June 23, 1898
“BLESSED are the peacemakers.”
“IN the direction of peace,” is upward.
THE natural offspring of tradition is error.
WAR and sin will go out of the world together.
THE carnal nature is always “spoiling for a fight.”
TO know God, is the only sure way to “know thyself.”
EXPANSION is not always an indication of healthy growth.
ANY day in the year is a good day to declare your independence of the powers of evil.
IT is better to be a “pessimist” with your eyes open, than an optimist with your eyes shut.
THE world has yet to invent a protective armor that is equal to the shield of Providence.
NATIONS, like individuals, perish far more frequently from internal disorders than from causes that operate from without.
WHEN the majority cease to feel any regard for the interests of the minority, the state has become unfit for self government.
THE person who believes that “the voice of the people is the voice of God,” shows thereby that he is not familiar with the voice of God.
IT is beyond the power of legislation to broaden the “narrow way” of righteousness so as to accommodate the multitudes who are under the sway of civil authority.
AN erroneous but all too common idea of patriotism makes it a pedestal for the exaltation of self. The true patriot is willing to serve others without the hope of acquiring wealth or fame.
IT is affirmed in the Book of divine truth that there is “one God” and “one Mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus.”
All men may come to God through Jesus Christ; and only through him can they come to God; for “there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved.”
But Jesus Christ is “the man Christ Jesus.” And being a man, he is become the representative of the human race.
Thus in the government of God, which covers all our relation to him, we have a representative, “the man Christ Jesus.” He stands before the Father’s throne as the representative of all on earth who have accepted him as their Saviour. And God views all such as complete in him.
There is, however, a doctrine in the land which proclaims that man may represent his fellowman in religion; that religious acts may and ought to be done by the Government, in which each official is the representative of the people. It is the very common doctrine that “this [386] is a Christian nation.” The declaration means that the officials of the Government ought to act for the people in religion.
Manifestly, this idea is wholly contrary to Christianity. One person cannot have faith for another; nor can one be righteous for another. If the people are sinful they must suffer for their sins, and no righteousness on the part of any official, from the President down, could save them. Speaking of a sinful land, the Lord by the prophet Ezekiel says (Ezekiel 14:13, 14): “Though these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they should deliver but their own souls by their righteousness.”
The only righteousness which can save the sinner is the righteousness of Christ, which every person may receive by the exercise of faith. No government can give righteousness to anybody. There is no righteousness in the universe but God’s righteousness, for he alone is righteous of himself; and his righteousness is the righteousness of Christ. And having God’s righteousness Christ is perfectly fitted to be man’s representative in religion; and he alone, of all beings in heaven or earth, is so fitted.
The “Christian race” must be run—the Christian life lived—looking not to the state, but “unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.” Hebrews 12:1, 2. To look to the state in any matter of religious faith or practice is to look away from Jesus and to depart from the foundation principle of Christianity.
THE state is the embodiment of power. By power it lives and moves and has its being. Take away the power and there is nothing left of the state.
States are, by their very nature, independent powers. When the state yields to another power, its own identity is lost, and it remains but a part of the conquering power so long as the authority of the latter is exercised over it.
But the state cannot be Christian without yielding to another power and thus surrendering its independence. For the first step in Christianity is submission to the will of God. The state therefore would simply lose itself in the government of God. In that government there are no states.
And it is a truth which all Christians know, that no person can become Christian without first passing through death. The Apostle Paul says that he was “alive” before being converted to Christianity, but that “when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.” Romans 7:9. And his experience is that of all Christians. Man, as he was before conversion must die, before he can become Christian.
Christianity means a new creation. All that is of earth, must have a new creation before the stamp of Christianity can appear upon it.
And this utterly debars the state. For as nothing can become Christian without first passing through death, the state would simply pass out of existence in the endeavor to acquire the stamp of Christianity.
There is no “new birth” for a state.