p. 114 | Review and Herald, Vol. 79, No. 8. (2/25/1902)

Review and Herald

Feb 25, 1902

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Feb 25, 1902

THE NEED OF A REVIVAL AND A REFORMATION.

By Ellen G. White

MRS. E. G. WHITE.

“NEVERTHELESS I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent.”

I am instructed to say that these words are applicable to Seventh-day Adventist churches in their present condition. The love of God has been lost, and this means the absence of love for one another. Self, self, self, is cherished, and is striving for the supremacy. How long is this to continue? Unless there is a reconversion, there will soon be such a lack of godliness that the Church will be represented by the barren fig tree. Great light has been given to her. She has had abundant opportunity for bearing much fruit. But selfishness has come in, and God says, “I will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent.”

Jesus looked upon the pretentious, fruitless fig tree, and with mournful reluctance pronounced the words of doom. And under the curse of an offended God, the fig tree withered away. God help His people to make an application of this lesson while there is still time.

Just before His ascension, Christ said to His disciples, “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.” God’s people to-day are not fulfilling this commission as they should. Selfishness prevents them from receiving these words in their solemn significance.

In many hearts there seems to be scarcely a breath of spiritual life. This makes me very sad. I fear that aggressive warfare against the world, the flesh, and the devil has not been maintained. Shall we cheer on, by a half-dead Christianity, the selfish, covetous spirit of the world, sharing its ungodliness and smiling on its falsehood?—Nay! By the grace of God let us be steadfast to the principles of truth, holding firm to the end the beginning of our confidence. We are to be “not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord.” One is our Master, even Christ. To Him we are to look. From Him we are to receive our wisdom. By His grace we are to preserve our integrity, standing before God in meekness and contrition, and representing Him to the world.

Sermons have been in great demand in our churches. The members have depended upon pulpit declamations instead of on the Holy Spirit. Uncalled for and unused, the spiritual gifts bestowed on them have dwindled into feebleness. If the ministers would go forth into new fields, the members would be obliged to bear responsibilities, and by use their capabilities would increase.

God brings against ministers and people the heavy charge of spiritual feebleness, saying, “I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth. Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked: I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.” God calls for a spiritual revival and a spiritual reformation. Unless this takes place, those who are lukewarm will continue to grow more abhorrent to the Lord, until He will refuse to acknowledge them as His children.

A revival and a reformation must take place, under the ministration of the Holy Spirit. Revival and reformation are two different things. Revival signifies a renewal of spiritual life, a quickening of the powers of mind and heart, a resurrection from spiritual death. Reformation signifies a reorganization, a change in ideas and theories, habits and practices. Reformation will not bring forth the good fruit of righteousness unless it is connected with the revival of the Spirit. Revival and reformation are to do their appointed work, and in doing this work they must blend.

“Ye are not your own; for ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.” “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.” Christ gave His life for a fallen race, leaving us an example that we should follow in His steps. To him who does this will be spoken the words of approval, “Well done, good and faithful servant; . . . enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.”

The word of the Lord never represses activity. It increases man’s usefulness by guiding his activities in the right direction. The Lord does not leave man without an object of pursuit. He places before him an immortal inheritance, and gives him ennobling truth, that he may advance in a safe and sure path, in pursuit of that which is worth the consecration of his highest capabilities,—a crown of everlasting life.

Man will increase in power as he follows on to know the Lord. As he endeavors to reach the highest standard, the Bible is as a light to guide his footsteps homeward. In that word he finds that he is a joint heir with Christ to an eternal treasure. The Guidebook points him to the unsearchable riches of heaven. By following on to know the Lord, he is securing never-ending happiness. Day by day the peace of God is his reward, and by faith he sees a home of everlasting sunshine, free from all sorrow and disappointment. God directs his footsteps, and keeps him from falling.

God loves His Church. There are tares mingled with the wheat, but the Lord knows His own. “Thou hast a few names even in Sardis which have not defiled their garments; and they shall walk with me in white: for they are worthy. He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before His angels. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.”

