We Are Capable of Better Things, December 5

For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. Romans 5:6.LHU 353.1

Society today is fast approaching the condition of the world before the Flood. As children grow up to youth, and youth to manhood and womanhood, they are becoming full of self-sufficiency, maturing rapidly in the knowledge of evil.... The youth of today are educated in crime by reading the stories which fill the popular publications. Having no regard for the right because it is right, as they read stories of theft, murder, and every other species of crime, they are led to devise means by which they could improve upon the criminals’ methods, and escape detection. Foul publications assist in perfecting the education of the youth in the way that leads to perdition. The youth of our cities breathe in the tainted, polluted atmosphere of crime; the evil influence is then communicated to the country, and the whole community becomes contaminated. Some of the rulers of the earth are not men of moral worth. They have no desire to check the publication of this foul literature which is increasing year by year, and which feeds the passion for crime and evil. Stories of criminal life such as are found in the papers of the day, and so-called revelations of the future, are treated as realities.... Christ saw the conflict that is approaching, and has sent us word to watch and pray, lest we enter into temptation. He has warned us that “as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man.... Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed.”LHU 353.2

We are not warned against properly participating in business transactions, but against carrying to excess that which is lawful in itself, against allowing our minds to be so absorbed in earthly things that we shall not discern the important things that concern our eternal interest. We are warned against indulging perverted appetite, against surfeiting and drunkenness....LHU 353.3

But even in the corrupt condition in which the society of today is, there are souls capable of better things—souls represented by Christ under the symbol of “the lost pearl.” Christ gave up everything, that he might seek and save that which was lost, that He might recover the pearl that He valued at infinite cost. What are we ready to do to cooperate with Him in this work? What sacrifice are we ready to make? ...LHU 353.4

When we consider that Christ died for the ungodly while they were yet sinners, we are led to realize how willing and even anxious He is to bless us, that we may be a blessing to others (The Review and Herald, April 21, 1896).LHU 353.5