HUMAN law cannot strengthen the moral and religious safeguards which protect society. These can be strengthened only by that which purifies the heart.AMS September 16, 1897, page 561.5

SOME persons would get along very much easier in life if the time and effort they spend in trying to “get around” the truth and evade their duty were spent in searching out the truth and living it.AMS September 16, 1897, page 561.6

EVERY individual has an unalienable right to rest on Sunday, in accordance with what may be his convictions of duty. But his right to rest on Sunday cannot be secured by taking away another person’s right to work on that day. Rights do not thus conflict with each other.AMS September 16, 1897, page 561.7

GOD made men different from one another; he gave to each an individuality. But there is a power working in the world that tries to for men to act as though they were alike,—a power that sets fashions and prescribes customs for men in dressing, eating, thinking, and worshiping,—a power that has a few worldly moulds in which it would have all human thought and action run. All this is directly contrary to the plan of the Creator.AMS September 16, 1897, page 561.8

HUMAN law is powerless to stay the flood of degeneracy which is sweeping in upon the world in these last days. Human law can (to a large degree) prevent crime; but it cannot prevent that corruption of the heart which incites men to the commission of crime. There must be laws against crime; but our hope of safety must be not in legislation, but in the saving power of God given to the world in the gospel, both for society in general, and our own selves in particular.AMS September 16, 1897, page 561.9

“The Science of Salvation” American Sentinel 12, 36, pp. 561, 562.

ATJ

FROM the history of Solomon, and of Greece and Rome, which we have reviewed, we can see why it is that the Lord did not preserve to man any of the treatises that even he himself gave upon science. Suppose that men had it all, as had Solomon, and could teach it as Solomon taught it. With the heart not surrendered to God, with the soul not saved, what good would science do them? It could not restrain them from any kind of wickedness or corruption that is in the human heart.AMS September 16, 1897, page 561.1

The sciences are not what the world needs to-day, first of all. More than all else, the heart needs to be purified, the soul needs to be saved, the whole character rebuilt, the mind transformed into the very image and glory of God, so that the life shall reflect his righteousness, to make manifest the knowledge of God alone to all the world. Though men have all that all the sciences can give, it will profit nothing without salvation; for it will be but a little while till they will have none of it at all.AMS September 16, 1897, page 561.2

There is another thing: God wants all men to think right on every subject. There are men to-day thinking on scientific subjects, but they do not think right. They get so far along that they find no place for God at all. The man without God, without the guidance of the thought, the mind, of God, is not able to think right on these subjects. And the mind is not right until it is renewed in the image of Him who created it. The mind is to be transformed, renewed. We are to have another mind altogether. Every thought is to be brought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.AMS September 16, 1897, page 561.3

That is the work of salvation. It is to restore the image of God in the soul; to bring the mind where it will be but the reflection, of the living God. When that is done, and the work of God is finished in this world, in making known the knowledge of God to all people, then the Lord will open to men the whole universe for all eternity. Then all these other subjects will be open for our study, and the Lord can say to us, Go where you will, I can trust you. The wide universe is open to you. There is nothing kept back from you. It is all your own. It belongs to you. Go where you please, stay where you please, do what you please, think on whatever subject you please, delve into it as deeply as you please, you will do it rightly.AMS September 16, 1897, page 562.1

This is not at all to say that men are utterly to ignore all other sciences till we reach the other world. It is simply to say that the science of salvation is to lead in the study of all others. Has not the Lord set us an example as to what attention we should pay to these things, and what use we are to make of them? What is the purpose of reading and studying upon the other sciences?—That these may help us better to understand and to teach the things of the science of salvation, than we could do without that knowledge. That is the use made of them in the Bible. By this the Lord shows us that the science of salvation must take the lead of all the other sciences known in the universe.AMS September 16, 1897, page 562.2

It must take the lead of all others in this world, and when we get into that other world it will still take the lead even there. For “the cross of Christ will be the science and the song of the redeemed throughout the ceaseless ages of eternity.”AMS September 16, 1897, page 562.3

When the Lord has shown how absolutely vain is all science, all learning of all kinds without his salvation, then we say again, What can he do for men if these things which he has set before the world will not instruct them that that is not the way to take? If men will not be instructed by these things to take the right way, to allow that God’s science is the chief, and that what he knows is the best, then how can mankind hope to escape the evil that has come upon all these that have gone before?AMS September 16, 1897, page 562.4

The science of God’s salvation is the one thing for men to know, first of all: that it may lead us, guide us, balance us, and hold us everywhere in all things, and against all things evil. And it will do all this. That is the blessed truth:—AMS September 16, 1897, page 562.5

“Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is his grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ; and to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ.” Ephesians 3:8, 9.AMS September 16, 1897, page 562.6

What is that mystery of God?—“Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God, the gospel, the power of God unto salvation, that is the mystery of God; that is the science of salvation. That is the scientific truth, around which all other sciences center. That power of God unto salvation every man must have to hold him back from the evil that is in him. The evil that is born in every man will carry him to perdition, in spite of all science, all literature, all art, all religion, that the world can furnish, or that it could furnish, unless he lays hold upon the power of God unto salvation, which comes to men by faith of Jesus Christ.AMS September 16, 1897, page 564.1

Without that power in the heart, even the science which God taught—to say nothing of the literature, the art, the religion, and all that the heathen taught—is impotent to hold back man from sinning. Without that, every vestige of evil that is in a man will show itself, in spite of all the science that he can eve know.AMS September 16, 1897, page 564.2

The mystery of God, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory; Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God, Christ and him crucified—that alone, that all in all, that over all, in all, through all, now and through eternity,—that is the science of salvation, the chief of all sciences. That is the science which leads all other sciences, which rightly takes precedence of all, and which must guide in the study of all. Let it be so with all forever.AMS September 16, 1897, page 564.3

Then let the Lord by his Spirit so draw us to himself, let the heart be so opened to that power, to the fellowship of that mystery, to the Spirit of God, that he may implant there Jesus Christ, his grace and his virtue. And as we hold our hearts open to him always, and to none but him, as a flower to the sun, we shall obtain in all its fullness, his righteousness, his power, his salvation, his mercy, his truth, his joy, his gladness, his peace—O, and, his eternal life!AMS September 16, 1897, page 564.4

“‘Faith Cure’” American Sentinel 12, 36, pp. 563, 564.

ATJ

IT seems evident that the boasted enlightenment and progress of the nineteenth century has done little if anything to free the minds of the masses of the people from superstition. For never, apparently, were there so many bogus “healers” in the country claiming to exercise divine power, as there are to-day; and all seem to be doing a thriving business.AMS September 16, 1897, page 563.1

The term “faith cure” is commonly applied to the work of these frauds, about which there is, in strict truth, neither faith nor cure. The only “faith” that is present in such cases is a blind confidence in the powers of the “healer,” and the only cure that follows is a product of the imagination or of the unseen spiritual agencies of evil.AMS September 16, 1897, page 563.2

There is a true faith cure; and its existence is argued by the presence of that which is counterfeit. Not only this, but that we have reached a time when it is to be especially manifested, is indicated unmistakably by the marked revival of superstition which is seen in the land to-day. It is the devil’s plan to flood the world with counterfeit imitations of that which is genuine, in order that people may be deceived and accept the false for the true.AMS September 16, 1897, page 563.3

What, then, is true faith cure? The answer is simple. It is the power of God manifested in the healing of disease through faith. And what is faith? Is it a mere blind confidence in somebody? Is it something devoid of reason? No; certainly not. There is nothing more reasonable than to believe in the power of God.AMS September 16, 1897, page 563.4

We see the manifestations of God’s power on every hand. What is it that causes life and growth in all the world around us? It is not our power; no, nor the power of any man nor of any government. Is it then power that creates itself? To believe this requires the credulity of a “freethinker.” If power could create itself, the problem of a “perpetual motion” would have been solved long ago. If nothing could create something, could not man, who is much more than nothing, create something? Yet he cannot create the very lowest and simplest form of life.AMS September 16, 1897, page 563.5

Faith is the characteristic of the Christian. The Christian knows God, for he has experienced the power of God in making him a new being—giving him a new creation. He has experienced crucifixion and death of the “old man”—his former self—with Jesus Christ, and with Christ he has been raised up and exalted to heavenly places, and experiences the divine life working in him, which is Christ living in him. When Christ lives in an individual, that individual cannot be ignorant of him. He is in the closest companionship with Christ, and can only look with pitying amazement upon the one who would try to persuade him that Christ does not exist.AMS September 16, 1897, page 564.1

