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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Mar 19, 1914

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 91, No. 12.

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Editorial

By Editor

The Real Test of Christian Experience

THE real test of Christian experience is found in the wear and labor of everyday life. It is comparatively easy to attend church; to take part in the prayer and praise service; to refrain from labor on the seventh day; to pay tithes; and to donate to missions and philanthropic enterprises. With many, these outward forms have been observed from childhood and have become a habit of life. They are performed as a matter of routine. One may follow all these forms and still not be a real Christian. But to be a follower of the Master in life's homely, practical experiences — this constitutes the test of true discipleship.
To be patient and loving in the home when others are not; to speak kindly and gently when others are cross and peevish and fretful; to express words of appreciation to and of our professed friends when we have reason to believe they criticize us; to perform willing service in accommodating a none-too-obliging neighbor; to be honest in business deal; to be found often in communion with the Great Teacher and in studying his Word; to stand as did Elijah before God; to walk as did Enoch with God; to endure as did Moses, as seeing him who is invisible; to speak as God's oracle; and to minister as of the ability which he giveth — it is this to live the life of the Master. No great glory will such a life bring in this world. Measured by the world's standards, such a life will appear weak and commonplace. But in the reckoning of heaven it is a life of victory and power.
Such a life, dear reader, God wants you to live. Wherever you may be, in desert waste, in wilderness wild, or among the teeming millions of the great cities; whatever may be your name or your station, whether a minister or a layman, a teacher or a pupil, a father toiling day by day to provide bread for his loved ones, or a mother shut up within four walls with crying, fretful children and with the everyday humdrum and drudgery of commonplace service — it is your privilege to exemplify in your everyday life the spirit of the Master. You may carry with you the consciousness of divine acceptance and heavenly guidance. Lacking this, beloved, you lack the sweetness of Christian life; the real joy of communion; the peace and rest and comfort which come from abiding in him and being kept by him. By holding this living, vital touch with divine power, by possessing in our hearts the consciousness of this heavenly presence, we shall find Marah's bitter waters turned to sweetness, roses among the thorns, and living springs in the desert. We shall experience in the midst of life's trials that peace which passeth understanding.
It is for this living connection with the divine power that we should seek moment by moment. Our religious experience is worth nothing unless it will stand the test of the stress and storms of life. He who is not a Christian in his own home, who does not manifest the spirit of Christ in his relationship to his wife, to his children, and to those who live with him from day to day, does not know the power of the consecrated life, even though he may be a preacher of the gospel. The real test of the genuineness of our religious experience is the test that comes in the home — the test of little things — which the world counts of small importance, but which after all make up the sum total of the life record. He that is faithful in that which is least will be faithful in the greater things.
F. M. W.