MAN WITHOUT EXCUSE by J. CLARKE

Publishing Committee · Battle Creek, Mich. · Apr 19, 1860

MAN WITHOUT EXCUSE.

By J. CLARKE

WHETHER we consider the forbearance of God, or his persevering efforts in behalf of rebellious man, or whether we consider the folly and ingratitude of man, or all of these, in their connection with the grand and surprising scheme of man's redemption, through Jesus the Mediator, the Prophet, the Son of God, the High Priest, the King, the humble laborer in Judea, the teacher, the God-like preacher, whose words were like no man's words, falling like thunderbolts into the universal heart of man in every age, scattering doubt and darkness whenever received, and lighting up the moral world with the rays of light extended all the way from Jehovah's burning throne—in whatever way we view the subject we are struck with surprise at the pains God and Christ have taken to leave man without excuse.

It seems as though our good and kind Father had anticipated from the first that some caviling sufferer, while undergoing the pangs of the second death, might say to the executive of justice, O, if thou hadst only tried this or that scheme of salvation, then had all thy rebellious children returned to their allegiance to thee. Thou, O King, hast been arbitrary in thy plans, and hast not given us, thy poor victims, such fair opportunities of repentance as thou mightest have done.

Then can justice cry out in ten thousand thundering voices, echoing in every conscience of men and demons, and responded to by every glorious angel and saint, O, ye myriads of suffering rebels, what device could the ingenuity and skill of wisdom itself devise to draw man from the paths of the destroyer, which has not been thoroughly tested, and proved, and tried? Have not men had both liberty and law? Did not Noah plead for one hundred and twenty years, with a free-and-easy people, and did not vengeance come in the overwhelming flood, to a well-warned, free-thinking world? Were there any chains forged to drive men to duty? Could the most lax disciplinarian ask for more than one hundred and twenty years? or could the strictest require a more complete destruction than the flood? Before Noah, could the antediluvians ask for more effective preachers than both Seth and Enoch? Yet did they hearken?

Were not men free to act under such preaching as the world exhibited to the sons of Noah? and did they remember the warning of Noah? and did not the bow in the cloud rather harden than soften those miracle-saved survivors of the deluge?

Go, ye caviling skeptics, back to the tower of Babel.

See those maniacal sinners erecting a tower to insult Him who saved their ancestors in the ark from the overwhelming torrents of Jehovah's wrath. Ask yourselves, Why did he not cut them off in a moment?

Again: Consider, O ye who would be more forbearing than Jehovah has been. Go into the brick-kilns of Egypt, and see the oppression and groans of those whose ancestor was Egypt's saviour. See how quickly they forgot Joseph their deliverer, and set his children to work without material, and murdered his darling infants, lest their iniquity should find them out. Would ye have borne this from your enemy?

Or follow the chosen people, his elect nation, fed by angels, led by fire, defended by miracles, warned by prophets, taught by wise, far-seeing seers, restrained by laws, petted by noble Davids and wise Solomons, wept over by Jeremiahs, and prayed for by Daniels, honored by the advent of Bethlehem's Star; see that favored people, stoning their prophets and apostles, crucifying their only and last hope; and say, O, ye poor cavillers, would ye have borne with such ingratitude?

Or follow his flock into the next dispensation, as they ignore his institutions, and forget his ordinances one by one, and finally turn their hands against him too, until fifty or one hundred millions fall beneath the sword of his apostate followers; and say, O ye who would be more merciful than Jehovah, will ye not own his forbearance is beyond all computation?

Or go back to the proclamation of the close of the 2300 days, and witness the contempt of church and state, and that merciful message made a by-word, a thing of contempt and derision, the second and third made an offence against law and order, and say, O ye who now writhe in anguish, has not omnipotence done wondrous well, to hold back his wrath so long? Say that he has been patient, as no man or angel could have been.

Witness man's ingratitude, always venting his spite upon some lovely Abel or holy Enoch. See an Absalom intriguing against a noble and loving father. See a Sodom insulting the holy angels sent to Lot. Note how the noblest, and purest, and wisest, and most loving and benevolent of all ages, have fallen victims to the wrath of the multitude, both among Pagan, and Christian, and Jewish people, and acknowledge, O ye now lost and suffering myriads, that God has been wondrous kind, and patient; and now justice comes, because she could no longer slumber, and God be just.

Then shall not the burning, anguished, lost multitude, with Satan the arch-deceiver at their head, cry out in one long-continued wail, which shall ring through the universe ere they pass into eternal oblivion, Amen! Amen! Amen! we are without excuse. God is good, God is just. Let his saints and angels praise him forever.

J. CLARKE.