June 2, 1898
MIGHT does not make right, but right makes might.
TO have faith means to stand alone against a multitude.
MIGHT does not make right, but right makes might.
TO have faith means to stand alone against a multitude.
IN Christian warfare the soldiers daily rations are drawn from the Word of God.
NOT legislation, but faith, is the lever which lifts fallen men to the plane of righteousness.
THE true Protestant is not he who opposes Roman Catholics, but he who opposes Romish principles.
THE real battles of the world are not fought with armies and navies, but with principles of good and of evil.
THE Christian religion looks so high for its sustaining and energizing power that it does not behold the state at all.
AN alliance with one another may suffice for the nations; but nothing will answer for the interests of the individual but an alliance with the Lord of hosts.
THE first things human that were established on earth were the individual, and individual rights. These are, therefore, the most venerable of all things human.
TO deny the rights of the non-believer in Christianity—as for instance by a law forbidding him to work or seek amusement on Sunday—is to put a barrier across the way of his possible conversion.
THE question whether war is a proper means of accomplishing Christian work, is but the question whether carnal weapons are more effective than spiritual weapons. Christians believe the latter are more effective, always.
THE only army that Christ ever commissioned is that to which he said, “Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature;” and “Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.”
IT is not always safe in this world to be on the side of the majority.
It was not safe in Noah’s time, or in Abraham’s time, or in Elijah’s time. There is no evidence that it was safe in anybody’s time. The Word of God expressly cautions the Christian that he shall “not follow a multitude to do evil.”
The history of the cause of truth and righteousness is but a history of the minority who have stood for God against the spirit and will of the majority. It presents many a picture in which an individual stands alone against a multitude.
Christianity does not rest upon the decisions of majorities. It cannot recognize their authority in religious things.
The last view, prophetically given, of the majority, in the history of human events, is an interesting one. It is given in the 20th chapter of Revelation. The prophetic description is:—
“And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison; and shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarter of the [338] earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.
“And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city; and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them.”
In the beginning the majority were destroyed by a flood of water; and in the end they are found overwhelmed in a flood of fire.
There should be in this sufficient warning to Christians against building their hopes upon what may be done in this world by the majority.
RELIGION—the Christian religion—is a law. It is “the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus.” So the Apostle Paul speaks of it; and he says that by its power he was made “free from the law of sin and death.” Romans 8:2.
Being a law itself, it must be obvious that Christianity does not need a law to give it support. One law is not made to support another. A law that could not support itself would be useless altogether.
Any law that is passed for the support of Christianity, therefore, is but a declaration that Christianity is, in itself, a powerless and useless thing. It is a reflection upon God himself.
But this “law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus” has power to deliver men from the “law of sin and death.” This is power vastly superior to any that ever was or can be exercised by any legislature or government on the earth.
To be certain of this, it is only necessary that the individual should experience the deliverance of which the apostle writes. Try it, if you have not already, and be convined.
IT may be truthfully said of the present that it is an age of federations and fortifications.
There is federation everywhere among men and among the nations; and there are vast armies and navies created by the nations in the hope of securing a defense behind which they will be impregnable against attack.
These represent the greatest power of which the world knows. In them the world is obliged to put its trust. But will they be sufficient for the test of the day that is coming?
The world hopes that they will, but it feels no assurance. Its statesmen look to the future with forebodings. What is there that will really prove a safe defense when the forces of destruction that have so long been gathering are unloosed?
He will be safe in that day who is behind the Lord of hosts. The winds of the final commotion are held by the angels in the “four corners of the earth” until the final choice of the people in the earth is made. Revelation 7:1-3.
There is a choice for every person to make in this matter. There is a choice to be made by you. Will you choose the means of safety that are being provided by the world? Will you be secure behind the defense of an international alliance, with the resources at its command? Will you be secure behind anything less than the shield of Omnipotence? And can you afford to place yourself behind any other defense than this to-day?