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The Spirit of Compromise

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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Oct 12, 1911

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 88, No. 41.

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The Spirit of Compromise

The spirit of compromise is the spirit of the world, the spirit of popular acclaim, the spirit of the multitude. Aaron made a golden calf because he feared the people. Scores of others have departed from the path of rectitude for the same reason. He who keeps before him the fear of God will not be governed by this evil principle.
Commenting upon the noble stand taken by Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in refusing to worship the golden image, the Western Recorder of August 31 says:—
To him who has not the fear of man before his face, but who fears only God, it is a matter of preeminent concern whether God will approve or disapprove his conduct, and a matter of minor measure whether men, even though they be kings, shall think well or ill of it. What stupendous and self-destroying folly it is to fear man, who at his worst can do no more than destroy the body, and not to fear God, who can destroy both body and soul in hell! Better a thousand times to be hurled into a fiery furnace with the favor of God and a good conscience than to live with the flatteries of kings in the comforts of a palace.
Not what is popular, but what is right, is the correct governing principle of life. “Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil.” Majorities are seldom right. There are more heathen than Christians, more Catholics than Protestants, . . . and more effusionists than immersionists. Numbers are no standard by which to measure right or wrong. “Neither the rectitude of a course nor the truth of an opinion is to be decided by the law of a greater number.” It is the “wide gate” and “broad way” through which the “many” go to destruction.
We may not be tested in our experience in the same way as these three young men, but in every-day Christian living we have the privilege of demonstrating the same noble stand in our relation to truth and error. Let us keep free from the spirit of compromise in our experience.