NO NEUTRAL GROUND by Rev. A. Andrew

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, Cal. · Dec 15, 1887

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 13, No. 48.

NO NEUTRAL GROUND.

By Rev. A. Andrew

LAST summer it was my privilege to spend five weeks on the famous rock of Gibraltar. Six thousand soldiers, it is said, are stationed there, and my duty was to act as chaplain for a brother who was greatly in need of a rest. . . . Outside the rock, at the north end, beyond what is called the north front, there is a piece of ground stretching out towards Spain, generally known as the Neutral Ground, measuring about half a mile broad, and extending from the Mediterranean on the east to the bay on the west. It is a sandy desert. There is nothing attractive about it, and yet it is closely guarded night and day. All along the Spanish lines you see little white boxes for the sentinels, and very much the same thing you see on the other side, so that nobody can venture thereon without being observed and challenged. "Why," I said to a friend one day, "can that be? If I go upon that ground shall I be challenged?" "Yes—either by the Spaniards on the one side or by the British on the other." "Indeed! Well, after all," I said, "there is no neutral ground, for it can't be occupied. You must go either to the one side or to the other; and therefore there is no neutral ground."

And when I said this to my friend, he exclaimed, "No; and suppose you could occupy it, it wouldn't be worth, as it is nothing but a barren wilderness, and can be converted into nothing else." Ah! precisely; and is not that also true in regard to spiritual things? You cannot occupy any neutral place. You must either be on one side or another—for Christ or against him. For he said with his own lips, "He that is not with me is against me; and he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad."

Sometimes you hear people say, "I don't make any profession—I belong to no church or religious sect. Many nowadays make a profession that is not real, and sit down at the Lord's table, where they have no right to be. But, thank God, I am no hypocrite; I make no professions, and belong to no church." But consider for a moment—is all that possible? Can a man be colorless—having no opinions and no convictions? If you dig down you will find out that the root of all their professed indifference is love for carnal pleasure or worldly advantage. Those that make no profession of Christianity, and go to no church, so act because they love the world more than they love Christ or his house; and can that be right? can that be profitable? for what if you gain the whole world and lose your soul? or what can a man give in exchange for his soul? Soon you will be in eternity; and what will all your worldly gains and pleasures do for you then? What a poor harvest you will have to reap, for "whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap"! Oh, remember there is no neutral ground! You must be either for Christ or against him. "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life; and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him."—Rev. A. Andrew, in British Messenger.