Something To Be Followed.
By Editor
IN reply to some queries an exchange has a column of replies, among which is the following categorical answer: "We should not follow Christ's example in washing one another's feet." And this notwithstanding Christ's emphatic statement: "If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you." John 13:14, 15. An "example" is something "which is to be followed or imitated;" and Christ said that he designed that his disciples should follow his example. He wished them to do as he had done to them. More than this, "ought" implies duty; it is the old form of the past tense of the word "owe," and therefore indicates obligation. If we say a person ought to do a certain thing, we indicate that to do that thing is a debt that he owes. So when Christ says, "Ye ought to wash one another's feet," he means that to do so is a duty; it is a debt that Christians owe. Again Christ says: "If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them." John 13:17. "Happy" is equivalent to "blessed." A blessing is pronounced on those who do according to Christ's example in this respect. And what if, knowing these things, we do not do them? Certainly the blessing will be withheld. The matter is as plain as words can make it. True, there is only one mention of it in the Bible; but do those who plead this fact as against the adoption of the ordinance, mean to imply that Christ never did and said the things recorded in the thirteenth chapter of John? We believe not, for we never heard any doubt expressed as to the truthfulness of the account. Then if it is a fact that Christ washed his disciples feet, and said "Ye also ought to wash one another's feet; for I have given you an example," isn't it just as valid as though the account were repeated fifty times? It certainly is. We are morally certain that if such evidence could be found in favor of Sunday-keeping, or of infant "baptism," those who believe in these practices would not ask for any stronger testimony in their support. We also know that there are hundreds of men who would shout for exultation if they could find as strong an argument for Sunday-keeping as the thirteenth of John contains for feet-washing. The trouble is, it is too humiliating an ordinance to be generally adopted; and the strong tendency nowadays is to reject all of the Bible except Christ's own words, and to reject all of his words that are unpalatable.