ATJ
“HAMST thou faith? have it to thyself before God.” AMS September 30, 1897, page 593.1
NOT right, but rights, are properly enforceable by legislation. AMS September 30, 1897, page 593.2
TO invade the rights of a single individual, of whatever race or belief, is contrary to the interests of the whole community. AMS September 30, 1897, page 593.3
THE Sabbath was made for man, but not by man: and He who made the Sabbath, and not he for whom it was made, may rightfully legislate concerning it. AMS September 30, 1897, page 593.4
LEGISLATION which is simply for the majority is often oppressive to the individual; but that which is for the individual can never be against the interests of the majority. AMS September 30, 1897, page 593.5
GRAMMARIANS teach that there is a decided difference between “a man” and “the man;” but theologians teach but there is no difference between “a seventh day” and “the seventh day.” Which is right? AMS September 30, 1897, page 593.6
THE more of the spirit of brotherly love and helpfulness toward the unfortunate there is in the land, the more prosperity it will have; and without this it will not have prosperity though every ship which enters its harbor should come loaded down with gold. AMS September 30, 1897, page 593.7
THERE is a wide difference between stating facts, and condemning men. Facts in which are involved the conduct of men, may be plainly stated without at all judging or condemning the men who are connected with the facts. In other words, principles can be dealt with without reference to men. AMS September 30, 1897, page 593.8
THERE are two things which have been long and earnestly sought, the discovery of which may be expected to be announced on the same day; namely, a perpetual motion, and the Scripture which states that Sunday is the Sabbath. AMS September 30, 1897, page 593.9
TO believe that the so-called wrist-bone of St. Ann can work miracles is a great exhibition of credulity: but still greater credulity is required to believe that this bone could (and actually did) manufacture itself. If it could do the latter, there is no question but that it can do the former. AMS September 30, 1897, page 593.10
ATJ
THE work of Christians is not to set other people straight, but to keep themselves straight. AMS September 30, 1897, page 593.1
“My brethren, be not many masters, knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation.” AMS September 30, 1897, page 593.2
To assume mastership over others is only to incur condemnation, therefore the more masters, the more condemnation. AMS September 30, 1897, page 593.3
“One is your Master, even Christ, and all ye are brethren.” “Who art thou that judgest another man’s servant? To his own master he standeth or falleth.” AMS September 30, 1897, page 593.4
“So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God. Let us not therefore judge one another any more; but judge this rather, that no man put a stumbling block or an occasion to fall in his brother’s way.” AMS September 30, 1897, page 593.5
Thus the Lord intends every disciple to be “quiet and to do his own business,” and not to be “a busybody in other men’s matters.” In other words, the Lord instructs and expects his people to mind their own business and to let other people’s business alone. AMS September 30, 1897, page 593.6
This is the only true course of Christian conduct. Accordingly, he says, “Make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way.” The Christian has nothing to do with making paths for the feet of other people: he is to make straight paths for his own feet. By going straight himself, any man can do far more to help the weak and those that are out of the way than he can by going out of the way to set the others straight. AMS September 30, 1897, page 594.1
This is well illustrated in the last instance [sic.] recorded in the book of John: Jesus said to Peter, “Follow me.” “Then Peter, turning about, seeth the disciple whom Jesus loved following.... Peter, seeing him, saith to Jesus, Lord, and what shall this man do? Jesus saith unto him, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? follow thou me.” AMS September 30, 1897, page 594.2
The Lord said to one man, “Follow me.” Instead of doing so, he turned about to see what another man was doing. But when he had turned about, it was impossible to follow Jesus that way: for no man can follow Christ backward. AMS September 30, 1897, page 594.3
More than this, he would not have seen the other man if he had not taken his eyes off Jesus and turned about from following him. Thus every man has to take his eyes off Jesus and turn from following him, before he can raise questions about the conduct of other men. AMS September 30, 1897, page 594.4
And when this man had turned about from Jesus and so saw the other man, what was that other man doing?—Oh, he was following Jesus—he was doing the very thing that the Lord had told the first man to do. But the first man, instead of doing what he was told by his Master to do, turned away from that to question about the other man who was doing the very thing that he himself had been told by the Lord to do, but which he had turned away from doing. Thus it is always with those professed Christians who think it devolves upon them to set other people straight. AMS September 30, 1897, page 594.5
