GOD has written on the flower that sweetens the air, upon the breeze that rocks the flower upon its stem, upon the rain-drops that swell the mighty river, upon the dewdrops that refresh the smallest sprig of moss that rears its head to the desert, upon the ocean that rocks every swimmer in its channel, upon every penciled shell that sleeps in the caverns of the deep, as well as upon the mighty sun which warms and cherishes the millions that live in his light—upon all He has written, “None of us liveth to himself.”—Selected.
“MADE TO BE SIN.”
THIS is what the apostle says Christ Jesus was made for us. He became not an offering for sin, not something else in the place of sin, not something to buy sin, but “Him [Christ] who knew no sin He [God] made to be sin on our behalf.” 2 Cor. 5:21, R.V.
It will help us to understand this wonderful truth if we will consider for a little man's primitive condition and fall. When man came from the hand of the Creator, he was “upright,” “very good,” created in “righteousness and true holiness.” Righteousness ruled in him. He was its willing servant. Nay, more, he was the expression of the righteousness, the righteousness, the trueness, of God in human flesh. And had he lived ever in obedience to the primal law of his being, his whole life would have been righteousness incarnate, or, in plainer English, righteousness infleshed. So he would have been on earth the highest revelation of God; the Righteous One.
Sin is “missing the mark;” it is the changing of that which is good; it is the crooking of the right lines of God’s truth; it is the perversion of righteousness; it is the endeavor to turn the current of beneficence from the longing and needy to self and self-interest; it is the contraction of the life into selfish grasping and hoarding instead of its expansion in all noble deeds; it is “all unrighteousness;” it is “the transgression of the law.” When man chose these, and so yielded to the service of sin, he became sin’s slave. Righteousness departed from him, and sin became incarnate, infleshed. And man, the most glorious of God’s earth works, instead of remaining the expression of God’s righteousness, became in his purposes, his conduct, his character, the expression of sin. He became identified with sin, a veritable part of its realm, its kingdom. Loving sin, choosing sin, God counts him what he chooses to be,—sin.
“Sin, when it is finished [“full grown,” R.V.], bringeth forth death.” James 1:15. Man, therefore, as he had identified himself with sin, was doomed to death, sin’s inevitable fruitage. In order that he might demonstrate God’s love and save man, Jesus took man’s place. “The Word became flesh.” The Son of God became incarnate, infleshed, as flesh is since it fell under sin’s dominion. He took upon Himself sin and its fruitage, for man’s sake. As man in his rebellion identified himself with sin, so Christ, to save man, identified Himself with sin even unto death. “For He [God] hath made Him [Christ] to be sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.”
All this is further taught in the sacrificial system—in what are generally called “sin-offerings,” but which are literally “sin.” So of the bullock offered for Aaron and his sons it is said, “It is a sin-offering.” The marginal literal rendering from the Hebrew is “sin.” See Revised Version. The same Hebrew word, chattath, is used in Ex. 29:36; 30:10; Lev. 4:3, 8, 20, 21, 24, 25, 29, 33, and many other places. In every case, as the type of Christ, the offering was counted sin. When the sinner came with his offering, he placed his hand upon the head of the beast without blemish, emblem of the spotless Lamb of God, and confessed that he was a sinner and worthy of death; by his confession he yields up his sins and transfers them to the offering, which stands for him as identified with sin, and is counted sin. The consumption of that offering is the taking away of his sin, and the sinner is counted righteous.
All this is but the shadow of the simple literal truth in Christ Jesus. He gave His life for all from the foundation of the world, and, tho manifested in these last times for us, it is the blessed truth for sinners of all ages. Christ, the spotless Lamb of God, is the Sin-bearer for each individual sinner. “Thou shalt make His soul [asham, sin] an offering for sin.” “He poured out His soul unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors.” Isa. 53:10, 12.
But He did it all that “we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.” Eternal Righteousness became incarnate where sin reigned; suffered all that sin deserved; tho deserving of nothing that He suffered; overcame sin where sin had perverted all; brought the cosmos of light from the chaos of darkness, and so triumphed over all the power of sin, in order that every soul who would trust Him might eternally triumph with Him.
O, it seems as tho every soul would respond to such wonderful, mighty, saving love!
THE ESSENTIAL THING.
