God's Way Versus Man's
By L. A. S.
As reported in the Chicago Record Herald of June 1, a Methodist clergyman of that city, Rev. Clarence Abel, addressed these words to his Sunday congregation, on the subject of the duty of voting:— I would have every Christian man go to the polls to-morrow, as much from a sense of Christian duty as he would go to a prayer meeting, and record his ballot as an act of worship before the great God of justice and truth. The trouble with this sentiment is that it does not take account of the fundamental principle of Christianity, that man must be in everything a co-worker with God. An election contest, as a general rule, simply offers a man an opportunity to be a co-worker with a political party. The candidates for office are nominated not by the Lord, but by the party leaders. The Lord has nothing to say about it. God is not thus left out of account where Christian duty is concerned. God has his ways of working, and his6agencies, but they are not those of the politician. They are of his own devising, not of man's. God's agencies are spiritual, man's are not. What men often seek to do through politics and legislation, God purposes to do through the gospel. God's agencies alone can reach the fountain head of the stream of evil which pollutes the earth, and therefore they alone are effectual for a true reform. At the polls Christ's followers are mere voters, in a hopeless minority. But as co-workers with God they are the salt of the earth. Politicians—“Christian politicians” especially—proceed on the idea that the world can be reformed. God's work proceeds on the idea that the world can not be reformed; that it is doomed to perdition, and that the only thing that can be done is to save people out of it. Man's methods and schemes to establish righteousness in the earth will fail, but God's will succeed. God's idea is the true one, and all others are wrong and futile. The Almighty is not in partnership with any political party. His organization on earth is his church, and through that he purposes to accomplish the overthrow of evil and the establishment of righteousness in the earth. But let it not be forgotten that the methods and agencies for this work are such as he alone, and no man nor party, has devised, and such as he alone controls.