What We Ought to Be by C. A. Osgood

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Michigan · Apr 18, 1865

What We Ought to Be.

By C. A. Osgood

“Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness?” 2 Pet. ii, 11.

The truly consistent gospel believer, in these last days, is looking for the speedy coming of the “Lord and Saviour.” He is looking for “the day of the Lord,” in which the atmospheric “heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also, and the works that are therein shall be burned up.” He looks too “for new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness.” Many of the readers of the Review claim to be such a people. Let us consider then, while we believe these great and important truths, what manner of persons we ought to be.

1. We ought to behave ourselves with becoming solemnity and yet with Christian cheerfulness. Great and terrible will be the day of the Lord. Then ungodly “kings of the earth, and great men, and rich men, and chief captains and mighty men, and every bond-man, and every freeman, will hide themselves in the dens and rocks of the mountains; and say to the mountains and rocks, fall on us and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb.” Rev. vi, 15, 16. This will be “the time of God’s wrath,” and when “the dead shall be judged,” and when God will “destroy them which corrupt the earth.” Then the unbelieving multitude around us so intent on sinful pleasure now, will meet the sinner’s doom, and some even who have had some knowledge of these truths will fail of securing eternal life, and have their portion with unbelievers. And the time is near at hand. With what seriousness and godly fear, then, should we behave ourselves before God and our fellows. So great are the interests to be secured, so great the danger of failing to secure these interests for ourselves and others, and so short is the time left us, in which these things must be done if done at all, that there is no room for vain mirth or trifling. What! shall we trifle amid the perils of the last days, when our enemies are all around us, oft unobserved, ready in some unguarded hour to destroy us! While the great battle, that is to decide our fate is about to be fought! And when the day of probation is almost gone, the time to labor for the salvation of our neighbors about expiring! Rather let every vain desire or thought be repressed, and no idle word be uttered, that shall detract from the decorum of those who are living in these last days, that the unbeliever, may have no occasion to say and to think that we ourselves do not believe these things.

Yet it becomes the Christian to be cheerful. He looks for “new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness.” He expects to move to a better country, where there will be a more fertile soil, a perfectly healthful climate, a pure atmosphere, where the scorching rays of the sun will not be felt, where there will be no frost, no chilling winds, nor sickening vapors; yea, where “the inhabitants will never say, ‘I am sick!’” In that country, there will be no painful rheumatisms, no burning fevers, no wasting consumptions, no dyspeptic stomachs, no depressed nerves, no palsies or apoplexies, no cholera or pestilential disease of any kind. Neither can the people die any more. There those who have been blind will see, those who have been deaf shall hear, the dumb will sing, and the lame leap as a hart. War with the many evils that follow in its train will never be there, but the principles of perfect peace and liberty will forever prevail. There none will be cheated out of their possessions by the dishonest sharper. “They shall not build, and another inhabit; they shall not plant, and another eat; but God’s elect will long enjoy the work of their hands.” No sighs or groans will ever be heard or uttered there. There will be no distressed hearts or weeping eyes, but perfect and everlasting joy. There righteousness dwells; sin cannot enter. In all that land no falsehood will ever be told, no profane oath uttered, no ill-will cherished. Divine truth will not be scoffed at there. Perfect and universal love will glow in every heart and appear in every act. Oh! this is a glorious, a blessed land to which the faithful soul is aspiring, and which he will by and by inherit!

In view of these things and many more, the believer should be cheerful, “rejoicing in hope,” though “sorrowful” at times, “yet always rejoicing.”

2. Advent believers should be honorable in all their business transactions. No covetous person can have any inheritance in the kingdom of God. If the love of God dwells in our hearts, we shall not desire to get our neighbor’s property, for one-half or one-fourth, or any other fraction less than its just value, nor when we are selling will we wish to obtain more than the fair value for what we are selling. If we do, we covet in part that which is our neighbor’s, and become breakers of the precept, “thou shalt not covet.” No man who has the love of God in his heart rejoices to think that he has increased his gains by trading or bargaining with his neighbor, while his neighbor has lost by it. This is not to love the neighbor as himself, to do to others as he would be done by. This is not the way to prepare for that world of love and righteousness. This does not recommend the truth to those that are without, but will lead them to say and to think, What do ye more than others? This and such-like things will hinder them from embracing the truth. But justice, truth, and love, adorn the doctrine of God, and help us to say, Come.

3. We ought to be persons possessing a meek and quiet spirit. Those who look for such terrible and glorious things, ought not to become excited to indulge in hateful feelings, or under the influence of these feelings to utter unreasonable words, or make extravagant statements, under any circumstances. All bitterness, and wrath, and anger, should be put away from us. We should imitate Jesus “who, when he was reviled, reviled not again, when he suffered, he threatened not, but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously.” If we are his, he will soon vindicate our cause.

4. We should be careful of our words at all times. “Foolish talking and jesting are not convenient.” No idle word can be spoken, but for it we must give account. Our speech should be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that it may tend to the edifying of the hearers. Especially should we be careful not to speak evil of our brethren with whom we hope to dwell in love in the better country.

5. We should watch and pray much. Watch the signs of the times, watch our own hearts, watch the movements of our spiritual foes, watch the progress of the cause of God, “watch and pray always that we may be accounted worthy to escape those things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man.” We are needy, God has a large supply for our wants. We are weak, God is mighty. Though our foes are strong, he is mightier than they. We have a victory to gain, and we can only conquer through the power of God's grace. Oh may we so diligently seek this grace that we may come off “conquerors, through him that hath loved us.”