SPIRITUAL DECLENSION—WHY IS IT?
By C. M. Snow
THE spiritual declension so painfully manifest in the popular churches of the present day, and so often brought to the notice of the public, is a serious "thorn in the flesh" of religious thought. But the remedy most generally proposed, and now being extensively urged, is a matter that should also receive serious consideration. A candid contemplation of the acknowledged condition of the professed Christian world, and the efforts to better its spiritual standing and influence for good, will reveal the fact that not only is the situation the result of departing from God's Word, but the proposed remedy is also out of harmony with scriptural methods of reform. The clamor of the more prominent churches and coördinate religious organizations for political power, for the framing of civil laws, to enhance the spiritual condition of the country and the world, is in direct line with the misguided wishes of Christ's disciples, before they understood the full and true meaning of his mission to earth. There was even strife among them as to who should be greatest when Christ should set up his kingdom. The sons of Zebedee had an intercessor to seek for them the positions of highest honor, as has every political aspirant of the present day. It would seem that nothing but Christ's departure from those who had identified themselves with him on earth, could bring them to realize the full meaning of his words and acts in relation to his earthly mission. "Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?" was the interruption of the Saviour's last discourse with his apostles. It seemed an impossibility to them to give up the idea of Christ's becoming a ruler in the world that then was. And the history of those times is repeating itself now in the clamor of certain religious leaders for the regulation of religious duties, by the laws of the realm. Whatever is out of harmony with the outward moral life, they seek to annihilate by civil processes—which act is a virtual prayer to human rulers, to be delivered from temptation—a prayer to earthly power for what Heaven alone can give. But is there to be no redress for the Christian, for the wrongs he suffers from the evil influences surrounding him? Must he stand quietly by and see wrongs perpetrated—suffer wrongs—without seeking to change the laws that permit them? Here is a chance for the exercise of Christian faith, an opportunity which Bible characters frequently improved, furnishing to us the most illustrious examples on record of what Christian fortitude really is, and the influence which it has upon those who witness it. Had they escaped from the situation by revising the laws of the land, they would never have been heard of as overcomers. How different would be the story of the three Hebrew worthies, and how different would have been the influence upon king and court and country had Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, by a successful political "pull," changed that dreadful edict of King Nebuchadnezzar! Witness the change in that mighty monarch and the opportunity for the promulgation of the Word of God in Babylon, which was brought about by the course of the captive Hebrews. Study that lesson, and reflect upon it. How different would be the reading of the Babylonian narrative concerning Daniel himself, had he by political machinations secured his release from the awful fate to which the edict of King Darius condemned him! Another opportunity would have been lost for heralding the name of Jehovah throughout the realm of the Median king. These worthies worshiped their God, they trusted in him and his power where they were not able to see the outcome of the course which their teachings compelled them to take. Did they despair because the law of their God was contrary to the law of the land? Did they show up the "record" of the lawmakers, and hold them up to public contempt? Examine the record and see: "We are not careful to answer thee." "Our God whom we serve is able to deliver us out of thy hand." Peter and John by an appeal to the multitude at the time of their incarceration could have interfered very materially with the administration of the rulers of the Jews, and mayhap saved themselves from imprisonment at their hands; but the Lord had given them no such commission; and by leaving temporal things to those into whose hands they are given, and attending strictly to the work which was committed to them, a mighty miracle was wrought in their behalf, and hundreds believed in consequence. There is a spiritual declension. It is an alarming fact. There is a reason for it, too. There is no spiritual power in the courts of common law. Such institutions are not the source of spiritual blessing. They were not instituted for the purpose of conferring such blessing. But the church is turning more and more to this source, and is seeking to attain the end for which she was established, by continued and increasing appeals to the law. She is drinking from a different source than that to which she was led by the Lord of glory. In so doing she is not slaking her thirst at the well of salvation, nor is she drinking the water of life from such a source. It is a remarkable fact that the turning of the church to the world and the law for support, and for carrying out her aims, is rapidly increasing; and the different church organizations are planning, on a more extended scale than ever before, to use the law of the land in attaining their ends. Societies of religious persons are formed for the sole purpose of influencing political action favorable to schemes of their own, in making Christian duties compulsory. Turning from the Lord, and seeking to the world for succor, the church must expect only what the world has to give, law and legal, compulsory formality; heartless obedience to the laws of the church because of the legal force behind them. The courts of the country, not being a source of spiritual blessing, the church gets none from them, and then wonders why her spiritual life is declining. Such wonder on her part is in itself a legitimate cause of wonderment. Drinking at the intoxicating fountain of the world, why should she wonder that her vitality is ebbing fast? As the appeals of the church to the world are increased, so is the ratio of her spiritual declension. Will she call a halt in her mad rush for the glamour of worldliness?—I fear not, as a body; it is not so written. Her history, as given in advance by the inspired apostles, indicates that this coquetry with the world will be accelerated till the end come. She will go on in this erratic career, till the ground upon which she stands will not be incompatible with a union of her forces with those of Rome, in enforcing the rules of the church by the civil constabulary. Form will take the place of feeling, and force sit sternly on the throne of love. There is a better way. "Should not a people seek unto their God? On behalf of the living, should they seek unto the dead?" These poignant questions of Isaiah, in regard to the witchcraft of those days, are wonderfully applicable to the course of religious affairs at the present time. Why should they who have all the power of God at their command, seek for the weak, vascillating, transitory, and heartless power of the world? God lives; and, unless they have denied him, his power is theirs, his blessing is theirs, and he will so warm the hearts of his people that spiritual declension will be unknown among them. The world is dead to things spiritual and eternal. Then let not the living, the Christian, seek to it for what God alone can give. The true Christian will reverence the law of his God. He who is not a Christian will not do so, and to compel him to act as tho he did, is making of him, in the first place, a hypocrite, and, in the second place, an inward hater of that so-called religion which makes such hypocrisy and compulsion possible.