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Review and Herald, Vol. 42, No. 10.

THE FRUITS OF DISOBEDIENCE

Review and Herald

Aug 19, 1873

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Aug 19, 1873

THE FRUITS OF DISOBEDIENCE.

By A. S. Hutchins

BY ELD. A. S. HUTCHINS.
TEXT:—“Say ye to the righteous, that it shall be well with him; for they shall eat the fruit of their doings. Woe unto the wicked! it shall be ill with him; for the reward of his hands shall be given him.” Isa. 3:10, 11.
The children of Israel were instructed when they should enter the land of Canaan, to drive out the inhabitants of the land from before them, and to destroy all their pictures, and all their molten images, and to pluck down all their high-places. In the following very explicit language, God told them, through Moses, what would be the consequences upon themselves, if they did not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before them.
“Then it shall come to pass, that those which ye let remain of them shall be pricks in your eyes, and thorns in your sides, and shall vex you in the land wherein ye dwell. Moreover, it shall come to pass, that I shall do unto you, as I thought to do unto them.” Num. 33:55, 56.
It would seem that the voice of warning from Heaven, would have deterred this people from bringing the displeasure of God upon themselves, by disobedience in this respect. It seems as though they would have chosen the favor and presence of their great Deliverer from Egyptian servitude, rather than the thorns and scourges which they must endure if they would not expel the wicked Canaanites from before them, and then be themselves driven away into bitter captivity, from that land which might have been their quiet, peaceful home.
From the time that the Lord took them by the hand to deliver them from the furnace of affliction and oppression in Egypt, to plant them in the promised land, “that they might observe his statutes, and keep his laws,” they had repeatedly witnessed the most marked and undoubted manifestations of his tender love for them; the course of the believing and obedient had ever received the highest approval, while the unbelieving and rebellious had often been visited before their eyes, with divine wrath and merited retribution. Repeated miracles, displaying the wonderful power of God, and his providential care for his people, had followed them all through the great wilderness for forty years; and they had “lacked nothing.” What more could they ask to lead them to obedience and to restrain them from sin?
Still later in the history of this favored people, Joshua, that eminently pious and obedient servant of the Lord, in his dying charge, pleads with them, in consideration of former benefits and with promises of future victories and blessings, and by threatenings of future judgments from the hand of God, that they mingle not with the nations of the Canaanites, nor learn their ways; but that they cleave unto the Lord their God, and strictly keep, and do, all his requirements. Mark the distinctness of the solemn charge, and the certainty of incurring the awful displeasure of the Most High, if they disobeyed.
“Take good heed therefore unto yourselves, that ye love the Lord your God. Else if ye do in anywise go back, and cleave unto the remnant of these nations, even these that remain among you, and shall make marriages with them, and go in unto them, and they to you; know for a certainty that the Lord your God will no more drive out any of these nations from before you; but they shall be snares and traps unto you, and scourges in your sides, and thorns in your eyes, until ye perish from off this good land which the Lord your God hath given you.” Josh. 23:11–13.
To the credit of this chosen nation, it is recorded that, after entering the land of promise, they served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders that outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great works of the Lord that he did for Israel. But alas! how soon the great and marvelous works of God, wrought for their deliverance and salvation, fade from the memory of the succeeding generation; and how soon they, and those who arose after them, manifest stubbornness of heart, and downright rebellion in forsaking the Lord God of their fathers who brought them up out of the land of Egypt, and in turning unto other gods, and bowing down unto them.
“Therefore was the wrath of the Lord kindled against his people, insomuch that he abhorred his own inheritance. And he gave them into the hand of the heathen; and they that hated them ruled over them. Their enemies also oppressed them, and they were brought into subjection under their hand.” Ps. 106:40–42.
Now as the history of ancient Israel was written for our benefit, we have an important and lasting lesson of instruction therein; not only from that portion which pertains to their unbelief and idolatry while passing through the wilderness, and the punishments which came upon them, but also from their subsequent disobedience and chastisements.
As they disregarded the counsels and entreaties of chosen leaders who faithfully and repeatedly warned them of the dangers lying before them, so many, under the third angel’s message, have done, bringing upon themselves distress and anguish of heart. When brought into positions peculiarly trying, calculated to test their faith in God’s promises, many times, they murmured against Moses and against God. So, too, there are those now looking for speedy deliverance, and translation into the everlasting kingdom, who have murmured, and do murmur, against chosen servants of the Lord—chosen to lead out in the great work of the closing message of salvation to the world. They murmur against the providences of God, against the straitness of the way, and at pointed truths and testimonies, through which they should have been sanctified and brought into sweet communion with the great Head of the church.
Says Paul, “Neither murmur ye, as some of them murmured, and were destroyed of the destroyer.” Did God visit us with temporal judgments, and with death, as he did the first house of Israel, how quickly would the work of some of this unhappy class be closed. Solomon says, “Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore is the heart of the sons of men fully set in them to do evil.” Eccl. 8:11.
But the root of disobedience and rebellion was taken to the promised land, where it quickly sprang up, bearing abundantly its poison fruit. Israel did not drive out the sinful nations from before them, as God commanded. They mingled with them, contrary to the express precepts which they had received from the faithful servants of God, who now could no more raise the warning voice against their sins. They had long admonished them, leaving behind their dying counsel for their benefit, which they would not heed.