But this man, with all others, got the answer from the Lord: “If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? follow thou me.” In other words, what the other man shall do is none of your business: your business is to follow me. AMS September 30, 1897, page 594.6
Therefore, this principle is, Make straight paths, not for the other man’s feet, but for your own feet. It is true that the lame need help and guidance in the straight and narrow way. But you can do infinitely more to help them thus, by making straight paths for your own feet, than by undertaking to make straight paths for their feet. AMS September 30, 1897, page 594.7
Again, it is written, “Take heed to thyself, and to the doctrine; continue in them, for in so doing thou shalt both save thyself and them that hear thee.” You can do infinitely more to save others, by taking heed to yourself, than you can by taking heed to the other man. AMS September 30, 1897, page 594.8
Note, too, that you are to take heed to yourself even before taking heed to doctrine. No man is qualified to take heed to doctrine till he has taken good heed to himself. Take heed to thyself, make straight paths for your feet, follow Christ yourself, first of all things, then the doctrine will be of benefit: but without this the doctrine will be of no benefit to you nor to anybody else so far as you are concerned. AMS September 30, 1897, page 594.9
Yet some man will say, “What! are we not our brother’s keeper?”—Yes, we are; and this is the only right way to be that. Please remember that it was Cain to whom the inquiry came, “Where is thy brother?” AMS September 30, 1897, page 594.10
If Cain had himself followed the Lord, if Cain had kept his eyes on Christ and off his brother, instead of on Christ and on his brother: if Cain had made straight paths for his own feet, instead of trying to make a path for the other man’s feet; if Cain had taken heed to himself, instead of taking heed to the other man, then that inquiry never would have come to him. He would then have proved such a faithful keeper of his brother that he would have been only a constant blessing to his brother, and approved and accepted of God as a true worshiper. AMS September 30, 1897, page 594.11
Remember, too, that, like so many of those others who are ever meddling with other people, and who think their place in the world is to set other people straight. Cain was a professor of religion. He considered himself the only true worshiper, and that whoever did not choose to conform to his views of conduct must be compelled to do so. And if they still chose to worship God according to the dictates of their own consciences, they were considered not fit to live. And as at that time there was no civil government which he might make the instrument of his wicked will, and behind which he might shield himself with the plea that he was “only enforcing the law,” he was obliged to carry it through himself. And he did. AMS September 30, 1897, page 594.12
And though professed Christians to-day do have civil government which they can make the instrument of their will in requiring others to conform to their views of conduct, and behind which they can shield themselves with the miserable excuse that they are “only enforcing the law,” this does not in the least relieve them of the essential character and guilt of Cain. For thus it is written, “Woe unto them, for they have gone in the way of Cain.” AMS September 30, 1897, page 594.13
ATJ
THE Christian is emphatically a man of peace. The whirl of political strife, the agitations which mark the contest of class with class, the rumbling of coming storms which distract statesmen and fill the hearts of men with fear, pass him by unscathed. In his heart there is peace. He stands upon a foundation that cannot be moved which is the Word of God. AMS September 30, 1897, page 594.1
To every servant of the living God the divine is forgiven, “Fear not.” The commotions that fill this world, or the worst that can come, are powerless to sever himself from the steadfast purpose of God which embraces not only his existence here, but a future one that runs throughout eternity. All earthly agencies of evil are powerless to take him out of the hands of God. “There is no power but of God,” and of that power he is not against, for to him it is the agency of salvation. The gospel is “the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth.” AMS September 30, 1897, page 594.2
The Christian will never think of stirring up strife and revolution. He has nothing to gain in that way. His work depends not upon the power of votes nor the force of arms, but upon the Spirit of his God. He will be accused of fermenting rebellion and treason, but there will be in the charge no more truth than was in the charge brought by the Jews against Christ before Pontius Pilate. AMS September 30, 1897, page 595.1
ATJ
POWER belongs, and rightly belongs, to the church of Jesus Christ. AMS September 30, 1897, page 595.1
But it is not the power of this world nor of anything that is connected with this world. AMS September 30, 1897, page 595.2
Before the Lord Jesus left his church to ascend to heaven, he said to them, “Tarry ye in Jerusalem till ye be endued with power from on high.” AMS September 30, 1897, page 595.3
It is power from on high, and only from on high, that belongs to the church of Christ. If she has not this power, whatever else she may have, she is only weakness itself for any good in the world. AMS September 30, 1897, page 595.4
