“THE LAW IS SLACKED;” THE TIMES “PERILOUS.”
Last week in these columns was considered the topic at the head of this article. That a weakening of moral fiber, a breaking over of moral restraints, a veritable flood of iniquity, are manifest is, in the light of God’s Word, evident to the careful, devout student of the times. The New York Independent is well known as one of the most optimistic journals, and yet increasing evil is so evident that that paper of recent date has the following:— “Juries are becoming more and more loath to hang murderers; lawyers invent new delays and appeals; judges impose shorter sentences on bank-crackers, house-breakers, and forgers; Presidents and governors tumble over themselves in their eagerness to pardon the worst scoundrels on half-expired sentences; trade unions put a stop to remunerative labor in State prisons, as one important step in their program of reducing useful service to a minimum throughout society; politicians and legislators who go to bed every night of their lives wondering what strange fortune has hitherto kept their own precious persons outside of prison walls, aid and abet all these efforts to ameliorate the condition of the unlucky ones, who, in spite of everything, get caught. And all the while the strenuous work of robbery, assault, and murder goes industriously on.” This is a fair sample of abundance of evidence which might be given. Who or what is responsible? Does not the greater share of the responsibility lie at the feet of the professed church of Christ? In the language of her professed Master, she is set to be “the salt of the earth,” “the light of the world.” Salt is a preservative. In the light of some recent scientific investigations, it is salt in the blood which keeps the heart beating, by which the life pulses to every part of the body. The church is the salt of the earth, the essential element which keeps it from decay and distributes its life. But if the salt have lost its savor, wherewith shall it be salted? It is cast out, and the thing which is preserved must fall into rapid decay. The church is the “light of the world.” Light is life and growth and warmth and power. But if the light of God be hidden under the bushel of worldliness, or enshrouded in the fogs of tradition and skepticism, how can the great dark world be benefited? “If the blind lead the blind, shall they not both fall into the ditch?” The light of the church comes from Christ, “the Light of the world,” thru the Word. “Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.” Ps. 119:105. “The commandment is a lamp; and the law is light.” Prov. 6:23. “The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes.” Ps. 19:8. We pointed out last week that a great part of the professed Christian church had made the all-sufficient Saviour of none effect by the repetition of the old Galilean, Pharisaic, Babylonian heresy, that something else is necessary to salvation. In effect it says that God’s plan is good, but—and the “but” precedes the works of the flesh, penances, offerings, works of supererogation, sacrifices, priesthood, intercession of saints, etc.; forgetting that all, all that is needed for the expiation of the past or the fruitage of the present is found in the sacrifice and life of Jesus Christ. Likewise the all-sufficient Word has been deemed insufficient; and creed and tradition have come in to supplement and bind about the living testimony of God. That which is termed the necessary additional is ever exalted above that to which it is often meant to be auxiliary, and the human is made to hide the divine. Men are haled before tribunals for heresy, generally because of departure from the “creeds” and “standards” and “confessions” and “disciplines,” rather than because of departure from God’s Word. But the exaltation of human works of merit on the part of the Roman Catholic, by which Christ is made of none effect, and the exaltation of tradition above the all-sufficient Word, by both Catholic and Protestant, by which the Word is made of none effect, are only one cause of the disregard of moral principles everywhere manifest. The Bible, in both Old and New Testaments, presents man as sinful, having fallen from a state of innocence. It presents as the basis of sinful man’s hope, the mercy and love of God in the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. It presents as the basis of man’s hope of change of character, the regenerative, creative power of God. It presents as the evidence and assurance of that creative power the ever-present fact that God by His word created the heavens and the earth. “By the word of the Lord were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth.” “For He spake, and it was; He commanded, and it stood fast.” Ps. 33:6, 9. “Now ye are clean thru the word which I have spoken unto you.” John 15:3. “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature,” “created in Christ Jesus unto good works,” “created in righteousness and true holiness.” 2 Cor. 5:17; Eph. 2:10; 4:24. “And God said, Let there be light; and there was light.” Gen. 1:3. “For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts.” 2 Cor. 4:6. As the eternal Son of God by His word in the beginning transmuted the earth from the chaos of darkness and wasteness to the cosmos of light and beauty, so by His word He can change in the heart of the sinner the chaos of sin and doubt and despair and death to the cosmos of righteousness and faith and hope and life. But many, very many, a growing number in the church, are counting the books of Moses as religious myths, or, at the best, but mere traditions. The record of creation is not a fact, but a mythical poem. So also is the story of the fall. The uncertain science of geology, built on human hypothesis, is allowed to set aside the Word of God. “Evolution” supersedes creation; and the “Origin of the Species,” by Darwin, is preferred to the “Books of Moses” on which the faith of Jesus Christ rested. What is the effect of all this upon the masses? upon those who sit from week to week under the “droppings of the sanctuaries,” from which such teachings continually filter? upon those who read the religious publications that blaze abroad the falsehoods and strengthen doubt? It is this: Those who look to these spiritual guides for instruction have lost faith in the Word of God, have lost faith in God’s moral law, do not believe in the fall of man, question the atonement of Christ, and are in literal fact without hope or God in the world. What wonder that men commit sin? The fear of God is not before their eyes. They have put Him far away. They measure Him by themselves. “Thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thyself,” says the Lord thru the psalmist. What wonder that the strenuous work of robbery, assault, and murder goes industriously on? And an important question is, How much of the responsibility of all this belongs to the church? If she was the light God designed she should be, even men of the world would be awed by her presence. Directly her own influence would be for righteousness, and indirectly the world would have been made susceptible, not to scientific skepticism and idolatry of evolution, but to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, which is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth. The remedy?—It is simple faith in the living Word of God thru Jesus Christ. Preaching that, brethren, involving the cross tho it does, there is hope for the sinner. In evolution there is none. The “missing link” will be ever wanting. But in the Gospel Jesus Christ is the living stairway from the lowest of earth’s depths to the eternal glory of heaven.