Shall not the counsel of Christ have an effect on the churches? Why halt, ye who know the

truth, between two opinions? “If the Lord be God, follow Him: but if Baal, then follow him.” Christ’s followers have no right to stand on the ground of neutrality. There is more hope of an open enemy than of one who is neutral.

Let the Church respond to the words of the prophet, “Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and His glory shall be seen upon thee.”

God’s people have lost their first love. They must now repent and make steady advancement in the path of holiness. God’s purposes reach to every phase of life. They are immutable, eternal; and at the time appointed they will be executed. For a time it may seem that Satan has all the power in his hands; but our trust is in God. When we draw near to Him, He will draw near to us, and will work with mighty power to accomplish His gracious purposes.

God rebukes His people for their sins, that He may humble them, and lead them to seek His face. As they reform, and His love revives in their hearts, His loving answers will come to their requests. He will strengthen them in reformatory action, lifting up for them a standard against the enemy. His rich blessing will rest upon them, and in bright rays they will reflect the light of heaven. Then a multitude not of their faith, seeing that God is with His people, will unite with them in serving the Redeemer.

WHO IS GOD?

By Anna D. Walker

The Lord, He is God! Adoring, we cry, When we look abroad On earth, sea, and sky. The stars in their courses, The sun with his light, The winds with their forces, All tell of His might.

The Lord, He is God! How often we prove When we with our loved Are helped from above. His mercy unfailing, How tender and sweet, For us all availing When trials we meet!

The Lord, He is God! O, surely we know, When out from our road He sets our foul foe! He bids him surrender When bent on our harm: His help He doth render; How mighty His arm!

The Lord, He is God! He dwells everywhere; O, tell it abroad! For earth He doth care. The things that are smallest He notes with His eye; The sparrow that falleth, The mote and the fly.

The Lord, He is God! And through Christ His Son, Who earth’s pathway trod, Our victories are won. O, let us adore Him, Our lasting abode, And still cry before Him, The Lord, He is God!

— Anna D. Walker, in the Christian Advocate.

DO CHRISTIANS MEAN BUSINESS?

The Christian.

We sometimes hear of instances of wonderful generosity, of persons giving by tens of thousands of dollars to the work of God under earnest exhortations and passionate appeals. And yet, measured by the divine rule, some poor widow may have cast in more than they all. What are ten or twenty thousand dollars? There are hundreds of men who have for years given their whole lives to the work of God, with a devotion and diligence which might have made them millionaires had they lived for self and the world. They have no thousands to give, they may not have a dollar in the world, but they have given all, long ago,—not under exciting appeals, but in hours of lonely consecration to God,—and no one puts items in the newspapers about their great generosity; but the Lord has it all recorded in His book.

Sometimes we hear how Christians have given their jewels, their diamond pins, their gold rings, under the wave of a mighty enthusiasm for the cause of God; but no one remembers those who with equal opportunities for adornment have no rings or pearls or diamonds to give, because they have already given the time and the money such things would cost to save lost men from sin and death. And what have Christians to do with such gaudy trumpery anyway? Have they not been wearing it in direct and open disobedience to the word of God? Have they not been wasting the Lord’s money in defiance of His revealed will, in buying a lot of trash that will not bring half price when it is sold for old junk? Surely, if such manifestations measure the high-water mark of Christian giving, we may well say, “Where is boasting then? It is excluded.”

Talk of a hundred thousand dollars given in a day, as a matter of boasting and gratulation; why, the priest in charge of the shrine of the horrible Hindu idol, at Calcutta, being asked not long ago what was the amount of the offerings presented by her worshippers the previous day, named in reply a sum equal to three hundred thousand pounds sterling, or nearly a million and a half of dollars. “Yet,” says the Christian (London), “the mighty and wealthy Christian nation which rules India, while spending one hundred and twenty million pounds sterling a year in drink, can spare only one million pounds per annum for the spread of the gospel.”

