Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Sep 11, 1893
Editorial.
By Editor
"All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable."—2 Tim. 3:16.
"WHY stand ye here all the day idle?"
THIS is God's question to his people now. It is a question to every soul. We are in the closing work of God—the eleventh hour. The harvest is great, the laborers are few; why stand ye here all the day idle?
THOSE who are Christ's cannot say, as did the laborers in the parable, "No man hath hired us;" for Christ has bought us with his own precious blood; he has bought us, body, soul, and spirit. We are not therefore our own; we belong to Christ. Our time, our money, our physical, mental, and moral powers, are all Christ's. He bought us when we were "sold under sin." It is our duty, therefore, to yield to Christ what he has purchased.
NOW as Christ bought us, we belong to him, and as he also died for all the world, we become by virtue of that very purchase a debtor to those for whom Christ died. It was for this reason that Paul, over and over, called himself "a bond servant [servant or slave] of Jesus Christ." It was also for this reason that he declares: "I am debtor both to the Greeks, and to the Barbarians; both to the wise, and to the unwise. So, as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also." Rom. 1:14, 15. Christ died for all; all therefore belong to Christ, and every soul who truly acknowledges this purchase, will yield himself and his all to Christ. He by that yielding identifies himself with Christ and Christ's work. He feels a burden for all men. If God calls him to go to the savage barbarians, to a people of strange tongue, he is ready. He acknowledges duty, he claims the privilege of being co-worker with Christ.
SUCH a work for Christ will not partake of selfishness, for self dies when that great fact is admitted into the heart that we are nothing without Christ, but that he is our Redeemer in all things. Self is exchanged for Christ. Self is crucified, and buried; Christ is risen and lives within by faith. That which is dead does not work. That which lives and grows bears fruit; and as faith has brought Christ within the heart, voluntarily, willingly, gladly, so God through Christ works within us "to will and to do of his own good pleasure." It is therefore not humanity working, but God working. It will not be by human might nor power that the work is wrought, but by God's power, the power of his Spirit in us. We can in that way be witnesses of Christ, because we know him. We can proclaim the glad tidings, because we know them to be glad tidings. Paul could not preach the gospel till Christ was revealed in him. Gal. 1:16. Neither can we bear his message to the world till we know the power of the message in our own hearts and lives. Then we cannot do otherwise than witness for Christ. Every act will show forth the life within.
LET no one who professes to be Christ's say: "God has no work for me to do. I am not capable of working in the Lord's vineyard." If you are Christ's servant, if you have yielded to him who has bought you, you have one talent, at least, to use in the Master's service; for it is revealed in the Scriptures that the Master "called his own servants and delivered unto them his goods. And unto one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one; to every man according to his several ability." Not one of his servants was omitted. Every one of Christ's servants is given all that he has ability to use for his Lord. They were not given of their own goods, but of his, the Lord's, goods. So Christ gives of his goods. But he is spiritual, and his goods are spiritual. They are the precious spiritual gifts which God gives to every man who will yield to him. It may be the gift of apostleship; it may be the gift of prophecy; it may be the gift of pastorship, or evangelist, or teacher, but it is more likely to not be any one of these; but to everyone comes the blessed gift of ministry,—ministry in kind words, helpful deeds, kindly acts, loving, patient forbearance. And he who uses well the talent will have more given him. He who thus works in his now limited field in the Spirit of Christ, will be given a larger field. God will supply all; will you accept it? "Why stand ye here all the day idle?"
JESUS said, "Every plant, which my Heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up." Matt. 15:13. Is Sunday of God's planting? Is the seventh-day Sabbath not of his planting?
TRADITION OR SCRIPTURE.
