Chapter 33—Conformity to the World
Those who travel in the narrow way are talking of the joy and
happiness they will have at the end of the journey. Their countenances
are often sad, yet often beam with holy, sacred joy. They do
not dress like the company in the broad road, or talk like them, or
act like them. A Pattern has been given them. A Man of sorrows
and acquainted with grief opened that road for them, and traveled
it Himself. His followers see His footsteps and are comforted and
cheered. He went through safely; so can they, if they follow His
footsteps.
The Broad Way
In the broad road all are occupied with their persons, their dress,
and the pleasures in the way. They indulge freely in hilarity and glee,
and think not of their journey’s end, of the certain destruction at the
end of the path. Every day they approach nearer their destruction; yet
they madly rush on faster and faster. Oh, how dreadful this looked
to me!
I saw many traveling in this broad road who had written upon
them, “Dead to the world. The end of all things is at hand. Be ye also
ready.” They looked just like all the vain ones around them, except
a shade of sadness which I noticed upon their countenances. Their
conversation was just like that of the gay, thoughtless ones around
[127] them; but they would occasionally point with great satisfaction to
the letters on their garments, calling for the others to have the same
upon theirs. They were in the broad way, yet they professed to be of
that number who were traveling the narrow way. Those around them
would say, “There is no distinction between us. We are all alike; we
dress and talk and act alike.” ...
I was shown the conformity of some professed Sabbath-keepers
to the world. Oh, I saw that it is a disgrace to their profession, a
disgrace to the cause of God. They give the lie to their profession.
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They think they are not like the world, but they are so near like them
in dress, in conversation, and actions, that there is no distinction. I
saw them decorating their poor mortal bodies, which are liable at any
moment to be touched by the finger of God, and laid upon a bed of
anguish. Oh, then, as they approach their last change, mortal anguish
racks their frames, and the great inquiry then is, “Am I prepared to
die? prepared to appear before God in judgment, and pass the grand
review?”
Ask them then how they feel about decorating their bodies, and
if they have any sense of what it is to be prepared to appear before
God, they will tell you that if they could take back and live over the
past, they would correct their lives, shun the follies of the world, its
vanity, its pride, and would adorn the body with modest apparel, and
set an example to all around them. They would live to the glory of
God.
Why is it so hard to lead a self-denying, humble life? Because
professed Christians are not dead to the world. It is easy living after
we are dead. But many are longing for the leeks and onions of Egypt. [128]
They have a disposition to dress and act as much like the world as
possible, and yet go to heaven. Such climb up some other way. They
do not enter through the strait gate and narrow way....
Such will have no excuse. Many dress like the world to have an
influence. But here they make a sad and fatal mistake. If they would
have a true and saving influence, let them live out their profession,
show their faith by their righteous works, and make the distinction
great between the Christian and the world. I saw that the words, the
dress, and actions should tell for God. Then a holy influence will be
shed upon all, and all will take knowledge of them that they have
been with Jesus. Unbelievers will see that the truth we profess has a
holy influence, and that faith in Christ’s coming affects the character
of the man or woman. If any wish to have their influence tell in favor
of the truth, let them live it out, and thus imitate the humble Pattern.
Preparation for Jesus’ Coming
I saw that God hates pride, and that all the proud, and all that do
wickedly, shall be stubble, and the day that cometh shall burn them
up. I saw that the third angel’s message must yet work like leaven
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upon many hearts that profess to believe it, and purge away their
pride, selfishness, covetousness, and love of the world.
Jesus is coming, and will He find a people conformed to the
world? and will he acknowledge them as His people that He has
[129] purified unto Himself? Oh, no. None but the pure and holy will He
acknowledge as His. Those who have been purified and made white
through suffering, and have kept themselves separate, unspotted
from the world, He will own as His.
As I saw the dreadful fact that God’s people were conformed to
the world, with no distinction, except in name, between many of the
professed disciples of the meek and lowly Jesus, and unbelievers,
my soul felt deep anguish. I saw that Jesus was wounded and put to
an open shame. Said the angel, as with sorrow he saw the professed
people of God loving the world, partaking of its spirit, and following
its fashions, “Cut loose! Cut loose! lest He appoint you your portion
with hypocrites and unbelievers outside the city. Your profession
will only cause you greater anguish, and your punishment will be
greater, because ye knew His will, but did it not.”
Those who profess to believe the third angel’s message often
wound the cause of God by lightness, joking, and trifling. I was
shown that this evil was all through our ranks. I saw that there should
be a humbling before the Lord. The Israel of God should rend the
heart, and not the garment. Childlike simplicity is rarely seen; the
approbation of man is more thought of than the displeasure of God.
Said the angel, “Set your heart in order, lest He visit you in
judgment, and the brittle thread of life be cut, and you lie down
in the grave unsheltered, unprepared for the judgment. Or if ye do
[130] not make your bed in the grave, unless ye soon make your peace
with God, and tear yourselves from the world, your hearts will grow
harder, and ye will lean upon a false prop, a supposed preparation,
and find out your mistake too late to secure a well-grounded hope.”—
Testimonies for the Church 1:127-134.
What Shall It Profit?
Christ calls upon every one to consider. Make an honest reckoning.
Put into one scale Jesus, which means eternal treasure, life,
truth, heaven, and the joy of Christ in souls redeemed; put into the
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other every attraction the world can offer. Into one scale put the
loss of your own soul, and the souls of those whom you might have
been instrumental in saving; into the other, for yourself and for them,
a life that measures with the life of God. Weigh for time and for
eternity. While you are thus engaged, Christ speaks; “What shall
it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own
soul?”
God desires us to choose the heavenly in place of the earthly. He
opens before us the possibilities of a heavenly investment. He would
give encouragement to our loftiest aims, security to our choicest
treasure. He declares, “I will make a man more precious than fine
gold; even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir.” When the riches
that moth devours and rust corrupts shall be swept away, Christ’s
followers can rejoice in their heavenly treasure, the riches that are
imperishable.—Christ’s Object Lessons, 374