The desirable thing, what ought to be the essential thing, in a religion worthy of acceptance, is life,—the life it has to bestow; the life its devotee may obtain; for life is power; life is multiplied blessing. A religion without life is dead. It may present an interesting theory; it may lay before the world a mysterious and seemingly profound philosophy, it may unroll an ancient and voluminous creed, endorsed by great men; its ritual and service may be ornate, superb, and affecting; it may have many devotees; but if it have not life to give to the needy, no power to lift him above the low plane of self, it is a hollow mockery.
We may subscribe to a creed, and admire the erudition and piety of those who framed it, but its dead words will not help us to cleanse one sin or lighten one burden.
Moral precepts will not save; they can not save. They reveal duty, but confer no power to perform it. Such are the precepts and the philosophy of Confucius. Other systems, like Buddhism, and Theistic evolution, and “Christian Science,” recognize the life and power in man, but supply nothing additional. They sometimes name it “divine power,” “divine mind,” or “divine immanence;” but it is what every person has within himself, if but recognized. Theistic evolution “assumes a God back of all, working “out results along the unalterable lines of natural law, and by physical forces exclusively.”—Standard Dictionary. In other words, it makes God dependent on the laws perverted by sin existent in humanity. The process is by evolution, not by creation.
“Christian Science” declares that “man is incapable of sin. . . . Hence the real man can not “depart from holiness.”—Science and Health, page 459. Again, it declares that “no man can break “God’s law. He can only break the law which benefits him, and not God; and it is man’s own law, “and not God’s, which holds man to accountability.”—Platform, vol. 2, p. 70. Thus “Christian Science” makes man his own lawgiver and his own judge.
It is not our purpose to seek to harmonize the inconsistencies of this so-called “science;” that is impossible. As above quoted, it declares that man is incapable of sin; that he can not break God’s law; that it is only his own law which he can violate; while again, in Science and Health, vol. 2, p. 84, we read: “Man is co-eternal and co-existent with God, “and they are inseparable in divine science.” If this be true, when man violates “his own law,” does he not violate God’s law? But if he be divine, he is above sin, hence needs no Saviour.
But enough of its inconsistencies; they are legion. What we wish here to note is that “Christian Science” makes man divine, his own saviour, if he have need of one. He saves himself by recognizing that he does not need saving.
It is the teaching of “Theosophy” (God-wisdom) that “the essential divinity is in man, and the progression of the divine ray proceeds thru all the “kingdoms of nature up to man, and beyond man “as we know him, up to beings of godlike perfection, “the evolution taking place by means of “successive re-embodiment, or reincarnation, and “according to the law of cause and effect.”—Standard Dictionary. And in this, as in evolution, man is his own saviour.
In all these, man’s salvation, man’s betterment morally, must be, if not by his own works wholly, by the aid which he furnishes, by the law which inheres in him, by the recognition of powers which he already possesses. What man needs, according to these theories, above all things else, is knowledge.
This idea of self-salvation enters into every false system of salvation, every false religion, the world has ever known. Wherever the true has been perverted, it has been thru this one idea or teaching, that man himself can do something toward his salvation. The motive is selfish; it is to glorify man. All the deceived ones may not see its selfishness, but the selfishness is there. All the Galatians did not see the selfishness of the perverters of the Gospel who were blinding them, but Inspiration says of them, and all such teachers, “They zealously seek you in no good way; nay, they desire to shut you out, that ye may seek [not Christ, but] them.” Gal. 4:17, R.V. “As many as desire to make a fair show in the flesh, they compel you to be circumcised; only that they may not be persecuted for the cross of Christ. . . . They desire to have you circumcised, that they may glory in your flesh.” Gal. 6:12, 13, R.V.
Said the apostle to the Gentiles, “From among your own selves [Christians] shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them.” Acts 20:30, R.V. Peter says, “Thru covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you.” 2 Peter 2:3. It is ever the same in principle. The motive may be the seeking of an easier way than the way of the cross seems; it may be that of self-glory and praise; it may be that of worldly gain; it may be one of a half dozen other things, but in all, the selfishness of the natural heart enters and corrupts the true.
The religion may change the form of man’s sinning from grosser deeds to self-righteous Pharisaism, but the self-seeking is there. Signs and wonders may be wrought in its name, but there are no indications of the true. The greatest of God’s prophets “did no miracle.”
This subject will be considered further in our next.
SHIRKING RESPONSIBILITY.
By G.
Pilate and Jesus.
