Religious Miscellany

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Aug 27, 1861

Religious Miscellany.

WHEN grace takes possession of a man's heart, we think only of what it should create; and we forget what a deal it has to sweep away before it begins to create. One man is constitutionally worse than another; and grace in the worst character has so much inner work in cleaning out the den of thieves, that it is a long time before its outer work can be developed in whatsoever things are pure, and just, and beautiful, and lovely, and of good report.

THE way to be mindless of the scoff of the wicked, is to be mindful of the words of the prophets and apostles spoken before; the way to be sure, and to stand fast, and not to be shaken in our faith or in our hope, is to fall back upon what God has said, and to level his word against all the probabilities, and all the scoffs, and all the sneers of a world that knows not the truth, and loves not Christ's appearing.

WHAT did Christ's miracles imply? That much in the moral and material world had gone wrong. What was the result of each? The rectifying, so far, of what had gone wrong. Each miracle of Christ was not merely an act of power, it was also a redemptive and restorative act; it was an instance, on a microscopic scale, of what he will one day create on a magnificent and universal one.

IF you grant that God is not in the falling of a hair from an old man's head, I will demonstrate with irresistible force that he is not in the revolution of an empire, in the change of a dynasty, in the death of a king, or in the conclusion of the history of the globe itself. Deny God in things the most microscopic, and you must deny God in things the most magnificent.

THE eloquent and excellent Dr. Chalmers was asked to what he attributed the great success of his preaching. His answer was "To repetition." His way was to hammer one truth upon the people's hearts, and memories, and intellects, and never leave off till he was thoroughly satisfied he had convinced, or converted, or impressed them.

As well may you see the sun, the moon, and the stars through a London November fog, as God's truth through the atmosphere of a corrupt, a depraved, and an unregenerate heart. What men most need in order to be decided believers, is not greater light in their heads, but far greater grace in their hearts.

WHAT does the husbandman burn the weeds for in the harvest? That the soil of next spring may be more prolific. The very burning of the weeds in harvest, and the gathering of wheat into garners, indicates that there is to be a sweeter spring time, a softer and a more enduring summer than has ever yet overtaken our world.

IN every one of us there is the commencement of death, that is, disease. In every one of us there are defects, and failings, and taints, and poisons, and decay, which are the commencement and the premonitory symptoms of that approaching dissolution which is the wages of sin, and the consequence of our personal participation in it.

REMEMBER that the grace that culminates in glory begins now—that the character that is perfected in heaven begins now—and that most men lie as they live; and while conversion at the twelfth hour is a possibility, and may be pressed, offered, received, enjoyed; yet the man that puts off the concerns of his soul to that hour is hardening his heart.

WE do not stir up cold ashes, we let them alone; we stir up embers in which a few sparks remain that they may be fanned into a flame, and give warmth to those that sit around them. Christians do not need lighting, they only need stirring; sickly they may be,—but dead, if christians, they never can be.

When Jesus died upon the cross, there was nothing in him worthy of death, but everything on him; when I shall stand upon the margin of heaven, there will be nothing in me worthy of heaven, but everything on me, entitled to its sunniest and its highest table-land. My sin on him was the reason why God smote him; his righteousness on me is the only reason why God will crown me.

Do you agree with Talleyrand, that a blunder is far worse than a sin? Do you think that sin is merely a very inexpedient thing? Do you think it does not matter though there be sin within, if you can, only by your face, and by the adjustment of your robes, and your manner, hide it from mankind? If so, the Spirit of God has never convinced you of sin.