Rejecting Christ by M.

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · May 26, 1863

Rejecting Christ.

By M.

Miss J—— came among us a stranger, but she soon won the respect and regard of all by her ability as a teacher, the unvarying gentleness of her deportment, and her activity in every good work. No direct question was asked with regard to her religious sentiments, but her attendance upon the services of the sanctuary was so constant, she exhibited so many of the Christian graces in her daily life that no doubt was entertained that she was a follower of Christ. What then was the disappointment and grief of the pastor when, on the first communion season after her arrival, she allowed the precious memorials of a Saviour's dying love to pass her untasted! Upon conversing with her on the subject, she told him that she had never united with the visible church; she hoped she was a Christian, but she was waiting for clearer evidence before she took that step. The pastor prolonged the conversation that he might ascertain upon what particular point she was in darkness. As he gradually drew forth her ideas upon the great truths of religion his own mind became deeply troubled. She spoke rather of the beauties of the Bible than of its truths; she enlarged upon its high-toned morality, rather than its humbling doctrines; she spoke of Christ with admiration, rather than with that love which would show that he was all her hope; he was to her as a very lovely song, but not, alas! the anchor of her soul. The pastor sighed, for he too began to wish for clearer evidence of her good estate; he feared that her religion was that of imagination and not of the heart, and he left her with a silent prayer that the Spirit might show her her lost condition.

A year passed. Miss J——'s conduct was worthy of all commendation, and those less discerning than the pastor believed that her neglect to unite with the church of God arose from an undue self-distrust, an excess of humility. About this time, in answer to prayer, the church was blessed with a quickening of its spiritual life, and sinners began to inquire the way of salvation. Religious services were multiplied to meet the increasing interest, and a neighboring pastor came to assist in these labors of love. Mr. M——, though he lacked that gentleness which is so winning, and often so effective, had a direct and forcible manner of presenting truth which stripped the disguise from the sinner's heart and drove him from every false refuge. Miss J—— was a regular attendant upon these services, but their influence upon her mind was not known until some months after, when an opportunity was given to those who wished to unite with the church to relate their experience. Miss J—— was one of the number, and hers was in the following words:—

"I was educated by pious parents. I had always listened to evangelical preaching; but when sinners were warned of their guilt and danger I applied the remarks to the Sabbath-breaker, the profane, the vicious; and month after month, and year after year I heard these warnings with no thought of self-application. I believed myself to be a Christian, but I was deterred from joining the church by a secret fear that there was something in the experience of the Christian to which I was a stranger. But this fear gave me but little uneasiness; for the most part my conscience was at ease, until I heard Mr. M——'s sermon upon the one sin of rejecting Christ, and then it was that an arrow reached my heart. I saw that my feelings toward the Saviour were no warmer than that of admiration; that I had never thought of him as the great sacrifice for sin, and I felt that I had well-nigh been guilty of the suicide of my soul by rejecting the only way of salvation.

"Had I felt that hell was not for such as I? I felt so no longer, but its deepest damnation seemed my just due, because I had put far from me a glorious salvation, a Saviour's dying love; and I think my sense of guilt would have crushed me to the grave; but he who considers our frame, who remembers we are but dust, showed me how all-sufficient in its cleansing power is that fountain which was opened for sin and uncleanliness, and there I trust I washed my guilty soul, and cast for ever away the worthless rags of my own righteousness, and accepted the precious robe the Saviour wrought."

Every heart was thrilled by this recital, and none doubted that the Spirit himself had opened the blind eyes of this penitent soul to see the crimson dye of the one sin which had weighed upon her heart.

Are there not thousands in the land with characters of spotless morality, whose lives are a blessing to those around them, who are yet rejecters of Christ? And how shall these persons—so pure and elevated in thought, who shudder at contact with vice—how shall they endure the companionship of the vilest of the race in the world of despair? Yet such must be their fate without Christ. He is the sinner's only hope. It is a blood-bought pardon alone which can atone for sin. None shall be admitted to the heavenly Jerusalem but followers of the Lamb; the head that would wear the immortal crown must bow low at the foot of the cross.