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“Drifters and Drifting—A Danger Signal.
“Let no man deceive you by any means; for
that day shall not come, except there come a fall
ing away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the
son of perdition.’’—2 Thes. 2:3.
LL Bible students will say that this is
a reference to the coming of the anti-
Christ—that man of sin. The argu
ment is that that day shall not come
except there come a falling away first—
a drifting—and that man of sin be re
vealed. But wh’le this is time, it also
applies to us now. Overmastering sin
will not be true of us unless there is,
A
first, a falling away.
DRIFTING! STARVING!
Some years ago, a friend of mine was coining
across the Atlantic, and just off the coast o? New
Foundland, where the air is always cold and chilly,
and, ofttimes, dangerous icebergs are encountered,
they saw in the dim distance a disabled steamer.
They signaled to her and got back the answer,
“Drifting! Starving!” My friend said they turn
ed their course and overtook the iiitle steamer,
and found that she had been drifting for a week.
For days they had been without food or drink. They
found out, also, they had been drifting a number
of days before they were aware of it. They were
in the midst of an awful fog, and their compass
did not work properly. This accounted for their
going out of their latitude and losing all bearings.
How true this may be of many of us here tonight!
Drifting, but do not know it. God help us to see
whether this is true or not.
WHO ARE THE DRIFTERS?
Those who subordinate calls of religion to other
things.
There is not a child of God, however weak and
ignorant, but that will acknowledge the claims of
religion upon him. The cause of Christ can no
more run without man’s co-operation than cap
any other cause.
From the beginning God has ordained eo-ope"a
tion with man in the prosecution of his wo.k. This
is true of all men who are adopted into his family.
GOD’S DEMANDS.
The cause of Christ demands of every man a
part of his time.
The cause of Christ demands of every man a part
of his thoughts.
The cause of Christ demands of every man,
prayer.
The cause of Christ demands of every man,
money.
The cause of Christ demands of every man, de
fense.
These are, to any thinking mind, reasonable de
mands.
Certainly, no Christian can look at them and
say that they are not perfectly legitimate and
reasonable. But how about the drifter? Does he
recognize these demands? When the question of
his time is touched, when he is asked to contribute
of his personal presence to this or that, his business
stands before him neglected. The devil has caused
him to do this, knowing that it is the weakness of
business men. Generally, if he gets the mastery
of himself at this point, he does it by force, and
not willingly.
This is our greatest danger. I lay it before you
as naked as I can. I want you business men to
face it in the light of God and eternity. If you have
a right to cling to your business so close that you
cannot do your work in the kingdom of Christ,
then others have the same right that yon have, and
if all have the right, the whole Gospel fabric is
rotten and the kingdom of Christ is adrift. Some
body must take the time to do what you will not
do, or everything goes to pieces.
You say, “Others are not so pressed as I am,
and hence have more time.” You must remember
Tabernacle Sermon by Rev. Len. G. Broughton.
that they are not endeavoring to lay up as you are;
that your press for time is to gratify an ambition
for gain, which, perhaps, these others have cruci
fied. You have no right to withhold from the sup
port of the church your presence at the expense of
the support of others.
If the drifter is asked to give thought to some
question that involves the church, he says, “Oh,
it does not make any difference about my thinking;
my thoughts are never taken; my suggestions are
ignored.” Is that a fairway to look at a personal
responsibility? Are not all factors in the thinking
world? Has God given some a furlough when it
comes to using brains for the furtherance of His
kingdom? Suppose one’s ideas and suggestions
have not met with the favorable consideration of
others. Does it mean that they are to do no more
thinking ?
LACK OF PERSONAL INTEREST.
Again, the man drifting fails to pray as once he
did for himself, his church, his pastor, and all the
various machinery of the church. The reason for
not praying for his church is that matters are not
run right, and that God cannot bless a thing that
is not right. He overlooks the. many points in
which the work is moving properly and accomplish
ing blessed results. He will agree that the blessing
of God is upon the work as a whole, but he has
actually ceased to pray as he once did, under the
persuasion of the devil that things are not perfect.
If he were not adrift he wmuld know that then is
the time to pray. No man can keep straight and
not keep regularly at prayer; and no prayer is
needed where perfection is found.
Money gets to be a very serious question when
one’s spiritual compass gets out of order. He then
becomes very sensitive on all questions of money.
He has patience about everything else; for example,
he has patience to take his own business and work
it out of debt; but he has no patience with the
church trying to do the same thing. Giving, to him,
also, is exceedingly delicate. He persuades himself
that he must hold his money for other things, and
right there the devil fixes his spiritual life. I do not
•believe any man ever developed spiritually ahead
of his pocket-book. It is the very key-note to the
situation. When one decides to get rich, it is a
serious time for his religion.