TOO common in this world is the delusion that shirking responsibility is equivalent to doing duty. Men naturally like to be popular, and the performance of unpopular duty is very disagreeable. Pleasant duty is done with alacrity, but that which brooks danger or is liable to incur unpopularity is, if possible, evaded. The pretext may be never so flimsy, the fact that it serves the present purpose is too often deemed to be of sufficient weight.
The case of Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor who gave consent to the crucifixion of Jesus, is a striking illustration of the folly and weakness of such a course. The Jewish council adjudged Jesus to be worthy of death, but they had not the authority to inflict the death penalty. So, after passing their own judgment, they took Him to Pilate to have their decision confirmed by competent authority.
They made charges of high treason against Jesus, saying, “We found this Fellow perverting the nation, and forbidding to give tribute to Cæsar, saying that He Himself is Christ a king.” They wanted Pilate to take their word for it, and sign a death warrant without further examination. But the governor examined the Prisoner himself, and promptly declared, “I find no fault in this Man.” This aroused the anger and indignation of the Jewish rulers, and “they were the more fierce, saying, He stirreth up the people, teaching thruout all Jewry, beginning from Galilee to this place.”
The prospect of a troublesome tumult caused Pilate to waver in the face of plain duty. He had declared the Prisoner innocent, and it was his official duty to release Him, and then to protect Him from violence; but the vacillating governor had not the courage of his conviction. He was at once ready to shirk the responsibility of duty. The mention of Galilee suggested the manner of evasion. Herod, the governor of Galilee, was in the city attending7the Passover. So Pilate decided to recognize Herod’s right to pass judgment upon a citizen of his own province. This was a flattering compliment he would have been loath to bestow upon an unfriendly potentate, but for the desire to escape the performance of an unpopular duty.
But the scheme failed, and Jesus came back upon Pilate’s hands. The governor was now in a worse position than he was before. His wavering had strengthened the hands of the Jews, and they were ready to press their suit with even more urgency than at first. Pilate next thought to shift the responsibility of Jesus’ release onto the priests and rulers themselves, by inducing them to consent to the Prisoner’s pardon. For this suggestion he had the prestige of a custom of pardoning a prisoner at the Passover. This attempt also proved unsuccessful. The weight of responsibility seemed to grow heavier with every effort to throw it off.
The people scouted the idea of release, and demanded the pardon of Barabbas, a noted criminal charged with insurrection and murder. With every evasion of duty the situation became more difficult. The people now not only demanded death for their victim, but they demanded death by crucifixion. A third time Pilate appealed to the mob to allow him to do what he ought to have done in spite of them. To appease the unreasoning wrath of a mob wrought into madness thru the encouragement of a cowardly shirking of responsibility, the governor suggested that the Prisoner be “chastised,” and then released.
But he had wavered too long to succeed in getting any one or any party to assume an unpopular duty in his stead. He next thought to wash off the stain of guilt from his hands in a basin of water. Having performed this ineffectual ceremony, Pilate yielded to the demand of the priests and rulers and people. They assumed the responsibility of the blood of Jesus, and the governor gave the death warrant. While this assumption on the part of the crowd added to their own guilt, it in no degree lessened the responsibility of the governor. All his efforts to evade duty could no more relieve him than could the basin of water wash away his sin. He had in the most cowardly manner given into the hands of a vengeful assembly, for the infliction of death, the One whose blood alone could wash away sin.
There is no such thing as being relieved of the responsibility of individual duty. One may evade it in the sight of men, and to the satisfaction of mankind, but it still stands in the mind of God. Every legitimate position of trust is held by the individual in the providence of God, and is a test of character. And that character will be tested in the judgment by the unchangeable law of God and the unerring scrutiny of the Court of heaven. “So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God.” Rom. 14:12. No responsibility of individual duty can be transferred to another. Others may come in and assume it, and by assumption become co-responsible; but that in no sense relieves or lightens the responsibility of the original party. G.
“YE SHALL KNOW THE TRUTH.”
By T.
Our Master gives the definite promise, “Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”
Nothing short of the real and definite truth itself can make men free. And, in view of this fact, how careful should we be to divest ourselves of all prejudice and hold our minds open for the reception of truth! The Lord sometimes uses very humble or unpretentious instruments so that we may see the truth as the all-important thing, rather than to become absorbed in the study or admiration of the vehicle through which it is communicated. In view of this fact we should not take it upon ourselves to prescribe the channels thru which we will allow truth to reach us; for if we do we may shut ourselves away from the choicest gems. God not only has the truth, but He also knows the best way of bringing it to us. Then the best thing for us is to let Him have His own way, and things will be just right.
