p. 99 | MORALITY vs. RELIGION

Publishing Committee · Battle Creek, Mich. · Feb 12, 1861

MORALITY vs. RELIGION.

Multitudes pride themselves upon their morality. They make their boast of never having injured any one, of never having wronged a fellow even of a penny. They say they live up to the golden rule; they do as they would be done by. This is all well enough, as far as it goes; but it is not going half far enough.

If we were only creatures of time, then religion would not be needed to prepare us for eternity. If we were under no obligations to God, then we might only concern ourselves with the duties we owe to one another. If we were only to live in this life, then morality might be the one thing needful.

Morality comprises the duties you owe to your fellows; religion includes those you owe to God as well as man. A man may live a moral life and yet be without God and without hope in the world. To be a Christian, a man must be a moral man; and yet a man may be moral and not religious. Morality comprehends only a part of religion; religion comprehends the whole of morality and much more. “The highest principle in social morals is a just regard to the rights of men, while the first principle in religion is a just regard to the rights of God.”

Sin is a violation of God’s law. Sin is the transgression of law. Men are sinners because they disobey God’s commands. Where there is no law there is no sin. A man who refuses to obey any of God’s requirements is guilty, no matter how upright, no matter how moral, no matter how just in his dealings with his fellow men. A moral man may be as great a sinner in the sight of God as a murderer!

A man’s morality cannot recommend him to the mercy, to the clemency of the Judge Eternal; nay, verily, it will only increase his guilt, only make more certain his condemnation.

To stand at the bar of God, and plead your morality, would be to insult the Almighty to his face! It would be to say in effect: I had more respect, more regard for my fellows than I had for you. I rendered them their dues, but did not pay you yours. I kept their laws, but violated yours. I never robbed them, but I did you. Who can fail to see, from this standpoint, the sinfulness of the most moral man that ever lived? When David, having committed those two great crimes of adultery and murder, was led to repentance, he did not say, I have sinned against Uriah, though most grievously and awfully true. But with the great and dreadful God before his eyes, he said, “Against THEE, THEE ONLY have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight.” When Joseph was tempted to adultery, he did not say, How can I do this great evil and sin against Potiphar? No, it was, “How can I do this great evil, and sin against God?” As long as you neglect a single duty; as long as you refuse to engage in good works, every hour you refuse to obey God’s command to repent, to believe, to be baptized, to obey, to confess him before men, you live in sin, though you may be blameless in your intercourse with mankind. It is not for you to claim exemption from judgment, on the score of obedience, fancied or real, to the minor matters of the law, while living in acknowledged violation of its first and great command: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart.—Parish Visitor