Untitled article by J. CLARKE.

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jan 5, 1864

Sabbath Meditations.—No. 4.

By J. CLARKE.

WHAT a variety of subjects for contemplation in the word of God, all tending to the same great end, namely, the sanctification of the chosen people of God.

Of all the lessons taught in the word of God, there is perhaps none more difficult to practice than self-denial. Christ says, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross. It is easy to talk, easy to write, and it costs but little to practice many of the Christian virtues; but to deny self those gratifications to which we are accustomed, to restrain the risings of self, to keep under the carnal mind, to sacrifice self for the pure principles of the truth, rooting out the noxious plants of self-complacency, self-flattery and pride,—this costs us many a hard-fought battle with the old man of the carnal heart.

Self-denial is an indispensable characteristic of the Christian. It is a virtue without which the soul withers in drought and barrenness, and even society itself becomes intolerable where this virtue is not practiced. Even irreligious people often practice a degree of self-denial as a safeguard and a preservative of social peace and family order, as a trait which must be interwoven with the warp of life in all the social and domestic relations. This is practiced in a degree in every well-ordered household. Indeed, wholly without this, society would be a boiling sea of conflicting interests, more fatal and intolerable than the waters of Sodom.

But we are called to a more complete and thorough carrying out of this principle than the polished and accomplished worldling ever dreamed of. This denying one's self for Christ, reaches farther, and extends to the whole range of human action, both in thought, word and deed.

That uncharitable assigning of unholy motives to another, that bitter feeling, that suspicious suggestion, that impure thought or unholy desire, that covetous anxiety for more of earthly treasure, that longing for present ease, that slothful negligence, that rebellious, bitter retort, that unsanctified opposition to such reproof as suits our case, that building of castles in the air, that wandering of the mind to worldly scenes and forbidden objects, all must be denied.

We cannot catalogue the long list of emotions and words, thoughts and desires and acts, which self-denial must subject and subdue, ere all the soul is brought into subjection to the will of Christ. The moral law as expounded by Jesus Christ comprehends in its scope everything which is offensive to God. But plain as this is, still none but those who are taught of the Spirit of God arrive at just and adequate conceptions of the requirements of this law.

It is indeed a great thing to be a Christian; a great thing to be humble enough to be taught of the Spirit of God; to find the narrow way and to travel onward with steady step; to listen to such teaching as the Spirit of God presses home to the teachable, humble soul, and when taught, to deny self the wrong and receive the right.

To such, sweet are the rewards of self-denial. The conscience once an accuser and a tormentor of the soul, now approves and smiles; the passions once mutinous and tyrannical, now subdued and obedient, become subject to the law of God, and holy calmness and peace pervade the mind once tumultuous and confused. J. CLARKE.