There are a great many who say, “It doesn’t matter what you believe, just so you are honest in it.” There was never a more fatal mistake. The Saviour does not ask us to be honest in the belief of falsehood, but says we “shall know the truth.” Anything that a man knows is not something that he is in doubt about. He knows it. He is so sure of it that, while he remains true to himself and the truth, he would willingly surrender his life rather than give it up.
The person who merely claims to have “sincere convictions,” and who thinks that it does not matter what they are “so he is honest,” does not in reality hold any real convictions at all. Such an one can not be a positive force for good in the world. His inaction may permit much evil, but so far as goodness is concerned his life is worse than a blank. When brought into a trying place he readily finds an excuse for giving up anything that he holds as mere “honest convictions.” He has not studied to know the truth and to follow it at all hazards. His “honest convictions” after all have only been excuses that have enabled him to stifle the pleadings of truth, while he followed his natural inclinations, regardless of right or wrong.
The individual who has studied the truth until he has discovered its foundations knows what he is standing on. He has no quibblings about the right. He is not tossed by doubts and fears, but lives in the strength that definite knowledge gives. God’s Word comes to him, and he exercises his faith in believing it, and at the same time there is a definite knowledge that what he is believing is actually true. The Word is not a mere theory to him, but it is a burning, living reality. He reads the Word and knows that it is true. There is in it an inner life, a vitalizing power, that appeals to him, and tells him plainly of its divine origin. He reads the promises of God in His Word, and in his heart he says they are true. And believing God’s promises in this way, he finds them fulfilled to him day by day. They have become more than what men usually look upon as promises; they are the expression of a daily experience in the things of God. By all these experiences that come to the real Christian, he lives under the constant joy that “I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that He shall stand at the latter day upon the earth; . . . whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another.” Job 19:25-27.
The individual who is thus devotedly following the real truth as it is revealed by the Author of all truth, learns to recognize truth whenever he sees it. In a sense, truth becomes to him axiomatic. To state it to him clearly is to show it to him without the weariness of long-drawn and tedious arguments. He is realizing the fulfillment of the promise, “Ye shall know the truth.”
God has left with every man that faculty of the divine mind that enables him to know truth when he sees or hears it. It is not the impossible task to arrive at the knowledge of definite truth that many would have us believe. When we are willing to dislodge every error, no matter how much we may have cherished it, and stand committed to the truth, no matter where it will lead us, we will find the truth, and know it when we see it. And not only will we know it, but we will know that we know it, for we will know the Author of truth, and know that it is He who is leading us, and that He can make no mistake. Do not be too quick to controvert any of these statements. Remember that the text at the head of this article says, “Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” It makes you free from error, wherein lies the only true freedom.
When a child wants anything so much that his whole nature goes out toward the object, it is sometimes amusing to listen to the different “reasons” that he can assign as to why he should have the object of his desire, and have it right away. The fact that many of these “reasons” may be unreasonable and contradictory does not interfere with his ardor one bit. But you put him off a day or so, or let him in some way see something that will change his mind, and then he can argue just as strongly that he does not want the thing at all. You may call his attention to the arguments used a day or so previous, but these are all overshadowed by his intense desire to have his own way.
You will say at once that a disposition like this in a child is something that must be educated out of him if he is ever to amount to anything in life. That is true. We must teach him earnestly and faithfully to choose only those things that are right and true and proper, regardless of whether they strike his fancy for the time being or not. And as you educate him in this way, he gradually sees that what is right also has the most enjoyment in it in the end.
Then we should each one draw the conclusion that our warped and uneducated and unenlightened desires must not be allowed to guide us; for if we allow them they will always lead us to make plenty of excuses as to why we should do this or that wrong thing. We will even try to persuade ourselves that we are doing the right when we are really doing wrong, and when we are more than persuaded, too, that the thing we are doing is not for the best. Truth and not inclination must be our guide. And we should cling to the Saviour’s promise that we shall know the truth. And once the truth is known, not guessed at, what a solid rest and comfort it brings to the soul! Do you know the truth? If not it is your privilege to know it definitely and fully.
T.
