Two Great Evils

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park, Washington, D. C. · Aug 29, 1912

Two great evils threaten the Christian youth of this day. The first is the large amount of light and trifling literature to be found on every side. This is an age of literature. Many most excellent books have been published. Christian workers recognize the printing-press as a potent agency for good. On the other hand, Satan finds in this agency a medium for the carrying on of his evil work. Thousands of souls will be lost at last through the pernicious influence of novels and story-books.

We can not expect but that such literature will be read by those who know not God, but we have a right to expect that those who have given themselves to the Lord will find pleasure in the employment of their leisure by the perusal of another class of literature. It is sad to-day to enter the homes of professed Christians and find them regular readers of magazines, story-books, or novels, and not even subscribers to any of their church papers, possessing but few if any of the excellent religious books which may be secured. The parents who set such an example before their children, and who permit their children's lives to be molded by such influences, must render sometime an account of the responsibility that has been committed to them.

Another evil of equal perniciousness is the influence attending many of the worldly sports of the present time. The ballroom, the theater, the professional baseball games, the moving-picture shows, and allied places of amusement number their devotees by the million. Strange as it may seem, professed Christians find pleasure in these worldly gatherings. In doing this they obliterate the line of demarcation between themselves and the world. They find fellowship with those who know not God. We can not conceive of the Lord Jesus Christ viewing with pleasure the gladiatorial contests of Rome which were carried on in his day, nor can we think of him as looking with pleasure upon the ball contests or the theatrical performances or the moving-picture films in which some of his followers find evident pleasure. Association with evil does not change its character. The fact that multitudes have set their feet in wrong paths does not change the course of the road that they are traveling.

God to-day expects better things of this people. As the members of the Seventh-day Adventist Church profess to be looking for the soon coming of their Lord, and are seeking to uphold before the world a higher standard of Christian conduct, their friends have a right to expect of them an exemplification of this message in their lives. If the movement in which we are engaged to-day does not call men to a higher plane of Christian experience, does not make between the followers of the world and the followers of Christ a clear line of division, so that it may be distinctly known on which side we stand, it has no excuse for existence. The call of God in this message to-day demands this, and the

practise of the holy principles of the gospel in our lives will lead us to take our stand for God against the demoralizing influences that are seeking to draw men away from Christ and engulf them in the destruction of the on-sweeping flood. "What is the chaff to the wheat? saith the Lord." What are the foolish pleasures of the world compared to the satisfying joys of a redeemed soul?