Lessons in Liberty by W. M. Healey

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Jan 31, 1911

Lessons in Liberty

By W. M. Healey

V. Christ Alone Our Master

BUT be not ye called Rabbi: for One is your Master, even Christ; all ye are brethren.” Matt. 23: 8. In these words Christ taught the equality and liberty that should exist among His followers. No one should seek to dominate others. All are to look to the Lord for guidance. This does not imply that there is to be no organization for the work of the Lord, or that men are not to occupy special places for specific work. Christ said, “He that is greatest among you shall be your servant.” In giving directions as to what the elders in the church should and should not do, Peter said, “Neither as overruling [margin] God’s heritage, but being ensamples to the flock.” 1 Peter 5: 3.

When the Lord created Adam and Eve, He gave them power to act independent of each other, holding them individually responsible for their course. When they sinned He pronounced sentence upon them separately. Abel worshiped God in the way the Lord had taught him, and did not interfere with Cain. God did not hold him responsible for the course his brother pursued. Abel set before Cain his views of God and worship, by the sacrifices which he offered, and then left him to choose and act for himself. Cain, having turned away from the Lord, sought to rule over Abel, and compel him to desist from his method of worship. This Abel did not do, but conscientiously served God. This we know because 1 John 3:12 says that his works were righteous, and that was the reason that Cain slew him, his own works being evil.

Cain had not been appointed his brother’s keeper, but he assumed that position. When he chose that responsibility, it was right that he should be responsible for the results. These he was not willing to answer for. When the Lord called him to answer for his work, and asked him, “Where is Abel thy brother?” evasively he replied, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” When Cain was called to give account for that brother whom he had assumed to guide and control, he saw the failure he had made, and wished to be rid of the responsibility.

Thousands of men and women in the past have assumed that they were their brother’s keeper, to whom in the great reckoning day God will say, “Where is thy brother?” and they will remember when they tried to make their brother turn from the Word of the Lord as it appealed to his conscience, and when he chose to “obey God rather than men,” and they, like Cain, were “angry,” and in that anger slew him. They may not have wielded the club that killed him; they may have made their appeal to the arm of the civil government to perform the bloody work. But they will call to mind how they worked and voted for a law to coerce the conscience of another, which resulted in his death.

An Evil Seed

When Constantine made his Sunday edict, he had little knowledge whereto it would grow; and when Bishop Sylvester endeavored to force the church to observe this heathen law and custom, and regard the “venerable day of the sun” instead of the “Sabbath of the Lord,” thereby making himself his brother’s keeper, he could not see the rivers of blood, nor hear the pitiful pleas for mercy and the dying groans of millions of men, women, and children who went to the martyr’s death because others had assayed to be their keeper and director in matters of worship.

The men and women of to-day who are striving to obtain civil laws to give authority over the consciences of others in the matter of Sunday observance, are assuming to be their brother’s keeper; and when God shall ask them in the judgment, “Where is thy brother?” and they shall look backward and see the conscientious ones who kept the Sabbath of the Lord instead of the one directed of men, and remember how, in anger, they brought upon them the power of the civil government, taking from them all that was possible for the law to take, even their life,—then, like Cain, they will wish to escape the responsibility of the results of attempting to be their brother’s keeper.

This is no mere unfounded imagination; for not a few of the most prominent advocates of Sunday laws tell us that those who will not observe Sunday, but persist in keeping the seventh-day Sabbath, should be put to death.

“My brethren, be not many masters, knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation.” James 3:1. The more one tries to be master, and rule over his brother, the more failures he will have to answer for. The blackness of heathenism has fallen like a pall over the earth because men have been masters and guides of other men, and poor humanity has leaned upon the arm of flesh and not upon the arm of God.

Every one is in duty bound to aid his brother to the extent of his ability. He is to be his teacher so far as he has light and truth which he is able to impart. Jesus said, “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations.” Matt. 28:19. It is his duty to be a helper to his brother; to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and care for the sick, to the extent of his ability, but never to be his master or ruler in duties of worship toward God. Those who have caused the church to follow them instead of God, will meet a record of sin and ignorance that God would have kept those souls from possessing if they had leaned on Him instead of on humanity.

No man can be safely trusted to force upon others even the simplest truths of worship. He lacks in all things necessary to qualify him for such a place. God only has patience, love, and forbearance, sufficient for such work. Mankind of to-day, like Cain of old, soon become angry with the dull or dilatory brother, or the wilful and stubborn one, and like James and John, would bring fire down upon him. Luke 9:54.

But God continues to love and bless, to follow after, and plead in tenderness and pity.