By Editor
A CORRESPONDENT sends us a clipping from the Gospel Advocate of May 11, 1893, and requests us to notice it; but to our mind it needs no notice. It is just the character of many Sunday arguments. It makes the broad statements that
there is not a greater delusion in modern times than the idea that the old Jewish Sabbath is still in force. Man was never commanded to keep the Sabbath at all till the command was given through Moses. The Sabbath was part of the law, was one of the ten commandments, and was taken out of the way when Jesus died upon the cross. To keep the old Jewish Sabbath, therefore, is to keep something that is just as dead as animal sacrifice, and cannot benefit any human being. But to ignore the Lord's day, the first day of the week, is to ignore the worship of the Lord's house, the Lord's Supper, and virtually to ignore the resurrection of Christ, and to reject Christ as a ruler, lawgiver, and Saviour. It really amounts to rejecting the New Testament, the new dispensation.
All of these things are stated by the editor of the Gospel Advocate as truth, but no Scripture proof whatever is given to confirm the statement.
Now every Bible student knows that the Sabbath of the Lord was given at creation (Gen. 2:2, 3), when it was made for man (Mark 2:27); that it was never by Inspiration called "Jewish;" that it was a part of the Decalogue (Ex. 20:8-10), of which, said Christ, "it is easier for heaven and earth to pass, than one tittle of the law to fail" (Luke 16:17); that Christ himself kept it (John 15:10; Luke 4:16); that those taught by Christ kept it as God commanded it (Luke 23:56); that Christ is the Light of the world (John 8:12); and that those who claim to be his disciples are to walk even as he walked, and so show forth the light that shines from him (1 John 2:6; Matt. 5:16). For the first day as a Sabbath, or holy day, there is not one word of Scripture. It is never once called a Sabbath, or holy day, nor the Lord's day. The only Lord's day revealed in the Scripture is the Sabbath of the Lord. See Ex. 20:8-11; Isa. 58:13; Mark 2:28.
The proof that the gospel has brought us into harmony with God is God's holy law; for the righteousness of God is revealed to us by faith in the gospel (Rom. 1:16, 17), and the witness to the rightness of that righteousness is God's law (Rom. 3:21, 22). Whoever knows this righteousness will never desire the blessed witness of it to be taken out of the way. He will say, "Thy testimonies are my delight." "Great peace have they which love thy law; and they shall have no stumbling block." Ps. 119:165, margin.690The quotation from the Gospel Advocate is a fair sample of the instruction given on the Sabbath question by scores of religious papers and from hundreds of religious pulpits. Which will our readers follow, the word of man or the word of God? human tradition or the commandments of God?
STANDING ON PRINCIPLE.
By Editor
NOTWITHSTANDING the fact that the Baptist Church, in the main, is drifting with the current that is leading on to religious legislation, and consequently to religious persecution, in this country, there is one prominent Baptist clergyman in this city who stands by the old Baptist principle of religious liberty for all. He has sufficient foresight to see in compulsory Sunday observance, or in the compulsory observance of any religious rite, the sure forerunner of persecution for conscience' sake. Some time ago he preached a strong sermon to his people on this subject, taking for illustration the persecution of Seventh-day Adventists in Tennessee. And recently he gave his young people a talk in which he is reported to have spoken very strongly against any legislation that would compel a man to observe any set day as a day of rest. We refer to Rev. C. H. Hobart, of the First Baptist Church.
The point in this reference which we would forcibly emphasize is that he takes his stand on the time-honored Baptist principle, from which, we are sorry to say, the mass of Baptists are fast receding, for the evident reason that the popular wave is set that way. He is deserving of credit for his manly stand, and his forethought in warning his young people of the tendency of the times and its certain results. Young people growing up and taking position in the religious, political, and business world are apt to be unconsciously swayed by that which is popular in their surroundings.
It is proper, and the true gospel minister will not fail, to inculcate that pillar of gospel injunction, "As ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them." There is not, in all the teachings of the Master, a single intimation that men are to be compelled to observe any precept or ceremony of the gospel. And the apostle Paul, who received his credentials direct from the Lord, says, "Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men." We have not a single Scripture example of an appeal to civil law to enforce the requirements of the gospel. Every idea of compulsion that ever came into the church was the outgrowth of apostasy. As the Spirit of God was grieved away, the spirit of intolerance came in.
