Spotlight!—The itch for the spotlight, consciously or unconsciously, lies back of that succession of "issues" projected by certain men upon farfetched points. Such matters are not really vital to either our personal life or our denominational welfare. But they serve to bring the agitator prominently to the forefront as a champion, which is essential to that platform. O that such energies were used for vital things, and especially that they were consecrated and employed to the salvation of souls! Mark the man who is really doing things for God. His is a different sort of life. He battles uncompromisingly for principles, but not for personal opinions that are inconsequential. Our decided frown as workers should be upon raisers of false issues that merely get the spotlight.
Appreciation!—It costs so little and counts so much. It achieves what nagging pressure or the sheer exactions of duty could never effect. It stirs as nothing else can do. Try it on your associates. It brings results. Yet such a utilitarian motive, in and of itself, is too low and selfish and smacks too much of the commercial, to be urged. Far more important is the fact that appreciation is Christian kindness in action. It is the golden rule in operation. As such, it lightens the load that wearies and wears, and sometimes palls. We are prone to take too much for granted—that duty performed is its own reward, and that the satisfaction of a task well done suffices. We need more genuine, thoughtful, active Christian kindness in all our working relationships.
Side Lines!—The acceptance of salary—though at missionary rate—from the sacred tithe for full-time conference work, thereby imposes a solemn obligation upon the recipient to give his entire time, energy, and service to the cause. He has no moral right to take conference-purchased time for side lines in worldly organizations or enterprises for which he receives a second remuneration, while his brother minister wears himself out working day and night in undivided service which he believes God and his brethren rightly expect of him. These side lines with their supplemental incomes create a sense of injustice and a feeling of dissatisfaction that is unwholesome, unnecessary, and improper. "This one thing I do," should be not only the ministerial motto, but the applied rule of life.
Tests!—The test of historical accuracy, in exposition of prophecy, is not the assent of the masses who know not whether the speaker's statements are true or contrary to fact, but rather the supporting judgment of qualified historians. Simply the fact that one is not checked up by the rank and file is no evidence of soundness or accuracy. Some play "fast and loose" with statements which purport to be true, but which would instantly be challenged by an expert. No worker has a right to stand as a public expositor of prophecy unless he is qualified to marshal the facts of history as well as to interpret them. Looseness here is a discredit to the cause of truth, an imposition on the uninformed, and an affront to the scholarly.
Beware!—It is considered clever, by the careless and indulgent, to jibe or joke about those who are conscientious and careful over vegetarianism and other sound and sane aspects of health reform. Sometimes these sallies assume the form of personal thrust. More often they are timed for effective release in the presence of others. But, after all, such an attitude is neither clever nor genteel, nor is it Christian. Never, when the conscientious scruple or principle of another is involved,—and especially when it involves a point whereon the voluminous counsel of the Spirit of prophecy sustains the careful and rebukes the careless,—should one word be uttered to make light of sincere adherence to believed principle. If a person chooses to indulge, that is perhaps first of all an individual matter between himself and his God; but let him not twit his brother, thus, by precept and example, weakening his witness, and making it more difficult for his brother to stem the popular current.
Geysers!—The marvelous phenomena of the Yellowstone geysers,—some three thousand in number,—with their violently boiling pools and their irrepressible geyser jets, are but some of the incontrovertible surface indications of the fires God has reserved in the heart of the earth against the swiftly approaching day of final reckoning with a revolted mankind. Such evidences are prostituted by science, falsely so called, to prove the very opposite,—that the earth is in a process of cooling down from its primeval molten state and has little to fear in the future from impersonal nature. Thus the scientist completely reverses the testimony of the earth. We need to seize upon this fallacy as an opportunity to controvert with sound, irrefutable evidence such perverted reasoning. We have truth, the inerrant Word, and sound science to support us. We should be more aggressive just here.
L. E. F.
