“The Letter Killeth, but the Spirit Giveth Life”
By F. M. W.
Much that passes for Christianity to-day is such only in name. In the minds of many, the standard has been lowered. Mere theory has been substituted for practical doing, and formal profession for a living experience. This is the tendency of human nature. All history shows that in proportion as the church of God has lost the power of the gospel, ritualism and ceremonies have taken the place of practical every-day religion, and men have come to trust in theory rather than in that for which the theory and form stood. This danger in a marked degree is threatening Christianity in general at the present time, and it also threatens the experience of Seventh-day Adventists. If any people in the world could trust to a beautiful theory of truth, it is this people. No church since the time of the apostles has had such a beautiful system of revealed truth as is possessed by this church. But no theory of the truth, however beautiful, will bring salvation. The theory has its place. It is necessary to present the argument of doctrine. It is necessary to convince the judgment as well as to move the heart. The danger is that the judgment only will be affected, and that while the theory is recognized by the mind, there will be a failure to make it a part of the life and experience. Israel of old trusted to sacrifices and offerings to secure divine favor. They felt that God took pleasure in the blood of bulls and goats apart from heart service. The temple service, which was designed as an appropriate and fitting expression of faith, supplanted the faith itself. The Lord declared their sacrifices an abomination. We to-day may substitute in our religious experience the expression and vehicle of faith for faith itself, and trust in the outward form rather than in the heart service which the outward form is designed to express. This we may illustrate:— The keeping of the Sabbath is of divine precept. The payment of tithes and offerings is a part of Christian duty, but to the doing of these things in themselves can not be trusted our salvation. The Jews tithed mint and annis and cummin. Their conscientious regard for the divine command led them to carry the principle into the smallest detail; but while they were doing this, they failed in the graces of love, mercy, and compassion. The Saviour says that the tithing they should have done, but they should not have left unmanifested the graces of love and tenderness. The church at Corinth was taught that though one gave all his goods to feed the poor, and his body to be burned, yet if love did not prompt these sacrifices, they were counted for nothing. One may even engage in Christian missionary effort, and yet fail signally to apply the truth he teaches to himself. The apostle Paul recognized the danger of being a castaway, even though he put forth for others earnest Christian service. Dead, empty form, the theory of heartless profession, has, in and of itself, no power, no life. It is a part of the old covenant of works. It belongs alone to4 the letter of obedience, and the letter killeth. But truth held in righteousness and sanctification, while expressed in form, and constituting a beautiful chain and system of divine revelation, has in it the spirit and power of transforming grace. It becomes to the recipient life and light in the new covenant relationship. Thus it is that “the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.” After all, the test of Christianity is found in the practical every-day life. A life of kindness and forbearance in the home; of honesty, charity, and helpfulness in the neighborhood; of meekness and humility, strength and lifting power, in the church and the world, all prompted by a living, abiding faith in the Lord Jesus, with all service rendered as unto him, without hope or thought of worldly honor or recognition,—this is practical Christianity. This spirit of Christianity, while it puts no confidence in the flesh or in religious forms as such, will repose steady confidence in the Lord Jesus. In seeking to meet his approval, and do his work in the world, it will consecrate every ability to his service. While it does not trust in form, it will make form the vehicle of its love. While it does not trust in Sabbath-keeping or tithe paying or any other Christian duty, for salvation, it will still be faithful in the performance of these duties, from loving gratitude to the One who has purchased so great a salvation. Such a Christian will not possess the faith which trusts in works, but instead, a faith that works, an active, living faith. Christ in the person and flesh of his children to-day will work the same works that were wrought in the flesh in the days of his manifestation; and the child of God will be able to say, “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.”