UNDER WHICH KING? by New York Christian Advocate

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Mar 15, 1899

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 25, No. 11.

UNDER WHICH KING?

By New York Christian Advocate

A N ancient and devout writer observes that while he found many who could recite the Ten Commandments, he met few who kept them; and among Christian people it seemed to him that the number was not large who could truly say that they kept those two commandments on which Christ said "hang all the law and the prophets." He therefore arranged in order ten other commandments, which he says those who read them may call

THE DEVIL'S TEN COMMANDMENTS.

I. Live to thyself. Mind thine own Things. This is the first and great Commandment, on which all the rest hang, and to which they serve, and is the same as, Be thine own god.

II. Let thy Will be thy Law. Thou art thine own, thy Tongue is thine own, thy Time is thine own, thy Estate is thine own; mayst thou not do what thou wilt with thine own?

III. Make the best of the Time present, and of present Things. Lose not a Certainty for Uncertainties; Who knows what may be hereafter? Eat and drink, for To-morrow thou diest. Be merry while thou mayst, spend while thou hast it, make Hay while the Sun shines.

IV. Stand fast in the Liberties of thy flesh. Come not into Bondage. Be not a Slave to a strict Life, when thou mayst use thine own Liberty.

V. Continue in Sin because Grace hath abounded. Christ died for Sinners; God is merciful; Why shouldst thou then fear to take thy Course?

VI. Do as others do. Go along with the Multitude, fashion thyself to the Times, be not singular; why shouldst thou think thyself wiser than others?

VII. Do no more religion than needs. Be not righteous overmuch. Be not overforward; a little Faith, a little Repentance will serve thy Turn.

VIII. Do not trouble thyself about small Offences. Thoughts are free, Words are but Things of Course. What Man is there that lives and sins not? Why shouldst thou keep such ado about thy Sins, are they not little Ones?

IX. Be not overhasty. If thou must repent, it is Time enough yet; torment not thyself before thy Time. When thou art old, thou wilt have little else to do; be not old whilst thou art young.

X. Trust God with thy Soul rather than Man with Thy Body. Choose Iniquity rather than Affliction and Self-Denial. Venture no farther in Matters of Religion than thou mayst with Safety.

If one were to make a study of all who profess to be Christians and call themselves such, and attempt after these investigations to draw out the principles that control them, which would be the more likely to tabulate, the Ten Commandments promulgated from Sinai, or those which the ancient writer deduced from the conduct of most of those who surrounded him?

If the churches were keeping the commandments of God, could the church and the world be on such easy terms?

When pastor and people have forgotten their baptismal vows; when the vain pomp and glory of the world are sought, and the pride of life and lusts of the flesh are no longer abhorrent in their eyes; when together they are at ease in Zion, they may flatter each other into the belief that they are true disciples of Christ. They may even invent names to disguise to themselves their mutual impiety; their deadness they may call sobriety; their extravagance in surrounding themselves with luxuries they may style liberality; their quietness while their children and neighbors are neglecting God, they may characterise as reserve, or even fancy it to be faith in God that He will surely bring them in; their lack of interest in those of lower station they may describe as dignified self-respect; their covetousness they may regard as a prudent economy; and their irresponsiveness to what would stir emotion, the result of refinement; their objection to zealous efforts to awaken them, they may term opposition to religious frenzy.

Such characters were numerous in Christ's time. While there were a few who kept the commandments of God, the majority were running in the way of Satan's commandments. It was so when Wesley began his mission, and the victims of the great delusion throughout Great Britain and Ireland repelled and persecuted him.

Is it not possible, and even probable, that many of His followers are to-day walking in the way of more than one of the commandments which originate in the author of all evil?

But "who art thou that judgest another?" It is a question for each to ask himself. Every man should ponder these commandments. If to his conscience and to his God he can truly say that such thoughts are foreign to his nature, that once he was under their domination, "but grace hath set him free," then may he rejoice and press forward.

But if he must acknowledge that he is living unto himself and not unto Christ, he is spiritually dying if not already dead, and should hasten to do his first works over again. For every one who is not living "soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world," is receiving his orders, not from the King of kings and Lord of lords, but from the prince of this world, "the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience."