“THE LAW IS SLACKED;” TIMES ARE “PERILOUS.” WHY?
THERE is general complaint from all parts of Christendom that morality is at very low ebb. Idolatry, profanity, disobedience to parents, murder, adultery, stealing in a multitude of forms, legalized and illegal, and false swearing are abroad in the land. The pope, in his poem for the new century, grieves and laments over the century gone. He speaks of “the blood that has been shed, the scepters that have been shattered, and the monstrous licentiousness that prevails;” of “the cruel war;” of “the laws that have nothing divine;” of “the horde of mad philosophers” who “loathe the divine origin of the race as a thing inconceivable;” of an “abyss of dishonor” into which their helpless pride has been plunged; of “the rebellious nations;” of “the wrath and tumult and horrid war.” And all this and more is evident to thousands of good men. The worst of it all is that much of this lawlessness is among professed Christians. This is the picture the apostle Paul draws of this very time:— “This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, truce-breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof; from such turn away.” 2 Tim. 3: 1-5. Read the list carefully. There are mentioned eighteen different sins. Now it is not that these sins exist that makes the times perilous. They have existed in the natural hearts of men in all ages. See the same sins mentioned in Rom. 1: 29-31 and Gal. 5: 19-21. It is where these sins are that makes the times perilous; for the list of the eighteen sins above named is found among those who have a “form of godliness.” They are professed Christians. They have the name to live, but are dead. They have a form of godliness, but not the power, always manifest in a godly life. Is the prediction of the apostle true? Do we see these sins among those who profess better things?—Verily, we do. The sins are common, aren’t they? Self-loving, coveting, boasting, proud men are ubiquitous in church circles, we all know. Disobedience to parents is a common sin. It is said by W. C. T. U. workers that 150,000 of the fallen girls in this country are from Christian homes. How many fallen boys are from there? Unthankful, unholy, covenant-breaking, licentious, fierce, heady men and women are well known. In fact, every sin in the catalog is so common as to occasion little remark. We know that of these days the apostle spake truly. We expect these sins in the world. They are the natural fruits of the unregenerate heart. But men look for something better in Christianity, which they judge by the record of its Author. The church is designed to be “the salt of the earth”—its preserving power; “the light of the world”—its guiding, elevating influence. But when the salt has lost its savor and the light is obscured by every sin in the catalog of evil, of what benefit is the church? and how perilous indeed is the condition of all those who are looking unto the church for power and guidance! What Is the Cause of This?
It is double-rooted; and both its sources are found in the professed church of Christ. We can consider but one in this issue. The first root is the old Galatian idea, the old Pharisaic idea, the old Babylonian idea—that Christ is not an all-sufficient Saviour; that the Word is not an all-sufficient guide. We will not stop to argue that Christ is an all-sufficient Saviour, or that the Word is an all-sufficient guide. We assume both to be true; and every soul that holds to the infallible Word will have no question as to its teaching. But one great branch of the professed Christian church, the Roman Catholic, has shown that she does not believe Christ an all-sufficient Saviour; for His work in her scheme has been supplemented by human works, by penances, by pilgrimages, by priestly rite, by intercession of saints, by the mediatorial work of Mary, till Christ has been put far away, accessible only thru cordons of ecclesiastical police. And the human, mortal intermediaries are non-conductors of the divine power of holiness which God wants to transmit to His children. Faith, operative, living faith, must take hold of a living, personal Saviour. Jesus says, not come unto priest or saint, but “come unto Me,” and that means personal contact. To supplement the all-sufficient Word the Roman Catholic Church has brought in tradition, even as did the scribes and doctors of old. Of old the tradition of the elders made void the law of God. Mark 7:13. In this era the tradition of the “fathers” of the Catholic Church has done the same thing; for God commanded, “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. . . . The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God,” but tradition says that to honor that commandment is “to keep holy the Sunday,” the first day of the week. Thus, as of old, is the law of God made void that men may keep tradition. The Reformation was a protest against the Roman view of the insufficiency of the Word; but when faced with the cross of her protest, Protestantism has refused to bear its offense. She still proclaimed the all-sufficiency of the Word, but rejected her proclamation in practical life. Finding herself with the Roman Sunday, based on tradition alone, she has accepted it rather than accept of the Sabbath of an all-sufficient Bible, kept by an all-sufficient Saviour and Example, and bear its cross, with its offense, for His sake who died for her. What Is the Effect of This?
All who accept the Sabbath of tradition say to the world that God, when He gave the fourth precept of the Decalog, the Sabbath commandment, did not mean what He said, and we may interpret it in larger liberty. They say by this, whether they mean to or not, that when God gave the sixth commandment, “Thou shalt not kill,” He did not mean what He said. The result is war and murder. They say that when God gave the seventh commandment, “Thou shalt not commit adultery,” He did not mean what He said. Hence the “monstrous licentiousness.” They say that when God gave the eighth commandment, “Thou shalt not steal,” He did not mean what He said. Hence thievery, embezzlement, fraud, extortion, swindling, purloining, robbing, from individuals to nations. For it is all one law; one God gave it. It is all eternal—or none. And so men reason, “If God is not to be followed in one commandment, why in any?” Who is responsible? Who but those that are still, in the face of light, perpetuating the old falsehood of the insufficiency of Christ and the Word? Principles are eternal. Thus God spoke anciently; and “it is written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come”:— “Son of man, say unto her, Thou art the 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 have taken the treasure and precious things; they have made her many widows in the midst thereof. Her priests have violated My law, and have profaned Mine holy things; they have put no difference between the holy and profane, neither have they showed difference 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, to get dishonest gain. And her prophets have daubed 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, and have vexed the poor and needy; yea, they have oppressed the stranger wrongfully.” Eze. 22: 24-29. And yet, notwithstanding the fact that they make God’s law void thru tradition, these teachers cry out, as does the pope in his twentieth-century poem:— “Keep, O mortals, for all times, the dread commands of God! He alone is life, and He the unfailing truth; He alone the way that leads to heaven.” But He who keeps the “dread commands of God” will not keep the Sunday of tradition, or allow saint or prelate to separate him from Christ. Again the Lord speaks of those who in these days thus teach and yet are “partial in the law”:— “What hast thou to do to declare My statutes, or that thou shouldest take My covenant in thy mouth? seeing thou hatest instruction, and castest My words behind thee. When thou sawest a thief, then thou consentedst with him, and hast been partaker with adulterers. Thou givest thy mouth to evil, and thy tongue frameth deceit. Thou sittest and speakest against thy brother; thou slanderest thine own mother’s son. These things hast thou done, and I kept silence; thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thyself; but I will reprove thee, and set them in order before thine eyes. Now consider this, ye that forget God, lest I tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver.” Ps. 50: 16-22. In the blazing light of the Word of God, in a land of multiplied7Bibles, how can the effect be other than what it is? “The law is slacked.” Transgression is multiplied. The teaching power of the church is turned from the only source that can give her power to live a godly life; tradition is more to her than the living Word of the living God; and the great sinful world laughs in her face and goes on in its lusts. O brethren in the ministry, you upon whom God has placed a burden of souls, there is but one remedy,—a return to first principles: an all-sufficient Word as guide, an all-sufficient Saviour as Sacrifice, King, Example! Be honest with God, whatever the cross.