CHRIST AS A CITIZEN by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Nov 28, 1892

CHRIST AS A CITIZEN.

By Editor

CHARLES F. DEEMS, D.D., LL.D., says in the Christian at Work of November 3:—

Every Christian voter must vote. He is compelled to select from among existing parties the platform which is the most Christian, and the candidate which is most Christian. In other words, he must endeavor to discover for what and for whom Jesus Christ, the Christian's model, teacher, friend, and master, would vote if he were a citizen, and that ballot the Christian voter is bound to cast.

What Jesus Christ would do we know by what he has done. In the last election there were four Christian candidates before the American people, all members of the Presbyterian Church, asking the people for the highest office within their gift. On a certain occasion two brothers, and brethren of the disciples of Christ, came before him and asked for exalted positions. There was, even, no strife betwixt the two; they wanted a higher place than their ten brethren. The record of that event and all-time lesson is as follows:—

Then came to him the mother of Zebedee's children with her sons, worshiping him, and desiring a certain thing of him. And he said unto her, What wilt thou? She said unto him, Grant that these my two sons may sit, the one on thy right hand, and the other on the left, in thy kingdom. But Jesus answered and said, Ye know not what ye ask. Are ye able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of, and to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with? They say unto him, We are able. And he saith unto them, Ye shall drink indeed of my cup, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with; but to sit on my right hand, and on my left, is not mine to give, but it shall be given to them for whom it is prepared of my Father. And when the ten heard it, they were moved with indignation against the two brethren. But Jesus called them unto him, and said, Ye know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them, and they that are great exercise authority upon them. But IT SHALL NOT BE SO AMONG YOU; but whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister; and whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant; even as the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many. Matt. 20: 20-28.

Of another time in his earth life it is said: "When Jesus therefore perceived that they would come and take him by force, to make him a king, he departed again into a mountain himself alone." John 6: 15. Jesus said again: "My kingdom is not of this world; if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews; but now is my kingdom not from hence." John 18: 36. This is what "Jesus Christ, the Christian's model, teacher, friend, and master," has said; would he talk differently to-day? Is he not "Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, and to-day, and forever"? Blessed are those who trust his word, who make not him a citizen of earth, but themselves, through him, citizens of heaven.

Will It Be the Creed of the Future?—

The Episcopal Church presents four articles as a basis of unity upon which all the Protestant churches would doubtless agree, with the exception of the last:—

a. The Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, as "containing all things necessary to salvation," and as being the rule and ultimate standard of faith.

b. The Apostles' Creed, as the Baptismal Symbol; and the Nicene Creed, as the sufficient statement of the Christian faith.

c. The two Sacraments ordained by Christ himself—Baptism and the Supper of the Lord—ministered with unfailing use of Christ's words of institution, and of the elements ordained by him.

d. The Historic Episcopate, locally adapted in the methods of its administration to the varying needs of the nations and peoples called of God into the Unity of His Church.

On the last, no doubt, some kind of compromise could be effected, as the Episcopal Church once held Presbyterian ordination to be valid, as the head of the English Church—Queen Victoria—now does. The Methodist could come in under Wesley, perhaps, a branch of the great historic episcopate; and the claim of the Baptists might also receive quasi-recognition. But in our mind we do not know why the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, as the rule and ultimate standard of faith, is not all sufficient. What can the so-called Apostles' Creed, or the Nicene Creed, add to God's word? What can any creed do but bind and fetter the faith which God designs should grow and expand while faith is necessary? Creeds always have and always will hinder Christian growth and true unity. They are ever the beginning of those apostasies which culminate in union of Church and State, and result in persecution. The word of God is all sufficient.