Thus knowing the Lord, knowing God’s companionship and power in his own experience daily, and seeing God’s power in all the forms of life and growth around him, is it unreasonable that he should believe in that power? Would anything be more unreasonable in him than that, knowing this, he should refuse to believe in that power?AMS September 16, 1897, page 564.2

The Christian believes that He who created all things and maintains them in life, can heal the sick of all diseases. This is only reasonable in the highest degree. He believes that God’s Word is true; and finding that Word full of gracious invitations to ask of his heavenly Father for that aid which it is beyond his own power to supply, for the healing of both body and soul, he simply takes God at his word, and thus experiences true faith cure. It is the same power, and the same faith, whether it be for the healing of the body, or of the soul. The soul of the unregenerate man is sick unto death; and that which is called conversion, is its healing,—a true instance of faith cure: for it must all come through faith.AMS September 16, 1897, page 564.3

Faith being thus in the highest degree reasonable, is the direct opposite of superstition. The two cannot go together. The superstitious person knows nothing of true faith, and the man of faith is never superstitious. And wherever faith is not, there superstition has access. Faith, not education, is the safeguard against superstition. Faith, indeed, is itself an avenue to the highest education,—the knowledge of God. But that education which is without God, prepares no one to detect spiritual error when it appears in the form of truth. And this is abundantly proven by the ease with which “educated” people fall victims to the “faith cure” “Christian science,” and kindred delusions of the times.AMS September 16, 1897, page 564.4

Faith cure—the genuine—is all right; it is the only salvation for the race, or for any individual. And therefore it is of the utmost importance to each individual that he should obtain the genuine faith cure, and no counterfeit; for it is something each one must obtain for himself.AMS September 16, 1897, page 564.5

“Truth and Freedom” American Sentinel 12, 36, p. 564.

ATJ

JESUS said to the Jews (and the words apply equally to all people), “Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”AMS September 16, 1897, page 564.1

In this, as in everything else that Jesus said and did, he was revealing the mind of God, his Father; for he came to manifest his Father to the world. It was the Father who spoke through Christ, in all that Christ said.AMS September 16, 1897, page 564.2

God wants every person to know the truth, and God wants them to know it in order that they may be free. God has no use for salves. Only in freedom can an individual serve him. The service of God is to love God and do what he has commanded because we love him and our fellow creatures. In love there can be no slavery.AMS September 16, 1897, page 564.3

The truth of God delivers the soul from bondage. And no chains or fetters that can be forged by man can shut out this truth from the soul. God’s truth breaks the bonds of a perverse disposition, of evil habits, of fetters and of everything that can hold back the soul from the pathway of righteousness that leads to eternal life.AMS September 16, 1897, page 564.4

If we would be free we must know “the truth.” But what is this? The answer is found in the words of Jesus, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” We must know “the truth as it is in Jesus.” Is this a narrow view of truth? No, indeed; it is the broadest view of truth, the only complete view of truth that can be had.AMS September 16, 1897, page 564.5

He who sees not Christ in his investigation of truth, sees not enough of the truth to escape falling into some delusions concerning it.AMS September 16, 1897, page 564.6

God wants all persons to serve him; not for his good, but for their good—in order that they may realize all the good and the happiness that life can contain. And to serve him they must be free; no forced service can be acceptable to him. No plan to force men to serve him can for a moment have his approval.AMS September 16, 1897, page 564.7

And to be free, men must know the truth,—which is to know him who is “the truth”—“Christ, the wisdom of God, and the power of God.” In the spiritual life—which is the true life—knowledge is not power, save as it is the knowledge of Christ as the power of God unto salvation. He who holds this knowledge, and only he, has truth and freedom.AMS September 16, 1897, page 564.8

“The Object of Civil Government” American Sentinel 12, 36, pp. 571, 572.

