p. 179 | An Exhortation by C. M. Willis

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Nov 3, 1863

An Exhortation.

By C. M. Willis

To those who have become convinced, and also those who are searching with honest, candid hearts for the truth, are these lines especially addressed. It is with diffidence I address you, for I know not that I can say anything that will confirm the wavering, or strengthen the weak; but it is impressed on my mind to make this appeal to you in the name of my Master, who has said his word should not return to him void, but accomplish what he wills. We are to be a peculiar people, not conformed to this world. We have testified before a scoffing world our love of present truth. While the explanations and admonitions of the messengers are uppermost in our minds, and still sounding in our ears, oh! how sweet and precious the truth looks to us. How near it seems to our hearts! We now powerfully feel the love of God and the Lamb in opening the seals and revealing his will to sinful man! But as time passes away, do not let the pleasures of this world, or the cares of life, obliterate these precious impressions. Do not forget that the eyes of a jeering world are upon us, ready to pry out, and exult at, the first appearance of a retrograde movement. Oh! let it not be said of one who has borne testimony that he loved the commandments of God, that he put his hand to the plough and looked back; therefore he is not fit for the kingdom of heaven. Choose ye this day whom ye will serve. Do not stand halting and doubting between God and the world, till his holy Spirit, grieved and weary at your indecision, takes its flight forever.

If you make up your minds to go back, I would ask, in all candor, Where will you go? To what will you go? Let go of this light and truth which you have received, and what can you cling to? Does not the future look dark and gloomy without a God, without an interest in Christ at his coming? Oh! give the subject a candid, impartial, investigation, before you exchange God for the world, and thus barter your hope of immortality for a few short days of ease and sin!

We cannot have line upon line, and precept upon precept, from constant, faithful teachers; but we must gather here a little, and there a little, and treasure it up carefully; and these few and far-between opportunities for hearing the word must be faithfully improved upon, if we would be benefited thereby. It looks strange to those who believe, to see so many reject the true and plain counsel of God, and heap to themselves wrath against the day of wrath; but how much stranger it looks to see those that have embraced the truth, or been convinced that it was truth, reject it for mere worldly consideration, and thus show that they consider the blood of the covenant an unholy thing. For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning. For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than after they had known it to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them. Ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord. God forbid that any who take a stand as witnesses for God and his law, should show by their works that they consider God a liar; for how can they witness in his favor and then turn back without denying the Lord that bought them with a price, and putting him to an open shame?

But remember that the eyes of the world are upon us in more respects than one. In our deal with our neighbors, in our conversation, in our dress, in all that we do. 'Tis not to keep the Sabbath, or to believe this or that particular tenet of the Advent faith, that fits us to be one of that purified throng on mount Zion; but it is the willing and obedient that shall eat the fruit of the land. We must be workers for God. If needs be, like Paul we must press our way toward the mark of the prize, and like him, too, let the sincere prayer of our hearts be, "Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?" Not what is this one's duty, or that one's duty, but what is my duty? When one in the parable brought an excuse that as his Lord had bestowed but one talent on him, he did not consider it of consequence enough to improve upon it, what did his Lord tell him? He did not tell him that it made no difference, as it was but one, and would not amount to much any way, and that if he had not used it of course it was not injured. No. The sentence was, Cast out the unprofitable servant. Though he had but one talent, if he had heeded the injunction to occupy till his Lord came, he might with his fellow-servants have received a welcome, and with them entered into the joys of their Lord. Remember it is a solemn fact there can be no standstill in this work. It is an impossibility. There must be a progression or a going back every day of our lives. Think of this seriously, and watch closely which way it is. There must either be a cross to bear, a denial of some darling sin, or we may strongly suspect all is not right. It is a continual warfare, and if we do not gain a victory every day, we may be nearly certain the enemy has gained one over us. The more we strive to break from his service, the closer will he draw the chains of bondage, and when we do not have any severe combats with him, we have reason to fear we are drifting along about as he would have us.

I believe there is seed sown in this place that with proper care from the means God uses, will spring forth and bear precious fruit. Oh! let it not be said there is one idler in our Lord's vineyard. Let us work in unity and faith, and God will give an increase. Let us be prepared, too, for opposition. It must come, and let us be prepared to meet it in the spirit of our Master, who when he was reviled, reviled not again. And what are more grievous to be borne, are the sneers and scoffs we must meet with from professing Christians of other denominations. This is a great proof in my mind that we possess the truth in its purity. If it was an error, Satan would not raise such a mighty opposition against it. It threatens to recover some from his power, hence his tremendous efforts to crush it. But truth is mighty and will prevail. Let us meet their opposition with meekness, and perhaps thereby we may win some to Christ.

And let us, like those of old, speak often one to another of the hope that is within us, and thus may we be strengthened. No one can tell what a help it is to beginners to speak of their hopes and desires in the social meeting. Let a candid-minded man or woman bear this cross, and there is not much danger of their turning back. They feel as if they had stepped over the dividing line, as it were, between the two companies, and are ashamed to give the struggle up. Let a person neglect this duty, and Satan gains an advantage every time he does it. If the first step is taken, the rest will prove a pleasure. Satan will make you think it of no consequence, if possible; but neglect it, and you will soon become indifferent, until he has you completely in his power, and your doom is irrecoverably sealed. Then do not neglect this great duty, cross though it be, it will strengthen you and encourage others.

And above all, do not let prayer be neglected. Family prayer for heads of families; public prayer in the congregation; secret prayer for all. The babe cannot live without daily sustenance; no more can the Christian without daily prayer. "Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness; looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God. Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent, that ye may be found of him without spot and blameless."

C. M. WILLIS.

Charlotte, Mich.