KEEPING CLOSE TO GOD by Uriah Smith

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Nov 19, 1861

KEEPING CLOSE TO GOD.

By Uriah Smith

A CHILD was with its father in the midst of a great crowd. The child was frightened by the noise and confusion around him. "Keep close to me," said the father, extending his hand, "and you need not be afraid."

We are in a world of confusion and danger, but if we keep close to God, we need not be afraid—we shall be safe.

We shall be safe from evil thoughts. They are very dangerous. They corrupt the soul ere it is aware. Many a man has been ruined by evil thoughts. They have gradually obtained place in, and power over, his mind, till the result has been open and outrageous wickedness.

When we are close to God, evil thoughts do not enter our minds, or, if they do, are immediately banished. A holy influence spreads over our minds which keeps evil thoughts far away.

We shall be safe from delusive thoughts. We are led astray by error. False views of life, false views of men, lead us to do many unwise acts. A great deal of defective practice is owing to defective views. The pleasures of the world appear real, and men follow them. Eternal things seem distant and distasteful, and men neglect them. Occasionally temporal things are seen as temporal, and they lose their power over the soul.

When we are close to God, we are in an atmosphere of truth. We see things as they are. The vanity of earthly joys appears. We see the truth, and can act in accordance with it. No man looks with either admiration or desire upon the pleasures of sin, when he is near to God.

We shall be safe from the assaults of Satan. He will make no continued assaults upon those who are standing close by the Holy One.

Those who are earnestly engaged in the pursuit of holiness, know that Satan is to be feared. When a man is indifferent to the assaults of Satan, it is a proof that he is far from God. Those who are near to God and desire to remain so, will fear the assaults and devices of Satan. They need not, for he is safe who is close to God.

At all times, and under all circumstances, let us keep close to God. He holds out his hand to us. He will never repel us, however great our guilt, if we really desire to keep close to him.—Pres. Banner.

Some of us are prepared from experience to appreciate the force of the above truthful remarks. They struck me as I read them, as being peculiarly applicable to the present time. They point out our only course of safety amid the perils of these last days. The present is especially a testing time in God's people. Satan knows the shortness of his time, and the importance of the last message of mercy now going forth; hence his unparalleled efforts to throw temptations, doubt and distraction into the minds of those who are rallying around the standard of the third angel. And on what point is his most persistent and fiercest attack? It is to get us to take false views of men and things, to hold in a wrong light those whom God has called and qualified to take the lead in this message, and the agencies he sees fit to employ in carrying it on. And when are we most subject to temptation on this point? It is not when we are near to God, but when we are farthest from him. These temptations dwell not in the path of light; and things appear to us in this manner only when viewed through the murky atmosphere that envelops the enemy's ground. Leave them that ground, if you would see with unobstructed vision. If you would best resist the doubts and unbelief the enemy is ever ready to press in upon you, if you would free yourself from perplexing misgivings as to the ever-ruling providence of God in this work, then draw near to God. Drop at once all your doubts and fears—the whole uncomely brood—and resolve that you will bestow upon them not another thought, till you have first pressed up to the sacred fount, and refreshed your thirsty soul with copious draughts of God's Spirit and his love; and when you have thus drawn nigh to him, when you have established a free communication between your own soul and his rich blessings, when you have received a baptism of his Spirit, and have come up where you can enjoy the pure light of his countenance (and until you do this, it is your own case, and not the suggestions of the enemy, that demands your attention);—when, I say, you have done all this, then you may look after your doubts and fears; but then they are not to be found. You will then find that they have all vanished away into the darkness from which they sprung, leaving your own soul free, in the undisturbed and happy enjoyment of its new attainments.

Well does the writer above quoted remark, "When we are close to God, we are in an atmosphere of truth. We see things as they are." Then we see things in their true light. Then the enemy cannot magnify before our bleared eyesight difficulties that exist in the imagination only. Who does not wish to live in an atmosphere of truth? Who does not wish to see things always as they are? We can do this by keeping close to God. Into this position then let us press. Departures from God on the part of those who should have stood in his clearest counsel, have occasioned the most serious difficulties the cause of truth has ever encountered. Then what more effectual steps can we take toward removing them, than by immediately drawing near to God. May the Lord help all those whom the enemy of souls has been, or is, most fiercely buffeting, to speedily gain, and from this time ever onward keep, this safe and desirable position. U. S.