ATJ
ALL just legislation is not for the purpose of making men do right, but of compelling them to respect human rights. AMS September 9, 1897, page 545.1
IF God had intended that men should be compelled to do right, he would have made it impossible in the first place for them to do wrong. AMS September 9, 1897, page 545.2
STATUTES and decisions of courts that are not entitled to respect do more to produce anarchy than all the incendiary speeches that were ever uttered. AMS September 9, 1897, page 545.3
IT does not belong to man to say what is morally right. Only God can tell that, and he makes it clear to each individual by his Word and his Spirit. AMS September 9, 1897, page 545.4
A MAN-MADE sabbath law is a robbery upon both man and God. It robs man of his freedom of choice, and it robs God of the service which might be rendered to him through man’s free choice in Sabbath-keeping. AMS September 9, 1897, page 545.5
SIN cannot be separated from the individual sinner. A “corporation sin” is simply the sins of its individual members. A corporation, as such, cannot sin. If it could, it could repent, and be saved, as such; and we would have in heaven the spectacle of saved corporations,—a strange sight, indeed. AMS September 9, 1897, page 545.6
IT is impossible that Christians should let their light shine before men by a strict observance of Sunday, because in this there is no light. The world is getting to understand the subject well enough to know that there is no good Scriptural argument in favor of Sunday as the Sabbath. Hence they can see in strict Sunday observance only an exhibition of fanaticism or hypocrisy. AMS September 9, 1897, page 545.7
WHETHER the Sabbath shall be preserved or lost, is not the question that is before the American people, or any people. The question is whether the soul shall be lost or not, and this is the question of whether an individual—any and every individual—shall believe on Jesus Christ for salvation. To the soul that thus believe, the Sabbath cannot be lost; and to the soul that does not believe, the Sabbath counts for nothing. Let ministers and religious workers therefore seek to have souls believe on Jesus Christ, and not to have the Sabbath “preserved” by legislation. AMS September 9, 1897, page 545.8
ATJ
THE angels of God are acquainted with all the natural sciences, yet they are more interested in the science of Salvation than in all the other sciences. AMS September 9, 1897, page 545.1
This testifies that in the estimation of the angels, the science of salvation transcends all other sciences, and is more worthy of their attention than are all the other sciences together. AMS September 9, 1897, page 545.2
The prophets were acquainted with natural science, yet the only use they ever made of this knowledge was to employ references to it as a means of making clearer to men the science of Salvation. This testifies that in their estimation the science of Salvation transcends all other sciences. AMS September 9, 1897, page 545.3
Solomon was a universal scientist. He knew more of all the sciences than any other scientist knew of any one of them. For twenty years he taught the sciences to the people. Yet, after all, he sums up all in the words, “Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter; the sum of all that hath been said is, Fear God and keep his commandments; for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good or whether it be evil.” AMS September 9, 1897, page 545.4
This, being the candid conclusion of the greatest scientist that ever lived, is worthy of respect as valid testimony to the fact that the science of Salvation is more important than all other sciences together. AMS September 9, 1897, page 546.1
It must be borne in mind that the science that Solomon knew, was divine science; it was science learned under the teaching of the Lord himself. It must be borne in mind too that the prophets and all the other writers in the Bible, wrote only under the inspiration of God, they wrote as they were moved by the Holy Ghost; then the fact that the Lord himself in writing for the instruction of men that which is most for their good and the best for them to know, put all the stress upon the subject of Salvation. Other sciences are glanced at, yet only for the purpose of making plainer to the understanding the subject of Salvation. This testifies that in the estimation of the Lord the science of Salvation is more important than all the other sciences; and all who believe in God can only acknowledge that it is so. AMS September 9, 1897, page 546.2
Why is this so? How is it that God gave to Solomon and to Daniel such deep knowledge in the sciences, and yet has not preserved for men any treatise of Salvation? There is a reason for this, and the reason is that Salvation is the one thing that men need first of all, and more than anything else, or than all other things together. AMS September 9, 1897, page 546.3
