church. Take, for instance, the great Protestant churches which were founded on the Bible, the Word of God, as an all-sufficient rule of faith, on Jesus Christ as the only Saviour, on the Holy Spirit as the propagator and conservator of the faith; can we say, when that church by her teachings and decisions repudiates the Bible, denies the Deity and efficacy of her Lord, turns to the state instead of seeking the Spirit’s aid, that it shall be well in the persistence of such a course! Even in the light of all her wealth and education and pretensions and works of charity, can we say in the face of her awful departure from the fundamentals, It is well, it is best!
When we see America, “the land of the free, the home of the brave,” the land of liberty to the oppressed of earth, the star of hope in the night of tyranny and intolerance — when we see America departing from the principles which gave her life, and more and more imbibing the principles which made the Dark Ages what they were, can we say, It is best for America! Can we declare that out of this course will come good? “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man [a nation] soweth, that shall he [it] also reap.”
Jeremiah’s awful inveighings, fearfully solemn warnings, heart-breaking appeals, tearful entreaties, to Judah of old, would be called in the current language to-day “pessimism,” and the youthful prophet a “croaker.” His prediction of the destruction of city and temple by the king of Babylon was not the best for that nation. And the false prophets who predicted the early defeat of the conquering Nebuchadnezzar were considered optimists. Nevertheless every prediction of the unpopular prophet came true, and Jerusalem reaped to the full her harvest of cockle and thistles.
But Jerusalem’s doom was not irrevocable, nor is that of Protestantism, nor is that of America. But to avoid the certain corruption, disintegration, destruction, there must be a change in seed-sowing, a turning from sin to righteousness, from the fountain of fatal disease and deadly malady to the fountain of life and healing in Jesus Christ. There may be a repudiation of sin and transgression, and all-absorbing acceptance of God’s grace in Jesus Christ, which will bring healing and life and peace more abundantly.
For the soul, the church, that does this there may be the greatest optimism. All for him will turn out for the best. The very stars in their courses will fight for him. Persecution will bring him nearer the Master’s side. The loss of all things earthly will invest him with all things heavenly, and the very grave shall be tunneled by the inherent power of immortal righteousness, of indissoluble life. For to the souls that have chosen righteousness is the assurance: “We know that to them that love God, God worketh all things with them for good.” Not by some “fortuitous concourse of atoms” is wrought good, but God actively, purposely, works for His own.
Sin will meet its worst for sin, its best for good,—destruction. Righteousness will meet its worst for evil, but the eternally best for itself,—life and immortality. The evil man does well to be a pessimist in the persistence of evil. The good man only is the true optimist.