Question Corner
[From time to time we will reply under this head, if deemed advisable, to such candid inquiries as may be sent us. Correspondents wishing a reply to their questions must give their full name and address, not for publication unless they wish but as an evidence of good faith on their part, and to give us opportunity to reply by letter if deemed best. It is always well to inclose stamp. Let the questions be short and pointed, and such as may be answered in limited space. The questions will be numbered continuously.]
1133. A. S. Sprinkling, When Introduced.—In the early church, baptism meant nothing else save immersion, dipping, submersion, whelming. Sprinkling came in gradually, as did Sunday observance, the latter, Expediency, the murderer of Truth and Duty, suggesting it as of easier performance and more adapted to fashionable congregations. A writer in the Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia, article “Baptism,” says of immersion: “There is not a dissenting voice in all the literature of the Christian church for twelve hundred years. Only in case of great sickness was any other act allowed, and then only as a quasi-baptism. The many ancient baptistries now remaining in Asia, Africa, and Europe, were built and used for the purpose of immersion. The Oriental churches, Greek, Russian, Armenian, Nestorian, Coptic, and others, have always practised baptism, and allow nothing else for baptism. The Western churches also preserved the baptism of the New Testament for 1,300 years, and then gradually introduced sprinkling. . . . Calvin was the first to assert that immersion was of no importance.” Authorities are cited for these statements.
1134. C. K. What Was in the Ark?—First of all, only the tables of the testimony (Ex. 25:21); afterward laid up “before the testimony” the pot of manna (Ex. 16:33) and Aaron’s rod that budded (Num. 17:10). See Heb. 9:4. These seem to have been removed when the account in 1 Kings 8:9 was written. The passage in “Early Writings” refers to the time when those things were therein.
1135. Is She Free?—“If the husband breaks the marriage covenant and proves untrue to his wife, does that not set her free? In other words, does she not commit adultery if she live with him as a wife?” W. I. S.
She is not free legally, and so not scripturally. She may cast him off; but she is not free to marry without a legal divorce. If a wife knew that her husband was living in violation of his marriage vow, she would be justified in separating from him. To continue to live with him while he was living with a harlot would be doing both parties a wrong. She could not be partaker with such deeds if she were a pure woman. But if that husband repented, the wife could take him back without the violation of the seventh commandment. So God deals with His people. Read Jeremiah, chapters 2 and 3.
1136. Body, Soul, and Spirit.—“What do our writers mean when they say ‘body, soul, and spirit’? I did not have an idea there were three entities.” W. I. S.
We suppose they mean the same as expressed in 1 Thess. 5:23 (“spirit and soul and body”), or as implied in Heb. 4:12 (“even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit”). But this does not mean three entities, but three component and essential parts to one entity. When we speak of “air,” it is of one thing, but it is made up of two essential gases, oxygen and nitrogen. The body is the flesh, the material; the soul, the intellectual part, the mind, the affections, the animal life; the spirit, the life. Sometimes soul refers to the whole man; sometimes it means life. Sometimes spirits refer to a whole being; sometimes, to life.
1138. Forsaking Sins.—“Do we have to forsake our sins to be saved, or can we continue in our sins and still be saved?” J. W. S.
“He that covereth his sins shall not prosper; but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy.” Prov. 28:13. “Thou shalt call His name Jesus; for He shall save His people from their sins.” Matt. 1:21. “He was manifested to take away our sins; and in Him is no sin.” 1 John 3:5. Whosoever clings to known sin identifies himself with the sin, and with it will be destroyed.
“LAW AND MOB LAW.”
By T.
In a recent New York World there appeared the following paragraphs under the caption of “Law and Mob Law”:—
“Down in Texas the Legislature has been asked to consider a bill providing that it shall be justifiable for a man to kill any one who slanders his wife or female relatives. It is not expected that the measure will pass, but so open an attempt to sanction manslaughter by statute is noteworthy.
“In the Indiana Senate a bill has been introduced to legalize ‘joint-smashing.’ It provides that any number of persons not exceeding twelve may enter any saloon, booth, store, boat, or other place where liquor is illegally sold, and ‘smash’ the paraphernalia, and any one interfering with them to prevent the smashing shall be deemed guilty of assault and battery. Thus would the Hoosier statesman license fanaticism to destroy property.
“Mob law and private vengeance proceed from a feeling that legal penalties are too light, too easily escaped, or administered with too little promptness and adequacy. But the remedy does not lie in the abdication of penal authority and a permit to individuals to work their vengeful will. This is why the raids of Mrs. Nation and her followers partake of lynch-law methods—why they share the lynch-quality to a degree even with the retaliatory church-wrecking.
