The Vindication by P. P.

Publishing Committee · Battle Creek, Mich. · Dec 22, 1859

The Vindication

By P. P.

From the Sabbath Recorder. #### THE VINDICATION.

Of old, God said of a certain generation of the people of Israel, “For from the least of them unto the greatest of them they hang all upon covetousness; and from the prophet unto the priest they go about telling falsehood and lies. And besides that, they heal the hurt of my people with sweet words, saying, peace, peace, when there is no peace at all. Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? Truly they were past shame, therefore they shall fall among the slain; and in the hour when I shall visit them, they shall be brought down, saith the Lord.

“Thus saith the Lord, go into the streets and make inquisition for the old way, and if it be the good and right way, then go therein, that ye may find rest for your souls; but they say, we will not walk therein.” According to my old Bible, that was the way Jeremiah, the prophet of Jehovah, urged reformation upon the people of Israel; and this the manner in which they treated the admonition. Sometimes I think there are some things like these things in our day. That a great departing from the old way has taken place since the early ages of the Church, none can deny; none do deny it. The enforcement of what is called the reformation of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, by all Protestantism is a universal admission of that awful fact foretold in the holy oracles of God; yet, when one departs from the faith or opinions of the men of those times, though he prove his position by ever so much holy Scripture, he is reputed an innovator, and sometimes a heretic too; and they who build the tombs of the reformers of past days are ready to slay such as labor to extend their reforms, in these days, and say of the good way when it is shown them, “We will not walk therein.” To such I would say, come let us reason together. Answer in your own souls a few questions as follows, viz:

1. Am I become your enemy because I labor to show you the truth?

2. Do I paralyze Christian effort when I say, work while it is day, for the night cometh wherein no man can work? Nay, was not this the way in which the Saviour and his apostles urged upon believers of their day, holy zeal and labor and prayer, and love to the uttermost?

3. Do I lull men to sleep when I say the coming of the Lord draweth nigh? Was not this the language of the prophets to wake men out of the sleep of carnal security? If they could say it then, how much more we now?

4. Do I flatter into flesh-pleasing modes of life when I say to the avaricious, to the great, to the beautiful, or to the gay of the earth, All the tide of gain and pomp and show that flows in upon the cities and marts of the world will soon be seen ebbing back to the everlasting gulf, with the wreck of all that has floated upon the high waves of its gallant promises?

5. Do I tempt the sinner to postpone his conversion, because I say the great catastrophe of the nations, the wrath to come, is so very nigh?

6. Do I with less serious haste beseech men to be reconciled to God because I add the time of reconciliation,—the acceptable year of the Lord is fast running to its close?

7. Do I cherish idleness instead of diligence, or softness of spirit instead of hardness of mind, or heedlessness about redeeming time, when I announce that the day goeth away and the shadows of the evening are stretched out?

8. Do I soothe the bride into a deeper sleep when I say, “Behold, the bridegroom cometh, go ye out to meet him?”

9. Do I tempt the minister or the missionary to indolent neglect of his calling, when I declare the judge standeth at the door, that ere long the time for such labors will be o’er?

10. Do I persuade the soldier of the risen Jesus to ungird his armor when I tell him that the feet of the great Captain already approach the battle field, and bid him listen to the loud rumors of war not very far off, that forewarn of the deadly onset?

11. Do I preach Christ crucified with less efficiency, because I preach Christ coming to reign and make all his enemies on the earth his footstool?

12. Do I the less proclaim that we have here no continuing city, because I point so clearly to “one that is to come—the city which hath foundations whose maker and builder is God?”

12. Do I make saints feel less that they are strangers on the earth, as it now is, in the hands of the wicked one, because I set forth to them the prediction of the new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness?

14. Do I undervalue the cross because I magnify the crown of life?

15. Do I, in holding up the crown of glory with which my Saviour is to be crowned deprecate the crown of thorns?

16. Do I enfeeble my proclamation of full, free, and immediate forgiveness of sins, through the Sin-bearer, because I enforce it with the announcement that the coming of the Lord draweth nigh?

17. Do I foster error or heresy, or lax walking, or a departure from the faith, when I warn men that the perilous times of the last days are setting in, when I say that Satan has come down having great wrath, because he knoweth that his time (upon the earth) is short and that unclean spirits are overflowing the earth with their delusions, to deceive, if it were probable, the very elect, and to gather the nations to the great battle of God Almighty?

18. Do I say with less emphasis than others, “Set your affections on things above not on things upon the earth,” when I say it is from thence we look for the Lord Jesus, who, when he cometh, will bring with him all the rewards he has promised his faithful servants; even the hidden treasures which he has treasured up for them?

19. Do I say with less pertinence, lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, because I say these are to be bestowed upon his people at his coming, and all in the earth now, perishes?

20. Do I undervalue the rewards that are promised, because I say that God has promised “The meek shall inherit the earth,” and that then he will give us the days of heaven upon the earth?

21. Will it be less enjoyment, or glory, to have immortality, and behold the throne of God and the Lamb upon the earth, than if these things were to be inherited above the stars?

Whatever others may think, I feel that when I can say, with a Divine testimony to sustain it, “The coming of the Lord draweth nigh,” I have got a weapon in my hands of no common edge or temper—it is a two-edged sword that cuts keenly both ways. To be able to announce, the Lord will come, with ten thousands of his saints, is much; but to be able to say without a doubt, the time is near at hand, is greatly more. I can then go to the struggling saint, against whom the battle seems to go hardly, and say, Faint not, the Lord is at hand and will shortly bruise Satan under your feet. To the saint wearied with a vexing world, and fretted with its vanities, and troubled with the thickening difficulties of time, in the midst of the distress of nations, be of good cheer, the Lord is at hand; but a little while he that will come, will appear, and then the oppressions of the usurer, and the cares of the present time will be over. Sooner than you think the morn will break; yea, before “the day dawn” is looked for, the morning will be spread upon the mountains. To the suffering saint I can say, Weep not, the Lord is at hand; the torn heart shall be bound up, and the bitterness of bereavement forgotten in the joy of personal recognition and union forever.

To the flagging saint, heavy and slothful of soul I can say, Up, for the Lord is at hand; work while it is day—look at a dying world, all unready for its Judge; cast off your selfishness and love of ease; be fervent and be diligent in spirit, serving the Lord. To the covetous I can say, The Lord is coming, it is no time for hoarding now. Beware, lest you be found heaping up treasures against the last days.

Next to our own salvation must come the duty of sending the Gospel to all. We must begin at the home circle, but woe to us if we stop there. Woe be to us if we preach not the Gospel to every creature as we have opportunity. We feel a peculiar impression of mind to this, and a growing

urgency enforcing this duty as we see the time draweth nigh, for we are daily impressed with the conviction that but a little time remaineth ere the judgment of Babylon, and the dashing of the nations will be seen and felt. In the periodical destresses of nations, we seem to see the storm commencing. Soon all its angry billows of wrath will roll over them, and the red cup of fury which is without mixture of mercy to the ungodly, will be emptied upon the earth. We must go forth and speak what we do know of it; others may be listless, but we must speak out.

Those who look for a mere extension of the present systems of religion and their influences as all the millennium the world is to enjoy, may look for a long calm, and take time to extend their operations and widen their plans, and promise themselves and their associates much success; for our part we feel as though the coming of the Lord should be proclaimed through the land, as when Joel said, 'Blow the trumpet in Zion; shout in all my holy hill; let all the inhabitants of the earth tremble, for the day of the Lord is coming—it is nigh at hand;' and that, whether there be few or many to be saved.

P. P.