THERE was a prodigious significance in that intercessory prayer of our Lord on the eve of his sufferings: “I pray not that thou shouldst take them out of the world, but that thou shouldst keep them from the evil.” The preservation of the world from moral ruin depended on the preservation of the church of God. “Ye are my witnesses,” said the Master. The followers of Christ were to be his representatives; the visibility of Christ on earth was to be in the persons—in the acts and lives of those whom he had redeemed to be a peculiar people, zealous in good works. They were to be a wholesome leaven, penetrating the whole mass of humanity; they were to be the salt of the earth, preserving society from putrefaction by the savor of pure godliness. “Let your lights shine!” To “shine” means something more than the possession of a renewed heart or the enjoyment of an inward peace. It signifies the luminous reflection of Christ in character and conduct.
This world cannot afford to have Christians degenerate or become demoralized. No city can afford to have its gas apparatus so damaged as to leave its streets in darkness; or its sanitary system so neglected as to leave it a prey to typhoid fevers or cholera. Divine grace is imparted in order to purify its possessor; and he, in turn, is to do his part to purify the community. If he fails, the community is the loser. We, who profess to call ourselves Christians, ought to know that the world expects us to stand for righteousness, and never to compromise; to act as disinfectants and to maintain our savor; to hold them up, and not to be dragged down by them. If all the Christianity in existence were to become bankrupt in character, even the scoffers themselves would be frightened. Sneer as they may, they expect us to stand by our colors. Our desertion of God and of the right would not only disgrace us; it would alarm even the ungodly. “If this world is so bad with the Christian religion,” said the shrewd Franklin, “what would it be without it?”
A personal incident will illustrate this self-reliance which the people of the world have in the people of God. A young man, who professed Christian, was seeking to win the hand of a young lady of wealth. His suit did not prosper, and one day she said to him: “You know that you are a Christian, and I am a gay girl, very fond of the pleasures of the world; and I am forced to suspect that his religion would be a stumbling-block to his success in winning her.” He was deeply grieved by him. He accordingly applied to the officers of his church (which must have been loose in its joints) for a release from his membership. They granted it. “Now,” said he to her, when he met her again, “the barrier is removed. I have withdrawn from my church and I do not make any profession to be a Christian.” The honest-hearted girl turned on him with disgust and horror, and said to him: “M——, you know that I have led a frivolous life and I feel too weak to resist temptations. I determined that I never would marry any man who was not strong enough to stand firm himself and to hold me up also. I said what I did just to try you; and, if you have not principle enough to stick to your faith, you have not principle enough to be my husband. Let me never see you again.”
Whether this incident be actual or not, the lesson it teaches is beyond dispute. The world expects Christians to stand by their colors; when we desert them, we not only dishonor our Master and ourselves, but we disappoint the world. Conformity to the world will never convert it. “Come out and be ye separate,” saith the Lord, “and touch no unclean thing.” Even if the world could succeed in bringing the church down to its own standard of opinion and practice, it would only work its own moral destruction. It would extinguish the light-houses which illuminate its own channels; it would destroy the spiritual leaven which Christ has ordained and prepared to save human society from corruption.
The demand of this time is not to lower the claims of God, but to elevate them; not to weaken the authority of divine inspiration, but to reinforce it; not to unloose obligations to Bible creeds, but to tighten; not to accommodate Christianity to the thought and fashion of the times, but to keep it stoutly and steadily up to its primitive standards. Not only must we stand fast to the faith once delivered to the saints, but to the practices enjoined in God's word. The church of this day is in no danger of excessive Puritanism. The peril is in the opposite direction. Conformity to the world is weakening the backbone of the church, and thus far diminishing its power to lift the world up toward God. “If thou wouldst pull a man out of a pit,” said quaint old Philip Henry, “thou must have a good foothold, or else he will pull thee in.”
In no direction should Christians make their testimony more emphatic than in the line of righteous living. The sin of modern civilization has been well described as “making more of condition than it does of character.” The very essence of Bible religion is to make character and conduct the test and evidence. By their fruits ye shall know the tree good and the fruits shall be the core of Christ's practice. He “gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify unto himself a peculiar people.” The Revised Version adds that “that he might purify unto himself a people for his own possession.”
Our first duty is to him, and the most effectual way of serving Christ is to be the moment we betray him we empty ourselves of all reforming power. When the salt has lost its39flavor, it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out and trodden under foot of men. When a Christian so conducts himself as to be despised by his unconverted neighbors, he inflicts upon them an incalculable injury. He confirms them in unbelief. He brings Christianity into contempt. He poisons the well from which they ought to draw good influences. “Ye are my witnesses,” said our loving Lord and Master; but what if the witnesses swear falsely?
In commerce and trade Christianity has its indispensable place, and God's people their sphere of usefulness. The Golden Rule is the true Christian's yard-stick; commerce becomes a cheat if it is disused or broken. When a church member defaults or turns swindler, he repeats the sin of Judas. Christ is betrayed, and men's faith in Bible integrity is so far shattered. A Christian merchant, manufacturer, or mechanic has a call to serve Christ and save his fellow-men as much as any gospel minister. Every ounce of leaven has its place.
Social life (with increase of wealth) has a trend toward demoralization. Luxury enervates. Popular amusements become sensualized and offer their temptations to the church. “Be ye not conformed to the world” applies to the stage, the ball-room, the wine-cup, and to everything that would turn God's earth into a “Vanity Fair.” Conformity to the world amounts (in the end) to more than the corruption of Christ's church. It puts out the light which Christ kindled; it destroys the very leaven which he has prepared to purify, and sweeten, and save a “world lying in wickedness.”