“Violence outside the law inevitably invites like violence, and statutes officially neglected are not improved in standing when their friends take to the violation of other statutes.”
“Violence” is one of the characteristics of this time. Society is wrought up to a high tension. This is not an opinion, but it is a fact, that any one knows who observes the condition of things. It is inspiring to note the great-hearted hopefulness that so many persons have in regard to the peaceful outcome of these things, but disappointment and despair must not fill the soul, if matters should continue to get worse and worse. What we see of the spirit of violence at the present time is as nothing compared to what we will see a little later on. How do we know this? you ask. The Saviour says plainly, “As it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man.” Luke 17:26. Of the condition of things in the days of Noah the Word of God tells us, “The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.” Gen. 6:11.
Now when the conditions of the times of Noah are reproduced in fulfilment of the prediction of the Master, this earth will be “filled with violence.” This condition is not reached yet, but it is coming on most rapidly, and any one ought to be able to see it. Our only hope for salvation from this “violence” is to be under the protection of the Almighty God. According to this text, men will be “corrupt,” and they can not be trusted for protection, and nothing short of the strong arm of the Lord will do.
Think of these things. Do not pass them by lightly. The conditions before this world are much more serious than even the most wide awake and thoughtful can think of. After we have put forth every effort to reform the abuses and evils of the time, and find that things continue to get worse, do not despair. Study the prophetic Word, and know the meaning of these things, and in the place of discouragement the soul will be filled with the keen delights that arise thru the knowledge that the Lord is coming soon in person to put an end to all this violence. Let us all get ready for the bright joys of that day.
T.
WAR AND THE PUBLIC CONSCIENCE.
By T.
The papers in this country are commenting a good deal on what is being said in England concerning the instruction that it is claimed General Kitchener has given to his troops in Africa. They say that the evidence is conclusive to prove it. The general’s instruction, as given in the Westminster Gazette, is as follows:—
“1. To seize all forage, horses, cattle, and other live stock belonging to any Boer who had broken his oath of neutrality, or whose son had gone on commando.”
“2. To denude the country of forage and supplies, so as to leave no means of subsistence for any commando.”
“3. To seize all stock without payment or receipt of all disloyal farmers, or of those whose fathers or sons are in the field.”
“4. To seize all stock on farm any member of whose household, after laying down arms, again goes on commando.”
“5. To seize or destroy all crops on farms belonging to men on commando.”
“6. To seize and remove all farming gear, leaving none whatever for farming and other purposes.”
The foregoing instructions are indeed barbarous; for war is barbarous. But they are simply the instructions of the army general that expects to win. It is impossible to have a humane war. War has no good thing about it. It is nothing but cruelty. And Christian professors should learn that the thing for them to do is to quit trying to make war refined and gentle. They should simply let war alone, so far as engaging in it is concerned, and whenever they mention it, the purpose should only be to show that it is one of the things that will not exist in the kingdom of the Prince of Peace.
Then how gladly and vigorously should we herald the message that the long, cruel reign of sin, with its attendant wars, is about to come to an end, and the coming of the Just One is before us! Hasten the glorious day! There will be no place for war under the everlasting reign of Christ; but we may not look for that blessed condition this side of there. T.
STAGGERING HUMANITY.
By T.
At the outset of the South African war we called attention to the statement made by President Kruger, that if the war was prosecuted, it would cost a price that would “stagger humanity.” His prophecy is proving to be most distressingly true. The Boers have held out long after the English thought they had them about whipped, and the end is not in sight by any means. The best of the British army has been sent into that field, and the best of their generals have led it; but still the two little republics hold out.
That portion of humanity that has been resting under the thought that we had passed the time of wars, and that everything from now on will be settled by arbitration, ought indeed to be staggered at these results. They ought to see that the spirit of war is in the world as strongly as ever, and that wars are pushed just as vigorously to-day by the so-called Christian powers as they have ever been by the more barbaric heathen. The trouble is that so much that passes for Christianity to-day has no connection with Christ. It is Christianity only in name; otherwise, all these barbarities of war would not be practised under the banner of Him who came to the world to spread the beneficent principles of peace. It should ever be kept before the mind that we can not be a loyal subject of the Prince of Peace while we are doing homage to the god of war. T.
IT WILL WORK OUT TYRANNY.