They drank in the spirit of these idolaters; they learned their works; they served their idols; which were a snare unto them. They made marriages with the unholy, and were led away from the service of the true God, who, with an outstretched arm, had often wrought so mightily for them, to serve the gods of the heathen. They sacrificed their own sons and daughters unto devils, and shed innocent blood. Behold, the downward tendency of the disobedient! See their weakness and inability to resist temptations to the most heinous sins, and the strange and delusive influence of the vicious over them, when once brought under their power. “Take fast hold of instruction; let her not go; keep her; for she is thy life. Enter not into the path of the wicked, and go not in the way of evil men.” Truly, “Righteousness exalteth a nation; but sin is a reproach to any people.”
In the 7th and 11th chapters of Deuteronomy, we read of the spiritual and temporal blessings wherewith God promised to bless Israel when they should be established in the land “flowing with milk and honey,” provided they would keep his commandments. But these proffered favors were forfeited through blindness of mind and the most inexcusable disregard to divine principles and precepts.
Instead of those great personal and national blessings, which they might have secured, crowning them with power to scatter and drive out from before them great and mighty nations, bringing peace and plenty to their land, with sunshine and joy to their homes, they were vexed with snares and traps, with thorns and scourges; they were repulsed and humbled by their enemies, and driven from the goodly land into distressing and long-continued captivity, where those who hated them ruled over them. By the rivers of Babylon they sat down and wept when they “remembered Zion.”
That the Saviour should come was continually kept in the mind of the Jews by the types, shadows, and daily sacrifices, of the former dispensation; and in their own hands were the Scriptures, pointing to his advent, his ministry, humiliation, sufferings, death, resurrection, &c.; yet, when he came, he was by them rejected, with all the gracious offers of salvation to the believing and obedient, “his own received him not.” They preferred the life of a murderer to that of the Son of God. Their maddened cry was, “Crucify him, Crucify him,” when Pilate would have released him.
Their cup of iniquity was filled up, and upon themselves they called down the terrible judgments of Heaven, even the destruction of their magnificent temple, and their renowned city; and the slaughter of themselves by tens and hundreds of thousands by the Romans, and their dispersion to all the nations of the world, with the gracious offers to them as a nation removed to another people. Truly, “the way of transgressors is hard.”
Here, dear brethren, we do well to pause and enter into a critical examination of our own hearts, and see on what foundation we base our hope of eternal life in the kingdom of God. “Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples; and they are written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come. Wherefore, let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.” 1 Cor. 10:11, 12. “Be not highminded, but fear.”
If we stand amidst the perils of the last days, we must have much of that wisdom from above, which “is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.” Rebellion is no more pleasing in the sight of God to-day than when he was leading his people through the wilderness, or in the days of Samuel when, in the following language, he reproved Saul: “For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry.”
“They that would grow divinely wise, Must with his fear begin; Our fairest proof of knowledge lies In hating every sin.”
The Saviour died to “redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.” The apostle, bringing our minds down the stream of time, to the last church, expresses this desire: “And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” As sons of God, as followers of the blessed Jesus, it is our privilege to attain unto this exalted position, to rise in communion and fellowship with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ, till we are “without fault before the throne of God.”
But as the sinful nations of Canaanites were permitted to remain in the land with the Israelites, so many now allow spiritual foes to linger in the heart. The love of the world, selfishness, and pride, with kindred sins, all of which should be uprooted, are fostered, and grow; the garden of the heart is neglected, and “thorns” spring up and “choke the word.” Oh! that souls thus deluded, who are dreaming of Heaven, might awake; awake to a sense of their danger ere it be too late; be made free from sin, become servants of God, and have their fruit unto holiness, and the end, everlasting life.
As God anciently desired his people to be a peculiar people, and distinct from the world, so he requires of his people now a separation from the spirit of the world, that they do not unnecessarily mingle with those who will prove as thorns and snares unto them. The language of the Saviour is to the point:
“If ye were of the world, the world would love his own; but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.”
James, bearing testimony on this point, says: “Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.”
In enumerating the points of separation, God distinctly forbade his people making marriages with the nations; so now, the Lord expressly desires that we should be thus separate from unbelievers. Paul says: “Only in the Lord.” As applying on this point, we quote the following:—
“Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial?or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be a father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.” 2 Cor. 6:14–18.
There are many witnesses who could testify that disobedience in this direction has brought its bitter fruit of grief and sorrow to their hearts, blighting their joyous hopes of eternal life, and rendering uncertain the probability of their ever attaining unto it. It would be well if, from the experience of these, others would learn to obey God in all these things, and escape the judgments which ever follow disobedience.
Notwithstanding the great mass of the present age forget these things and walk in their own ways, there are those who choose the path of obedience, and seek to honor God by conformity to all the requirements of his holy word. They believe to the saving of the soul; they will escape the judgments which hang over this guilty world, and be prepared for the inheritance with the saints in light.