There are multitudes of heathen shrines and temples in India, where offerings are made and paid; but it seems that the Hindu worshippers at a single temple have in one day given nearly one third as much as is collected in all the churches and societies in Great Britain for the foreign field in a whole year. Yet Christians profess to have light and truth and the gospel of Christ, and they pity the benighted heathen who lack all these things. In rejoicing in the light, they do well; but in devotion and self-sacrificing zeal in the service of God, they might well imitate these benighted heathen, and profit by their example.

GOD'S KINGDOM IN THIS WORLD.

By A. T. Robinson

The Kingdom of Grace.

A. T. ROBINSON.

(Concluded.)

“Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.” Heb. 4:16.

A throne implies a king, subjects, laws, and territory. In our study of this subject we have found that the Lord has never abandoned this world to Satan. As soon as the dominion of this world passed into the hands of Satan, the Lord established a spiritual kingdom—a kingdom of grace. The Lord God of heaven is the sole ruler in this spiritual realm; His holy law is the perfect rule and standard of righteousness; the territory of this spiritual kingdom is the heart of man; its subjects are all who, forsaking the black banner of the prince of darkness, and enlisting under the banner of the Prince of light, are said to have been “delivered from the power of darkness,” and “translated into the kingdom of His dear Son.”

Only those who become subjects of the kingdom of grace here will be the subjects of the future immortal kingdom of glory. “For by grace are ye saved through faith.”

This kingdom of grace, which is God’s spiritual kingdom in the dominion usurped by Satan, has therefore coexisted with all earthly kingdoms; and, as God is “no respecter of persons: but in every nation he that feareth Him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with Him,” it follows that, at any time, those of any nation who desired to do so, have had the opportunity of becoming subjects of this kingdom, by seeking pardon of their sins through Jesus Christ, and yielding obedience to the claims of the divine law.

The door of access to this kingdom of grace, to both Jew and Gentile, is through faith in Jesus Christ. “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: by whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.” Rom. 5:1, 2.

When “all things that offend, and them which do iniquity” shall be gathered out of His kingdom, then all those who shall have been delivered from Satan’s kingdom of darkness, and translated into the kingdom of His dear Son, shall “shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father.”

ISRAELITES INDEED.

It must be apparent to all who have followed these studies, that every one who has ever become a subject of the kingdom of grace has been enrolled as one of the “Israel of God.” This is the Lord’s method of reckoning Israel. “For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh: but he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart.” Rom. 2:28, 29.

It should be borne in mind that in the establishment of Israel as a nation in the earth, it was God’s purpose that it should be a spiritual kingdom, a theocracy, or government of God in the world. It was only their disobedience and unbelief that frustrated this purpose concerning that nation. But, inquires the apostle, “Shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect? God forbid.” “Not as though the word of God hath taken none effect. For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel: neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children: but, In Isaac [child of faith] shall thy seed be called.” Rom. 3:3; 9:6, 7.

“And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” Gal. 3:29.

“Jesus saw Nathanael coming to Him, and saith of him, Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile!” John 1:47.

John, in the Revelation, giving a description of the remnant Church, the Church that will be living when the Lord comes, says of them, “And in their mouth was found no guile: for they are without fault before the throne of God.” Rev. 14:5.

The prophet Zephaniah bears similar testimony concerning the character of the remnant Church. He says, “The remnant of Israel shall not do iniquity, nor speak lies; neither shall a deceitful tongue be found in their mouth.” Zeph. 3:13. And the Lord says of them, “Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.” Rev. 14:12. And, be it noted, by reference to the seventh chapter of Revelation, where this same company are spoken of, it is distinctly stated that they belong to the twelve tribes of Israel.

It is evident that it is character, rather than nationality, which constitutes an Israelite indeed in the sight of God; and therefore the true Israel of God, when they shall be established in the everlasting kingdom of God, will be those who shall have been gathered out from “every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people;” who shall have washed their robes of character in the precious blood of Christ.

Dear reader, are you an Israelite indeed? Is your citizenship in this world? or have you transferred it to a heavenly country? “For our citizenship is in heaven; from whence also we wait for a Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ.” Phil. 3:20, R. V.