This power from on high is given directly from heaven to the church. It does not come through the number, wealth, nor influence of its adherents; it does not come by means of society, the State, nor any other mediumship whatever. AMS September 30, 1897, page 595.5
Before he went away from the earth Christ, the Head of the Church, said to his disciples, “Ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you.” This is the only power, and the only means of power, that belongs to the church of Christ. AMS September 30, 1897, page 595.6
And this power is open full and free to believers and the church to-day, as it was on the day of Pentecost so long ago. God poured out his Spirit then to believers and his church, without measure, and he has never taken it back. There is just as much of the Spirit of God in the world to-day as there was on the evening of the day of that wonderful Pentecost. AMS September 30, 1897, page 595.7
Why then does not the church have this power as abundantly as she did on that Pentecost?—The answer is easy: The world cannot receive the Spirit of God. He is not the spirit of the world, he is the Spirit of God. The God whose the Holy Spirit is, and who gives the Holy Spirit, is not “the god of this world.” The Spirit of God cannot be received while retaining the spirit of the world. The church has too much of the spirit of the world to have the fullness of the Spirit of God. AMS September 30, 1897, page 595.8
The Lord started his church in the world with the full endowment of his Holy Spirit. His church was at that time entirely separated from the world: for Jesus said, “They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.” Complete separation from the world was an essential condition—precedent to receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit: and complete separation from the world was essential to retain that precious gift. AMS September 30, 1897, page 595.9
But there came “a falling away.” The influence, the numbers, and the power of the world were sought after. Men arose from among the believers who desired to multiply disciples for worldly honor. They perverted the right way, they spoke perverse things to draw away disciples after them. They succeeded in this bad ambition: disciples were drawn after themselves in such numbers that the leaders found it impossible to maintain discipline among them. AMS September 30, 1897, page 595.10
If the Holy Spirit had been retained and courted and honored, the genuine discipline of the Lord would have been maintained through the prevailing love of God, the unity of the Spirit, and the bond of peace. In order that this might be so, it was necessary to separate completely from the world. But the professed church of Christ had gone after the world, she had courted the world, and had won the world. And now she found herself unable to control the world which she had won. AMS September 30, 1897, page 595.11
To hold her own with the world which she had won, she must have power. She had separated from “the power from on high” when she went after the world and courted the world. If she would have this power again, she must separate from the very world which she had won, but which she found herself powerless to control. AMS September 30, 1897, page 595.12
Here was a dilemma. What should she do? Power she must have. The “power from on high” was as fully and freely open to her as it was at Pentecost and onward. This she could have in all its fullness as at the first. But alas! she could not have this and the world too. The world cannot receive the Spirit of God. Would she not separate from this world, even from the world which she had won, that she might drink to everlasting fullness of “the powers of the world to come”? AMS September 30, 1897, page 595.13
No, she would not. She would go still farther from the power from on high. She would go still farther toward the world. She had courted and won the world, she would not court and win the power of this world, that she might control the world which she had already won. She would go as far as it was possible to go from the power from on high: she herself would become a world power. AMS September 30, 1897, page 595.14
All this she did. She secured an illicit union with the State. She committed fornication with the kings of the earth. She ruled the world with the world’s power in its fullness, unrestrained. And she ruled the world with the world’s power, as this world’s power, unrestrained, rules —wickedly, despotically, abominably. She herself became the very “mistress of witchcraft and the mother of abominations.” AMS September 30, 1897, page 595.15
The professed church of Christ is again, to-day, sorely in need of power. She knows it. Again she has so far won the world that she finds herself in need of power to control the world which she has won. What now will she do? Already, on every hand, there are too many tokens of the disposition to go the full length of the first apostasy—she is grasping for the power of the world, she is seeking illicit connection with the State, she desires to rule the world with the world’s power, she is giving evidence that she herself desires to be a world power. AMS September 30, 1897, page 596.1
