p. 151 | Religion

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Michigan · Oct 10, 1865

Religion.

Does it seem to you a gloomy and melancholy thing? It is melancholy and gloomy as true life is, and no more. Do you regard it as a subject suitable only for the pulpit or the death-bed? It is made for Sabbaths and dying hours as much as life is made for them, and no more. For religion is a life,—the real life of the soul.

Is loyalty a thing to be reserved for the Fourth of July and other national holidays, and omitted upon other days? Is loyalty a gloomy and burdensome thing because it forbids all treasonable and unlawful pursuits? No: the loyal man is free and happy under the government of his love and choice, and he is loyal always and everywhere. Religion is loyalty to our God and King, and there is joy and liberty in it.

Should the tiny germ imprisoned in the acorn, grudge to leave its narrow cell; to strike root downward, and send its growing shoot upward into the sun and air, where it may reach the full perfection of its being? And shall a being who may claim an heirship to Heaven grudge to leave the contracted circle of earthly and selfish thought and feeling; to send forth the root of faith and confidence till it takes hold upon the Rock of Ages; to let the powers and affections of the soul ascend and blossom in the light of God's loving favor.

Should the caterpillar be reluctant to leave its groveling form of life; to take his beautiful wings, and soar into a new element? And shall not the heart of man be eager to enter upon a wider and higher range of spiritual life; to take the wings of love to God and man, and rise into a new and blessed existence?

[M. E. A. in Tract Journal.]