The Gospel’s Agitating Power
It was when the waters of a certain pool were troubled by an angel of God that they dispense a healing virtue; and it is when all the elements of nature are worked by the same Almighty power that they subserve the highest interests of man. In the moral and religious world he effects the most glorious ends by means which can never operate on men and nations without agitating them mightily. As he said by the prophet "I will overturn, overturn, overturn it; and it shall be no more until he shall come whose right it is; and I will give it him." And when in the fullness of time Christ came, by his immaculate life, by his wonderful miracles, and by his unparalleled teaching, he agitated men as they had never been moved before. Anticipating the commotion to be produced by the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, he said, "Think not that I am come to send peace on earth; I came not to send peace but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a man's foes shall be they of his own household." The Apostles in carrying out their commission so presented the truth as it is in Jesus, that the agitation he had begun was greatly increased; and in the excitement that prevailed, the cry was raised against them: "These that have turned the world upside down have come hither also." Had Christ and the Apostles been like some in our days, the great victories of the gospel had never been won. The world might have passed on in their sins, and no warning voice ever sounded alarm in their ears because it would agitate them and cause painful emotions. Every sinner who has ever passed through the strait gate of repentance unto life eternal, knows that agitation of soul is inseparably connected with a change of the whole man from a state of sin to holiness. The captives of the mighty are not released without a struggle. The sinner seeking for the glorious liberty of the sons of God, often feels to say as Christ did in the last onset of Satan: "This is your hour, and the power of darkness." Every reformer is of necessity an agitator. He knows that no improvement can be effected in the condition of those he seeks to benefit, so long as they are undisturbed in their present position. Hence his efforts to make them dissatisfied with present attainments by showing a greater good. Hence too, his efforts to convert them from their errors of faith and practice, by showing a purer faith and a more excellent way. No man has a moral right to occupy a position at variance with the best interests of his fellows, or to indulge in practices subversive of the eternal principles of right and justice, or to rest in opinions that will not bear the test of truth. If he allows himself in any of these, we must not be surprised to find him resisting every attempt to convince him of error in opinion, and wrong in position and practice. In his dread of agitation, he adopts the language of the demons to Christ: "Let us alone. What have we to do with thee? Art thou come to torment us before the time?" He whose uppermost desire is to be right, is not afraid of discussion and agitation on any questions that concern his relations to God or man. Like the old Roman, he says: "I am a man, and whatever concerns my fellow men interests me." Men must be aroused to feel an interest in every rational intelligence. According to English history, in 1647 the army appointed an "Agitator," whose business it was to watch over its interests. With us public sentiment has appointed every man who duly prizes his own liberty, and the public good, to be an agitator; and every freeman who is worthy of the name, will insist on the right to exercise the functions of his office whenever and wherever he deems it best; assured that eternal vigilance is the price he must pay for the blessings of liberty. In effecting reforms the conflict of opinions is more potent than the sword. The power of an idea based on truth is invincible. But to bring that force to bear, agitation becomes a necessity of our nature. The contact of ideas and opinions secures us an incidental benefit, the quickening of our intellectual powers to an unusual acuteness. We do not of course attribute these benefits to the working of those fierce and uncontrollable passions excited in some whenever they are crossed and disappointed, and which are as much to be dreaded as the ravings of insanity. The strife of passion can only produce fruit like itself. It is contrary to reason and hinders reflection. But the agitation occasioned by the free discussion of conflicting opinions is eminently adapted to elicit truth and establish men in the right.