The Signs of the Times
July 28, 1898
Counting the Cost—No. 2
The faith of our Lord Jesus Christ is an intelligent faith. The service of God is a work of self-denial, of soberness, of thoughtfulness, of decided purpose to obey all the requirements of God, even if they take away that which is as dear to us as the right eye or the right arm. Christ would have His followers use their intellect in spiritual matters as in business transactions, conscientiously weighing evidence irrespective of results. He desires them to think deeply. They must not begin to build the tower and leave it unfinished. They must not engage in warfare when there is before them the prospect of certain defeat. Life, eternal life, is to be gained or lost, and the conviction of the Spirit of God comes to every man who has the Scriptures and will study them for himself. ST July 28, 1898, par. 1
Christ is truth, and those who hesitate to obey the truth, deny Christ. They show that they are ashamed to stand under His blood-stained banner, ashamed to own that they are doers of the Word, ashamed to place themselves on the side of Christ as keepers of His law. They feel that it is dishonoring to them to love His commandments, to respect the memorial of God's work of creation. Christ declares, “Whosoever shall be ashamed of Me and of My words, of him shall the Son of man be ashamed, when He shall come in His own glory, and in His Father's, and of the holy angels.” ST July 28, 1898, par. 2
This is the sure result. Will you risk it? Will you become disloyal to God because your neighbors are disloyal? Will you be found among the transgressors because your neighbors are there? Are you content to be outside the city of God, to perish with the companions you have chosen in the world? ST July 28, 1898, par. 3
God would have His people place a proper estimate upon the compassion and love and energy that He has bestowed upon men in order to reclaim them. He gave for them the best Gift of heaven. But men work out their own eternal destiny. If they love praise from their neighbors more than the approval of God, the truth will soon become a dead letter to them. If they refuse the offer of salvation, if they rebel against the government of God, they will share the fate of Satan and his angels. ST July 28, 1898, par. 4
Bible religion is not impulse. It is not a zeal that rushes on, Jehu-like, and does not consider the situation. The whole plan of salvation is placed before us. There is eternal life to win, eternal death to shun. Selfish considerations are not to be cherished. There must be a fixed purpose to serve God, who has given His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. ST July 28, 1898, par. 5
The mystery of godliness deepens upon consideration. It was because the Father and the Son loved the world with infinite love, that Christ subjected Himself to such amazing humiliation. All that God could do, He did in giving Himself in His Son, that He might become the propitiation for the sins of the world. Christ gave His life to reproach; He suffered, being tempted; He was falsely accused, and His motives were misjudged. But if men consider not the dear sacrifice made for them, if they are not willing to die to self and to the world, they become spiritually blind. They do not discern the value of eternal riches. They do not love or honor the Christ-life. They know not at what they stumble. They are enslaved by their own carnal inclinations, which they are not willing to relinquish. And when trials and difficulties arise, they give up building a temple for God, a pure, holy character after the divine similitude. Instead of driving them to the solid rock, the least rebuff makes cowards of them. Scorn and ridicule make them ashamed of Jesus, and they turn from Him to associate with and do honor to His persecutors. Thus, like Peter in the judgment-hall, they put Christ to open shame. Such can not endure all things for Christ's sake. They can not endure to the end. They have not counted the cost. They have not been converted to Christ. ST July 28, 1898, par. 6
No man who after a time resolves to go back to the beggarly elements of the world, is worthy to be called a disciple of Christ. If he does not intend always to be on the side of truth and righteousness; if he does not mean to be a brave, whole-hearted soldier, to endure opposition from a determined foe, and to press close to the bleeding side of Jesus, not faltering or turning back, “he can not,” says Christ, “be My disciple.” ST July 28, 1898, par. 7
“Salt is good; but if the salt have lost his savor, wherewith shall it be seasoned? It is neither fit for the land, nor yet for the dunghill; but men cast it out.” ST July 28, 1898, par. 8
Christ was calling the Jews to repentance, but they would not heed His message. They approached the altar, and presented their slain beasts in expiation of their sin, while He whom their offerings typified was among them unacknowledged and disowned. The Jews crucified Christ, because they refused to know Him as the One in whom their hopes of eternal life were centered. Christ's heart was full of tenderness and love and sorrow on their account. He knew that they were fastening upon themselves the guilt of crucifying Him who was the foundation of all their religious service. When riding into Jerusalem, He exclaimed, “If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes.” How loath He was to pronounce the irrevocable sentence, “But now they are hid from thine eyes!” Blindness of mind had indeed come to Israel, in that they would not come to Christ that they might have life. ST July 28, 1898, par. 9
The compelling power could go no farther than this. The Jewish nations had been educated, taught of God; to them had been committed the living oracles of God; but they perverted their sacred trust. They invented so many religious restrictions, which were placed above the real injunctions of the Holy One, that minds became confused. The “Thus saith the Lord” and the “Thus saith” of the priests and rulers, were mingled together. The commandments of God were set aside, and the sayings of men put in their place. ST July 28, 1898, par. 10
Their lack was the same as that of Cain. In every offering that pointed to Christ, the shedding of blood was to represent the death of the Saviour. But for His offering Cain brought of the first-fruits of the ground, by which no faith in Christ was manifested. Cain's offering was refused. So with the religion of the Jewish nation. Their faith and doctrines became as salt without a savor. They had a form of religion, as had Cain; they had an altar, as had Cain; they had a sacrifice, as had Cain; and, like Cain, they lacked the only thing by which their offerings could express faith in God's promise,—the slain Lamb. ST July 28, 1898, par. 11
And the evil that existed in the Jewish nation is apparent today. The salt has lost its savor. The very ones who condemn and despise the Jewish nation because they refused to see in Christ all the specifications of prophecy, are in a similar deception. They have nailed to the cross the law of God, which made a necessity the gift of God's Son to the world. They have crucified the law of God, the foundation of His government in heaven and in earth. But all who thus claim to accept Christ and yet refuse to obey the law which Christ came to vindicate, place themselves in a position similar to that of the man who began to build, and was not able to finish. ST July 28, 1898, par. 12
Mrs. E. G. White