Solomon indeed had understanding of the sciences more than any other man who ever lived: yet a man might have all that, he might understand all that, as Solomon did, and what good would it do him, if he did not have the science of Salvation first of all? Solomon had it all; yet when he turned his heart from God, from the science of Salvation, what good to him was his knowledge of the other sciences? How much power was in the sciences to hold him back from sin? How much power was there in his great scientific knowledge to keep him back from his natural self, and from the deviltry and corruption that was in him. AMS September 9, 1897, page 546.4
Everybody knows that when he turned his heart from God’s science, from the science of Salvation, though he had all the others, he was just as bad, he was just as wicked, he was as thoroughly swallowed up in idolatry and every profane practice, as though he had not known the A B C of anything. AMS September 9, 1897, page 546.5
Here we see a master mind; and yet the one who had such an understanding, such wisdom, in all the sciences, demonstrated in his life that all such knowledge is absolutely impotent for any good in a man or to a man, without the science of Salvation being there to control, and hold in righteousness the balance over all. AMS September 9, 1897, page 546.6
Mention was made a moment ago, of the fact that God did not bring to us any of Solomon’s treatises on science. Now we call attention to the fact that he did bring to us a record of Solomon’s life after he turned away from God. He did bring to us a record of the enormous failure which that man made in spite of all this knowledge, when he forgot the science of Salvation. Why, then, did God consider it more important for you and me to record all that man’s life after he turned from God, than to bring to us a record of the scientific instruction that he gave? The record of the failure, the enormous failure, made by Solomon is of more value to mankind than would have been all the scientific teaching that Solomon ever spoke put in a book for mankind to-day. Because in that failure it was demonstrated to all the world how altogether vain and less than nothing, is a knowledge of all things without the knowledge of the salvation of God. AMS September 9, 1897, page 546.7
Another great example is seen in the Greeks. The natural mind never can attain to a higher, closer and more perfect thinking than the Greek mind did. In this is portrayed the perfection of human thinking without God. AMS September 9, 1897, page 546.8
But what did it do for them? That is the question. What did their literature do for them? What did their philosophy do for them? What did their art do for them? What did their religion do for them?—It sunk them into such wickedness as is unfit to mention. AMS September 9, 1897, page 546.9
Rome learned from Greece and followed her example and came to the same end. AMS September 9, 1897, page 546.10
It must be borne in mind that the Greeks and Romans were not low, degraded, ragged, ignorant heathen; they were aristocratic, cultivated, and most highly educated heathen. The things which they knew and taught are the pinnacle to which teachers of to-day aspire. Thus Cesar was one of the most accomplished men that had lived—in courtliness, etiquette, esthetics, and ... generally. But what was his character? The most guarded description of it, to be anywise full or fair, would be unfit to print. AMS September 9, 1897, page 546.11
Therefore, when the fact stands thus demonstrated in threefold measure before the world, of the absolute impotence of every effort of the human mind in its perfection to attain to any good when the heart is turned from God, what can the Lord do for the world if these three world-lessons will not teach the people? What can he do for men if they will follow in that way, in spite of these examples of solemn warning? In all this history, men are taught the impotence of the highest effort of the mind in all branches of science, art, and literature, to ... men any good, to keep them back from sin, to lead them toward any good of any kind whatever, when they forget the science and literature of Salvation, which God has given to purify the hearts of men. AMS September 9, 1897, page 546.12
ATJ
IT is announced from Washington that the news of the vacancy in the grade of chaplain in the army, has brought in applications from three hundred ministers for the situation. This matter being under the direction of the under-secretary, that official has fixed an age limit for the office and has decided to require a physical examination of candidates, as in other departments of the service. AMS September 9, 1897, page 546.1
In the service of God the office seeks the man, and not men the office. “The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him.” 2 Chronicles 16:9. God wants men; and when he finds a man that he can use, he has an office to put him in. The true Christian is never an office-seeker. He simply seeks to know and do the will of the Lord, and be faithful in whatever work God may call him to. There could be no stronger proof needed that the office of army chaplain is not of God’s establishing than the fact that it is besieged by supplicants and is under the control of the civil government. AMS September 9, 1897, page 546.2
