December 6,1996
Dear Br. Trumball:
Another Sabbath day has come and gone, the sun has long since departed from our small valley, although the sky is still light with the afterglow of the son of glory. How fitting is this description of our world.
The glory, of the Son of Righteousness, has almost vanished from
the world as an unwelcome guest, leaving only an afterglow to
brighten the evening sky. Earth is about to enter a midnight darkness,
so intense that the stars and moon will shine the brighter. This
darkness is caused by a misapprehension of the righteousness character
of Christ. Few people care enough about Christ to discern His
character in His created works or in the pages of the Bible, but
they may see it in the lives of His saints. Most people are so
intent upon earning a living or so occupied with the cares of
this life that they have no thought for eternal realities or the
approaching destruction of all things, but the Son of Righteousness
has not yet fully left the earth. He has His witnesses who shine
with the glory of the son in its meridian splendor in the midst
of the prevailing gloom of spiritual darkness and wickedness.
Satan’s triumph is almost complete, yet his kingdom has never
been nearer destruction then it is now.
When the world is fully plunged into the darkness of superstition
and spiritual error, Christ’s glory shines the brighter in
the lives of His faithful men who are called to rebuke the prevailing
errors and stand firmly for the truth, no matter the cost to themselves
in ruined reputation or loss of prestige, position, influence,
or property. Christ has a faithful few who have not bowed the
knee to Baal and they will come fourth, brilliant and clear as
the jasper stone.
We must never loose courage, never give up the ship, never doubt
Christ, or grumble at the delay. He is not responsible for this
apparent hesitation. As His faithful ambassadors, it is our responsibility,
as men, to represent Christ to the world through the glory of
the reflected character of Christ shining out of our lives. If
there is a lag in the fulfillment of the Biblical promises of
His soon coming, the postponement cannot be attributed to Him,
for He would have come long ago, if we were ready.
Our preparation is the completion of a symmetrical character,
not the preaching of the word, for our characters are a sermon
that is read and known of all men. Most people never see the inside
of a church or listen to an eloquent sermon but they see and read
our character. When they see Christ reflected there, radiating
His glory of love and mercy all around, then many are lead to
acknowledge Him as their Savior, the world is warned, and Christ,
most joyously, returns to claim his trophies.
Let us resolve today to study His features and, laying everything
else aside, seek for it as for hidden treasure, until, finding
it, we adorn ourselves with it, as the woman adorns herself with
fine jewels. It was the personality of Christ that the world could
not tolerate, so they killed him, and it is our singularity, the
identity of Christ, that the world will again hate and endeavor
to destroy in order to silence the convicting word of God, a word
not from pulpits but from the unconscious voice of our characters.
Let us set aside everything that hindersthis most precious responsibility
and seek to develop a well balanced personality. Let us be courageous,
ever mindful that Christ is at the head of his work. Let us seek
daily for fresh supplies of wisdom from the divine fountain to
spread over a parched land, thirsty for a knowledge of the divine
model.
Allen A. Benson