Nor has any truly scriptural doctrine ever been enforced by those who have resorted to compulsion. In all the history of compulsory religion (if we except the days of the theocracy), it cannot be shown that civil law or physical force of any kind has been invoked in aid of anything but false doctrine or mere human dogma. Neither Rome nor the Covenanters nor the Puritans ever compelled the observance of a true doctrine. That which was commanded under human penalty was either perverted Scripture requirement, or out-and-out human invention. And so it is to-day; every attempt at religious legislation is in behalf of that which is unscriptural and of human origin. The fact that civil law or physical force is called in aid of any religious move or dogma is prima facie evidence that the principle or institution to be thus aided is not sustained by the word of God. For no man ever asks the State or the world to enforce by law or sustain by material means that which he knows is upheld by the power of God's word.
W. N. G.
A MODERN “TEMPERANCE” MEASURE.
THE question of the Sunday closing of saloons has recently been before the common council of San Jose, Cal. We quote a part of the report of that meeting from the California Prohibitionist, of August 10, published in that city:—
"The meeting of the San Jose common council last Monday evening was the most interesting that had occurred for many months. The publication of the fact that the Sunday-closing ordinance would be up for amendment, brought out a full house, every seat being occupied long before the council was called to order. The Sunday closing advocates represented the very best element of the town, the Protestant and Catholic clergy, the business interests, the W. C. T. U., and the Salvation Army all having their representatives, together with every temperance organization. The entire quarterly conference of the First M. E., German M. E., and Centella M. E. Churches, adjourned their meetings to also attend the session in a body. The contest was striking, the closing element being represented by the very best men of the city, whose names alone lend strength to any movement they may indorse, led by the leading clergymen, and backed by a strong delegation of the W. C. T. U."
This is called a temperance measure, but the reader will see by the men who led in the matter, and by the extent of the law itself, that it is a religious measure. Upon the Sunday law the Protestant and Catholic clergy, the W. C. T. U., and the Salvation Army unite. The preaching of the gospel and the works of religion are all laid aside, that these religious people may attend this political meeting, which some temperance people are led to believe is a temperance measure, but which is really a piece of local religious legislation. That it was not a temperance victory but a Sunday victory is very easily shown. If it were purely in the interests of temperance, it would not be confined to one day in the week; it would be for closing all the time. Everyone knows that no amount of agitation would induce the San Jose council to pass a Saturday-closing saloon ordinance. The saloons are closed in the interests of the Sunday.
Sunday temperance principles are about as effectual as Sunday religion. A man who is religious only on Sundays impresses no one with his religious principles. He is set down as a hypocrite. The man who believes in Sunday temperance or prohibition places himself in about the same category. Licensing the traffic six days in the week and prohibiting it one day is to say to all that the traffic is worse on that one day than it is on others, whereas it is equally evil on all days. All this is making the liquor traffic respectable, and at the same time elevating the Sunday and paving the way for a union of Church and State in California. This is shown by the Prohibitionist, which says: "To the credit of the better element of the saloon keepers, not one was present to countenance the proceedings [against Sunday] by either presence or voice." But let an ordinance come before the council for a seven-day law and then see. The true temperance element would dwindle to a corporal's guard. It is Sunday, a so-called Christian, but in reality pago-papal, institution, which is becoming more and more the center of attraction to the forces of apostate Christianity. But Sunday as a religious institution is not of Christ; and if it were, the methods used to promote its observance are antichristian. The gospel of Christ "persuades," it does not compel. If the ministers of San Jose, the W. C. T. U., and Salvation Army were all united in Christ in preaching the gospel of Christ, it would tell a thousand times more for temperance and morality than all the legislation of municipalities or States for Sunday laws. It is sad that the true temperance people and "the business men" suffer themselves to be herded, "led," and driven or "backed" by the "leading" ministers and the W. C. T. U., which has become the Women's Political Union. It has largely ceased to be either temperance or Christian.
All these efforts in various localities, of which the above is a sample, are omens of the fiercer persecution before, and of which God has given warning in his word. Man may claim such legislation to be beneficent; but God's word says that it is evil; and God's word is more than men.
