“Lie not against the Truth.”
By Moses Hull
For a few weeks past these words have rested with weight upon my mind, and more than once have I asked myself the question, am I obeying this injunction? Am I living out the truth in all its principles? Or am I lying against it? We stand out before the world as monuments—as specimens of what the truth can do for its adherents. The truth is sanctifying in its influences. The Saviour prayed, “Sanctify them through thy truth, thy word is truth.” Jno. xvii, 17. We, as a people, profess to have come out of Babylon, to have stepped out on the truth. We profess to know and practice more truth than do the churches around us. Now the question is, Does the truth which we have, that they have not, make us better than they? To illustrate. If we have twice as much truth as the Methodists have, we should live that much nearer to God than they do. If we do not we are saying that that truth which we have, that they have not, is worth nothing, or, that naturally we are not so good as they, for it takes twice the amount of truth to keep us near to God, that it does to keep them. A man has a horse which he thinks is a good one. So has B. But B. claims, that although his horse is in no better order, can travel no faster, or draw no heavier load than A.’s yet his horse is the best, because he eats twice the amount of oats daily that A.’s does. Reader which of the horses would you prefer? Would you not say that the one, that could be kept in the same condition, and do the same amount of work on the small amount of food, was the best horse! Then how is it with S. D. Adventists who are feeding upon more than twice the amount of good wholesome Bible truth that others have? Should it not bring us that much nearer to God? And if it does not, is it not demonstrative evidence that we are that much harder to keep than others? Is there not at least some danger that while we are contemplating the beauty and harmony of the “present truth,” we shall in a measure forget the spiritual past, and say “I am rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing!” For myself I fear. Would that the Lord would roll upon us a solemn sense of our responsibility as the ones with whom the last solemn message of mercy is entrusted. Our Saviour said, “Ye are the light of the world.” Matt. v, 14. It is impossible, that infidels should be convinced of the divinity of the Christian religion, by reading the Bible. They do not appreciate or believe13it. Hence, the Bible can only make an indirect impression upon them: that is, through the church. But if the people of God are half-hearted, what is the impression made upon the minds of infidels? They conclude at once, that these are specimens of Bible believers—of what Christianity can do for those who adhere to it, and become disgusted with professed Christians, and think they are disgusted with the Bible. How often in my short experience have the lives of professed Christians been held up before me, and I have been tauntingly asked to point out the difference between the church and the world! Why is this? Does the Bible fail to make men better? or is it because men lie against the truth? May we be found among those who are “sanctified through the truth,” that when our King comes and gathers his jewels, we may belong to that righteous nation, which have kept the truth, and have the privilege of entering in. Isa. xxvi, 3.