OBSTACLES TO THE GOSPEL.
By Ellet Joseph Waggoner
THERE are very many good people who are solicitous for the progress of the gospel, and who show their interest by attempts to remove the "obstacles that are in the way of its progress." One great obstacle is intemperance, and therefore these good people are using all the means in their power to make people temperate, so that the gospel may have a fair chance with them. Now there is not the least question that intemperance is a gigantic evil, but it is not the only evil in the world. It is true that no drunkard shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but it is just as true that no covetous man, no railer, no blasphemer, no deceiver, no impure person, no envious person, no thinker of evil, shall have any inheritance therein. Impatience will shut a person out of heaven as surely as intemperance, and it is very certain that there are many more impatient people than there are drunkards. Pride is an abomination in the sight of the Lord, and will shut one out of heaven as surely as intemperance, and while the number of drinkers is legion, the number of those who are filled with pride is vastly greater. These are obstacles to the spread of the gospel, as well as is intemperance. "But it is easier to get rid of these things than it is to get rid of intemperance." Then why are they not diminishing? It is very common to hear of the ineffectual attempts of the drunkard to overcome his appetite for drink. Broken temperance pledges are so numerous that some people are even beginning to have doubts about the power of the pledge to save a man. The idea quite generally obtains that there is a peculiar untrustworthiness about a drunkard. It is thought that his word is not so good as that of other men. Suppose the matter be tested. Let it become as popular to sign pledges to abstain from impatient speech, from talking about one's neighbors, or from thinking evil, and it would be seen that the promises of other people besides the drunkards are not good for much. There would be such a host of broken pledges as was never dreamed of in all the efforts to reclaim drunkards. It is also quite common to speak of the slavery of drink. The drunkard is pitied or despised as a slave, by those who never in their lives had any desire to use strong drink, but who have been bound as with fetters of steel by pride, selfishness, lust, impatience, covetousness, deceit, envy, evil speaking, or evil thinking. These people will make the same excuses for themselves that the drunkard does. They have tried many times to overcome their evil habits, but in vain. They have never put a pledge upon paper, but they have promised themselves and others times without number, that they will reform. Yet they never have. And so they have fallen back upon the old excuse that some allowance must be made for their peculiar natures. No, all the slaves are not found in the grogshops. We are not by any means seeking to belittle the evil of intemperance. But we are trying to help somebody to look at things with a better sense of their proportion. It seems as though anyone who stops to think over the matter will be convinced that it is just as easy for the drunkard to stop his drinking as it is for the covetous man to overcome his love for money, or for the impatient man to master his temper. Therefore these, and other things that have been mentioned, are as much obstacles in the way of the gospel as intemperance is. The trouble is that some things show off more than others, and look worse. Fashion, which in such matters is denominated "public sentiment," regards some kinds of sin as much worse than others. A man could not be admitted into the "best society" if he were a common drunkard, whereas impatience at home and with his employees, such love of money as would lead him, through his agent, to wring the last penny from a widow, ambition, lust, and pride, would none of them affect his standing in the least. Indeed, pride is quite generally counted as a virtue, although there is no other sin that finds such hearty condemnation in the Bible. A person may even be a church member "in good and regular standing," who is impatient, covetous, lustful, envious, given somewhat to gossip, and very much to evil thinking; but not if he is a drunkard, because drunkenness "brings a reproach upon the church." We do not say this to apologize for the drunkard, but to set sharply before the reader the unequal way which people have of looking at things. Well, what shall be done? how shall all these obstacles be removed from the way of648the gospel? Just give the gospel a chance, and it will show you how to remove obstacles. Quit trying to remove obstacles from the way of the gospel, and turn your attention to the gospel itself. Preach the word without apology or compromise, and see what it can do. The only thing that the gospel is in the world for is to remove obstacles. Drunkenness is a sin, just the same as hosts of other things, and the gospel is for the purpose of saving men from sin. Moreover, it is the power of God unto salvation. And it does thorough work upon a man. It saves him from intemperance, but it does more. It makes him an entirely new man. It does not save him from drinking habits to let him go to perdition through pride. It makes him complete, after the image of Him who created him. Christ is able to save to the uttermost them that come to God by him. There is no soul so low that Christ will not stoop to touch him, and he is able to raise up everyone whom he reaches. Then let him work. Hold him up before the world. Do not think to accomplish with the power of man that which can be accomplished only with the power of God. Remember that the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but spiritual, and that they are "mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds; casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ." 2 Cor. 10: 4, 5. Therefore, let no one who loves his fellow-men, and who would do them good, waste his time in anything less than making known to them "the riches of the glory of this mystery," which is "Christ in you the hope of glory," and let us preach him, "warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus." Col. 1: 27, 28.