Thy Kingdom Come.

By Bonar

Great King of kings, why dost thou stay? Why tarriest thou upon thy way? Why lingers the expected day? Thy kingdom come!
Sin has prevailed on earth too long; Ages of evil, pain, and wrong, Have marred the meditated song;— Thy kingdom come!
Life in its fullness is with thee, Life in its holy liberty;— From death and chains this world set free: Thy kingdom come!
Unloved, unworshiped, slighted now, When shall each knee before thee bow, Of things above and things below?— Thy kingdom come!
Earth still is waiting for the day When old things shall have passed away, And all be clad in new array,— Thy kingdom come!
O'er us the tempest rages still, The lightning ravages at will, The war-trump echoes loud and shrill;— Thy kingdom come!
O King of glory, King of peace, Bid all these storms and tumults cease, Bring in thy reign of righteousness;— Thy kingdom come!
Peace, gentle peace, is on its way, And holy love, this earth to sway; Hasten, O Lord, that glorious day— Thy kingdom come!
O, bid thy blessed gospel go Forth to each child of sin and woe, That all thy wondrous grace may know;— Thy kingdom come!
O, bid it speed its course abroad, Tell of the mighty love of God, Tell of the wrathful iron rod.— Thy kingdom come!
—Bonar.

A Remarkable Rescue.