ATJ

WE have seen that all persons have rights; and that these rights are given each person by the Creator, and are unalienable.AMS September 16, 1897, page 571.1

We have seen also why it is that the Creator gives to each one these rights,—that it is because he has a purpose to be fulfilled in each member of the human family, and a claim upon each one, which would utterly fail if men were not left free to choose between good and evil. Only in this way can God receive what is due him, and man attain to the highest pinnacle of blessing.AMS September 16, 1897, page 571.2

But how are these rights to be preserved? How are the life and liberty of each one, which God has given them, to be protected from violence and destruction in this evil world?AMS September 16, 1897, page 571.3

Is each one to defend his own rights, using what force may be necessary to repel any invasion of them?AMS September 16, 1897, page 571.4

If it were left that way there would be no government at all. There would be no laws against crime, and each one would determine for himself what was a punishable offense and what punishment was deserved by the offender. And he would decide this, as individuals are so prone to do, not after calm reflection, but under the excitement and anger which the offense produced.AMS September 16, 1897, page 571.5

In addition to this, his rights would be defended by no power stronger than his own arm.AMS September 16, 1897, page 571.6

Such a state of things would be anarchy, worse than anything that we have seen or imagined.AMS September 16, 1897, page 571.7

To avoid this, men have formed civil governments; and by means of these, laws against crime are enacted by assemblies of chosen men; the person accused of wrong-doing is tried by men who can proceed in the mater with calmness and impartiality; sentence against the offender is executed without anger, haste, or barbarity; and the power of the whole people together is exercised to defend the rights of each individual.AMS September 16, 1897, page 571.8

The Declaration of Independence sets forth the purpose of civil government, in the declaration that “to preserve these [unalienable] rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”AMS September 16, 1897, page 571.9

Thus it is seen that the civil government exists for the benefit of the individuals who enter into it. But the natural tendency in governments is to reverse the proper order, and to hold that the individual exists for the benefit of the government.AMS September 16, 1897, page 571.10

When this is done, the rights of the individual, instead of being protected by the government, are sacrificed to the government. Human life and liberty, which the Creator gave to man, and which no government can give him, are considered to be at the disposal of the government. This perverted state of things—this false conception of the purpose and province of civil government—has come to be the prevailing one all over the world.AMS September 16, 1897, page 571.11

Thomas Jefferson, who wrote the Declaration of Independence, said: “Our legislators are not sufficiently apprised of the rightful limits of their power, that their true office is to declare and enforce only our natural rights and duties, and to take none of them from us.... The idea is quite unfounded that on entering into society we give up any natural right.”AMS September 16, 1897, page 572.1

And when society, or the government, tries to compel us to give up some of our natural rights for the sake of its purposes, it is going contrary to God’s order, and our obedience must be to God rather than to it.AMS September 16, 1897, page 572.2

Civil government is not the greatest thing in the world. It is, as we have seen, only an instrument to serve something else; and that which it is designed to serve must be greater than it. And that greater thing is MAN.AMS September 16, 1897, page 572.3

Man is the most important thing in the world,—the crowning work of God’s creation. Man is made in God’s own image; to him alone, of all things in the world, is given this overwhelming honor.AMS September 16, 1897, page 572.4

The civil governments were made by man; but man himself is a work of the infinite God.AMS September 16, 1897, page 572.5

Man, it is true, seems but an insignificant thing,—a being of faults, and weaknesses, appearing only for a moment, as it were, amidst earth’s myriad forms of life and then passing again into oblivion. And of himself he would be only this.AMS September 16, 1897, page 572.6

But ah, he is connected with the purposes of God, which reach throughout eternity! Can this be said of any civil government? No, indeed; earthly governments are but transient things; once dead, they have no future. But who can fathom the eternal purpose of Jehovah in the creation of man? To what heights is man, in the unfolding of that purpose, to attain in the eternal ages?AMS September 16, 1897, page 572.7

And that this life may afford the conditions suitable to man’s preparation for the future life, civil government has been instituted here by the ordinance of God. But it derives all its importance from the greater importance of man,—the importance of the human individual.AMS September 16, 1897, page 572.8

God deals with man individually; his eternal purpose relates to each individually: and in his view, which shows all things truly, no one individual is of more importance than another. He gave his only-begotten Son to save you, reader, as an individual,—not partly to save you and partly to save some one else, or many others, but wholly to save you, wholly to save each one by himself, of the human family.AMS September 16, 1897, page 572.9

And this reveals the estimate which God has put upon the individual,—a value which far transcends any that can belong to earthly governments.AMS September 16, 1897, page 572.10

September 9, 1897

September 23, 1897