PUT NO DIFFERENCE

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Feb 27, 1901

“PUT NO DIFFERENCE.”

The waning of the spiritual life is always marked by indifference in the things of God. And waning spirituality means waning faith in the Word. Nominal belief may still abide, but living, operative faith is dying.

There may be work, plenty of work of a sort, with dying faith. The prophets of Baal worked much more than the prophet of God in the great testing-time at Carmel. The Pharisee of old could say, no doubt truthfully, “I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess,” and much more. Of old, when Israel became backslidden, she still appeared at the courts of the Lord, kept and increased her oblations, held more meetings, and multiplied prayers. Isa. 1: 10-15. They were ready to offer thousands of rams, and to pour out ten thousands of rivers of oil; nay, more, to give their first-born. But they failed to recognize the true, godlike virtues of humility, justice, love, and mercy. The wicked balances and deceitful weights were still in evidence before the court of heaven. The statutes of Omri, and the works of sun-worshiping Ahab, were still performed, mingled with the pretended worship of Jehovah. See Micah 6.

The first chapter of Malachi teaches the same lesson. The loss of vital faith, the evil, selfish practises indulged, blinded the spiritual vision, till God was considered “altogether such an one” as themselves. Ps. 50: 21. Having polluted bread, they offered it upon the altar of God. More than this, the altar, the worship, the service of God, were considered of minor importance. There were blind among the sheep, and lame among the goats, and sick among the kine, and these cost less, and were therefore offered to God. Lack of moral sensibility prevented their discerning the holiness and greatness of God.

Multiplied or scant tho the offerings may be, which are reproved by Isaiah, Micah, or Malachi, the spirit of the transgression is the same, engendered in unbelief of God’s Word. In the time of Micah the people seemed to feel that they could buy God’s favor if they paid sufficient price. They considered the gifts and requirements of God of limited worth, capable of being obtained by human effort. Those to whom Malachi brings reproof feel that the service of God is of minor importance. They do not regard the unseen God as highly as they do the seen governor.

The prophecy is left on record for this generation, “upon whom the ends of the world are come.” 1 Cor. 10: 11. The spirit of commercial greed is sweeping nations before its rising tide. The spirit of Biblical criticism, based largely on guess and hypothesis and assumption, has weakened faith and blinded the spiritual vision. The vision of God is become to such as a book that is sealed (Isa. 29: 11), and the near dollar, the proximate commercial gain, blinds the soul to the beauty of the Gospel, the glory of God’s requirements, the holiness of His law, the necessity of whole-hearted soul service. As a result, the Word of God is placed on a level with the words of men; the spiritual laws of God are considered mere matters of expediency, which men may ignore, or may legislate upon and enforce; the precepts of God and the precepts of tradition are placed side by side as of equal worth, the latter sometimes, as in

the case of the Sunday sabbath, hiding and usurping the rightful place of the other; the house which has been builded for God’s worship may be used alike for a religious service or a political meeting or worldly entertainment; the minister of the Gospel dwarfs his office to that of a minister of the law, and the lobbyist of a Legislature; the morning newspaper is of more importance than the morning prayer; the wine, the beer, the tobacco, the tea and coffee, wholly evil and unnecessary, receive their millions, while the work of missions languishes, vice stalks boldly in high places, and congresses of religions and peace congresses become the prelude to religious persecution and world-wide war.

The Lord truly says, and the words will apply here as truly as to a once-prospered land of old: “Thou art a land that is not cleansed, nor rained upon in the day of indignation. There is a conspiracy of her prophets in the midst thereof, like a roaring lion ravening the prey; they have devoured souls; they take treasure and precious things; they have made her widows many in the midst thereof. Her priests have done violence to My law, and have profaned Mine holy things; they have put no difference between the holy and the common, neither have they caused men to discern between the unclean and the clean, and have hid their eyes from My Sabbaths, and I am profaned among them. Her princes in the midst thereof are like wolves ravening the prey; to shed blood, and to destroy souls, that they may get dishonest gain. And her prophets have daubed for them with untempered mortar, seeing vanity, and divining lies unto them, saying, Thus saith the Lord God, when the Lord hath not spoken. The people of the land have used oppression, and exercised robbery; yea, they have vexed the poor and needy, and have oppressed the stranger wrongfully.” Eze. 22: 24-30, R.V.

The Remedy?—It is to return to the Word of God, to simple faith in Jesus Christ.