p. 155 | TOO ACTIVE TO FREEZE

Publishing Committee · Battle Creek, Mich. · Sep 17, 1857

TOO ACTIVE TO FREEZE.

[The following article may contain some useful hints to us towards enabling us to rise from our lukewarm condition.]

I looked to nature. It was a clear, cold, bright Winter's day. The crisp, untrodden snow which covered the landscape, sparkled in the sunlight, as if with millions of gems. The little stream, that in Summer was always dancing and singing by the wayside, was now completely frozen over, silent and still under its icy covering; but as we approached the mill, where a little fall was visible in its channel, there it was leaping and sparkling as merrily as in the midst of a Summer's day. Cold as it was on every side, and frost-bound as the stream was above and below, here it was too active and busy to freeze!

From nature I turn to history. It is sunset on the Alps. A traveler is descending from the summit, when a storm arises, and the wind blows; and the snow filling the air, rapidly buries all traces of his path. He struggles on till his way is lost, and night sets in in its horrors, when, bewildered, discouraged, exhausted, he sinks down to die. The last thought has been given to home, and kindred, and friends, and his soul commended to his Redeemer, and the numbness is already stealing on his senses and limbs, when a sound of distress is borne on the tempest to his ears. It is an appeal to his humanity, that rouses him even from the stupor of death. With an effort he rises and follows the sound as it is repeated, and soon finds a fellow-traveler like himself benighted and exhausted, and lying down to be wrapped in the winding-sheet spread by the tempest. Earnest for his brother's safety, he puts forth every effort to rouse and animate and aid him, and his exertions are crowned with success. His activity has kept himself from freezing, and saved a fellow-being from death!

From nature and history, I turn to the church. A disciple who has every motive to faithfulness is getting cold, indifferent, unspiritual. He has entered the backslider's path, and is making rapid progress in it, when by the providence of God, and a word from his pastor, he is led to become a tract-distributor, and a teacher in the Sabbath-school. Before, he was in danger of freezing, of becoming cold himself, and like a mass of ice, diffusing a chilling influence around him. But now, he is too busy to freeze! Activity is giving him a glow. Motion is developing heat; and already others are gathering warmth from his example, and led by it to efforts in the cause of Christ, and for the souls of men.

The water, the traveler, the disciple, each has a voice for us. We must be diligent, devoted, earnest in our Master's service, if we would be kept from being cold and lifeless and useless. We should aim to be too active to stagnate, too busy to freeze. We should endeavor to be like Cromwell, "who not only struck while the iron was hot, but made it hot by striking"—like the missionary who said, "If there be happiness on earth, it is in laboring in the service of Christ"—like the blessed Redeemer, whose meat and drink it was to do the will of God. The vineyard must be cultivated, and the command is, that we enter it and work. There is work enough to be done, and the injunction is, that we do with our might what our hands find to do. To be healthful, we must be active; to be happy, we must be useful; to receive the promise, we must do the will of God: we must be diligent, active, earnest, if we would make our calling and election sure, and have at last an open and abundant entrance into the kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.