The United Christian party, a religio-political affair, sends out an address from Pittsburg, Pa., entitled “The Twentieth Century for Christ.” It appeals for the Bible, the church, and the Sabbath. Here is a paragraph:—
“The Bible, the church, and the Sabbath day are three cardinal things about which every patriotic citizen ought to have convictions of a positive and aggressive character. The Bible is the only perfect rule of duty. The church is the teacher, and the Sabbath day the time for the teaching to be done. They together form a chain of three golden links, the parting of any one of which lets fall all the cherished institutions which it supports. Our danger is more from indifference and neglect of religion than from open infidelity.”
And all these are important, and the last sentence is emphatically true. It is true that every person ought to have positive convictions concerning these three things, but as a person, not as a citizen. God has left every individual free to choose or refuse, and the patriotic citizen has no business whatsoever to meddle with these things; other than as matters of faith and conviction. He may persuade as a man; he may not seek to coerce as a citizen. They belong not to the domain of earthly government. Mr. A may be a Methodist, and believe the Methodist Church to be right, but he has no moral, spiritual, temporal, or civil right to say to Mr. B, a Catholic, that he, Mr. B, shall recognize the Methodist Church. The reverse is also true. The same principle holds good as regards the Sabbath. Politics has by right naught to do with any of them. All attempts to legislate upon such religion and religious institutions, to say thru law how they shall be recognized or observed, have ever proven a curse to religion, a source of great weakness to the State, and oftentimes hardship and oppression to those who may exercise their God-given right of dissent.
There is one thing about the address characteristic of the day. It perverts the language of liberty to the use of that which, if developed, will result in oppression. It is largely a parody on Patrick Henry’s famous speech.
IT IS DANGEROUS.
By Editor
If Mrs. Nation’s raid were but the righteous indignation of feeling wives and mothers over the murderous work of the saloons and the pitiable weakness and criminality of the officers of the law, from the view-point of common justice she should be borne with. But it takes a more dangerous form, even, than that of fanaticism, a species of religious insanity. She seems to imagine that she is called of God to her work, and that for whatever she does God is responsible. She uses language of herself in addressing the saloonists which indicates that this is the case. For instance, here is a portion of a letter addressed to the joint-keepers of Topeka, as given in the New Voice of February 7:—
“My Dear Hell-bound Sinners: . . . Your master, the devil, has you under his thumb, and you poor scullions do just what he wants you to do, and he makes you believe that there is no escape. Don’t believe him. Listen to me, your friend. Get out of these hell holes quick and I will help you stay out. I came to rescue you as well as those you are murdering. Do not delay, for he that being often reproved hardeneth his neck shall suddenly be destroyed and that without remedy. . . . Should you do as I request you will be safe and happy; otherwise you shall utterly perish. For if any man fall on this stone he shall be broken, but if this stone fall on him it will grind him to powder. “Affectionately, MRS. CARRIE NATION.”
This is the language of one deceived.
To those who rent buildings to the saloon-keepers, she says:—
“You have entered into a partnership with the keepers of these murder shops, and our indignation will be alike against the shelterer of these criminal factors as against the bar fixtures and the liquid damnation. If we find unbarred doors, we may spare them; otherwise we will annihilate all opposition.”
One of her followers thus speaks of her attack on one who struck Mrs. Nation:—
“When I saw this brutal man, who had taken the oath of office to enforce the law, step in between Mother Nation and the murder-mill she was attacking, and fell a blow on the head of a woman who carries the ark of God in her soul, it was more than I could endure. I was righteously indignant, so I lifted my stick and smote him four good strokes over the head and shoulders.”
Another says: “In His name we were led to make the raid with our Joan of Arc, Mrs. Carrie Nation, to lead.”
Another thus writes: “Having in a vision seen this monster evil vanish before the W. C. T. U., I took courage and put my shoulder the harder to the wheel.”
All this will be short-lived. The violent burning of such a spirit soon consumes the zeal or throws its devotee into the insane asylum. It is the dangerous spirit of the old crusades to rescue the “Holy Land” from the hated Moslem; but hundreds perished in the Crusades, Christianity became a hated thing among the heathen, and the Moslem still rules in Palestine. The Crusades were not Christian; neither is Mrs. Nation’s raid.
By the above we do not mean to say that the saloon ought not to be suppressed. It ought to be everywhere, doubly so in Kansas. In most States the majority of voters divide with the liquor-seller the responsibility; in Kansas the saloon is an outlaw.
