AN OBJECT LESSON by W. N. G.

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Mar 26, 1896

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 22, No. 13.

AN OBJECT LESSON.

By W. N. G.

The Armenian atrocities, and the futile attempts of the great so-called Christian nations of Europe to compel the Turkish Government to stop the noted outrages, have demonstrated one thing, namely, the utter impotency of human government as a protection to Christianity. The National Reform movement, with its numerous auxiliaries, is a movement for the protection and support of Christianity by the civil power. It is now a quite general plea in the nominal Christian world that all opposition to Christianity should be promptly resented and punished by the civil government. But the unreliability of such protection has been emphasized as never before in the case of Armenia. Civil governments never have attempted to protect anything but the apostate formalities of Christian profession; they never have been, and are not now, competent to protect any doctrine or practice clearly taught in the word of God. But in Armenia they have failed to protect even the degenerate forms that pose before the world as Christianity. But this feature of the subject is not the point to which we now call special attention. The Armenians are at least nominal Christians; they are persecuted by the Mohammedans because of that profession; for the purposes of Moslem hate they are recognized as Christians, and for the purpose of a feeble remonstrance on the part of the great so-called Christian governments of Europe, they are recognized as Christians.

Now note the ridiculous spectacle presented by the situation. For fifty-five years the Moslem government of Turkey has existed only by the consent and material support of the Christian (?) governments of Europe. It is to-day unable to stand alone. Yet all these great Christian powers combined are unable to stop the atrocities committed upon the Armenian Christians by the Mohammedans of Turkey. The people of these “great powers” hold mass-meetings, the authorities parade their navies, make diplomatic demands, exact promises of the sultan, and in various ways make a great show of relief and protection. But in the midst of it all the “sick man” sits and smokes, and the “great powers” finally acknowledge their inability to force him to keep his pledge to guarantee freedom of religion in his domain.

This pointed object lesson ought to convince any observing mind that human governments are neither designed nor fitted for the work of protecting Christianity. They are designed for the regulation of civil affairs only, and beyond this point “vain is the help of man.” The Lord knew what he was saying when, through the mouth of his servant David, he said: “Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help.” Ps. 146:3. “It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in princes.” Ps. 118:9. Again he tells us, “Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord.” Jer. 17:5. So we may know, when we see men clamoring for the help and protection of the civil government in matters of religion, that their heart is departed from the Lord. “Trust in the Lord, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed.” Ps. 37:3. This was the principle upon which Christ and his apostles worked, and the Gospel cause was more powerful and more successful in their day than it ever has been since. From their day to this, civil government as a dependence of the church has been tried time and again, only to prove that such dependence was an evidence of spiritual declension, only to prove that such dependence was simply to lean upon a broken reed. Civil government as a support of Christianity has been often and thoroughly tested, and the test has shown it to be sadly wanting. “I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress; my God; in him will I trust.” Ps. 91:2. “He delighteth not in the strength of the horse; he taketh not pleasure in the legs of a man. The Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear him, in those that hope in his mercy.” Ps. 147:10, 11. W. N. G.