June 30, 1898
THE truest patriotism is not the noisiest.
A MAN’S time is an important part of his wealth.
IT is the business of the church to invite, not to command.
THE gospel of force is the devil’s counterfeit of the gospel of love.
NEITHER the church nor the state is the custodian of an individual’s rights.
IN gospel work, coercion is not a remedy for failure in the line of persuasion.
THE church is effectual for righteousness only as she is energized with power from on high.
GOD worked upon the first day of the week and he will not punish any one for doing what he has done himself.
THE important question is, not what the country did for you a century ago, but what you are doing for the country to-day.
“HIGHER criticism” will have to get a good deal higher than it is before it reaches the level of that Word which it professes to dissect.
POLITICAL methods find no place in Christianity.
THE approval of conscience is worth more than the applause of the multitude.
“CHRISTIAN politics” combines the worst form of religion, with the worst form of politics. It is not Christian in any sense.
THE Christian Statesman, in an argument made to demonstrate the awful recklessness of deeds which constitute a desecration of Sunday, says that “Every battle begun on the Sabbath as a historical fact resulted disastrously to the aggressor.”
This was printed by the Statesman just about the time that news came of Dewey’s great victory in Manila harbor, on Sunday. As a matter of fact, it is not historically true that battles fought “on the Sabbath” have always resulted disastrously to the aggressor; but the engagement in Manila harbor, fresh in the minds of all Americans, should constitute a [402] complete answer to the current sophistry that the Government ought, as a measure of safety, to avoid the desecration of the first day of the week.
THAT which is of most value to any person, is character.
And that which, above all other things, is effectual for the development of a strong, sound character, is faith.
But faith does not call the individual’s attention to the multitude of other people around him. It does not call attention to public sentiment nor to popular customs and maxims. By faith, the individual sees none of these.
By faith, the individual beholds Jesus Christ, the author of salvation to all who believe on him. The life of the Christian is lived by “looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of faith.” Hebrews 12:2.
By faith the individual sees “no man, save Jesus only.” If he is looking at some other man or set of men, or if he is looking at human customs, opinions, and laws, contemplating the question of how much help he may derive from them in right doing, he is not beholding Jesus at all. He is not walking by faith; he is not forming a character which will be worthy of perpetuation beyond this life.
And when laws are passed to prescribe moral duties to the individual, or those things necessary to the formation of right character, their only effect must be to point him away from Jesus Christ to the multitudes of the world, and to the sentiment of the multitudes, which the law embodies. Such laws can tend only to weaken character, not to strengthen it.
Jesus Christ is the standard of righteousness. He is the divine standard; and any standard set up by human law, whether by people in the church or out of it, can be only a human standard, and altogether below the required excellence.
Laws which are passed with the intent of doing more than to protect the rights of the individual, are worse than useless.
BE true to yourself by being true of God.