The Spirit and Letter of God's Law
By Editor
AN exchange says that “God never needs many soldiers when led by a Gideon.” But this is a better way to put it: A Gideon never needs many soldiers when God is directing the battle. ONE of the most mischievous delusions of the times is the prevalent notion that the spirit of the law of God may be obeyed in the deliberate disobedience of the letter. It is true that the law requires spiritual obedience, for “the law is spiritual,” but it is the letter that expresses to the finite mind what the law is. While the spirit of the law is broader and deeper than the letter, as comprehended by the finite mind, there is no inharmony or counteraction. “The law of the Lord is perfect.” The laws of men sometimes fail to express the exact design of the law-making power; not so the law of God, which is the perfect revelation of his will. We never can be guided to a spiritual discernment of the requirements of this law by walking contrary to the letter. “Set your hearts unto all the words which I testify among you this day, which ye shall command your children to observe to do, all the words of this law.” Deut. 32: 46. THE children of this world are seeking after wealth, honor, knowledge, and pleasure, expecting only a short lease of life. The children of God, through patient continuance in faith, manifested in works of love, expect a far greater measure and a far more enduring quality of these very things. The world laughs at the Christian for risking his all on faith in the promise of greater returns hereafter. But the world at the same time is risking all on known uncertainties, which are every day proving but delusive phantoms, vanishing from sight just as the imagination is ready to grasp them. Occasionally a man reaches almost the height of his ambition, but just as he is ready to congratulate himself on the result, he hears the summons, “Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee.” Never has it been said that anyone in his dying hour regretted having lived a life of faith in God. Faith never disappoints even in the most critical emergency.