SELECTIONS | AdventAI

Publishing Committee · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jul 30, 1857

SELECTIONS.

A Christian Void of Earnestness.

A CHRISTIAN void of earnestness—with what comparison shall I compare him? He is like one of a collection of stuffed birds, where you find the dove, the raven, the nightingale, and the eagle; but the dove cannot coo, the raven cannot croak, the nightingale cannot sing, and the eagle cannot soar. Or he may be compared to a galvanized corpse—there is motion in the limbs, but there is no luster in the eye, no bloom on the cheek; it smiles, but it is cold; it moves, but it is dead. Or I may compare him to one of those wax-work figures you often see; Peel, O'Connell, Wordsworth, and Brougham are all in the collection; but Peel cannot govern, O'Connell cannot agitate, Wordsworth cannot dream, and Brougham cannot talk. Such miserable imicries of humanity are professing Christians without earnestness.

We are surrounded on all sides by earnest objects and beings. The earth is in earnest as it pursues its path around the sun. The sun is in earnest as he pours abroad his tide of everlasting day. The stars are in earnest as they shine down in such still intensity upon a slumbering world. Angels are in earnest as they pursue their high ministrations. God is in earnest as he carries on his wondrous plans.

"Let us, then, be up and doing, With a heart for any fate: Still achieving, still pursuing, Learn to labor and to wait."