An eastern exchange gives the following account of the fortunes of a young man under the fetters of rum:—
“A few years ago, on any sunny morning, a heap of filthy rags might be seen stretched on some of the bales of a paper warehouse in a neighboring city, with a strong smell of stale tobacco and whisky hanging about it. Turning it over (which you could do as though it were a log, any time after 10 o’clock in the morning) you would find the swollen, purple face of what had once been a handsome young man; but there was little hope that the bleared eyes or thick tongue would give an intelligent answer. The porters passing by would push him aside, but not roughly. The time had been when he was a jolly, generous young fellow, and a favorite in the office. ‘Young Rodgers:’ some would give you his history in five minutes: ‘Taken to rum—no choice—poor fellow.’ The proprietor could not turn him out to starve, so still gave him a nominal salary, and suffered him to hang about the house, lest he should take to worse courses than drinking. There were hints, too, of a widowed mother, away off in the country, who had been dependent on him, and a sweetheart, a pretty, clinging girl, both of whom, long ago, he had abandoned. But there was nothing to be done. The end, through the usual horrors of delirium tremens, was apparently not far off.
“One day, as Rodgers was creeping to the nearest bar for his morning bitters, a man whom he barely knew by sight took him by the elbow, and walked with him into a quieter street. ‘They tell me you are Richard Rodgers’ son,’ he said. ‘Dick Rodgers was the only friend I had for years, and for his sake I’d like to save his boy. Are you willing for me to try?’ ‘Oh! you can try,’ muttered the lad, with an imbecile laugh. This nameless friend, nothing daunted, took him to a chamber in his own house, and put him to bed. There he and his sons kept watch, and guarded the poor wretch for months like a prisoner, keeping liquor from him, and trying to supply it by medical treatment. A physician, he employed, but he was not able to pay for a nurse. Any one who has had to deal with a victim of mania-a-potu can guess how difficult and loathsome a task he had set himself. Ungrateful enough it was at first, for Rodgers struggled against his tormentors with the ferocity of—just what he was—a starving animal. As reason began to return, and his unnatural strength to vanish, he would beg them in his intervals of reason not to fail him, but to work out the experiment either to success or death. ‘It is my last chance,’ he would cry; ‘for God’s sake, be patient.’ This friend, with his son, did work it through all the foul, unmentionable details, and the end was not death, but success.
“‘How soon,’ asked a friend of Rodgers afterwards, ‘were you trusted alone?’ ‘Not for two years,’ he answered, laughing. ‘I was out of jail, but in jail bounds. Do you remember that lank, muscular young fellow who had a desk beside me in the office? He took it with the condition that he could leave it to dog me night and day, to my meals and to my bed. That was the son of the man who saved me. He was taken from a lucrative situation in order that he might become my jailor. God bless him! How I used to curse him! ‘Can’t you trust my honor?’ I would cry. ‘I’m not convinced that your honor has not the consumption,’ the Scotch-Irishman would say. ‘We’ll put no burdens on it till it has regained its health.’
“‘Your friend was a wealthy man, no doubt, and so able to give both time and money to your case?’ ‘On the contrary, he is but the owner of a small hat store, and supports his family out of that. He is rich or noble only in the deed and spirit of friendship.’
“‘All this was years ago. Rodgers is now an industrious, honorable man, married to his old love, with his gray-haired mother by his hearth, bringing to it the perpetual benediction of benignant old age. His friend sells hats—makes no speeches of any sort in the world. Nobody has recognized in him a hero. Yet who, for the sake of a dead or living friend, would go and do likewise?’”

Discipline.—The True Method.

