R. C. PORTER by R. C. PORTER

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Mar 5, 1908

R. C. PORTER

By R. C. PORTER

The Ax Laid at the Root of the Trees—No. 1

R. C. PORTER

THERE come times in the affairs of life when it is necessary to get at the root of matters. That means to get at the bottom facts in the case. In the days of John the Baptist there was a new order of things to be established. Pharisaical priests and scribes were no longer to devour widows’ houses and pass it off by the pretense of long prayers. One was about to come who would not judge after the sight of his eyes, but righteous judgment was to be rendered.

John the Baptist knew that a change was to take place. The mask of pretense was no longer to shield hypocrisy. One was coming as a teacher whose own life was in harmony with his teaching. Although they should surely say to him, “Physician, heal thyself,” this would not shield them in their efforts to prevent the plain, straightforward presentation of gospel truth. “The common people heard him gladly;” and those that heard him declared, “Never man spake like this man.”

John knew that he was the forerunner of the Messiah. He knew what his own message meant in awakening to new hope the real children of the kingdom. In the power and demonstration of the spirit of Elijah he preached repentance for the remission of sins. He urged all to flee from the wrath to come. Gladly he instructed and baptized the sincerely penitent. “But when he saw many of the Pharisees and the Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance: and think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham. And now also the ax is laid unto the root of the trees: therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.”

There was no indecision about this message. It was not talked to others about the Pharisees and Sadducees. It was spoken directly to them at the very time they offered themselves as subjects of baptism. It was not the kind of preaching they were accustomed to hear. But John knew them, and he knew that the baptism would do them no good unless they brought forth fruits meet for repentance. And he knew that they would be the same hindrance to the work in the church where they were now offering themselves for baptism that they had been as leaders in the Jewish work, unless they thoroughly repented, and started upon the right foundation.

John would do no half-way work in his ministry. To do this was to cause souls to be lost. The ax must be laid at the very root of the trees—not to trim off some limbs, but to hew down the tree if it did not bring forth good fruit. The very tap-root must be severed, that growth of sin should no longer be tolerated. Neither was it because John was inconsiderate or unkind that he bore this straight message. The time had come for a reformation. That reformation must be placed upon a right basis. It must not be modeled to admit unconverted men who would become decoys to ruin other souls and corrupt the church.

The Master paid the highest tribute to John for his faithfulness to his sacred trust. He declared that John was the messenger whom he had sent to prepare the way before him, and that a greater prophet had not been born of woman than John the Baptist. Christ takes up precisely the same gospel of repentance carried by John, and he added, “Every plant, which my Heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up.”

There is another illustration given of a man whom God had appointed as priest and leader among his people. It was the case of Aaron. Moses had been a true leader. He had not been led by the people into all the follies that they would have led him into had he held that it was the people who were to lead the ministers and men of God’s appointment as leaders, in place of the ministers instructing and leading the people. No doubt Aaron had heard that Moses was arbitrary in his dealings with the people. It now becomes his opportunity to lead them for a few days. Moses is in the mount with God. He is delayed longer than the people expected. They ask Aaron to make a golden calf for them to worship. Aaron may have reasoned that he would not be guilty of being arbitrary in his leadership. It was the wish of the people, and why not let the people have what they wanted? Why should the leaders all the time seek to control things in the church? At least he surrendered to the wish of the people. He instructed them to bring their ornaments, and he made of them a god. The Lord summed it up by saying, “And the Lord plagued the people, because they made the calf, which Aaron made.” The Lord sent Moses down from the mount in haste to take matters in hand and justly deal with such traitorous leadership as Aaron was practising in his absence. “And it came to pass, as soon as he was come nigh unto the camp, that he saw the calf, and the dancing: and Moses’ anger waxed hot, and he cast the tables out of his hands, and brake them beneath the mount. And he took the calf which they had made, and burned it in fire, and ground it to powder, and strawed it upon the water, and made the children of Israel drink of it.”

He then called upon every man who was on the Lord’s side to manifest it by coming to him. He gave the command of God that every man of the Levites should gird on his sword and go through the camp and slay every man his brother and his neighbor. That was most drastic treatment. Yet God directed it, and he never reproved Moses for showing righteous indignation at the weak leadership of Aaron. Instead he was commended, and it was testified of him that he was “faithful in all his house.”

Now these things are “written for our learning,” lest we follow the policy outlined by some, which would lead to a similar apostasy in the cause of God to-day. Let no one be frightened by the cry of arbitrary leadership, and turn to the weak policy of Aaron to follow the lead of a few people into apostasy. It is time that men should stand as Moses and John the Baptist, and lay the ax at the root of the trees.

Hamilton, Mo.