"If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his." Christ's Spirit in us will lead us to do what that same Spirit did in Christ eighteen hundred years ago. Christ cannot deny himself, hence his Spirit will always lead in the same direction and teach the same thing. The Spirit of Christ led him to go about doing good (Acts 10:38); it will lead us to do likewise. It led him to deny himself (Matt. 16:24) and to give up all for us; it will lead us to deny ourselves and give up all for him. It led Christ to obey the law of God and to delight therein (Ps. 40:7, 8); love in us—inborn of the Spirit—will be manifest in the same way. "He that saith he abideth in Him ought himself also so to walk even as He walked." 1 John 2:6. Have you the Spirit of Christ?
FAITH knows no bounds or limitations. It cannot be compassed by walls and bars and locks. It cannot be checked in its progress by the surge of old ocean's wave. Despotism and tyranny cannot quench it, the power of evil cannot rob it of its hopes. It rests on God, and where he leads, faith follows. It may be through the Red Sea, into the conflict of battle, to desert wilds or mountain fastnesses in search of the lost and straying, what matters to faith so long as God goes before and his presence directs. The power of faith is the power of God, and as such has naught to fear from the elements of nature or the power of evil.
THAT which has the broadest and most solid base is the least likely to fall. That which is the most likely to fall is the top-heavy structures. True humility gives us the strong and secure base of God's mercy and power alone. Self-exaltation lifts us up and makes us top-heavy. If we would not fall, let us walk humbly with God.
TRUE AND FALSE THEOCRACY.
By C. P. Bollman
THEOCRACY is the highest, the most perfect form of government known to man; for it is government by the direction or administration of God himself. Had man never fallen, there never would have been any other kind of government; and in the earth redeemed from the curse, God will be "all in all;" for "the tabernacle of God" shall be "with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God." This can mean nothing less than the perfection of divine government.
Primarily, theocracy means government of a State by the immediate direction or administration of God, as in Eden before the fall; it is also applied to the exercise of political authority by priests representing the Deity. It is not enough to constitute a true theocracy that rulers profess to represent God; it must be even so, as it was in the case of Samuel. But in its highest and truest sense a theocracy has never existed in this world since the fall. And only for brief periods has political authority been exercised by men truly representing God. It is declared that "Moses was faithful in all His house." The Lord was also with Joshua even as he was with Moses; but after the death of Joshua the intervals were indeed brief in which the children of Israel walked in the counsel of the Most High; and with the crowning of Saul the theocracy proper ended, for while the Lord designated Saul to be king, he declared to Samuel, "They have rejected me, that I should not reign over them."
It follows from what has already been said that two things are absolutely necessary to the existence of a true theocracy: (1) God himself must be the governor; and (2) the subjects of the government must consent to be governed by God, or by those directly chosen and directed by him. God himself having made man a free moral agent,—a being endowed with power of choice,—recognizes the great truth that in all things civil, governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed. The Creator himself exercised civil power only so long as it was the choice of the people that he should exercise it. When God became the recognized governor of the children of Israel, it was by their unanimous consent: "And all the people answered together, and said, All that the Lord hath spoken we will do." And when God abdicated the throne and gave the government into the hands of Saul, it was likewise in deference to the practically unanimous demand of the governed, i. e., of the people.
But though the children of Israel rejected God as their ruler, "and would none of his counsel," his merciful providence was still over them. They were to be preserved a separate people for a special object, and even their rebellion could not defeat the purpose of God concerning them. The divine mould was still upon their laws, and a divine providence still protected them from utter extinction as a nation.