The certainty that merited punishment will follow every transgression, is the surest remedy for insubordination.
To illustrate; the child approaches too near the fire, or puts his fingers into the blaze of the candle, and he suffers pain in consequence; and every time he thus disobeys the prohibition, he suffers from the penalty. The result is, he soon learns obedience to nature’s law, and keeps at a proper distance from the fire. A slight pain and the positive certainty of suffering it, have accomplished the object.
Now let the mother see to it that every time her child disregards her wishes, or disobeys her commands, he will suffer for the wrong, and she will seldom, if ever, have occasion to administer other than the mildest penalties. It is the certainty and not the severity of the punishment which makes it effectual. I call this kind of management mild severity, and commend it to every thoughtful parent. Let it be attended by steadiness, firmness, and decision, and it will accomplish much more than the scolding, and threatening, and flogging, which have been made necessary by parental mismanagement.
Another important thought, in this connection. As far as possible, let the punishment be the actual consequence of the fault which has been committed. For instance, suppose the child has never learned to “shut the doors” he has opened, and his mother wishes to correct the habit. She should require him to return and shut the door. For the first offense, detain him five minutes, before he is allowed to return to his play; for the second offense, ten minutes; and so on until the habit is cured. Here, it will be seen, the privation is associated with the fault, and seems naturally to result from it. The child has opportunity for reflection, and a strong motive to correct the habit.
Or, suppose the child is allowed a recess from study, say of 30 minutes, but he remains at play 40 minutes, under the prohibition of his mother. Let her punish him by shortening his recess to 20 minutes, for the first offense; 10 minutes, for the second, and allowing him no time for play, for the third; and the next time he is released he will be likely to return promptly.
All such punishments are designed to correct and cure the evil, for the future benefit of the child. They may be mild or severe, as the case requires, but should never be vindictive, nor administered in anger. Promptness and firmness are demanded in correcting the faults of children, but harshness and ill-temper, never.
Affection and sympathy are also powerful disciplinary agencies, and should always accompany every act of severity or reproof. Let the child understand that every look of disapprobation, every word of rebuke, every penalty inflicted, is prompted by maternal love, and the very fact will tend to subdue and overcome this rebellious spirit.
Mutual sympathy between the parent and child is another powerful agency in family discipline. Look at the natural effect of human sympathy, in its material and mental aspects. The gaping of one individual is, through sympathy, imparted to the whole company; cheerfulness and joy, or sorrow and sadness, expressed by any person, carry either happiness or gloom to the hearts of the circle in which he mingles. It is through sympathy that mankind gain control over each other, in the common affairs of life. They cherish the feelings and embrace the opinions of those they love; and if these opinions are changed in maturer years, it is more the result of sympathy than argument.
Hence, we can easily understand the power of this principle over childhood. The child is in full sympathy with the true mother; clings to her in the hour of danger, believes and confides in her with unwavering confidence, imitates her actions, treasures up her words, and imbibes her very feelings and emotions. This results partly from the intimate relations they sustain to each other, and partly from judicious training. The degree of the child’s love and confidence for the mother depends upon the amount of sincere sympathy she manifests in his childish hopes and fears, joys and sorrows, recreations and amusements, ideas and fancies. The more childlike the parent, the better qualified she is to manage and guide her household. Hence, the great importance of gaining the confidence and love of our children, and the still greater necessity of being ourselves, in character and life, what we desire our children to become.
We have no right to expect that these children will be naturally inclined to do right, rather than wrong. Facts are against such a conclusion. Indeed, accountability presupposes instruction as to what is right and wrong; and when they begin to recognize this distinction, both the good and the bad in their conduct should have our attention. We should not only rebuke and punish the wrong, but commend the right with equal fidelity. And this encouragement of children, when they have done well, is highly important.—Rutland Herald.

On Turning Down Corners.