ATJ
GOD is the Creator of all beings upon the earth. But it is not merely as the Creator that God reveals himself to us in his Word and in his works. In these he reveals to us his character. AMS September 9, 1897, page 557.1
God might have made men without giving them any rights at all. He might have made them merely for his own amusement, as boys make their play men of snow, or as dolls are made for the little girls. AMS September 9, 1897, page 557.2
He might have made mere automatons,—that is, people who would have no will or choice of their own in anything that they did, but would act just as some power outside of themselves obliged them to. AMS September 9, 1897, page 557.3
Some people wonder why the Lord did not make automatons who would have been compelled to do right, instead of men and women who have the power to choose to do right. Such people seem to have no idea of the of freedom. AMS September 9, 1897, page 557.4
The Bible tells us that “God is love.” It is this that God reveals to us in his Word and in his works. This is his character. Everything that God does is prompted by his love for the beings he has made. AMS September 9, 1897, page 557.5
This is why he has given to us those unalienable rights that are spoken of in the Declaration of Independence. AMS September 9, 1897, page 557.6
God made all his creatures to be happy; so he gave them a right to life, to liberty, and to all things that they must have to make them happy. God himself never takes any of these things from us; but sometimes men take them from us, and sometimes we lose them by not caring enough for them ourselves. AMS September 9, 1897, page 557.7
If we were automatons we would never have any character. If we only did what we could not help doing, we would have no credit, nor any blame, for doing it. AMS September 9, 1897, page 557.8
We all like to have credit for doing well, and God means that we shall have credit for it. When we come to the end of this world, he is going to say, “Well done,” to everyone who has done well here in this life. AMS September 9, 1897, page 557.9
It would only be ridiculous to say “Well done” to an automaton. So God gives us all freedom of choice, in order that we may have the credit of having done noble deeds of our own free will. AMS September 9, 1897, page 557.10
God has a character, and his design is that the beings he has made in his own image, shall have a character. We would not be in God’s image if we had no character. What an honor it is that God has bestowed on us in making us in his own image! This is the highest proof that he does not mean us to be slaves. AMS September 9, 1897, page 557.11
God’s character is love, and he wants men to have the same character that he has. Did you ever know any one of a very loving nature who did not want to be loved in return? This is the way it is with God. He is more loving than any of us, and he wants to be loved in return by all the human family. AMS September 9, 1897, page 557.12
So he wants love to be our character, the same as it is his. But if we should do right only because we had to, there would be no love in that. If you, my boy or girl, did what your father and mother wish you to do, from no choice of your own but only because you could not do differently, would they see in it any proof of your love for them? Of course not; and so we must have freedom of choice to show our love for God. AMS September 9, 1897, page 557.13
How perfect and how beautiful is God’s plan for the happiness not only of himself but of all his creatures! And how strange it is, and how wicked, that anyone should interfere with this plan, and try to take away man’s freedom. Yet this is just what men have been doing all the way along in the world’s history since Cain killed Abel; and they are doing it still. AMS September 9, 1897, page 557.14
Men are trying to have laws made to compel other people to do right, or rather to do what they think is right, for it does not rest with man to say what is right, but only with God. One of the most common ways in which some men try to compel others to do what they think is right, is in passing laws to compel people to keep the Sabbath. AMS September 9, 1897, page 557.15
God does not want any one to be compelled to keep the Sabbath. Real Sabbath-keeping is one way in which men can show their love for God. Yes; it is one of the greatest and most important ways in which men may show that they love God. And God longs for their love, and in the highest degree deserves to have it. But when men pass laws to compel people to keep the Sabbath, they not only rob the people of their God-given freedom of choice, but they rob God himself of the love which would come to him through the free choice of people in the keeping of his holy day. AMS September 9, 1897, page 557.16
The men who make such laws do not generally realize how they are interfering with God’s perfect plan and robbing him, and what a wicked thing it is. We must do what we can to enlighten them and save them from the consequences of such terrible mistakes. AMS September 9, 1897, page 557.17