Untitled article | AdventAI

Pacific Press Publishing Company · New York · July 16, 1896

CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR.

The most conspicuous, if not the most important, event of the past few days, in the sphere of religious activity, is the national Christian Endeavor convention at Washington, D. C., which closed its session July. 13.

Touching, as this organization does, with all the force of immense numbers and youthful enthusiasm, not only the religious but also the political spheres of our public life, it is incumbent upon American citizens of every class to understand its character and aims, and take note of what it is doing.

Already the question of the true nature of Christian endeavor—if it was ever seriously considered in the organization—has been settled as not excluding the use of political methods for applying its great power in the settlement of religious and moral questions. It only remains now to make its power felt through those methods in the most effective way.

But this all-important question of the nature of true Christian endeavor has not been rightly settled. The assumption that it can rightfully proceed along political lines is altogether erroneous. That the error has been assumed, rather than deliberately adopted, by the great masses of Endeavorers at least, we have no reason to doubt. It is from this standpoint that the SENTINEL challenges the advancing hosts of the youthful army. It would point out to them that as Christian young men and women they are not moving in accordance with their marching orders. An anecdote of the great Wellington relates that on one occasion, while seated with some Christian friends, he read the commission of Christ to his disciples, instructing them to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature, and turned to his friends with the exclamation, “There are your marching orders.” He was right. The marching orders of the Lord Jesus Christ to his followers send them forth throughout all nations to preach the gospel of salvation from sin. To disregard these orders is to move to certain disaster. Zeal cannot compensate for lack of knowledge.

What is it to preach the gospel? The word of God must tell us. That word tells us that the gospel of God “is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth.” Rom. 1:16. The Scriptures tell us further that the power of God is in his word. “By the word of the Lord were the heavens made, and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth.” Ps. 33:6. He who believes the word of God receives the power of God that is in it unto his salvation. There was power in that word to create man in the beginning; there is power in it now to recreate man in the image of Jesus Christ. That is the gospel. That is what Christians are commissioned to preach to all the world. Two things are essential in its operation,—the word of God and faith on the part of him who hears it. The word of God, and that alone, must be proclaimed, for it alone has saving power, and it must be indorsed by the individual who would receive any benefit from it.

But political methods know nothing of faith. And knowing nothing of faith, they know nothing of the power of God unto salvation. Hence they cannot possibly be Christian. The Christian Endeavor organization possesses immense force. As a political power it can compel many changes in city and State legislation and government. But it has not force enough to push a soul into heaven, or pull it away from a single sin. Not all the power in the world, whether exercised through the ballot or through the bayonet, can force any individual one step from sin into righteousness.

The force of legislation or of public sentiment may restrain one from crime, and to this end force is legitimate and necessary in civil government; but salvation from crime is not salvation from sin. Christianity deals with sin. The mission of Christ in this world is to save people from sin. This, therefore, must be the purpose of all true Christian endeavor.

Only the power of God can save any person from sin, and this power cannot operate for salvation except through faith. Without faith no virtue attaches to any religious act; on the contrary, it becomes actual sin, for “whatsoever is not of faith is sin.” Rom. 14:23. The result of force in religion, therefore, is evident; it can produce nothing but sin. The individual who observes the sabbath because of the force of human law or public sentiment, commits actual sin in so doing. Religious observances without faith are but a mockery. To endeavor to force people to mock God with empty forms, is not Christian. Christian endeavor is that which seeks to lead men to the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world.

It is faith that distinguishes between Christianity and mere good citizenship. If force could make a man a good citizen, through some process of civil procedure, he would still be as far as ever from being a Christian. It is proper and necessary that all should be done that can be to promote good citizenship; that civil force should be made the conservator of civil or natural rights, and that public sentiment should be guided in those channels which lead to peace and prosperity in civil affairs. But it must be evident to the candid mind that effort in this line, operating as it does through purely secular means, cannot properly be termed “Christian.” If it can be, then the atheist can be a Christian endeavorer without changing his belief, as truly as can those who profess Christianity.

As Christians we cannot come to any man with force. That very individual to whom it is most necessary to apply force in the interests of the public peace and safety, is likely to be the one most in need of that divine power which restrains from wrong-doing without force. When the Christian comes to him, it must be with the gospel, the same as to all others.

The fact that there are many people in the world who must be forcibly restrained to prevent them from taking the lives or property of others, does not in the least affect the nature of Christian endeavor. Human nature is evil at its best, and the “best men” of the world, equally with the worst, must experience Christianity through simple faith in the word of God. So to whomsoever Christian endeavor may be directed,—and it must be directed to every creature in the world if the Saviour’s commission is fulfilled—it cannot operate through any human force. As soon as it makes use of force, it ceases to be Christian. Force in religion does not draw men to Christ, but only drives them away. If some are far away from him now, let them not

be driven further in the name of Christian endeavor.

Let it be remembered that the Christian is necessarily a good citizen; but a good citizen may not be a Christian at all. The production of good citizens out of bad ones is a necessary result of the work of the gospel in this world; but as the gospel works only through faith, which is a voluntary exercise, its aim is something entirely different from the preservation of public peace and order. Civil force, and that alone, is adapted to this end, proceeding without any reference to individual belief or volition. Thus the spheres of religion and of the State are entirely distinct. For the latter to enter, with its civil force, the domain of the former, is to attempt to drive men across the impossible gulf between the sinner and God, which is bridged only by Jesus Christ, and can be crossed only by faith in him.

Political methods—the machinery of civil government—must operate through force. Forced action is not of faith; and “whatsoever is not of faith is sin.” Hence civil power operating in the sphere of religion can only manufacture sin.