THOU shalt not commit adultery." Among the works of the flesh, the violation of this command is mentioned first and fullest: “Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness.” Every one who knows, is aware of the fact that the whole world is a festering mass of corruption on this very point. To contemplate the situation but for a moment makes “the whole head sick, and the whole heart faint.”
“Lasciviousness”! The word “lascivious” is thus defined: “Loose; wanton; lewd; lustful; tending to excite, or produce, voluptuous or lewd emotions.” Art, literature, dress, theatricals, balls, banquets, plays, games, and a thousand other things over which the world seems to have gone mad, have a subtle, insidious, beguiling tendency to excite, if not to produce those emotions against which the thunders of Sinai uttered their protest.
Stop it by legislation?—Never. Regulate it by law?—No. Arouse popular indignation and disapproval?—Not until the majority of the people are born from above. Never can we reasonably hope to cultivate social purity by talking social impurity. Therefore, “Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.” At this present moment there comes to mind the fact that one of the most degraded of all Chicago’s prostitutes was convicted of sin, led to repentance, and caused to seek and obtain pardon and purity at the hand of the Lord Jesus, simply at the sight of one young lady’s face, upon which the purity and peace of heaven was delineated.
Not by faultfinding and condemnation; not by vituperation and censure; not by force or violence; but by gentleness, by kindness, by love unfeigned, by heaven’s sunlight and sweetness, are sinners convicted of sin and brought to the foot of the cross.
Well-meaning, but with a zeal void of true knowledge, have some professing Christians in these days attempted crusades against this vice, in its ultimate form, on a plan patterned after that of the Pharisees of old. But it has resulted in strengthening the iniquity which they hoped to suppress.
“And the scribes and Pharisees brought unto Him a woman taken in adultery; and when they had set her in the midst, they say unto Him, Master, this woman was taken in adultery, in the very act. Now Moses in the law commanded us, that such should be stoned; but what sayest thou? This they said, tempting Him, that they might have to accuse Him. But Jesus stooped down, and with his finger wrote on the ground, as tho He heard them not. So when they continued asking Him, He lifted up Himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her. And again He stooped down and wrote on the ground. And they which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last: and Jesus was left alone, and the women standing in the midst. When Jesus had lifted up Himself, and saw none but the woman, He said unto her, Woman, where are those thine accusers? hath no man condemned thee? She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee; go, and sin no more.” Which of the two plans proved the better in the case here cited? Why is it written? Is it to teach us that “the goodness of God leadeth to repentance”?
Having lost all sense of honor, one may descend to the level of the tramp and the vagabond; he may be clothed in rags and saturated in filth; yet no censure will convict him of either his moral or physical condition. One man, a minister of the Gospel, who in early manhood had creditably completed the classical course in an eastern college, a three-year’s course in a theological seminary, and who had risen to the point of a pastorate in one of Philadelphia’s largest and most popular churches, fell through drunkenness. He was rescued, temporarily, in one of the Chicago missions. Being invited to the training-school, where the writer was then residing, he came readily enough; but all at once we discovered that he was timid about entering the dining-room; he was backward in entering the chapel, was shrinking at every turn. But why was all this?—He was out of his “element”—physically condemned. He must have a bath, must have clean clothing, a hair-cut and shave, that he might, in some measure, correspond with his surroundings. In the calendar of the Carlisle (Pa.) Indian school, appeared the following: “How can you civilize an Indian?—Take him into civilization. How can you keep him civilized?—Keep him there.” That is, keep him among civilized persons.
“I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and His train filled the temple. Above it stood the seraphim; each one had six wings. And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory.” Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.” Having confessed his sin, one of the seraphim placed a live coal upon his lips, with the glad assurance, “Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged.” The sight of God’s holiness convicted the prophet of sin, and led him to repentance and confession. He was then purged of all that he saw and confessed. “We all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image, from glory to glory.”
Now, since a sight of God’s purity leads to repentance, confession, and forsaking of sin, what must be the reason why any one ever descends into the depths of sin? He departs from God; that’s all. If that is the reason for all sin, and it surely is, what is the beginning of adultery?—Departing from God. And what leads to the ultimate depths?—Still departing from God. “Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God?”
Spiritual Adultery.
Is every professed Christian who is at heart a worldling, and who mingles with the world in its folly, eating what they eat, dressing as they dress, enjoying what they enjoy, a transgressor of the seventh commandment? “Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God?” “Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.”
Says the Lord to the church, “I am jealous over you with a godly jealousy; for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.” Now “the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband, so long as he liveth;” and Christ “ever liveth.” “I am He that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive forevermore, Amen.”
Between the world and Christ there is absolute incompatibility. In spirit and practise they stand at antipodes. “Earthly, natural [margin], devilish,” are used in the Bible as synonymous terms. Said Jesus, concerning every follower of His, to the end of time, “They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.” And the uncompromising apostle to the nations responds in glad acclaim, “God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom [or whereby] the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.” Says John, the beloved, “Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God; therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew Him not.” “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world; but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind.”
“Thy Maker is thine husband; the Lord of hosts is His name; and thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel; The God of the whole earth shall He be called.” It is for this reason that the God of heaven has rightly named any backsliding from Himself, and transgression of His holy law, adultery. An attempt to mix good and evil is adulteration of the most dangerous character. Is it not spiritual adultery?
“Hast thou seen that which backsliding Israel hath done? She is gone up upon every high mountain and under every green tree, and there hath played the harlot.” “And it came to pass through the lightness of her whoredom, that she defiled the land, and committed adultery with stones and with stocks.” “Turn, O backsliding children, saith the Lord; for I am married unto you.” The whole record of the backsliding of Israel; of their conformity to the world; of their idolatry, and all their departures from God; are over and over and over again designated by the Lord as adultery. Space will not admit of the many quotations which might be given; but if you are interested to know, read Ezekiel 16, Hosea 1 and 2, and kindred scriptures, and you will see in what unmistakable terms the Lord represents the attempt at admixture of heaven with earth—of righteousness with sin.
“If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature; old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” “Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God.” “As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.” No man or woman, therefore, who is filled with the Spirit, and led by the Spirit, can possibly be led to break the seventh commandment, either in spirit or in letter, because adultery is of the flesh; and “the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary the one to the other.”
