GOD WILL BE RESPECTED AND OBEYED.
By Albert Stone
The prosperity of earthly governments depends upon having good laws, good rulers, and virtuous citizens. The same is true in the government of God. Hence, “righteousness exalteth a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people.” Heaven is a unit in acknowledging the constitution formed by God, and the laws he has ordained. And such acknowledgment is the only true position of God’s people in this world. But until earthly governments have passed away as the chaff of the summer threshing floor, the people of God must be content to be strangers and pilgrims on the earth. In the meantime, it is their duty to respect God and obey his law in anticipation of the time when his will shall be done on earth as it is in Heaven. At present they must fight the good fight of faith; and thus lay hold of the promised reward. To crucify the flesh and overcome the world, will require their utmost efforts. It is well to have respect unto the recompense of the reward, but even this must be subordinate to our respect for him who is to bestow on us the reward. To labor unselfishly to honor God, is a sign of grace in the heart. Unselfishness is a characteristic of God, of Christ, and of the angels. This characteristic will be prominent in all who live out the principles of Bible religion. To be a Christian is to be assimilated to Christ. God has a perfect arrangement, and if we do not come into it, or having come into it, diverge from it, because of blind selfishness, we just put ourselves outside of the only plan by which we can be saved. God’s plan is perfect; to change it would be to make it imperfect; it is therefore arbitrary in the sense that it cannot be changed without injury to all parties. God is full of love, compassion, and accommodation. The gospel is a system of accommodation to man’s wants. But man must not interfere with its terms or provisions. These are fixed by infinite wisdom and goodness; they are perfect, and will resist all attempts to add to them or take from them. Unconditional acceptance and submission is God’s requirement and man’s necessity. Many ostensible helps are offered to religion by its professed friends, which are disrespectful to God and ruinous to men. Much labor has been spent to separate religion from moral principle, and thus make it acceptable to the carnal mind. The long train of church festivals and pleasure-seeking arrangements now practiced by the nominal churches evince a powerful effort of the enemy to reduce religion and its Author to the low level of fallen man. Unbelief and the rejection of present truth has caused a vacancy in the ranks of God’s professed people, which fallen angels are filling up with great rapidity. Thus the religion of the crucified One is disemboweled, its carcass embalmed and made the welcome home of foul spirits and unclean birds. Such is the effrontery offered, by the would-be friends of religion, to the Father and the Son. But the sequel is yet to come, and nigh at hand. Every act of disrespect to God will be avenged, and the Lord alone will be exalted in that day. ALBERT STONE.