But the power from on high still, even to-day, awaits her demand and reception. There is as much of the Holy Spirit, as much of the power of the Holy Ghost, in the world to-day as there was at the close of the day of Pentecost long ago. And still the world cannot receive Him. Let the church to-day separate from the world and from all worldliness, and she can be endued with power from on high, she can be filled with the Holy Ghost. AMS September 30, 1897, page 596.2
He that believeth on me, saith the Lord, from his body “shall flow rivers of living water. But this spake he of the Spirit which they that believe on him should receive.” Do you believe on Him? Then, “Receive ye the Holy Ghost,” “whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him: for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.” AMS September 30, 1897, page 596.3
“Ye are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I have chosen you out of the world.” “Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God.” It is simply a choice that all people are free to make, whether they will have the spirit of the world or the Spirit of God. And all people are always making the choice. AMS September 30, 1897, page 596.4
But Christians, by that very name, profess to have made the choice of the Spirit of God and not of the spirit of the world. And yet so many of them incline to the spirit of the world, defer to the world, and desire the favor and approval of the world, that it is impossible for the Spirit to witness with their spirit that they are the children of God. AMS September 30, 1897, page 596.5
If the churches and religious organizations and combinations in the United States would seek for the power from on high as earnestly as they seek the power of the police, of the courts, and of the world generally; if they would petition God for the Holy Spirit as diligently as they petition Congress and the State legislatures for Sunday laws, there would be such a reformation in religion as the world has never seen since the days of the first apostles, and the world would know of a surety that God sent Christ to be the Saviour of the world. Why will they not do it? AMS September 30, 1897, page 596.6
ATJ
TO follow Christ and at the same time follow a political “boss,” is as impossible as it is to serve God and mammon. And to eliminate the “boss” from politics is equally impossible. But Christianity knows no “boss.” AMS September 30, 1897, page 596.1
ATJ
THE New York Voice, in speaking of the growth of “Christian Endeavor,” says:— AMS September 30, 1897, page 596.1
“So far the Christian Endeavor movement has escaped the reaction which generally has followed such a marvelous and rapid growth in other organizations. Numerically it continues to be the greatest thing in modern religious activity. Meeting a growing demand for less division and more union on the part of Christians, it has more than met the ardent expectations of its most ardent admirers. If it can steer clear of the rock on which moral organizations wreck their usefulness, and that pride in the mere power of numbers, its future days may be its best days in advancing the cause of Christ’s kingdom in the world.” AMS September 30, 1897, page 596.2
In every work in which the Endeavor movement follows the example set by Him whom it recognizes as Lord and Master, we wish it the fullest success. And what care should be exercised by those entrusted with the leadership of the great host, to prevent any departure from the path marked out by Him! What care should be taken to safeguard it from the wiles of unscrupulous men who have some political or religious axe to grind, and see in this movement a splendid opportunity to get possession of the power required for their purposes. AMS September 30, 1897, page 596.3
Will the Christian Endeavor host avoid becoming intoxicated by a realization of their own power? Will they remember that power and numbers do not constitute proof that their cause is either strong or right? For they only are on the side of strength and right—they only are in the majority—who are on the side of God. AMS September 30, 1897, page 596.4
We hope so. But it they do—if they “steer clear of the rock on which moral organizations wreck their uselessness”—they must steer clear of the would-be leaders who are even now endeavoring with all their energies to bring the Endeavor host down from the heights of true Christian activity to the plane of politics. AMS September 30, 1897, page 596.5
Will they depend upon the promise of the power of him who has said, “Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the world”? or will they depend upon the power of votes? Politics recognizes no other power, and depends upon no other, than the latter. AMS September 30, 1897, page 597.1
ATJ
IT is a self-evident truth that all men have been “endowed by the Creator with certain unalienable rights,” and that “to protect these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.” AMS September 30, 1897, page 604.1
This self-evident truth is in harmony with the truth stated by the Apostle Paul, in Romans 13:1, that “the powers that be are ordained of God.” Truth cannot conflict with itself. That which is ordained of God is the power for the protection of the unalienable rights with which he has endowed each member of the human family. AMS September 30, 1897, page 604.2