God's promise to David was "that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne" , and it was necessary that the nation should continue until the Promised One should be revealed. Nevertheless, when the people rebelled against God, he permitted them to reap the fruit of their doings. When they repented and sought him, he delivered them, and they were still called by his name. But while he permitted them to retain in a measure their religio-civil laws, and to administer them by a semi-ecclesiastical court, he never restored the theocracy which they had rejected. And with the overthrow of Zedekiah the descendants of Abraham ceased to be a nation and became merely a dependency of another power. "Ichabod" had long been written on the Jewish escutcheons, but they did not fully realize the fact, and most persistently did they from time to time endeavor to restore the ancient polity and rehabilitate themselves with divine power. But it was not to be. They preserved their ecclesiastical organization, but their political power was limited by the will of a foreign ruler. The word of the Lord was:
"And thou, profane wicked prince of Israel, whose day is come, when iniquity shall have an end, Thus saith the Lord God: Remove the diadem, and take off the crown; this shall not be the same; exalt him that is low, and abase him that is high. I will overturn, overturn, overturn it; and it shall be no more, until he come whose right it is; and I will give it him."
The divine fiat had gone forth canceling forever any special right of any man or of any set of men to rule in civil things in God's name. It is true that the Jewish rulers never ceased to claim divine right to rule, and that in fact they represented Deity. Down until the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans, the Sanhedrim clung to the delusion that they were God's representatives in both civil and religious affairs, but the Lord did not so recognize them; and our Saviour utterly repudiated their claim of the whole people to civil authority by refusing to accept a throne at their hands, declaring that his kingdom was not of this world—that is, it was not of a temporal nature, neither was his authority to be conferred by the powers of this world, but by his Father only. And again did the Saviour humble the pride of the Jews and rebuke their assumption by reminding them, in the incident of the tribute money , that Cæsar was their ruler, and that they themselves recognized his authority by using coins bearing his image and superscription. The apostle Paul likewise disdained the civil authority of the Jews when he appealed unto Cæsar. And even the Jews themselves in their mad frenzy declared, "We have no king but Cæsar." And in this they spoke truly, for God had declared that civil power should no more be exercised in his name, till He should come whose right it is—come, not to die for sinners, but as "King of kings and Lord of lords."
At the date of the prophecy of Eze. 21:25-27, already quoted, the Jewish people were subject to Babylon. The first overturning left the kingdom subject to Medo-Persia; the second placed it under the dominion of Grecia, while the third and last gave it to Rome. "And it shall be no more until He come whose right it is." Who he was to whom the promise was made we learn from Luke 1:31-33:—
"And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David; and he shall reign over the house of Jacob forever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end."
CHRIST'S KINGDOM NOT TEMPORAL.
But it is plain that this promise does not refer to an earthly, temporal kingdom. To Pilate Jesus declared, "My kingdom is not of this world." "Man, who made me a judge or a divider over you?" While to his disciples he said: "I appoint unto you a kingdom, as my Father hath appointed unto me; that ye may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom, and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel." And he did not leave them in doubt as to the enduring nature of that kingdom, or when they should enter upon it; he said: "In the regeneration when the Son of Man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel." When it is that Christ shall "sit in the throne of his glory" is told in another text. It is "when the Son of Man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory; and before him shall be gathered all nations, and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats; and he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you692from the foundation of the world."
These texts make it positive that a theocracy can exist no more in this world until the second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, with power and great glory, and that anything which professes to be a theocracy, or to partake of the nature of a theocracy, is simply a usurpation of the divine prerogatives and in defiance of the will of God as plainly expressed in his word.
A FALSE THEOCRACY.
But ambitious, self-seeking men remembered only that Christ had been set forth as a king. It is true that the disciples understood after the resurrection that the promise of a kingdom had reference not to this mortal state but to the everlasting immortal kingdom, and that they were content to bide their Lord’s time; but it was not so with the selfish, designing men who came into the church in later years. These reasoned that of right all power belonged to Christ. He was not personally present to claim it, but were they not his representatives? and could they not, yea, should they not, exercise not only ecclesiastical but civil power as well, in his name and for his glory and the upbuilding of his kingdom in the earth? To ask the question was in their minds to answer it as well—hence the theocratic theory which began in the third century to be quite general in the church, and hence also the grasping after civil power to replace the loss of spiritual power due to apostasy from the true faith, and to corrupting alliances with the rulers of the world.
