PIETY AND PUTTY | AdventAI

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Nov 18, 1880

PIETY AND PUTTY.

THERE are some of whom the apostle said, “With good words and fair speeches, they deceive the hearts of the simple.” Some judge of truth by the sound of the voice that utters it, rather than by its intrinsic quality, which is as if persons should decide that everything which was sweet was healthful, and everything that was bitter was poisonous. There are some persons who will accept a smooth lie in preference to a rough truth; and a man who has what they call “a good spirit,” may say things which are utterly untrue, and yet they will believe his statements rather than the indignant denials of those whom he has wronged or slandered.

There is something in this world besides softness and sweetness. The men of God whose voices have shaken the wilderness and awakened the nations, have told some very plain and unwelcome truths. All things have their place in the divine plan, but it would be hard work to make a good plough-share out of a piece of putty. You may get the shape, and mould it after the most approved fashion, but when you come to breaking up turf and tearing up rocks and stones, you would find it unfit for use. So there are many people whose putty-like piety is good in soft and easy places; and who are regarded as patterns of what is proper and Christian-like, but yet who are far from being such Christians as those whom God has specially honored in days gone by. In the fight of faith, hard blows must be given. That word which is “a hammer” has a steel face. It smites, it crushes, it breaks in pieces the flinty rock.

Within the family of God, and in toiling with the sad and weary and the broken-hearted, gentleness, tenderness and compassion are the most essential requisites in Christian character; but there are times when the sternest elements of human and divine nature are brought into play, when God makes his servants like brazen walls and iron pillars, when he makes their faces harder than a flint, yea, hard as an adamant. We may well be cautious lest we exchange the sterling virtues of the Christian character for a few smooth sayings, and a little vapid, empty talk. Piety and putty are very different articles.—The Christian.