The Law of the Most High.
By Editor
THE character of every government is reflected in its law, especially in its fundamental law,—in those principles by which all legislation and jurisprudence is molded and directed. In the United States it is the Constitution. All statute law is null and void if not in harmony with that great fundamental document. Any person or combination of persons who would subvert that constitution, pervert its principles, is at heart a traitor to the government. The loyalty of a subject to a government is measured by his regard for its fundamental law, the principles upon which it is founded. He may question subsidiary laws, he may not understand many things, but if he be a true subject, he is loyal to the foundation principles upon the maintenance of which rests the very existence of the government. The constitution of God's government is the Decalogue. That wonderfully comprehensive code enjoins on the positive side all righteousness, and prohibits on the negative side all sin or transgression. Says the psalmist, "All Thy commandments are righteousness." Ps. 119: 172. Declares an apostle: "All unrighteousness is sin;" and "sin," he avers, "is the transgression of the law." 1 John 5: 17; 3: 4. And this law, as clearly shown by the apostle Paul, is the Decalogue. Rom. 7: 7. All sin is therefore the transgression of God's law of Ten Commandments; and "sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death." James 1: 15. All disregard of God's ordinances, all unbelief, all hardening of the heart against the Spirit, are the results of the "enmity" of the carnal heart to the law of God. Rom. 8: 7. Therefore he who strikes against God's fundamental law is a traitor to His government. We do not mean by this the mere sinner or the ignorant transgressor; but the one who seeks to change that law, who sets it aside, who substitutes for the utterances of Jehovah the traditions of men, who pleads for no-lawism. Therefore it is that Inspiration denominates that system which deliberately seeks to place its own tradition in the place of God's law, which defends the deliberate setting aside of God's commands, "the man of sin," "the son of perdition;" not a man of sin is it called, or a sinful man, for there are many such; but it is "THE man of sin," a system of man which exalts man to the place of God as law-giver. In such a system we may look for the perversion of all truth, all ordinances, all the simplicity of the worship of God and the simple ceremonies of His church. They follow as a matter of course; but the sin is primarily against God's law, the rejection of His authority. It is utter folly to twist and turn and fritter and patter over trifles concerning which there may be honest differences of opinion. Men are made offenders for a word. The Lord's Supper should be celebrated weekly, says one; yearly, says another. You do not understand what this means, says a third, unless you pronounce s-h-i-b-b-o-l-e-t-h in my way; you are condemned; falls your head at the Jordan. All these trifles are magnified while God's law, the emblem of His authority, and the test of human, creature, loyalty to the Creator is lost sight of or trampled underfoot. One other consideration among many: When man comes into the light of the truth of God, he enters by the door of submission to God's will, God's law, God's authority. And here are the words of the Master to prove it: "If any man willeth to do His [the Father's] will, he shall know of the teaching." John 7: 17. That is the entrance of the soul into light—submission to God. Yielding to His authority, as did Jesus Christ (Ps. 40: 7, 8), all truth follows. The soul will find a Saviour from sin, a life power in righteousness, a constant growth in grace.