The Saviour sent his disciples forth into a hostile world under the commission: “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you; and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.” The only guarantee of success given the apostles was the promise of the presence of their Lord by his Spirit; and by the power of that Spirit they went forth making converts not only without the aid of the civil power but in the face of the most bitter persecution.
But the power of the Spirit of God could be used only in harmony with the mind of God. The Lord Jesus Christ made no provision for self-seeking among his followers. On the contrary, when on one occasion certain of his disciples sought preferment for themselves, he said:—
“Ye know that they which are accounted to rule over the Gentiles exercise lordship over them; and their great ones exercise authority upon them. But so shall it not be among you: but whosoever shall be great among you, shall be your minister; and whosoever of you will be the chiefest, shall be servant of all. For even the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.”
And again we have these words of our Lord:—
“But be ye not called Rabbi: for one is your master, even Christ; and all ye are brethren. And call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven. Neither be ye called master: for one is your Master, even Christ. But he that is greatest among you shall be your servant. And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted.”
But these injunctions were not obeyed. Even in Paul’s day the “mystery of iniquity” was at work as the apostle declared in 2 Thess. 2:7. Unconsecrated men, like Simon the sorcerer, joined themselves to the church for self-aggrandizement; but the power of the Spirit of God was not for such as they. Power however they would have, and so they sought it by usurping authority over their fellows. The humble office of elder, bishop, or overseer—for the terms are in the Scriptures used interchangeably, and all mean the same thing—was magnified, or perverted, rather, so that ambitious men instead of being servants of the church became “lords over God’s heritage.”
But position was not power, and power they would have. And as it was to be had from the Lord only by those who would use it to his glory, these false shepherds sought it at the hands of civil rulers. At first they simply bartered ecclesiastical influence for political power; but subsequently they claimed that the power belonged to them of right. Of the progress that had been made in this direction in the fourth century, Neander says:—
There had in fact arisen in the church . . . a false theocratical theory, originating not in the essence of the gospel, but in the confusion of the religious constitutions of the Old and New Testaments, which . . . might easily result in the formation of a sacerdotal State, subordinating the secular to itself in a false and outward way.
The result was the full-grown Papacy with the bishop of Rome as “Vicar of Christ,” claiming power to depose kings and to set up kings; and following this in natural order, the history of the long and bloody persecution in which over fifty millions of people perished—sacrificed on the altar of popish ambition. Only evil came of an attempt to establish a theocracy then; only evil can come of such an attempt now.
DAYLONG a craven cry rose up:
"The people drink a bitter cup.
They languish, gathering stones for bread;
Brave faith is fallen, the old hope dead."
The babblers will not cease:
"The people have no peace."
Trust is outworn; naught can be done;
There is no good under the sun;
The blue sky fades; the old faiths fail;
The strong hand shakes; the warriors wail.
Daylong the craven cry,
"The people faint, they die."
Are we, forsooth, so helpless, we
That vanquish air and earth and sea?
The sun shines yonder; somewhere glows
The old first hope bright as it rose,
The hope whose accent high
Shall brand this whining lie.
If doubts, risen idols of the Nile,
Again the hallowed land defile,
Thunder yet clothes green Horeb's crown;
Let Sinai speak, and smite them down.
Life rests yet in the clod;
Israel has still its God.
The seers, the prophets, poets—they
See yet the good gold in the day:
They of his line that conquered Saul
Can crowd small cowards to the wall;
They that were Athens' might
Can put pale wraiths to flight.
Poets, still red at heart, arise,
Sing back the blue into the skies,
Sing back the green into the grass,
And bid these sulking phantoms pass;
Yon dauntless sons of song
Can blast this dastard wrong.
Once more blest messengers declare
That love still lives, that life is fair,
Say knowledge knows not, trust is all,
And crush these wise which writhe and crawl;
Wake, wake your strains of fire;
God's for us—strike the lyre.
—John Vance Cheney, in Century.
SIN.
By J. H. Durland
BY ELDER J. H. DURLAND.
