Human Efforts and Christ’s Kingdom
By Editor
SPEAKING of the probable union of the National W. C. T. U. and the Knights of Labor, Joseph Cook said: "Powderly is a Catholic, Miss Willard a Methodist; if they can join hands, they may, as she says, 'lift civilization to a table-land across which Christ may walk.'" It is strange how Christ is ignored by so many who profess to revere his name and to desire the advancement of his cause. How ignored? Just in this way: They have the idea of a temporal kingdom of Christ, and they think that upon them devolves the work of bringing the world to such a state of godliness that Christ will come and take possession. This is National Reform doctrine pure and simple, and it is just what is implied in the above-quoted remark. And so the work of Christ, by his Spirit, the only means by which people can be made better, is ignored by those who blindly think that they are honoring him. Why will professed Christian workers imagine that they can do what the Spirit of the Lord cannot, namely, make all people Christians? While they are thus employing impotent human agencies, the world is steadily going to destruction.