Civilization and Sanctification
By Editor
OFTEN the increase of civilization, the arts, the sciences, a general increase of knowledge, are taken for an increase of Christianity. Men suppose that the world is becoming converted because it is becoming civilized. But there is a wide difference between the two. The following from Rev. Alfred Norris, of West Kensington, England, expresses so forcibly this truth that we cannot forbear to reproduce it:— “Civilization is not sanctification, and cannot produce it; the descendants of Cain originated the arts, sciences, and amenities of life, but they were also polygamists and egotists of a boastful and murderous kind—wherefore, except there be sanctification, civilization will merely become corrupt.” The only means of converting the world, or nations, or men, is through the grace and regenerating power of the Lord Jesus Christ. “Ye must be born again,” is as true now as when spoken by the great Teacher to the proud Pharisee, eighteen hundred years ago, but it is no less unpopular.