I was called upon once in my ministerial duties to visit a woman who was in great distress of mind. I do not desire to meet many such as she was. A more forlorn or wretched-looking specimen of humanity it would be hard to find. She had a pale, haggard, careworn countenance, across which, during all my visits to her, there flitted not one ray of hope, one smile of gladness. She fancied she had committed the unpardonable sin, although she did not seem to have a very definite idea of what the nature of that sin was. She thought there was hope for every one, and an offer of mercy for every one, but herself. One day I asked her for her Bible. She handed it to me with a sigh. It was a small Bible, and on turning over the leaves I found it filled with slips of paper and bits of ribbon, which she had put in to mark familiar passages. A great many of the leaves had the corners turned down for the same purpose. I read quite a number of these texts, and found them to be the most terrible threatenings contained in the word of God. There were multitudes of exceedingly great and precious promises, but she did not seem to have touched one of them; she ignored them altogether.
Reading simply the passages she had marked, one would be inclined to think there was no such thing as sunshine. I took the Bible in my hands, and shook these bits of paper and pieces of ribbon out of it. I turned up the corners, which she had turned down, and marked for her such passages as these: “The blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth from all sin.” “Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” “God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life.” “He is able to save unto the uttermost, all that come unto God through him.” “Come unto Me, all ye that are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” “Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.” That Bible of hers was not intended to make her gloomy, and sad, and melancholy; on the other hand, it was intended to be to her the “glad tidings of great joy;” and had she used it aright, it would have been to her an overflowing fountain of comfort and happiness.
Now it seems to me that a great many Christians treat Christianity the same way that the woman treated her Bible. They mark all the gloomy places they can gather up in their history of the life of faith, and let the bright, cheery ones go. For instance, they find a law in their members warring against the law of their minds, which brings them into captivity to the law of sin which is in their members, and right there they turn down a corner. Another place, they find that God was hiding his face behind a cloud, and there they turn down another corner. Another place, they find that if they are the children of God, they must cleanse themselves of all uncleanness of the flesh and spirit, and must perfect holiness in the sight of God. This requires a great deal of self-denial, and they turn down another corner. Another place, they find that the troubles that afflict the just, in number they may be, and down goes another corner; and so it is through their whole lives. Some have a corner turned down for every day they live a life of faith, and they are constantly reading these gloomy passages, and calling them to mind and talking about them, and meditating on them.
Now I believe this is all wrong. Such representations of Christian life are not truthful. They are one-sided, very much so, and do an immense amount of injury. They are gloomy, fearing, doubting Christians who dwell so much on the dark spots in their history and ignore the sunshine. They hinder their own well-being, and instead of growing all over, instead of growing in every grace, they grow only in a few. They are patient Christians—very patient it may be; they are submissive Christians, very submissive to the will of God; but what about hope, and what about joy? These are the fruits of the Spirit, and ought to thrive as well as other fruits, ought to be as carefully tended, so that when the Master comes into his garden he may find his pleasant fruits.
Besides that, these one-sided representations of Christianity have a bad effect on those we are trying to win. It is such representations that give point to the charge that is so often made by those upon whom we press claims, that religion is a heart-saddening thing. Imagine a man button-holing his friend, and saying, “Come along with me, move down into our country; the fields are full of thorns and thistles and swampy places. It is a splendid place to get chills and fever. There is any amount of sickness. We have an immense hospital, and it is always full.” Do you think the man would be inclined to go? That is bad enough. But it is just as bad for a Christian to say to his neighbor, “Come along with me, we have a sorrowful time of it; we enter the kingdom through much tribulation,” and say nothing at all about the joy, the happiness, the sunshine and the flowers. Christianity was not intended to make a man gloomy, and despondent, and melancholy at all. God gave it to us as a thing of joy, to make us happier and gladder at the heart than we were without it. Its whole tendency when received into the soul is to make man joyful. A man does not lose, but gains, when he becomes possessed of true religion, for “godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life which now is and that which is to come.” We who profess it ought for our own sakes to turn down the corners at its joyous passages, think about them more than we do, and let our light shine so that others will be led to glorify our Father who is in Heaven.—United Presbyterian.

The Thistle Seeds: A Parable of Gossip

THE story is told of a woman who freely used her tongue to the scandal of others, and made confession to the priest of what she had done. He gave her a ripe thistle top, and told her to go out in various directions and scatter the seeds, one by one. Wondering at the penance, she obeyed, and then returned and told her confessor. To her amazement, he bade her go back and gather the scattered seeds; and when she objected that it would be impossible, he replied, that it would be still more difficult to gather up and destroy all evil reports which she had circulated about others. Any thoughtless, careless child can scatter a handful of thistle seed before the wind in a moment, but the strongest and wisest man cannot gather them again.

Pride, Covetousness, and the Peace of Humility

The moment a man gives way to inordinate desires, disquietude and torment take possession of his heart. The proud and the covetous are never at rest; but the poor and the humble possess their souls in the plenitude of peace.

Sincerity Before God Over Success

ON earth, we have nothing to do with success, or with its results, but only being true to God, and for God; for it is sincerity, and not success, which is the sweet savor before God.

Alone with God.

