Turned Around by Addie S. Bowen

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park, Washington, D. C. · Sep 26, 1912

Turned Around

By Addie S. Bowen

ADDIE S. BOWEN

AFTER a trip by train, trolley, or boat, many a person, on arriving at a destination, finds himself turned around. The sun rises in the north perhaps, not in the east, as it does at home, and behold, it goes down at night in the south, while it ought to be high noon when the sun is in the south; and then as darkness comes on, there is the north star straight in the west. How queer! Yet it is so real that reason and try as earnestly as he may to see that what is seemingly north is really east, the delusion remains as if it were the fact. Even his compass can not change it; the needle quivers around the circle to what is west to him, and there it rests; and though he again and again sets it to his north, it will not stay there. Some persons, however, are quickly set right by the compass, by the sun, the moon, or the pole-star.

Let this illustrate conditions in our relation to God and his will concerning us. Naturally, every one is "turned around." In Prov. 21:2 we read, "Every way of a man is right in his own eyes."

In Jer. 17:9 the Lord says the natural heart is deceitful and desperately wicked. We disagree with him, thinking we are good enough, while the Lord says we are on the wrong road, going the wrong way to reach him and his dwelling-place, heaven; which, although not comprehended by the natural heart, is what every sane person desires.

Is not the reason for doing anything that the Book of God says is wrong, found in a desire to get some sort of enjoyment; that is, enjoyment in this present life, to please some or all of the five senses? A man drinks some intoxicant to make him feel good, to drown trouble for a while. Another works hard, and uses wrong methods to get rich, that he may be happier. Another, for the pleasure of taste, eats harmful food or too much good food, and slowly commits suicide. Another takes delight in seeing some one suffer from the lash of his tongue or by his neglect, or finds pleasure in gazing on that which is sinful, or which leads to sinning. The other senses are by nature used for wrong-doing, perverted from the purpose for which the Lord designed them. In the Bible the Lord tells us plainly what real happiness is, and how to find and keep it. Briefly stated, it is to give up our own natural ways of doing that which seems to be right in the pursuit of pleasure or happiness, and to accept God's way.

To Adam and Eve in Eden, to every soul since then, God gave and still gives his only begotten Son to bring peace, rest, and joy in this life, and perfect bliss in the world to come. To believe this is saving faith, real happiness. Those who are turned around, unconverted, think their own schemes for pleasure are right, but the error is no more the truth than north is east.

All through the Bible God points out to humanity the right directions. We are to believe him always, in everything. Eze. 18:30 says, "Repent, and turn yourselves;" the French translation reads, "Convert you, turn you." In Matt. 18:3 Jesus says, "Except ye be converted," etc.; the French says, "Except you change." Peter tells us to repent and be converted (Acts 3:19). Convert is from two Latin words, and means to turn, to change or to be changed from one state to another, from a bad life to a good one, from enmity toward God to love for him. This is both active and passive. The Lord says, "Choose you." Joshua 24:15. He waits. We can choose to be good, but can not make ourselves good. God does what we can not do,—changes our disposition, our purposes, gives us a new heart. Eze. 36:26 and 11:19, 20.

When this change takes place, we are turned from going the wrong way to the right way, and right seems right to us, and our natural ways that seemed right, we now know are wrong. Now it is as with the person who was set right by the compass,—one clear view of God's will and way sets him right.

Others find it very hard to admit that what seems to them right or nearly so, is absolutely wrong, and that they must turn about; yet by his Word and by those who are going in the right direction, the Lord still works to set them right.

Bradford, Pa.