This is altogether different from ordaining any particular person to exercise power over his fellow creatures. The person in civil office is simply entrusted with the exercise of a portion of this power. This power entrusted to him is not arbitrary power, but only such power as may be necessary for the proper discharge of the duties of his office. AMS September 30, 1897, page 604.3
It used to be a common idea that God had ordained certain persons, or a certain line of persons, to be rulers over the rest of the people in the State or nation, and that these persons were privileged to exercise their power in any way that they might choose. This idea gave right to such expressions as “the divine right of kings,” “The king can do no wrong,” etc. AMS September 30, 1897, page 604.4
But God did not ordain any person to exercise arbitrary power. He himself does not exercise such power. AMS September 30, 1897, page 604.5
The power that is in the persons, and not the persons that are in power, is “ordained of God.” AMS September 30, 1897, page 604.6
It is natural for an individual when in office to take to himself more power than belongs to him; and it is also very common for an individual to get into some seat of power who has no scruples about the manner in which he shall use it. In this way it frequently happens that injustice is done to men by those in positions of power, and their rights, instead of being preserved, are violated. AMS September 30, 1897, page 604.7
This is the way it has been in the cases of those who have suffered persecution for conscience’ sake. Those in power have exercised the power entrusted to them, for an altogether different purpose than the protection of human rights. They have used it to invade the right of freedom of conscience. AMS September 30, 1897, page 604.8
The Bible tells us that we are to be in subjection to the “powers that be,” and that whoever “resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God.” Romans 13:1, 2. But, as we have seen, there is a vast difference between resisting the power which God has ordained, and resisting a decree which represents a perversion of that power. AMS September 30, 1897, page 604.9
Yet the Bible does not authorize us to resist even an unjust decree, in the sense of employing force against it. As John Bunyan stated in his reply to the clerk who had been sent to admonish him to submit himself to the king. “The law provides two ways of obeying: the one, to do that which in my conscience I do believe that I am to do, actively; and where I cannot obey actively, then I am willing to lie down and suffer what they may do to me.” And Bunyan was even then giving an illustration, in Bedford jail, of this second way of being in submission to the powers that be. AMS September 30, 1897, page 604.10
The Lord permits men to exercise power here in this world, but he has not resigned his own power, as the Sovereign who is over and above all things. He intervenes in the affairs of men and overrules their counsels and thwarts their purposes, in whatever way his omniscient wisdom may dictate. The word of the Lord carries with it an authority superior to that of any man or set of men on earth. AMS September 30, 1897, page 604.11
The very fact that the power that men exercise is derived from God, is sufficient proof that it cannot be rightfully exercised to compel people to act contrary to God’s will. AMS September 30, 1897, page 604.12
A good illustration of the truth on this point is furnished us in the case of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. God had himself set Nebuchadnezzar upon the throne of earthly dominion, and commanded all people to be it subjection to him, even the chosen people of Israel. The Lord had even declared that he would punish the nation that would not submit to Nebuchadnezzar. See Jeremiah 27:4-8. AMS September 30, 1897, page 604.13
Yet when Nebuchadnezzar made a decree that the people should bow down and worship the golden image which he had set up in the plains of Dura, the three Hebrew captives, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, flatly refused to obey Nebuchadnezzar’s decree, and the Lord by a wonderful miracle upheld them in their refusal and justified their course; so that Nebuchadnezzar himself bowed before the Lord and acknowledged that his own word had been righteously changed in the matter concerning which he had made his decree. AMS September 30, 1897, page 604.14
God had raised up Nebuchadnezzar and entrusted him with power for a purpose: not such a purpose as the king might conceive in his own heart and wish to carry out, but for the purpose which God had in his on mind. God did not do this for the sake of exalting Nebuchadnezzar, but he did it in order that he might through Nebuchadnezzar proclaim the knowledge of himself. AMS September 30, 1897, page 604.15
The power that is ordained of God is not to be used to thwart the purposes of God. It was so in Nebuchadnezzar’s time, and it is so to-day. When this power is exercised, as it should be, to preserve human rights, it cannot interfere with God’s plans. But when this power is perverted, and used for a purpose for which it was not ordained, its decrees are not binding upon any person. AMS September 30, 1897, page 604.16
But the only way to know what is right, is to be instructed by the Lord, through his Word and Spirit, which are given to guide believers into all truth. AMS September 30, 1897, page 605.1