INCREASE OF LIGHT DEMANDS INCREASE OF PIETY.
By D. Hildreth
PEOPLE greatly wonder that the children of Israel served idols. But there is a greater wonder existing at the present time. We cannot for a moment suppose that they disbelieved in the existence of a God, but they borrowed the heathen notion that he had left the affairs of the world to the control of other agencies. There is a belief at the present time which is no better than this. It is pantheism. The pantheist believes that there is a God, and that he created the world, but he believes that he has left it to the control of natural laws, and has no more to do with it than we have with the moon. Thus science has been perverted to serve the purpose of the Devil. Here is a greater wonder than the idolatry of the Israelites. No matter how great the light, infidelity will always exist. Still later the Jews rejected the Messiah who had come according to prediction. Their condemnation was greater than that of any preceding age, because they sinned against greater light. We now come to our own age. The people of the present generation have the concentrated light of six thousand years shining upon them. More light than any other generation has had, and yet their wickedness is without parallel! It would seem that mankind are infatuated. Such hypocrisy, and such a time-serving religion as exists at the present time must call down the vials of God's unmixed wrath. With the multiplied warnings and examples of six thousand years before them, they still reject the truth of God. We have now reached the last example in this six-thousand-year lesson. It is for us to supply the remaining figures and make out the grand total or result. Shall we swell the numbers to the glory of God, or shall we swell the enemy's columns? Shall we join the army clothed in white, or shall we enlist under the black flag? It depends on us whether we will be the actors on the stage of truth, or on the stage of error. It depends on us whether we play well our part or not. We have the light of present truth in addition to the light possessed by others. What will be our punishment if we sin against such great light? It has seemed to be the idea among Sabbath-keepers that if they did not overcome they would only be lost. But the terrible plagues soon to be poured out, and the awful second death, will take hold on such with great fury. The reason is obvious; the greater the light the greater the condemnation. Talk no more about giving up; if you do, the terrible judgments of God will overwhelm you. How slack we have been as a people! Slow to leave our sins and idols, and still slower, if possible, to plant the graces in their room. The time has come to sound the alarm in the ears of the lukewarm and backslidden people of God. Listen to him who says, "I will spue thee out of my mouth." This is not a meaningless denunciation. It will be fulfilled, and that speedily. We have trifled with God until his long-suffering is nearly exhausted. We have been talking for years about giving up, and about not overcoming, when we should have been overcoming and getting fast hold of God. It is a shame to say that we cannot overcome. The Lord has told us that we can overcome, and commanded us to do so. The trouble is, we have not chosen eternal life, we have only desired it. We have waited for God to do what he has commanded us to do. He has never said, "I will make you zealous," but "be zealous." Our slackness must be astonishing to the angels that daily attend us. Struggling for years to get the victory over a single habit or idol. We should be deeply ashamed of our course. Can we get the victory over wrong and filthy habits? Never think of asking such a question. Leave them at once and flee from them as from a poisonous serpent. Do not stop to question the correctness of your brethren's judgment, but admit that you are charmed. Break the spell, and then you will see things just as your brethren do. Light is increasing, and if we do not turn away from our sins when they are made known the Lord will turn away from us. We must become such a people as were never on the earth. Our lives must be in perfect accordance with the teachings of the Bible. After Jesus leaves the Sanctuary, one sin, even of ignorance, would keep us out of the city. Are we making diligent inquisition for our sins, that we may know them and put them away? or are we cherishing them? As every sin must be made known and eradicated, our constant prayer and earnest inquiry should be, What is there yet about me that is wrong? and when a wrong is made known, to confess and forsake it. But there are some that pursue an opposite course, and when wrongs are made known, try to justify themselves and persist in their course. The Lord is going to have a submissive people, who will cheerfully obey his every wish. Let the people of God plead with him to revive the pure, living testimony in the church.