WHAT is sin? The apostle defines it thus: “Sin is the transgression of the law.” What law? The moral law as revealed on Sinai, which is summed up by Jesus in the words, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and thy neighbor as thyself.” Whatever is a divergence from this is sin, but so long as a man keeps within this boundary he does not sin. He is at liberty to traverse the whole length and breadth of this kingdom of love, and fear no apprehension of law or condemnation of judge. But let us here call the attention of the reader to a thought that is often overlooked, viz., that sin is more than the transgression of man’s interpretation of the law. In looking for a right understanding of sin we must divest our minds of the opinions and sentiments of men. Human systems of casuistry have so involved the subject that whoever studies it by them, or is guided in life by them, will be deprived of his moral liberty. We do not want the broad mind of the latitudinarian, who would leave man without limit, nor do we want the thousand circles of the humanitarian to set the bounds of moral action. The latter would have a circle drawn by each distinct mind, and lay it down that if a man break over his, he is a transgressor and a sinner, ignoring, of course, all violation of the circle of his neighbor as of any importance.
We can thank the Lord that sin is not the transgression of human law, opinion, or theory. Eating or drinking, wearing or doing, being or not being, what is simply contrary to the enactments of men in morality, is no sin before God.
We are not to give an account to men, but unto God. Rom. 14: 12. Neither the private nor public opinions of men will be the rule of judgment in the day when man shall render an account of himself to the great tribunal of heaven. It will not matter in that day what men and women think of you, but it will matter what God thinks of you. Then we should not be troubled now as to what will be said about our actions. “Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith,” should be the watchword of every Christian.
If we are looking to Jesus, we will want to know what he desires us to do. We will be anxious to have his interpretation of the law which is our standard. He was sent to magnify the law and make it honorable. Isa. 42: 21. Magnify is to make great, or to enlarge the vision of the beholder. The magnifying glass placed over the tiny insect does not make it any larger. Actual measurement will show that it has not grown any. But the glass does strengthen and enlarge the vision so that the beholder may be able to see the parts of the insect that he was unable to see before. So when Jesus magnified the law he did not add anything to it, or make any of its parts larger. He simply enlarged man’s comprehension that he might see those parts in the law that he otherwise would overlook.
When Jesus said, “Whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment,” he did not intend to convey the thought that hitherto this act was any less murder than at the time he spoke. Anger is the fruit of carnality, and had always been, and still is, at enmity with God. See Rom. 8: 6, 7. When he said, “Whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart,” he did not teach that he had added this clause to the seventh precept. It was already there. He enlarged their vision, or placed the magnifying glass before their eyes that they might see what was there. They had become so blinded by the fleshly desires that they were unable to see those parts of the moral precepts. So we in this wicked generation need to have our eyes opened that we may see every minute part of God’s precepts, and thus be enabled to shun sin in all its deceitful forms. The admonition to the Laodicean church is, “Anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.” Rev. 3: 18.
Anointing is a symbol of consecration. When the sick are anointed with oil, it is an outward sign that they have given up all to the Lord; when the symbolic oil was poured upon the head, the Spirit of the Lord came upon the receiver and he was anointed from on high. “Now he which stablisheth us with you in Christ and hath anointed us is God.” 2 Cor. 1: 21. But God’s anointing is the sending the Holy Spirit, as was demonstrated at the baptism of our Saviour. See Acts 10: 38.
Then, the anointing we need, that we may see sin in all its hideousness, is a complete consecration on our part, and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on God’s part. The Spirit is to be both a reprover and a comforter. It is just as much an evidence of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit when sin is pointed out through that agency, as when we have its comforting assurance that we are accepted of him.
The Spirit speaks through the word. “The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit,693and they are life.” John 6:63. When the Spirit that is given to us opens up God’s word, the word becomes a mirror into which we look and see not only our exterior, but we see the very secrets of the heart. In public places we often see a convex or a concave mirror with the words, “See yourself as others see you,” just over or under the glass. When our eyes are anointed, we see ourselves in God’s mirror as we are seen by the heavenly beings.