TIME

By A. R. Ogden

A. R. OGDEN.

“Our time belongs to God. Every moment is His, and we are under the most solemn obligation to improve it to His glory. Of no talent He has given will He require a more strict account than of our time.”—“Christ’s Object Lessons,” page 342. The foregoing, with what follows in the same chapter, under the heading “Time,” will help us to see a little of the importance of improving the time which the Lord in His mercy gives to us. “The value of time is beyond computation.”—Id.

It is Satan’s purpose to get us to put off to-morrow that which we should do to-day. To-morrow you can perform no more than to-morrow’s duties; so if you have failed to perform to-day’s duties to-day, they are unperformed, even though you should do faithfully those of to-morrow; that is only what you should have done, so a day is lost. A day lost! Can it be found?—Ah, no; lost! lost! eternally lost.

How many persons you have heard say, “If I only had life to live again, how differently I would do!” Be that as it may, it is simply impossible to have this earthly life to live again. We are continually confronted with the present. The present alone is ours. How are we using it? The way in which we spend the present is the only evidence of the way in which we would spend eternity if we had it.

The class motto, “Do thy best to-day,” will never be forgotten. Yes, “do thy best to-day.” We can do no more than that to-morrow. Yesterday is gone, so we can make no use of it. Our only opportunity is “to-day.” The word is, “To-day if ye will hear His voice.” The laborers who were hired to go into the vineyard and work, went the same day. The disciples left their nets to follow the Master. So the Master is now calling for those who will leave all and follow Him.

There are many saying, “After a while, when I get my temporal affairs arranged, I will then go into the vineyard.” Yes, many will still be expecting to go into the vineyard, when the words, “It is done,” are spoken. Why not go now, when times are favorable for work? We have been told that what we have failed to do in times of peace, we shall have to do under the most difficult circumstances. Why should we lose the blessings of to-day by a failure to perform its duties?

The King’s business demands haste. Time is short. There is a mighty work to be done before the Lord comes. Some one will have a part in completing this work. If I fail in doing my part, some other one will do it. If another does my work, he will enjoy that which I might have enjoyed. If another bears my cross, he will also wear my crown.

“We are admonished to redeem the time. But time squandered can never be recovered. We cannot call back even one moment. The only way in which we can redeem the time is by making the most of that which remains, by being co-workers with God in His great plan of redemption.”—“Christ’s Object Lessons,” page 342.

The Saviour said, “Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost.” We should gather up the fragments of time, that it be not lost. How much might be accomplished by this denomination if every member would set to work to gather the remnants of time, that nothing be wasted. An hour here, an hour there, spent in some work of mercy to others,—what it might accomplish eternity alone will reveal. Suppose that seventy-five or eighty thousand people should each, during the year 1902, sell ten dollars’ worth of books. How long would it take every one to do this much? A few hours spent by each one would accomplish this, yes, and much more, too.

While working in the Kansas Conference, I always made a practice of carrying books and papers to sell. And when waiting for a change of trains, would spend the time selling our literature. Many dollars’ worth of books and papers have been sold in this way, during time which would otherwise have been lost. If I had nothing more than a sample copy of the Signs, I would use this in soliciting subscriptions; and always had fair success. On a certain Sunday I was going home from a church where I had been holding meetings; it was necessary for me to change trains, and in the change, I had to stop from 11 A. M. to 6 P. M. There were no seventh-day Adventists in the place, so I hardly knew just how or where to spend the time. On arriving at the place, I heard the church bells ringing, so decided to go to some church. I entered the first one that I saw, and as I sat down, I noticed a man with a familiar-looking face. It was some time before I remembered who he was. A few weeks before, when I had passed through the same city, I had sold a copy of the Signs to this shoemaker. At the close of the service I spoke to him, making myself known to him. I succeeded this time in getting his subscription to the Signs. He had liked the previous copy, and the first work opened the way for the second. I do not relate this for self-glory, but simply to show what may be done by using the fragments of time. How many hours might be thus gathered up as we travel from place to place! Let us “redeem the time.”

DEMAS THE DESERTER.

By T. L. Cuyler, D. D.

