p. 50 | TWO PRINCIPLES

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Nov 27, 1893

TWO PRINCIPLES.

TWO RELIGIONS.

TWO METHODS.

In past numbers it has been shown from the Scriptures that God is love, that all that he has done and is doing for man is actuated by infinitely wise love, and that from man he demands love in return. Not only does God demand of man love to him first of all, and love to his neighbor as himself, but within every heart which will yield to God, his Holy Spirit will plant that love—love to God. And love to God means love to man; "for everyone that loveth Him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of Him." 1 John 5: 1.

Love to God, love for mankind in general, and love for the brethren in particular, are great tests of the religion of the Bible. It is not a New Testament law that man shall love God with all his heart, soul, mind, and strength, it is a law of the whole Bible. See Deut. 6: 5; 10: 12, 13; Matt. 22: 37. And this is likewise true of the love which a person should bear to his neighbor. See Lev. 19: 18; Matt. 22: 39. Neither was the term neighbor to be confined to friend, kindred, or race; it included the stranger and needy of all races. See Lev. 19: 34; Deut. 10: 19; Luke 10: 33–36. Neither does love stop here; it extends even to one's enemies. See Ex. 23: 4, 5; Prov. 25: 21, 22; Matt. 5: 44; Rom. 12: 20.

Such love led Christ to give himself for a guilty world. The same love, begotten by the same Spirit, led Moses to plead for rebellious, murmuring Israel: "Oh, this people have sinned a great sin, and have made them gods of gold. Yet now, if thou wilt forgive their sin—" and then his heart becomes too full for utterance; he knows that God would be justified in their destruction, but he loves them, and he will give his own life—"if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book which thou hast written." Ex. 32: 31, 32. It was the same love and same Spirit which breathed through Paul, as he saw blinded and contumacious Israel turned from Christ: "I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh." Rom. 9: 3. This is the Spirit and mind of Christ; this is the spirit of his true followers in all ages.

It will be readily seen that those holding this Spirit in its fullness would never coerce, compel, or persecute; for love will not, cannot, persecute. It will persuade, beseech, entreat, implore, win, but it will not force. This is the gospel and religion of Christ. It has power, even the mighty power of the All-Creator, but its power is to the believer, to him who voluntarily yields to its omnipotent influence. Says the apostle: "I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ; for it is the

power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth."

The power of the gospel is therefore exercised (1) only to him and through him who believes, and (2) to each one individually and not collectively, for it is impossible for men to believe as a company, a congregation, or as a nation. The rule forever is to each individual, "According to thy faith be it unto thee."

Faith reveals to man what he is, a poor, lost, undone sinner. It reveals Christ to him as his only and complete Saviour. It awakens love, inexpressible love, for Him who delivers from sin and death. It leads the soul thus delivered to abhor self and to give all the glory to God. It forms Christ within, the hope of glory, and holds him there by its constant exercise. All this faith in the gospel of Christ does. And the sinner, for whom all this work of God's wondrous grace in Christ has been wrought, knows that the same love, the same power, the same wisdom, and none other, can do the same work for every other soul, no matter how sinful or vile that soul may be, if that soul will but submit; and he also knows that no power in the universe can do this work if the soul will not submit. There is none greater than God, and God has made man sovereign over his own choice.

He, therefore, who knows the preciousness of the gospel of Christ will not compromise God's truth, will remain loyal to his Redeemer, and will proclaim by voice and pen and daily life the truth as it is in Jesus. At the same time he loves sinners and will labor for their salvation. He will set before them the better way, but will never seek to compel them to obey, because he knows that forced obedience is not obedience in God's sight, for God demands loving, willing service. Even if he could obtain power to compel outward acquiescence to religious ordinances or laws, he knows that it simply compels sinners to be hypocrites and not righteous men; for those who act religiously as they do not believe are hypocrites. God through his gospel does not make hypocrites, but righteous men, and he does this by the willing consent and coöperation of the man.

The child of God will not only therefore not ask for civil power to promote, advance, or compel religious ordinances, but he will utterly repudiate such power. He knows that civil power has its sphere appointed of God, and that sphere is to secure and maintain the rights of its citizens, and to restrain those who would invade those rights. It may restrain incivility, it may punish those who transgress, but it does all this, if acting in its proper sphere, solely to secure and maintain the equal rights of every one of its subjects. But the child of God through the gospel knows that the civil power cannot enforce morality or spirituality, and therefore, in the very nature of the case, has no right to interfere in matters of religion. And this Christ has forever set at rest in the following great principle: "Render to Cæsar the things that are Cæsar's, and to God the things that are God's." With matters of religion, or duties which man owes to God, or man's personal relation to God, Cæsar, or civil government, has naught to do. The true Christian, therefore, will not seek to compel others to do as he thinks best, will not persecute; and he will do none of these things simply and solely because of his faith in God and love for souls. In this he has the example and teaching of his great Master, Jesus Christ. This we will show in a future article.

But with the religion of self a different spirit has been pursued. The great apostate religions of earth have all been connected with civil power. From the worship of the ancient sun god Baal to the most modern form of idolatry, human force, the lordship of self, the methods of coercion, compulsion, intolerance, and persecution have been shown. The spirit of persecution has been manifest in them all, from the decree of Nebuchadnezzar concerning the worship of the golden image to the last decree of persecution uttered by Russia. But more in our next.