My comment for a beautiful hymn, How Tedious and Tasteless the Hours

How tedious and tasteless the hours
When Jesus no longer I see!
Sweet prospects, sweet birds and sweet flow’rs,
Have all lost their sweetness to me.
The midsummer sun shines but dim,
The fields strive in vain to look gay;
But when I am happy in Him
December’s as pleasant as May.
hymnal.net/en/hymn/h/529

 

“Beautiful testimonies to the power that our loving Saviour has upon the heart made in the image of God. Jesus met all the needs of the people in the long ago, and continues to meet our needs today as we think of Him. He is the one who makes the living word so lively and quickening. This song came to my mind the other day as I was contemplating a very tedious job I knew was coming. But, I only remembered the title of the hymn and forgot that the real tedium comes from losing sight of Jesus. Everything else is doable with Him. With our Shepherd who carries His lambs in His arms we might be cast down but not destroyed, persecuted but not forsaken, troubled on every side but not distressed. No other religion offers the help that the Lord gives to the creatures that came from His hand. He knows what we need--love, tough and soft. That’s what Jesus brought back to the world. We love Him because He first loved us--to the end.”

 

As I was contemplating manually piecing together ten thousand separate lines of text into one Word document, the title to this hymn came to my mind. How tedious and tasteless the hours would be the project. I couldn’t remember the actual words of the song, so I googled them. I was reminded that the song was about when Jesus no longer I see! And very beautiful were the comments on the website left by others who had remembered the hymn and had looked it up. So, I left the above comment.

 

While searching for the lyrics I also ran across the song sung by Cynthia Clawson. Her voice and demeanor were a true testament to the grace of Jesus, without whom life is very tedious and tasteless. Please hear her at: mp3tunes.mobi/download?v=rr-yT69NxWM

I am thankful to the Lord for keeping in people like Cynthia Clawson a remnant to represent Himself because His work on their heart keeps them in His way, truth, and life. Even if it is a very small minority within Protestantism whose experience has more than just emotion and imagined faith, that very small remnant will be firstfruits who lead many others to hold on to the Law of God through the faith of Jesus during the coming dark days.

 

“Except the LORD of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah” (Isa. 1:9). “For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the LORD shall arise upon thee, and His glory shall be seen upon thee.” (Isa. 60:2).

As it was in the days of yore it will be again. “The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.” (Ecc. 1:9).
 

“There arose in the eleventh century a Pope of vast capacity, of inflexible

resolution, and towering pride, Gregory VII -Hildebrand. He put before the world, with a

precision, a boldness, and an argumentative force, never till then brought to its support,

the claim to be the Vicar of Christ. This was the foundation-stone on which he rested his

scheme of pontificial jurisdiction and grandeur. As Christ’s Vicar, he claimed to surpass

all earthly monarchs in glory and power, as far as the sun surpasses the moon in

brightness. He claimed, in short, to be God upon the earth. There followed a series of

popes who struggled through two dreadful centuries of war and bloodshed to convert

Gregory’s theory into fact. The struggle was successful in the end: the mitre triumphed

over the empire. The scheme of Gregory VII, in all its amplitude of jurisdiction and

magnificence—and, we may add, in all its amplitude of despotism and blasphemy—was

exhibited to the world in the person and reign of Innocent III, in the thirteenth century.

The history of the world does not show another achievement of equal magnitude. The

glory of the Pharaohs; the state and power of the Kings of Babylon; the victories and

magnificence of the Caesars, all pale before this great conquest of the Popes. Now had

come the noon of the Papacy; but, as we have remarked elsewhere, the noon of the

Popedom was the midnight of the world.” historicism.net/readingmaterials/thepapacy.pdf

“But 'the noon of the papacy was the midnight of the world.'--J. A. Wylie, The History of Protestantism, b. 1, ch. 4. The Holy Scriptures were almost unknown, not only to the people, but to the priests. Like the Pharisees of old, the papal leaders hated the light which would reveal their sins. God's law, the standard of righteousness, having been removed, they exercised power without limit, and practiced vice without restraint. Fraud, avarice, and profligacy prevailed. Men shrank from no crime by which they could gain wealth or position. The palaces of popes and prelates were scenes of the vilest debauchery. Some of the reigning pontiffs were guilty of crimes so revolting that secular rulers endeavored to depose these dignitaries of the church as monsters too vile to be tolerated. For centuries Europe had made no progress in learning, arts, or civilization. A moral and intellectual paralysis had fallen upon Christendom.” Great Controversy, p. 60.