T. L. Cuyler, D. D.

“For Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world.” 2 Tim. 4:10.

I was very much affected—as probably you have been affected—by reading the accounts of the punishment of deserters in the army. Nothing in battle is so blood-chilling and horrible. It is so cool, so individual, so premeditated a life-taking. The leading forth of the offender before his whole regiment; the rehearsal of his disgrace to all his comrades; the pinioning of his arms; the bandaging of his eyes that he may not see what comrade takes his life; the open coffin beneath him, hungry for its prey; the file of soldiers all aiming at one poor fluttering heart (as if sportsmen should shoot a bird already caged); the ringing volley; the lightning-like death under a dozen wounds,—all this is enough to drive the kindred of the deserter to the verge of madness. The mother whose son lies in the sacred mold of Gettysburg or Chattanooga is happy in comparison with her whose hapless boy was blown into eternity from the coffin of a deserter. And why is the deserter’s doom made so awful?—Simply because the crime is so great and the consequences of the crime so fatal to the interests of an army and of the cause for which an army fights. If desertion will destroy an army, then the army must destroy desertion. It is not from sickness or disability that desertion grows—all such are exempted from battle by military law. It is the treachery that makes the deserter’s crime so black; and for the danger he brings to his comrades, and the demoralization he occasions in the army, his crime is punished so fearfully that other men will be deterred from imitating his bad example.

Now history has marked to infamy more than one deserter of his country, or of a sacred cause. Benedict Arnold stands already in American history, bandaged, pinioned, shot through with the volleys of a nation’s abhorrence.

In Scripture history hangs Judas the arch-deserter. In our text we read of another. Paul has pilloried the unhappy man. There he stands amid the gaze of all Bible readers. He is Demas the Deserter. The sentence which apostolic fidelity has affixed above his faithless heart is this: “Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world.” Better far for him if disease had laid him away from his work, or if tyranny had locked him in a dungeon to perish. Then were his record honorable; but his apostasy must have been trying if not ignominious in order to have constrained such a record as this.

Who was Demas? We know but little of him, yet the little we had known was most favorable. He had once been an associate of Paul in the ranks of Christ’s followers. Paul had honored him with flattering mention more than once. When he wrote his letter to the church at Colosse he coupled the name of Demas with the name of one of Christ’s biographers. He writes: “Luke, the beloved physician, and Demas, greet you.” This is good company and honorable; but a man may fall out of very good company into very dark disgrace. Judas belonged to the most favored group of men that ever trod our earth, and out of that constellation that revolved closest to the “sun of righteousness,” his star shot madly into everlasting night! Let no man trust for his special safety to the power of association—to his family alliance or his church affinity. From the most godly family a son may apostatize into open godlessness; and out of the bosom of the most orthodox church a tamperer with temptation may be seduced to everlasting perdition. To have been once in the most religious household, or the most evangelical church, will only increase the guilt and the shame of him who deserts them to the enemy.

But we know one fact about Demas. He not only professed love to Christ, but he had once suffered for his Christian profession. He had once worn the honorable badge of a prison-chain in the name of Jesus. Just listen to the roll of Paul’s fellow prisoners whom he mentions in his famous epistle to Philemon. Calling over his partners in martyrdom, he writes: “There salute thee Epaphras, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus; Marcus, Aristarchus, Demas, Lucas, my fellow laborers.” So wrote Paul of Demas once. His name reads there as proudly as the names of Arnold and Aaron Burr once read in the muster-roll of our Revolutionary patriots. There is a shock in the bare mention of these names as once true and loyal. Oh! my brother-member in the Christian host, are you certain that ten years hence some one may not turn to the record of this church and read your name with the same startled surprise? Have I not felt the same shock when I have read over some names of those with whom I sat at the Lord’s table less than ten years ago? Where are they now? Who now would suspect them of ever having been Christians? Where may you be?

It was from a Roman prison that Paul wrote of poor Demas as a fellow sufferer in bonds for Christ. It was from the same spot that he wrote a while after, “Demas hath forsaken me.” Why? Has his health and spirit broken? Has he gone to labor elsewhere? “Demas hath forsaken me.” Has he grown sick of his faith so soon? Did his Master desert him, and refuse to answer his prayers? We read the conclusion of the sentence which, as Guthrie says, “like a scorpion, carries its sting in its tail:” “Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world.” There is the secret out at last! Every man who has ever brought disgrace on his Christian profession, or has fallen out of his church-standing had some secret reason for his fall. He deserted under the seduction of some besetting sin. If we could come at the sad roll of all the backsliders or open apostates, we might read over the specifications like these: “Deserted from moral cowardice,” “Deserted through neglect of prayer,” “Deserted from love of the wine bottle,” “Deserted through the enticements of irreligious associates,” or, “Deserted through unbelief.” Demas’s name has the Holy Spirit’s specification beside it. He deserted for “love of the world.” Whoso loveth the world, the love of God is not in him.

This is the last we read of poor Demas. Tradition says that he sank so low as to become a priest in a heathen temple. But whether this were so or not we need not discuss. We do know that he forsook his Master’s cause in its hour of peril, and preferred the “world” to Christ. Was Demas a sincere Christian once, and did he fall away from grace? Or was he only a false professor who never had been converted? The word of God does not answer these questions; and

surely we dare not attempt to do so. It is enough to know that no Christian is safe against seduction unless the grace of God be at the time the ruling principle in his soul. It is enough to know that God never promises to keep a man who is off the post of duty. It is enough to know that every man is tempted, and if he yields, he falls. Demas yielded and fell. To what did he yield? To the world? Paul encountered the world; went into its thickest, saw its brightest allurements; met its fiercest assaults, and its most attractive lures to his ambition. He never deserted. Why?—He never loved it; he so loved Jesus that he could not love the world. His heart was possessed by Christ. He could not serve Christ and Mammon; he served Christ alone.

Demas loved the world. It would have done him no harm if he had not. It will do you none so long as you keep it out of your heart. But when it works into the soul, it eats out the loyalty to Christ and consumes the spirituality of the soul. It is a slow, subtle, silent process—very gradual, too. I never knew a church-member who deserted his Saviour for the world suddenly and at once. The process of corrupting conscience, and consuming away his love for heavenly things is always gradual. Commonly he keeps up the external appearances and forms of religion long after his heart has become alienated from the Saviour.

In the Island of Cuba they will show you sometimes a piece of timber in a dwelling or in a framework of a mill that looks sound and firm. A sudden pressure on that timber, and it will snap asunder, filling your eyes with a fine white powder. Why is this? A subtle worm, bred in that climate, eats in stealthily to the center, devours the fiber, and turns the seeming solid beam into a hollow shell of dust. Desertions from sobriety; desertions from integrity; desertions from Christ, are the result of gradual corruption of the heart’s core. Externally, there is orthodox profession; internally, a worm. Love of the world was the busy borer in Demas’s heart that ate out his conscience and ate out his loyalty to Jesus; he deserted under strong pressure for want of inward stamina of godliness to bear the strain.

If you ask the captain of the old “receiving ship” in a navy yard why so gallant a vessel is never sent to sea, he will tell you that she is dry-rotted down to the keel. She looks stout on the outside; but they dare not trust her an hour to a tempest.

In nearly every church there are members whose hearts become dry-rotted with “love of the world.” They bear the ensign of orthodoxy “at the peak.” Some of them lie moored at the wharf of formalism, useless and unseaworthy; some sink, imbedded in the mud. Others, venturing out, are overtaken by fierce gales of temptation or assault. The hollow timbers crash up in the gale, and the broken spars floating on the billows are the only relics of the foundered vessel.

Love of the world ate the heart through and through. This was Demas’s destruction; it may be yours. Love of the world! Did not Paul love it when he abandoned ease and promotion and hope of gain, and threw himself into the holy enterprise of saving the poor lost world for Christ? Did not Jesus love the world when He shed His blood on Calvary?—Ah, yes!

