JUMBLE OF CHURCH AND STATE IN ENGLAND.
The confirmation of Canon Gore, a pronounced ritualist, as Bishop of Worcester, against the strong protest of the Low Churchmen and many Dissenters, and the decision of the lord chief justice “against the right to oppose the confirmation” has revealed several things concerning Protestantism which are not hopeful. The opposers of the confirmation have based their action on the ground that the law of the kingdom is against so pronounced a ritualist, that the confirmation is really the introduction of Romanism and the indorsement of Roman practices. Canon Gore and other ritualists have opposed State control in Great Britain, not because they do not believe in the union of Church and State, but because they do not believe in that form in which the State is dominant. They prefer the Roman Catholic idea, in which the Church dominates the State. Nevertheless the form which Canon Gore did not indorse confirms his confirmation as bishop. On the other hand, many of the opposers do not believe in any form of Church-and-State union, yet they appealed to the State to defeat the ritualists and were defeated. They ought to have expected it. Christ’s cause is not advanced by State aid. The true Protestant idea would have been to oppose this ritualistic movement by preaching the everlasting Gospel in the power of the Spirit. With a vigorous and aggressive ritualism, and a lame and halting and indifferent Protestantism, it may easily be seen that the gain will be even more emphatically rapid Romeward. While the present is the time in which the powers of darkness were to work “with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish,” it is also the time in which God is to do His mightiest work in the earth, the time in which His special work is spoken of as a “loud voice” going to all the people. Rev. 14:6–10. As intensity is taking hold of all the powers of darkness, so intensity will be manifested in God’s great work in the earth in these last days. That intensity is taking hold of all the agencies of evil is a fact that is evident to every thinking person. Every wicked policy of the world is being burnished anew, polished, sharpened; and to craft is added keener craft, and pure honesty is at a discount in many an institution. The clerk with a conscience is not wanted to-day in the business houses of some who are piling million upon million. The conscientious man who pays his fare when he has been overlooked, or who returns money given him by mistake in making change, is looked upon as a curiosity. They expect to lose it when the mistake is against them. It only illustrates the fact, that, in the scramble for money, the world does not expect honesty. The sharp, shrewd, scheming man is the one whose service commands the greatest compensation. He is employed for two reasons: he will help the concern he is with to distance its competitors, to cut under them, to get ahead of them, to drive them out of business; and if that institution does not employ him, it fears its competitor may, and he will do for the competitor what they wish him to do against him. But this intensity is not manifest simply in the scheming business world. It is seen in every avenue where the evil genius of men and evil powers can make itself manifest. We see it in the multiplication of heinous crimes in all parts of the world, the very frequency of whose occurrence is taking the edge off the horror which the people naturally feel toward such things. “Unnatural” crimes against children are on the increase. The humane people of Germany not long ago were making the strongest possible protestations against this horrible evil—parents driving their young daughters into a life more terrible than death. The protest has gone by: the practice is still alive. And Germany is not alone in this. Go where you will, take the evil practice which you will, and you will find that it is keener to-day than yesterday. Piracy has been driven from the seas, it is true, just as roving bands of robbers have been driven from settled communities. That was the crude, the unrefined, system of exacting tribute from the people. It is more refined to-day, more general, more exacting, and more impossible to escape from, than the piracy of the high seas or the brigandage of robber bands in days gone by. He who can control the light we use, the fuel we burn, the food we eat, and the water we drink, is a thousand times more powerful than the boldest pirate or robber chief that ever preyed upon man, and he gets a far greater tribute than they ever dreamed of hoarding. It is legal to-day, because it is more refined; and in its refinement lies its power. It is but the illustration of that intensity which is taking hold of the selfishness of the human heart. But while all this is true of the powers of darkness in their work, the powers of light are not idle in this great culminating struggle. There are true-hearted Christians in the earth to-day who are laying their lives on the altar of service, and are taking up the light of Christianity to bear it to the remotest corners of the earth. God will bless and is blessing the efforts of every such honest-hearted soul who is entering upon this work. The rapid growth of the Student Volunteer movement is one of the evidences of this intensity in the work of God. During the last eight years twice as many consecrated students have gone into missionary fields as during the previous eight years. The leaders of this movement are declaring that only a beginning has yet been made in the line of work which they intend to press with increasing zeal. But this is only one of the active forces that are intensifying their efforts. It is not the case with all the professed followers of Christ; it is the case with all who are truly submitted to His will in heart, mind, body, and possessions. In the line of teachings the powers of evil are bringing to the front with unyielding persistency, and with ingenuity and plausibility, every wind of doctrine that can possibly be used to strand a struggling soul. These philosophies are taking the form of negations of God’s Word, His truth, and His very existence; and millions are yielding to the deception. There has recently been organized in Kansas City the Church of this World, the church of agnosticism, whose purpose is to organize into agnostic churches, or bodies, the agnostics of every city and town, for the purpose of carrying on an aggressive campaign of infidelity. The leaders in this movement hope thus to win more converts to the creed of unbelief than they could do by working without leadership and organization. Those who can not be stranded by this philosophy are approached by a more subtle scheme than this. In the guise of Christianity it aims to explain into nothingness the most vital principles of God’s truth, to make the Rock of Ages appear a cloud of mist with which the elements can toy at will. The mind that loves philosophy is blinded with the glare of Theosophy; the mind that has a tendency to doubt, has the whole field of unbelief and infidelity from which to choose; the mind that loves the mysterious is approached by occultism and Spiritualism; the mind that loves the elevation of man is hunted by the sophistries of Christian Science; and so it goes. For every particular bent Satan has a particular philosophy, running close enough to the truth or to plausibility to ensnare the feet of the one who is not rooted and grounded in Christ Jesus. But while all these things are in the earth, God is calling men back to the one truth, the one God, the one Saviour, the one perpetual law. His last message to the world is to be the Gospel in its purity, stripped of all the traditions of the ages, the misinterpretations of the “fathers,” and the fallacies of heathenism. That message is going to the world now. It is going with greater power than ever; and that power will be increased to the end. The great culminating work of this earth’s history is going on now. The powers of darkness are focusing their forces upon man; the powers of light are working as never before that no soul who has a sincere desire to do God’s will may be overthrown by the evil one. The struggle is growing more intense; the climax is drawing nearer; and the great day of deliverance is drawing on apace. It is a time for consecration of heart, that our refuge may be sure in that day of trial.