p. 90 | The Advent Principle

Publishing Committee · Rochester, N. Y. · Apr 11, 1854

The Advent Principle.

WHAT is the principle that unites the Advent Children in the sweetest union, without the formal constraint of organization? Is it not the power of a living faith, a faith that works by love, and the true and only principle of Christian fellowship? There can be no room for sinister motives in such union. This faith embraces little of earth, and necessarily excludes all worldly ambition. Those who receive spiritually the Bible truth, of Christ at the door, are weaned from the things of time, and looking for a better country; they begin to lift up their heads and rejoice, and therefore love and cling to the same spirit, wherever they find it, without respect of persons. A hope that rests alone on the coming of Jesus, offers slight inducement to the Pharisee, the sensualist, or the lukewarm professor. Such have no sympathies that throb in unison with this faith, and if, perchance, through love of novelty or excitement, they company

awhile with the waiting band, they soon become weary, or in the hour of trial and temptations are offended and go away. They have no church-discipline to fear, nor the restraint of popular sentiment, which to other religious communities often bind the dead to the living. Thus the true wheat is continually sifted, and the chaff passing away, without any danger of one precious grain being lost. The Adventists would have no constraint but that of love, and no faith but that which receives every word that God hath spoken. These combined, in the immediate prospect of our coming Lord, make the soul patient, long-suffering, and not easily offended. They use the world as though they used it not, and count all things present as dross, feeling that trials and sufferings of a moment, are not to be compared with the glory that will shortly follow. They have no sect to establish, no organization to sustain, and are not careful to secure the smile of the rich or the great. But they do anxiously desire that all men should come to the knowledge of the truth, and are therefore diligent and unsparing in the use of their utmost means, to send the glad news of his coming on every wind. The sound has gone forth, and its echoes are returning from every clime, and the next voice that we expect to hear will be Alleluia, for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth.—Selected.