NO-LAW, NO-VISIONS, NO-GOD.
By M. E. Cornell
The moral law being a transcript of the Divine mind, a holy emanation from a holy God, those who reject this law virtually reject its Divine Author. There is a people that boldly say of the law written by the finger of God upon tables of stone, "It is abolished!" It is no marvel that such a people should scoff at "visions" or any manifestation of the Spirit of God. The holy Spirit is one of God's representatives, the moral law is another, hence to reject either of these is to reject God, and is full evidence of the carnal mind. Away with all miraculous gifts. Away with the holy Spirit. Away with the moral law. Away with God. These are some of the rounds of the ladder on which many are trying to "climb up another way." But that the No-gifts, No-Spirit, No-law, and No-God sentiments go hand-in-hand is evident from the Scriptures. "The law is no more; her prophets also find no vision from the Lord." Lam. ii, 9. "Believe in the Lord your God, so shall ye be established; believe his prophets, so shall ye prosper." 2 Chron. xx, 20. "Now for a long season Israel hath been without the true God, and without a teaching priest, and without law." 2 Chron. xv, 3. "Through breaking the law dishonorest thou God." Rom. ii, 23. "Do we then make void the law through faith? God FORBID: yea, we establish the law." Rom. iii, 31. "The carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you." Rom. viii, 7-9. The great Teacher has laid down the rule: "He that despiseth you despiseth me; and he that despiseth me, despiseth him that sent me." Luke x, 16. Applying this rule, he that despiseth the manifestations of the Spirit, despiseth the Spirit also, and he that despiseth the moral law, despiseth the God who in awful solemnity and grandeur gave that law. How can this spirit of opposition to the law of God be accounted for, except by the apostle's rule that the carnal mind is not subject to the law of God? One preacher said, "Nine of the ten commandments are carnal!" Another, "It is a rickety old law, and always was a curse to man. I love to give it a rub now and then, I can preach so much better after it." Another refused to debate while the chart of the law hung on the wall. Said he, "That chart must come down!" Put out the light, down with the law; we come behind in all gifts and we are glad of it, are the sentiments but too plainly manifest in this age of perils and awful apostasy. Mr. John Whitcross, a teacher at Edinburgh, relates that "a certain preacher in the west of England, remarkable for his opposition to the moral law as a rule of life to believers, was preaching on a week-day evening at a village, in a cottage full of poor people. When, declaiming in his usual way against the law, and seeming at a loss for expressions sufficient to degrade it, he said, 'The law is dead; it is fallen; it is done with.' Having just then occasion to use his handkerchief, he spread it out, and holding a corner in each hand, said, 'The law, my friends, has fallen down before the believer like this handkerchief;' then letting it go from his hands, it unfortunately fell on the candles, and extinguished them, leaving the preacher and all his hearers in darkness: a very just, though accidental, representation of that mental and practical darkness which such preaching is likely to produce." Fit illustration, for as that handkerchief smothered the candles, so are carnal teachers trying to smother the light of the law and the Spirit of God. The result will be to grope in darkness; to be broken, snared and taken. They prefer darkness to light, because their deeds are evil. O, that those who profess to be disciples would fulfill the scripture, "Seal the law among my disciples." But so long as they refuse to do this, I must still cry with David, "It is time for thee, Lord, to work; for they have made void thy law."