MORAL OBTUSENESS.
Drifting is, also, accompanied by moral obtuse
ness. When once a soul begins to stray away, the
heart loses its sensitiveness to sin. How strangely
true this is. It is well illustrated in biblical history.
David was “a man after God’s own heart,” and
yet who does not remember the awful downward
plunge of David? It was not ail accomplished in
a single act. Like all such courses, it was progres
sive. Coming out from a most glorious victory,
his eye was charmed by the beautiful form of the
wife of Uriah. You are familiar with the rest of
the story. What an awful blot it is upon the sa
cred pages! But David’s downward course did not
end there. Once he had begun, he found it very
much easier to continue, and so the once pure
shepherd king, the sweet singer and harpist, is
seen planning the murder of the husband of this
woman with whom he had plunged into nameless
sin. What a shudder this black history brings over
us today. How serious it should make us feel!
chor firmly fixed.
This same tendency was seen in .Samson, the
great and mighty Samson.
Who would have thought that one so filled with
the miraculous power of God would have ever
yielded to the enticing words of a Delilah? But,
more and more obtuse his moral sense became, until
what had been out of the question was a pleasing
delight.
Peter’s denial of Christ is of the same character.
Only a while ago, it was Peteer who said, “Though
all others forsake thee, I will never.” But Peter
has now begun to drift. He is marching behind his
The Golden Age for February 7, 1907. ,
Lord. The only way in this world to keep from
going crooked is to keep up with Jesus. When
Peter got behind it was very easy for him to deny
he ever knew the Lord. We cannot keep from
drifting if we do not keep sensitive to sin; and to
keep sensitive to sin we must keep close to Jesus.
UNFORGIVING SPIRIT.
Drifting is seen, also, in the sensitive and unfor
giving spirit. We are all liable, more or less, to go
wrong in this particular. I know nothing about
which we need to be more careful. Christian peo
ple, who wish to stay close to the Lord, must un
derstand that they must forgive if they want to
be forgiven. Jesus Christ himself said, “Unless
ye forgive men their trespasses neither will your
heavenly Father forgive you your trespasses.” It
is not a question of what we feel or think, but what
Jesus says. Not only are we to forgive those we
love, that is hard enough for some people to do,
but we are told that we must forgive our enemies..
Oh, how hard this is for some who claim to be
Christians! How can it be done? I unhesitatingly
say that there is nothing that will enable a man
to love a man who has done him a vital injury but
God Almighty’s Holy Spirit. When one is full of
the Spirit he can forgive.
PUBLIC WORSHIP.
Again, this drift is seen in our lack of interest
in public worship. This is one of the very best
signs. At one time we loved the public service.
We would undertake any hardship for it. We
would tramp through the rain, or snow or heat,*
day and night to attend public worship. We used
to enjoy the singing. We were delighted to take
part in any part of the service. We were fond
of testimony. It did our hearts good to tell what
Jesus was doing for us. We loved Bible study.
We loved to see the Bibles at church and hear them
read, and read with others. We were always happy
to take part in any service for the glory of God.
We loved enthusiasm. Nothing so pleased us as to
go to prayer-meeting and see great enthusiastic
congregations. Everybody was happy, everybody
looked good.
All this, at one time, touched us and pleased us.
But it is not so when one begins to drift. Then he
ceases to take any part; he has no testimony for
Jesus any more; singing is not to him as it once
was; the Scriptures are not enjoyed, and the whole
■worship is dull. Oh, when one begins to feel this
way it is time to call a halt.
LOSS OF SOUL-SAVING POWER.
Lastly, drifting is seen in the loss of soul-saving
power. I have observed, during these three years
at home and elsewhere, that so long as a man its
on fire for the salvation of sinners, there is little
danger of his drifting. But when he loses this
zeal, we may look out. 'Some years ago, the dea
cons in a prominent church in one of our cities
got it into their heads that there was too much
ado about saving sinners in their church. The idea
was, that the church should give more attention
to ethical development. That miserable ghost has
flung his shadow around so many churches in our
country! So, though they had been great enthu
siasts for salvation, they began to turn their at
tention in another direction.
The church gave up its position as an evangelistic
storm center, and began to court riches and fash
ion, though it had once been known as a great
blazing fire of religious enthusiasm. Now it was to
make an effort in an entirely different direction.
Its services were to be formal, calm, dignified, so
as to be enjoyed by a certain social set in the
community. The old clarion notes of salvation
from sin and hell were to be silenced, and the
sweet-, tender, humanitarian philosophy, so popular
among the few, must be the only note sounded. A
fashionable choir was to be employed. The Sunday
school that used to have its missionaries travers
ing the streets and alleys in search for the poor and
the needy, must settle down to the more dignified