Will It Pay? by Clarence Santee

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jan 1, 1914

Will It Pay?

By Clarence Santee

CLARENCE SANTEE

This is a question that is asked as often as any other, or perhaps oftener. It is asked when we plant our crops, when we move from one place to another, when we buy or sell, when we hear the sweet voice of Christ calling us from the paths of sin. In one way or another we ask the question, "Will it pay?"

Christ represents himself as the heavenly merchantman. He says: "Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? and your labor for that which satisfies not?" "Come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price." Isa. 55:2, 1. While the heavenly treasure cannot be bought for silver or gold, it demands the heart's best affections. "Son, give me thine heart." Prov. 23:26. Will it pay to yield?

When men leave a comfortable home, the companionship of loved ones, and risk the dangers of wilderness and sea, facing the extreme cold of the arctic regions in search of gold, for the bare possibility of getting gold, they say, "It will pay." True, the larger number are disappointed, and many die far away from those who care; but to give their hearts renewed courage, they keep repeating, "It will pay."

A man will enter the army as a private upon a very low wage; he will endure rigorous training, the hardships of field and camp, consuming all his best years in slowly advancing, until with advanced age and silvered locks, he can at last point to his insignia and say, "I am a general." This distinction, like the crown of laurel, soon fades, and this uniform is laid aside for the shroud that awaits him. Did his days of training and nights of watching, until his golden years were spent, bring him returns that could satisfy? In every case there is a nameless hunger of soul that has never been satisfied, and in old age the goal is still far in the distance.

It is not so with him who has entered the army of the Lord, him who has purchased the "gold tried with fire." There are as notable examples of sacrifice and fortitude among those who have given all for the heavenly riches as was ever seen on the field of battle.

The prophet saw that people who would be persecuted and oppressed and killed by the cruel hand of the Papacy, and said, "They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented; (of whom the world was not worthy:) they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth." Heb. 11:37, 38.

Like Moses, they esteemed the "reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt." They "had respect unto the recompense of the reward."

Go with me to the valleys of the Waldenses, so often drenched with their blood. Listen to the testimony of their enemies, who hunted for them as for wild beasts; in fact, there is but little testimony we can get of that devoted people but through their enemies, and even they will ascribe to them patience, industry, faith, integrity, and devotion. I shall give a few of their statements:—

" 'They are often dressed in the skins of animals, and live in miserable huts and caves; yet they can all read and write. We found peasants who could repeat the book of Job by heart. Others could repeat all the New Testament, and every boy among them had a clear idea of their faith.'

" 'A friar who had been sent out to lead them back to the Roman Church came back much astonished, and acknowledged that in all his life he had not learned so much of the Scriptures as he had in those few days he had been conversing with the heretics. . . . One of the clerical ambassadors who had received the commission to search for them and persecute them, said: 'The heretics are known by their manners. Their conduct is quiet and modest, and no pride is seen in their dress.' Another says: 'In their manners and life they are upright, truthful in their words, and of one accord in brotherly love, but their faith is obstinate and unsound.' [A strange result of a faith of that kind, surely.]

" 'Still another says: 'They do not try to gather riches, but are satisfied with the necessities of life.' 'Their women are modest, not talebearers. They shun folly and levity.' . . . They were known as hard-working people, and their manner of living was exceedingly plain. They were enemies of all extravagance and debauchery. Consequently their men were sought for servants, and their women for nurses and servant girls. . . .

" 'When the king of France, Louis XII, was informed of the terrible crimes whereof the Waldenses were accused by their enemies, he sent his own confessor with another man to the province of Provence to look into the matter. When they returned, they said that they had visited all the parishes where they lived and examined their meetinghouses, but they found no images or things pertaining to the mass, nor any of the ceremonies belonging to the Roman Church. Much less could they discover any trace of those crimes whereof they were accused. On the contrary, they kept the Sabbath, practiced baptism like the apostolic church, and instructed their children in the Christian articles of faith and the commandments of God. When the king heard this report, he said, "They are indeed better people than I and my people."'—"Prophecies of Jesus," pages 111-113.

Did it pay for such a people as this to flee from place to place, making mountain caves or lonely fastnesses their places of refuge, and in many cases their places of burial? At one time the soldiers of the Papacy burned or suffocated more than three thousand in one cave, four hundred of whom were little infants, with their mothers, when with one word they could have been restored to favor and to their homes. O, they had in heaven a more enduring substance! For this assurance they took joyfully the spoiling of their goods. Heb. 10:34.

For a few years, which must have seemed long because of suffering and oppression, they bore their testimony to the fact that love for God and his truth can triumph over selfish interest. It is significant that they taught their children to repeat from memory the book of Job.

Then they were laid away to await the coming of the Life-giver for the reward of their faithfulness. Who is there today, if choice were granted between the two, would not have the life of these devoted commandment keepers for his portion, rather than that of the ruthless soldiers who, at the instigation of the papists, rioted in the torturing of men, burning of homes, and the killing of helpless women and children?

Soon the sighs and tears of God's oppressed children will be exchanged for joys and glad hosannas. "They that sow in tears shall reap in joy." Ps. 126:5. "Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning." Ps. 30:5.

It will pay. The eternal treasures will never rust nor become a canker that would eat the flesh of the possessor.

"When we've been there ten thousand years, Bright, shining as the sun, We've no less days to sing God's praise Than when we first begun."

It will pay to give all you have for the eternal inheritance. It will pay to exchange sickness for health, perplexity for assurance, weariness for rest, death for life, mortality for immortality. Yes, it will pay.

Loma Linda, Cal.