Stone of Stumbling by J. Clarke

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Nov 18, 1862

Stone of Stumbling.

By J. Clarke

PRIDE must fall, and however cautious the possessor of this passion may be, there is certainly some stone over which he will fall, some stone of stumbling and rock of offense.

To the Christian, occasions of stumbling lie all along the path to glory; but humility, and submission, and teachableness, do so temper his understanding that he is quick to discern the hidden danger; while the self-wise have their eyes so dimmed by pride and conceit, that the warnings of heaven are slighted and unnoticed.

The Jew stumbled at the cross, and fearful was the fall. Many were charmed with the teachings of Christ; but when he told them that they must eat his flesh and drink his blood, many were offended and forsook him, not asking or waiting an explanation.

The churches of the present day are evidently stumbling over the doctrine of the Advent, and the truths connected therewith.

Those connected with the S. D. Adventists may perhaps imagine that they are safe from danger of this kind.

Let us beware! The march of God’s people is an onward march, in a perilous time, amid all dangers.

We, a weak remnant of a fallen race, we, fleeing from an apostate church, in which we have imbibed manifold errors and prejudices, have yet much to learn and much to unlearn.

Let us read carefully Vol. II of Spiritual Gifts, and consider the awful fall of many who started fair many years ago in this faith of the third message, and consider the history of the S. D. A. church, and notice the fall of many at every advance move of the body.

We find this people do not hesitate to abjure an error, however long it may have been held, or dearly cherished; nor do they hesitate to adopt a truth, when they find it to be truth, even though it may have been opposed before.

Now this is the opposite of bigotry. May they ever persevere in this, till all come into the full blaze of the truth as it was delivered once to the saints.

It is as necessary for a S. D. Adventist to free himself from bigotry and self-will, as for those who stand opposed to the whole truth. At present, the subject of organization seems to be the stone of stumbling among us; and a foolish stumble many are making. I have found in teaching school, that the more thorough and systematic its organization, the more successful the school.

From the first I have admired the plan of organization, and I have been puzzled beyond measure to see the part acted by those opposing it; especially that men of talent, of piety, of largeness of mind, should fail to move most heartily for complete organization.

Why is it? Why don’t we all hasten? Is not destruction at hand? What! can it be? Are our officers acting like the army officers at the defeat at Bull Run? Men of God! Is it so? Are the soldiers cut to pieces for want of pluck in our officers?

Is it possible, we exclaimed, as we read the article on Organization in No. 18, by Bro. White, that anti-organizationalists still are hesitating? Why don’t you come up, to a man, in this business? When I think, after all that has been said and done on this matter, how Bro. White is tantalized, how the testimony is

trampled on, how the church is trammelled, how the good Spirit is slighted, oh, it is provoking, it is sickening, it is discouraging, it is positively flat, nauseous as the lukewarm water from the stagnant pool.

It is amazing, with such a flood of light, that any should walk in darkness. Does not Paul compare the church to the human body? Is not the human body organized? Suppose it were possible that by some accident your body were disorganized, your limbs broken, your joints dislocated, your jaws locked, your pulse fitful and faint; and a council of medical men should meet, and the head surgeon should advise immediate action, to set the dislocated joints, and broken limbs; to organize as far as possible the disorganized parts: thus, says he, order will be restored, and the suffering patient will breathe free; his heart will cease to palpitate with such painful agony, his pulse will soon regain its regularity, and he will soon recover. Meanwhile the patient groans in agony, hardly conscious of existence, and the council of doctors seems to him like the visions of the nightmare, or the ghosts of the departed.

The council hesitate; the patient sinks; they doubt the propriety of the surgeon's suggestions; they doubt, and doubt; the patient sinks, and sinks; his breath is feeble, and more feeble. The surgeon is astonished at the stupidity of his council. He alone goes to work, straightens the spine and limbs as well as he can (God bless him), bandages the swollen places, sets the patient as well as he can with the help he can muster, and says he, "Now can't you assist me, my brethren?"

Now we, that groaning body, have got just out of this fainting fit, and can just sit propped up with pillows (thanks to the good surgeon's efforts), and our prayer to God is to send help to our surgeon, of the right kind, who will help to set our broken bones and dislocated joints; and if any quacks still doubt about setting these bones, and organizing this body, may God take from them their diplomas, and give them to good assistant surgeons, who will act like men of sense.

Our body is racked with pain. The church sighs to be free, to walk out and take air. It is painful to be thus confined to a state of inactivity and suffering.

J. CLARKE.