By the birth of Protestantism and the Protestant nation of America, the God of Abraham, Moses, David, and the apostles saved the world from papal despotism and persecution. The menacing papacy, during the Dark Ages, had conquered the faith of the city of God on Earth, yet had sought in vain to take the heavenly temple mount in the true worshipers. In Protestant America, liberty in Protestantism and Republicanism prevailed.

But Protestantism and Adventism in the world, especially in Protestant America, have been unfaithful to the heavenly trust given them, and now we are seeing the fall of those two holy witnesses in Revelation 11 and the restoration of medieval popedom. The darkness will overtake this old world. It will overtake Protestantism, Adventism, and each of us individually. The Sun of righteousness is getting darker even now, though we have yet to experience the midnight. Satan is loosed as never before, and he is fighting his way to regain control of a world that Providence had once delivered from his tyranny and totalitarianism.

 

“Behold, the noise of the bruit is come, and a great commotion out of the north country, to make the [churches of Protestantism] desolate, and a den of dragons.” (Jer. 10:22). “Behold the mounts, they are come unto the [Advent movement] to take it; and [the denomination] is given into the hand of the Chaldeans, that fight against it, because of the sword, and of the famine, and of the pestilence: and what Thou hast spoken is come to pass; and, behold, Thou seest it.” (Jer. 32:24).

 

“Then shalt thou say unto them, Thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will fill all the inhabitants of this land, even the kings that sit upon David’s throne, and the priests, and the prophets, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, with drunkenness.

And I will dash them one against another, even the fathers and the sons together, saith the LORD: I will not pity, nor spare, nor have mercy, but destroy them.

Hear ye, and give ear; be not proud: for the LORD hath spoken.

Give glory to the LORD your God, before He cause darkness, and before your feet stumble upon the dark mountains, and, while ye look for light, He turn it into the shadow of death, and make it gross darkness.

But if ye will not hear it, my soul shall weep in secret places for your pride; and mine eye shall weep sore, and run down with tears, because the LORD’s flock is carried away captive.

Say unto the king and to the queen, Humble yourselves, sit down: for your principalities shall come down, even the crown of your glory.

The cities of the south shall be shut up, and none shall open them: Judah shall be carried away captive all of it, it shall be wholly carried away captive.

Lift up your eyes, and behold them that come from the north: where is the flock that was given thee, thy beautiful flock?

What wilt thou say when He shall punish thee? for thou hast taught them to be captains, and as chief over thee: shall not sorrows take thee, as a woman in travail?

And if thou say in thine heart, Wherefore come these things upon me? For the greatness of thine iniquity are thy skirts discovered, and thy heels made bare.” (Jer. 13:13-22). Protestantism and Adventism have not strived to glorify their God who gave them this land flowing with milk and honey as a refuge from papal persecution. Yet, they dare to claim that this land and the prosperity which God gave them is their entitlement!

 

The houses of ancient Israel and Judah refused the prophets sent to them, a constant revulsion which took them to their final overdose of occult Ashtoreth and Baal, and each house to their final demise. Identically the same, Protestantism and Adventism wouldn’t listen to Ellen White, their last day prophet, to sanctify the Law of God in their hearts and lives; and their disobedience has finally brought them to the pinnacle of apostasy—seeking hydration at the broken cistern of the doting and pitying wine of Spiritual Formation. Therefore, the Lord is giving them over to their old, merciless nemesis. Don’t we hear their hammers knocking down our old Bill of Rights, sawing up the original Constitution, and building new structures for our punishment?

