TRUSTING IN THE ARM OF FLESH.
By W. N. G.
A MINISTER in Auburn, N. Y., in course of a recent address in support of Sunday laws, said: “What we want is such a public sentiment that will demand the law and the Sabbath to be observed if it takes all the police force of the Empire State to enforce it.” The meeting was under the auspices of the churches of the city, and was to have been addressed by Mr. W. F. Crafts, of National Reform fame. In his absence, however, three of the ministers of the city undertook to fill his place. This may account for the expression of such a sentiment as that which we have quoted. It is a characteristic National Reform sentiment, as the National Reform idea of keeping the commandments of God is to have them enforced by civil law. This reminds us of an expression of one of the speakers at the recent annual meeting of the California State Sabbath Association, held in this city. The speaker was a D.D. from San Jose, and he stated that about thirty members of his church could not keep the Sabbath because we had no State Sunday law. He meant that they held situations which they would lose if they refused to work on Sunday. Professing to follow Christ, and believing that Sunday is the Sabbath, their minister justifies them in disobeying what they believe to be the commandment of God because their employers are not compelled to observe Sunday. A fundamental theory of National Reformism is that the right of one to obey God’s law is dependent upon the compulsion of all to do so. Logically, from the standpoint of such doctrine, obedience to the law of God is dependent upon its enforcement by the civil power. It is a fact, however, that should be emphasized, that Jesus Christ kept the law perfectly at a time when paganism was upheld by the then universal government of Rome, and even the traditions enforced by the nominal people of God were adverse to the principles of his law. Christ lived upon the principle afterward announced by his apostles, that we “ought to obey God rather than men.” Acts 5:29. “And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.” Luke 9:23. “And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, can not be my disciple.” Chapter 14:27. To this we may add the testimony of John: “He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked.” 1 John 2:6. Neither Christ nor his apostles ever sought to have the civil law so framed as to make it easy for them to obey God. They never sought to have the civil power compel others to observe the Sabbath, or any day as the Sabbath. Such action was left for an apostate church, after she had committed fornication with the kings of the earth. All attempts of the church to secure the aid of the civil government in enforcing her dogmas is fornication; it is seeking alliance with the world; it is leaning upon the arm of flesh rather than upon the power of God. W. N. G.