Thus may you and I love it. Would to God we loved more “to do it good;” to give our time and gold and talents to rescue it back to God. Would that we so loved the world’s highest interests that we did not allow the world’s lower interests and the world’s sinful pursuits to seduce us over to its sway. Would that in trying to draw the guilty world up toward God, we did not allow it to drag us down to conformity with itself. It is not love for sinners’ souls that endangers a Christian; it is a love for sinners’ sins. The world’s pursuits, so thoroughly selfish and earthly in their aims; the world’s principles, so utterly at variance with the law of God; the world’s pleasures, so corrupting to the soul; the world’s fascinations,—these are the fatal enemy. It was against these that the divine direction was pointed: “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world.”

Any person who becomes a friend to the world’s ways becomes an enemy to Christ’s. When you begin to love them, you begin to dislike religion. When you begin to worship money, you cease to worship God. When you begin to love the house of pleasure, you begin to dislike the house of prayer. When you begin to love bad books, you begin to lose your relish for the Bible. When you seek irreligious associates, you draw off steadily from intercourse with the people of God. When the greedy lust of the world has eaten out a Christian conscience,—when it has deadened the spiritual sense; when it has dry-rotted the whole heart; when it has banished Christ and possessed the soul’s affection,—then the man is ready to desert. Nay, he has deserted. What is any man worth to the Church or to God when his heart is the property of Satan? He may linger within the camp, and even wear the uniform of a church-member. But when the bugle calls to action, he is not in the ranks. When a march of reform is ordered, or a strife for God’s law is waged, he is “missing.” How often we miss “Demas”! He is always missing when he is needed. Is a call made for men of moral nerve and faith to execute some movement of reform? Demas is missing. Does a good cause grow unpopular? Demas deserts it. Does the pastor arouse opposition by preaching boldly the truth? Demas whispers, “This will never do; my minister is a good man, but he is so indiscreet.” Paul, the caged giant in the lion’s den at Rome, writes sorrowfully, “Demas hath forsaken me.”

But among us it does not require dungeons or gibbets to fright many a nominal Christian from his post. A stormy Sabbath leaves Demas’s pew empty. At the prayer-meeting we seldom see Demas at all. He complains that it is “too dull,” or that he is “too busy.”

The deserter from military duty, let me say in closing, is seldom reprieved. War has no bowels of compassion. Its laws, like the laws of Draco, are written in blood. The offense, the court-martial, the sentence, the execution, follow, as the bullet follows the flash of the gun. But in the warfare of faith, mercy tempers justice, and waits long for repentance. God offers pardon and restoration to backsliders who seek Him penitently and with tears. The blessed Jesus who gave Peter his second opportunity for service after his first shameful desertion, is our Jesus. Erring disciple, He is your Jesus.

Do not be content with tears of sorrow over neglect of duty. Stop not with merely grieving over your sins of desertion. Come back to your allegiance. Do not sit conscience-stricken beside a closed closet-door; open it again in contrition, and enter it with penitence. Go back to your vacated seat in the meetings for prayer. If you have wronged any one in purse or reputation, hasten to make restitution.

Find again your lost place in the Master’s field of labor. Open that dust-covered Bible once more, and renew your vow of allegiance before the cross. Waste not one precious moment in searching for a lost hope. Let it go; perhaps it was not worth the search or the having. Seek a reconversion, a new heart, and a new hope of which you will never need to be ashamed.

Do this betimes. The Judge standeth at the door. Only an inch of time remains, and then cometh the end. The day of grace for deserters to return to Christ will soon be over; and when death orders the final court-martial, it will be too late. What thou doest, do quickly.

CHRIST OUR ONLY HELPER.

By John M. Hopkins

JOHN M. HOPKINS.

Jesus, my life, my all! On thee my hopes depend. O, deign to hear me when I call! My helpless soul defend.

Weakened by sin am I, Temptations press me round; Help me, O Saviour, lest I die; Make thou thy grace abound.

Full oft have I been slain, Too oft thy Spirit grieved, Too oft have brought thee naught but pain, Nor thy sure word believed.

Lord, naught would I withhold, To thee surrender all; Come in and take possession, Lord, Nor let me ever fall.

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