God does not reveal to man the brightest visions of himself in the busy marts of life, but in solitude. The lives which so enrich the pages of sacred history were made to glow in furnace heat, and shine in darkest nights.
Every one of the “forty stripes, save one,” intensified Paul’s character. Every tempest that blew, made him more tempest-proof. Every shipwreck increased his faith in the One strong to deliver. Imprisonment and poverty increased his devotion to Christ, until at last, having endured all things, he could look up, and say, “But none of these things move me.” I have no doubt but in the quiet of his prison, Paul had some of his brightest views of God’s glory. At midnight darkness, within an inner prison, with feet made fast in the stocks, did Paul and Silas, by prayer, link earth and Heaven, till prisons did palaces prove; till songs of praise rang through lonely aisles and cells, and a hand unseen moved massive bars and snapped asunder iron bands.
It was not when preaching a crucified and risen Redeemer that John had his glorious vision, but when on the Isle of Patmos he was enduring the banishment for the word of God, and the testimony of Jesus Christ. It was when far from the sympathy of those of “like precious faith” that this exile on that lonely isle heard a voice saying, “What thou seest, write in a book; the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter.” And being taken higher up, he saw a rainbow-circled throne, and Him that sat thereon; and “before the throne, a sea of glass like unto crystal, and a company, ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing.”
Yes, it was on this lonely Isle of Patmos that John received the grandest revelation ever made to man—the indescribable vision of the heavenly Jerusalem—the city which needs not the light of the sun, nor moon, nor star; for the Lord God giveth them light.
“The city whose streets are paved with gold, And jasper walls pure and fair to behold.”
In lonely journeyings at sunset, Jacob tarried to rest for the night. With God to guard, the night dews for a cover, and a stone for a pillow, there came to him a vision brighter than ever came to palace sleeper—a vision of a ladder, whose lower round was planted upon the earth, and the topmost one reaching Heaven; and upon it, ascending and descending angel visitants. And above the ladder was the voice of God, making to him glorious promises. Again, in the life of this patriarch, do we read, “And Jacob was left alone.” He had sent his family and possessions across the creek. Now, in solitude, there wrestled with him a man until the break of day, and prevailing in this struggle, he was permitted to see God face to face.
Through the long centuries that have passed away, many a Jacob, alone with God, has wrestled all night long to prove the “promise of the Father,” and hailed the morn, to testify of “the joy unspeakable and full of glory.” Many a Patmos has had its John since then; and to the exile, God has revealed himself more than to most men. Poverty has exiled many a holy soul; has isolated it from Christian fellowship and sympathy; but to such, the Father gives sweet foretastes of the joys of that “land that is fairer than day”—where the many mansions be.
It is when the Christian is alone with God that he holds his sweetest communion, and gets his greatest strength—his grace to endure. It is not in the great congregation, where the anthem of praise ascends to a triune God, from unmeaning hearts; nor yet in the smaller assemblies, where Christians speak often one to another, of joys and sorrows by the way; nor even on those occasions when Zion is specially visited, and souls are being born into the kingdom. At such times there may come upon us wonderful outpouring of the Holy Spirit, but it is generally followed by reaction that leaves us weaker than before. It is when we go into our closet, shut the door and leave the world behind us, and “neither life, nor death, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Oh! who can tell the power of lone communion with God? We cannot bring our greatest burdens and our greatest needs to him in public worship, and plead them as we can in our closet.
When the burdened soul of Jesus would pour itself out in supplication to the Father, he was wont to steal away from man, and pray on the mountain-top or in the garden. In his last resort to Gethsemane, he took thither his disciples; but in this culmination of grief laid upon the Man of Sorrows, the intense agony led him to separate from all but three. As he prayed alone with them, his soul began to be sorrowful and very heavy, and he longed for stricter solitude. “He went a little farther,” and there, all alone with God, he received strength to drink the bitter cup, which could not pass away.
Shut up with God! Oh! the inestimable privilege of talking with God, as a friend talks with friend! Who would exchange an hour of such intercourse for the choicest companionship of earth?
As souls are purified in the furnace of trial, and brightened in the night of persecution, so grand spiritual developments grow out of lone night watches and solitary communings with God. Better than all public teachings is that hour, when, calling in the wanderings of our mind, we pass a close introspection, and ascertain the soul’s status, then enter into closer covenant with God.
It is when the high priest alone entered once a year into the holiest of holies that the Lord appeared in the cloud upon the mercy-seat. It is when alone we enter the inner sanctuary of the divine presence that the glorious shekinah shines into the soul with inexpressible brightness.—Methodist Home Journal.
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