The True Union and the False.
THERE is an old story, upon which some seem to lay more stress than on the parables of Jesus, which tells of a philosophic father teaching his sons the strength of union, by showing them how easy it is to break a bundle of sticks, taking them one by one, and how difficult taking them all together. Had the venerable gentleman bound up fire with the sticks, he might have shown also, the dangerous unwisdom of union where the elements are not homogeneous. Had he exhibited a Roman prisoner chained to a dead carcass, he might have shown the further lesson of the disability and pestilential horribleness of some unions. The Bible also tells of a union-furor which prevailed among men in a very early period of the world’s history, when “the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair, and they took them wives of all which they chose.” We do not read, however, that the result was particularly advantageous. Giants, indeed, were produced by the coalition, but judgment came upon its heels, and all the “mighty men” and “men of renown” were drowned from the face of the earth. The mingling of that which is of God with that which is of man, is a special form of evil to which people are quite too prone; and it is a very effective engine in Satan’s hands for marring the truth and destroying souls. It may often wear the appearance of something very desirable and promising. It may look like success, triumph, and augmented efficiency, but in reality it is surrender, compromise, and defeat. Satan’s first effort to frustrate the purpose of God was to kill the holy seed; when that failed, he tried peaceful synthesis and unseemly unions in which he was much more successful. From this it would appear that union, if not the proper sort, is worse than murder. It is one of the vices of our day and our country, that men are ready to compromise and sacrifice almost anything, just for the convenience, grandeur, and supposed strength of union. It matters not how truth suffers, and the church’s testimony is obscured, only that people are united, and dwell in peace, and appear in grand combinations, in which the worst are on the same level with the best, ignoring all distinctions. And it sometimes happens that the most antagonistic the most readily unite to put out of the way troublesome truth. Herod and Pilate make friends when the Christ is to be crucified. We have no hesitation in saying that much of the unionism of our day is thoroughly anti-Christian. That which the true man is bound to maintain above all things is, the truth—the truth at all costs. If there can be union in the maintenance of the pure and undamaged truth, so much the better, and such unions should be sought and promoted; but union, on any other condition, is immoral, and not of God. The miserable expediency which views union as the chief end, and seeks union first, union last, and union all the time—union in the truth if convenient, otherwise, union on half truth, or union on no distinct truth at all, only so there is union—is simply the43old story over, by which the devil involved the ancient world in the dreadful condemnation of God. Inspiration says, “The wisdom which is from above is first pure, then peaceable.” The indication is, that the wisdom which puts “peaceable” first, and teaches us to purchase peace and union at the expense of pureness and faith and testimony, is not “from above,” but from beneath. Oh, but union is so beautiful—so pleasant—so heavenly! Yes, as were “the daughters of men,” but that did not satisfy God, nor keep off the ugly judgment which followed. Peace is a good thing, but it dare not be bought at the expense of God’s truth, or at the sacrifice of fidelity in the preaching and confession of that truth. Otherwise, peace is not peace, but a lie, and a devouring sword.