60
Confrontation
public social entertainments in which each person contributed food
to a common table. Fourth of July picnics sometimes took on the
characteristics of a circus or fair. The word as used today usually
refers to outdoor recreation of a character commended by Ellen G.
White, in which one or more families participate.—White Trustees.]
to
tempt the appetite to overindulgence, and the amusements which lead
to levity and forgetfulness of God, can find no sanction in the example
of Christ, the world’s Redeemer, the only safe pattern for man to copy
if he would overcome as Christ overcame.
We present the faultless Pattern to all Christians. Says Christ, “Ye
are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savor, wherewith
shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out
and to be trodden under foot of men. Ye are the light of the world. A
city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle,
and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto
all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they
may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.”
The light of heaven is to be reflected through Christ’s followers to
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the world. This is the Christian’s lifework to direct the minds of sinners
to God. The Christian’s life should awaken in the hearts of worldlings
high and elevated views of the purity of the Christian religion. This
will make believers the salt of the earth, the saving power in our world;
for a well-developed Christian character is harmonious in all its parts.
We tremble for the youth of our day because of the example that is
given them by those who profess to be Christians. We cannot close
the door of temptation to the youth, but we can educate them that their
words and their actions may have a direct bearing upon their future
happiness or misery. They will be exposed to temptation. They will
meet foes without and foes within, but they can be instructed to stand
firm in their integrity, having moral principle to resist temptation. The
lessons given our youth by world-loving professors are doing great
harm. The festal gatherings, the gluttonous feasts, the lotteries, tableau
and theatrical performances, are doing a work that will bear a record
with its burden of results to the judgment.
All these inconsistencies, sanctioned by professed Christians un-
der a garb of Christian beneficence, to collect means to pay church
expenses, have their influence with the youth to make them lovers
of pleasures more than lovers of God. They think if Christians can