A. T. ROBINSON by A. T. Robinson

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Mar 23, 1916

A. T. ROBINSON

By A. T. Robinson

The Light of the World — No. 3

A. T. ROBINSON

The world was in perishing need of a rekindling of the light of life. The minds of men had become so darkened that they could no longer read in the written Word the message of God’s love. A new revelation was necessary. Then “the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.” John 1:14.

At a time when the shackles of ignorance and superstition had so fastened themselves upon the minds of men that “no man dared to think for himself, until a voice was heard in Judea, breaking day for the darkest night that had ever settled down upon humanity,”—at such a time Jesus came, “a light into the world.” Jesus said, “As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” John 9:5. When he went back to heaven, he said of his church on the earth, “Ye are the light of the world.” Matt. 5:14.

The light had been rekindled. The conflict between light and darkness had been revived. That voice in Judea, the voice of one who was so poor that He could say, “Foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head,” was lifted against a system of error and darkness backed by all the influence that the power and wealth of this world could command. But truth is always in the majority. Truth, handcuffed, placed behind prison walls, chained to the damp, cold dungeon floor, is truth still, and is on the road to sure and eternal triumph; while error, seated upon a throne of gold, a golden scepter in her hand, and worshiping millions bowing at her shrine, is only error still, and is on the road to sure and eternal defeat.

Two hundred and eighty-six years after that conflict began, the Edict of Milan was issued (in 313 A. D.), proclaiming liberty for every one to think for himself. That document, and a similar one issued one hundred and forty years ago (July 4, 1776), form two of the most wonderful proclamations of liberty ever penned by human hands.

Almost as soon as truth had gained that signal victory over the powers of darkness, the freedom of action accorded was taken advantage of by religio-political priests and bishops to bring on a darker night of error and superstition than the world had known before. Once more the light had become so far obscured, the chains of error had become so fastened upon the world, that it could be truthfully said that no man dared to think for himself, when a voice was heard in Germany, proclaiming the day of deliverance from the night of darkness and superstition that had settled down upon humanity. The stroke of Luther’s hammer upon the doors of the church of Wittenberg was the signal for a rekindling of the light of sacred truth in the earth; the clarion call to another conflict, upon one side of which was again arrayed all the power that the wealth of this world could command.

Two hundred and fifty-nine years after the beginning of the conflict started by Luther, the Declaration of Independence of the United States was made, which as truly marked the triumph of the Reformation of the sixteenth century as the Edict of Milan marked that of the gospel during the first three centuries. “The history of the Reformation does not close, as many European authors have imagined, in a balanced and final distribution of the north and south between the Protestant and the Catholic. . . . Macaulay and others who have treated of the Reformation have taken too limited a view of it, supposing that this was its point of arrest. It made another enormous stride when, at the American Revolution, the state and the church were solemnly and openly dissevered from one another.”—“Intellectual Developments of Europe,” by Draper, pp. 226, 227.

This victory of the eighteenth century, like the one of the fourth century, is being nullified through the efforts of those opposed to the light and liberty of the gospel of Christ.

Boulder, Colo.