THE SOCIETY-SAVING DELUSION.
THE organ of the National Reform Association is giving a series of "Studies in Christian Citizenship," and one of the propositions is that "society is a part of human nature, then it must have shared in the ruin of man's fall." The fallacy of this proposition is plain from the fact that there was no such thing as "society" among men until after the fall. Saving society is a quite popular fad even among evangelists, many of whom seem to think the plan of individual salvation is antiquated and too slow for our time. The trouble with society among men is that it originated in sin, growing out of the association of sinful individuals, and as long as the individuals remain in sin their society, or association, will be sinful. There is no provision for the salvation of anything but individuals. It is "whosoever believeth" that will be saved. But the individual's sinful association can not be saved; he must be cleansed from that. Society is simply an association of individuals, therefore it takes its character from the individuals who compose it. The individuals who are converted to Christ, in their association solely with one another, compose a new society, an association of a different character from that in which they moved before. Their association is one actuated by the Spirit of Christ, and, therefore, has His approval. But it is a condition of society, or association, that could not have existed until the individuals composing the society were rescued from their old association. No association of men ever can become spiritual while the individuals composing it are carnal, or sinful. To talk of saving society without first converting the individual is reversing God's order. A society-saving effort is entirely superfluous; for while it is impossible to save it without saving the individuals, it naturally follows that its character will partake of the character of the transformed individuals. The society that misguided "reformers" would save by reversing the logic of God's plan of salvation is not "a part of human nature," but a result of human nature. Remove the cause, and the disease, or the effect, dies of itself. But human nature can not be reformed; it must die before the individual can become a partaker of the divine nature. So the old society, the old product of human nature, must become extinct, by the death of the human nature in those who compose it, before a new, not a reformed, society can find place. To deceive men by drawing them into impossible schemes of "reform" under the guise of the Gospel of Christ, is one of the delusions of the adversary. The individual who depends upon gliding into the kingdom with the masses on a saved-society basis will be wofully disappointed in the end.