 

But, the power of God unto salvation is as real today in the demonstration of the lives and firm witnesses of the children of God, like that of Cynthia Clawson, which encourages the rest of us. We can know that Protestantism—superadded with the end-time message of Judgment Day through Adventism—is a ship that will go through to the end.

 

“Shortly before I sent out the testimonies regarding the efforts of the enemy to undermine the foundation of our faith through the dissemination of seductive theories, I had read an incident about a ship in a fog meeting an iceberg. For several nights I slept but little. I seemed to be bowed down as a cart beneath sheaves. One night a scene was clearly presented before me. A vessel was upon the waters, in a heavy fog. Suddenly the lookout cried, ‘Iceberg just ahead!’ There, towering high above the ship, was a gigantic iceberg. An authoritative voice cried out, ‘Meet it!’ There was not a moment’s hesitation. It was a time for instant action. The engineer put on full steam, and the man at the wheel steered the ship straight into the iceberg. With a crash she struck the ice. There was a fearful shock, and the iceberg broke into many pieces, falling with a noise like thunder to the deck. The passengers were violently shaken by the force of the collisions, but no lives were lost. The vessel was injured, but not beyond repair. She rebounded from the contact, trembling from stem to stern, like a living creature. Then she moved forward on her way.” Selected Messages, bk. 1, p. 205.

 

The dual Reformation/Second Advent message of righteousness by faith by the Saviour and by final judgment will meet the iceberg that comes in the midnight. That eventual collision will take all the trust in God and the previous possession of the faith of Jesus that the 144,000 can muster. But, those Cynthia Clawson Protestant-Adventist elites will then have a song that no one else can sing or ever has been sung. The deepest midnight of the world will play a central part in the cause of their glory. How horrific and anxious the hours when Jesus no longer they see.

 

Let’s remain in the ship and let’s disdain all the worldly and ecclesiastical ghost ships that Satan has constructed, floating adrift out there. Spiritual Formation and celebration false worship are nothing more than the Baal Peor end of our wilderness wandering. Repeated again will be the messages of the Protestant Reformers, of the Wesleys, of William Miller, Ellen White, of Morris Venden, and of everyone who has held on to faith in Jesus. Their testimony will be the message of the Latter Rain. The former messages will again be the present truth message when the Spirit of Jesus will come close to His people who are praying in the dark.

 

Stay the course. Full steam ahead! Ahead flank! Let us gather strength and momentum as we meet the looming iceberg! Join with the great cloud of witnesses, all of whom have had to face tribulation. Say with them, “Who art thou, O great mountain? before [Jesus] thou shalt become a plain: and [He] shall bring forth the headstone thereof with shoutings..., Grace, grace unto it.” (Zech. 4:7). Despite their spitting blasphemies, run at the Goliaths, instead of away from them. They will disappear and become a plain.

 

Only the sealing can produce this kind of staunch fidelity to the God of truth. The word of God sealed in us! No more fearful Peters as the truth is sealed in our hearts and intellects. Despite our setbacks, with repentance the truth is being driven into us, and so deeply rooted that nothing can ever again drive it out.

 

Very close will Jesus be, who tasted damnation for every man, to “deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.” (Heb. 2:15). When one saint courageously falls in the great time of trouble, another will step up to the helm and continue to drive the final movement forward. Jesus will be all that they see. Bearing His cross will be all that they love.

 

So, let us meet the towering berg of Babel. Let us let Babylon’s regrowth edify us instead of mortify us, and let it build our faith in the truth. Let us gather warmth from this world’s coming ice age, the cold giving us a need for Jesus’ love like nothing else could give the need. How tedious and tasteless the days until Jesus we see in the clouds of heaven! The beauty of the Reformation and the power of the “time of trouble such as never was” will give us hope and glory like the world has never seen.

“Being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ; by whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; and patience, experience; and experience, hope: and hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.” (Rom. 5:1-5).

“Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the LORD is risen upon thee.” (Isa. 60:1).

 

Meet it!