HERE is a clipping, similar to many others in these days of "Christian Citizenship" and "applied Christianity," which we take from the Christian Work of July 1:—
The better Christian a man is, the better patriot will he be. Indeed, he is the highest and best type of a patriot, for whom the truth makes free is free indeed. He is free from all narrowness and the bitterness of selfish prejudices. He is broader minded and more liberal and just in his views and his dealings with others, less hard and exacting, and more ready to yield where to do so is right and proper. At the same time, the honor and the welfare of his country is as precious to him as his own personal honor, and he will as rigidly and firmly uphold the one as the other.
A true Christian is a follower, a learner, a disciple of Christ, one who lives the life of Christ, who is actuated by the same spirit of large-hearted unselfishness. Christ died to save not a country or nation but the world; he died to save all men, of whatever race or nation. The Christian is a debtor, and should acknowledge himself as such, "both to the Greeks, and to the Barbarians; both to the wise, and to the unwise." Rom. 1:14. "If any man will come after me," says Jesus, "let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me." Matt. 16:24. "Whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he can not be my disciple." Luke 14:33. "He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me. He that findeth his life shall lose it; and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it." Matt. 10:37-39. This is what it is to be a Christian.
A true patriot is "one who loves his country and zealously supports and upholds its institutions and interests."—Standard Dictionary.
Patriotism is "love and devotion to one's country; the spirit that, originating in love of country, prompts to obedience to its laws, to the support and defense of its existence, rights, and institutions, and to the promotion of its welfare."—Id.
A Vital Difference.
It will be seen from the above that there is a vital difference between patriotism and Christianity, and hence between a patriot and a Christian. It will also be conceded that Christ died for all, that he is "no respecter of persons," that "in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him." Acts 10:34, 35.
When Jesus walked the earth, the Jewish idea of religion was patriotism, or fealty to that one nation, and in that nation the Pharisees believed themselves to be the only ones worthy of consideration. So when Christ's love reached out to the publicans and the hated Samaritans, and even intimated that God would find in other nations those for whom he could better work, the Jews hated him and were ready to kill him. Luke 4:24-29. The reason was that he did not regard their institutions, their burdensome Sabbath, so unlike God's, except in the matter of the day; he did not regard above others the scribes and Pharisees, who arrogated to themselves the chief seats of wisdom. Loving them as they did not love each other, loving Jerusalem and Judea as they could not love it, loving all the world as they did not love even their own, they sought to kill him because he was not "patriot" enough to observe their man-perverted institutions. John 5:10, 16, 18.
History Repeats Itself.
The religious world, strong in number, weak in spiritual power, have departed from the Word of God. They hold traditional institutions which find no support in the Word of God. Among these is the Sunday-sabbath. They not only count it a test of their religion, but are endeavoring to identify it with the nation. It is called the American Sunday and the American sabbath. It is demanded by thousands of so-called Christian citizens that it shall be made a test of patriotism; that he who "desecrates" Sunday is not a patriot, but a foe to his country. In the words of Archbishop Ireland, "The violator of a Sunday law is the worst of criminals."
Now to many Bible Christians Sunday has no sacredness. It is an interloper, a counterfeit sabbath, a usurper of the Sabbath of the Lord. To observe it as a sacred day is to them dishonoring to God, and a tax upon their time, which is not required of others. Conscientiously they can not yield to such an institution. But while in the eyes of so-called "patriots" they are the greatest foes to their country, in very fact they are the truest friends, because they are the friends of all, laboring for the eternal good and highest happiness of all.
The Christian view is the broader, higher, better, purer view. In whatever country God places him, that is his field of labor. He is there to give to men God's message till the Lord sends him elsewhere. His country lies beyond. His citizenship is in heaven, and he seeks there the better country. In this world, like Abraham, he has forsaken country and kindred and father's house to go to the land he should afterward receive for an inheritance. Gen. 12:1. He received no inheritance in this world, no, not so much as to set his foot on (Acts 7:5), but he died strong in faith, looking for "a better country, that is, an heavenly; wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; for he hath prepared for them a city" (see Heb. 11:13-16). Christianity, in object, in purpose, in spirit, in noble, unselfish impulses, labors, and sympathies, as far transcends patriotism as heaven does earth, as the eternal does the temporal.