Letters and Manuscripts — Volume 11 (1896)
Ms 72, 1896
Amusements
NP
February 9, 1896 [typed]
Previously unpublished.
“As it was in the days of Noe, so also shall it be in the days of the Son of man. They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all.” [Luke 17:26, 27.] 11LtMs, Ms 72, 1896, par. 1
At the present day the line of demarcation between professed Christians and worldings is scarcely discernable. But unless the preacher of godliness is abiding in Christ and receiving nourishment from Him as the branch receives nourishment from the vine, he cannot in any way help the sinner. “Watch and pray” said Christ to His disciples, “lest ye enter into temptation.” [Mark 14:38.] Satan is spreading his net to catch unwary souls, and those who are not on guard will be taken in the net of the wily foe. The careless ones, indifferent to the warnings of the Word of God, will be constantly in trouble through their own natural, hereditary tendencies, and a separation will take place between them and the divine Teacher. By them the Light of life will not be discerned, and the knowledge of the way of righteousness fades from their souls. 11LtMs, Ms 72, 1896, par. 2
It has always been essential that God’s people should be distinct and peculiar, “in the world, but not of the world” [see John 17:11, 14]; but it is more necessary now than ever; for we are living in the very last days of this earth’s history. Satan has come down with great power, working “with all deceivableness of unrighteousness,” “because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.” “As a roaring lion he walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.” [2 Thessalonians 2:10; Revelation 12:12; 1 Peter 5:8.] Every amusement that will occupy the minds of the people is being set forth to attract and ensnare the youth. Men of gray hairs, and those who have come to years of maturity, are co-operating with evil angels to make the amusement question the great and all-absorbing theme of the day, and they have so far succeeded that the most debasing influences that prevail, because of the passion for amusement, have come to be regarded as on a level with duty. 11LtMs, Ms 72, 1896, par. 3
Pleasure and amusement is the prevailing sentiment of this age. Betting and horse racing for a meager reward creates an enthusiasm that is not aroused by subjects of eternal interest, but which overshadows the important themes Jesus came to our world to make prominent. Cricket, baseball, gambling, and the variety of plans and methods which the synagogue of Satan has prepared to entrap unwary souls, are common and all-absorbing. Papers filled with the recital of the success of these various games are placed before the young as food for their minds, that the matter of amusement may predominate over their eternal interests. 11LtMs, Ms 72, 1896, par. 4
This is the very work that Satan has meant should be done, that the inhabitants of the world today should become as the inhabitants of the flood. In the days of Noah, God saw “that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” [Genesis 6:5.] “And the Lord said, My Spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.” [Verse 3.] “And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. 11LtMs, Ms 72, 1896, par. 5
“And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them. But Noah found grace in the sight of the Lord,” for he “was a just man, and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God.” “The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence and God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth. And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and behold, I will destroy them with the earth.” [Verses 6-9, 11-13.] 11LtMs, Ms 72, 1896, par. 6
There exists in our world a similar state of things as existed before the flood. The religion of the Bible is a very rare thing. Amusements and ambitious projects are being constantly invented to glorify and exalt man to the conclusion of the One who has created man, and who has redeemed him at an infinite cost to heaven. The love of pleasure is increasing; an appetite is being indulged for those things which have no place in nature, but which are introduced by a power that is from Satan, that the moral image of God may be defaced in man. 11LtMs, Ms 72, 1896, par. 7
With His divinity veiled by humanity, Christ came to this world that He might touch humanity. By becoming one with us He became our example, a Pattern for all humanity, in order that, by following His example, the image of God might be restored in us. In the beginning, when darkness was upon the face of the earth, “God said, Let there be light: and there was light.” [Genesis 1:3.] And when spiritual darkness covered the earth, and gross darkness the people, God said again, “Let there be light.” He sent Jesus, “the light of the world,” to bring truth to the world. [John 8:12.] “The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.” [John 1:14.] The divine instructor came when darkness appeared to be universal and complete. The Lord of truth looked from heaven, but darkness covered the earth like a funeral pall, and His image could not be discerned. He must descend and shine. 11LtMs, Ms 72, 1896, par. 8
When Christ came to our world, many were hungering and thirsting for the knowledge of God and virtue. But many were sitting in darkness and in the shadow of death. Christ came to counteract the work of the destroyer by restoring, in all who would receive Him, the moral image of God. In the synagogue at Nazareth He announced His work: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering the sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised.” [Luke 4:18.] The prophet says of Him, “The Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising,” “and the isles shall wait for his law.” [Isaiah 60:3; 42:4.] 11LtMs, Ms 72, 1896, par. 9
He is predicted as the Messenger of the Covenant who was to be revealed, and the Sun of Righteousness, who was to arise and shed forth His beams throughout the world. “Hear, O heavens, and be astonished, O earth!” When the fulness of the time had come, and the promised One came to our world, it was no less a personage than the only begotten Son of God, the Eternal Word. It was a surprise of grace to all the heavenly host. Mercy and benevolence came to dwell upon the earth to subdue the stubborn, obdurate heart, and to win the heart and mind of man by revealing God in human flesh. 11LtMs, Ms 72, 1896, par. 10
During Christ’s work on the earth, Satan disputed every inch of the way with Him. He called together his hellish councils, and with untiring perseverance, earnestness, and energy brought in the same extravagance and excesses in intemperance and pleasure that he is bringing in today to enamor and attract the minds of the people, from the highest to the lowest. He filled the mind with imagery, presented in plays and scenes, which would bewilder the senses and mingle the pure, the elevated, and the sacred with the common, bare, and spurious. 11LtMs, Ms 72, 1896, par. 11
Everything Satan could do, he has done to defile the imagination and corrupt the morals, that the image of God might be obliterated in man. Thus it was in the days of Noah. The warning was given to the inhabitants of the Noachic world, but they laughed it to scorn, and scoffed at the preacher of righteousness, calling him a crazy fanatic for building an ark on dry land. But when their probation was fully expired, the rain descended in torrents, and they reaped the fruits of their disobedience. “As it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man.” [Luke 17:26.] 11LtMs, Ms 72, 1896, par. 12