Earlier text: BONDAGE TO FREEDOMThe Industrial Conflict in the Light of Revelation.
By Geo. W. Rine
In some of the previous articles of this series, it was shown that many of the prophets of our Christian Bible foresaw that a marvelous increase of wealth, and an unprecedented concentration of wealth, would be a strikingly-marked characteristic of the time immediately preceding the second advent of the Messiah. They foresaw, too, that this mighty evolution and well-nigh complete centralization of wealth would lead inevitably to Mammonism, wanton luxury, and reckless display. “In the last days . . . men shall be . . . LOVERS OF PLEASURES more than lovers of God,” is the plain, unqualified prediction of the Holy Spirit through the Apostle Paul. 2 Tim. 3:1-4. Again, the Apostle James wrote: “Come now, ye rich. . . Ye have laid up treasures in the last days. . . . Ye have lived delicately on the earth, and taken your pleasure; ye have nourished your hearts in a day of slaughter.” James 5:1-5, A. R. V. In the thirteenth verse of the twenty-second chapter of Isaiah, the prophet gives a graphic portrayal of the voluptuous pleasures and sensual indulgence of our day—in that day when the Lord calls upon the people to weep and to mourn and to gird themselves with sackcloth (verse 12). Thus: “And, behold, joy and gladness, slaying oxen and killing sheep, eating flesh and drinking wine: Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we shall die.” Verse 13. Do these divinely-inspired, last-day prophecies find their verification and fulfilment in our day? Are we not living in an age of lavish luxury, of dazzling extravagance, of vulgar display, on the part of the rich and “fashionable”? The ostentation, the sumptuousness, the wanton luxury of the so-called fashionable society of to-day, are so conspicuously in evidence that they have become a matter of every-day comment. Mr. W. J. Ghent, a well-known writer on momentary questions, recently said: “It is probable that no aristocracy—not even that of profligate Rome under the later Cæsars—ever spent such enormous sums in display.” This he said in reference to our American aristocracy of wealth. He said further:— Our aristocracy, avoiding the English standards relating to persons engaged in trade, welcomes the industrial magnate; and his vast wealth and love of ostentation have set the pace for lavish expenditure. Trade is the dominant phase of American life, . . . and, as it has achieved the conquest of most of our social institutions and of our political powers, that it should also dominate “society” is but a natural sequence. Flaunting and garish consumption becomes the basic canon in fashionable affairs.
Apropos of the typical American money prince, Mr. Thorstein Veblen writes:— Conspicuous consumption of valuable goods is a means of reputability. . . . As wealth accumulates on his hands, his own unaided effort will not avail sufficiently to put his opulence in evidence by this method. The aid of friends and competitors is therefore brought in by resorting to the giving of valuable presents and expensive feasts and entertainments.
The writer goes on to show that these gross and disgusting methods of flaunting one's wealth before the eyes of a staring and gazing public were conspicuously in vogue during the declining and decadent years of ancient Babylon, Greece, and Rome. Mr. Ghent, in respect to Mr. Veblen's latter statement, says:— The conspicuous consumption of other days was, however, as compared with that of the present, but a flickering candle flame to a great cluster of electric lights. Against the few classic examples, such as those of Cleopatra and Lucullus, our present aristocracy can show hundreds; and the daily spectacle of wasteful display might serve to make the earlier Sybarites stare and gasp. Present-day fashionable events come to be distinguished and remembered, not so much on the score of their particular features, as of their cost. A certain event is known as Mr. A's $5,000 breakfast; another as the Smith-Jones's $15,000 dinner; and another as Mrs. C's $30,000 entertainment and ball.
Commenting on one of the society balls of New York City, the California Christian Advocate, a year or two ago, said:— The lavish luxury and dazzling extravagance displayed by the wealthy Greeks and Romans of “the olden times” is a matter of history. Such reckless display is beginning to make its appearance in what is called fashionable society in this country. One of our exchanges tells of a New York lady who spent $125,000 in a single season in entertaining. The character and value of the entertainments may be judged by the fact that she taught society how to freeze Roman punch in the heart of crimson and yellow tulips, and how to eat terrapin with gold spoons out of silver canoes. One of “the four hundred” is said to have spent $50,000 on a single entertainment. Such lavish expenditure to such poor purposes is sinful and shameful.
Somewhat more than a year ago, one hundred and forty-four society devotees, headed by a distinguished money lord, held a great ball. It had never been surpassed even by royalty. It was exceptionally exclusive. Wine flowed like water. Beauty lavished her charms. Mark Antony and Cleopatra never reveled in such gorgeousness. It was a collection of millionaires. The world was searched for pearls and diamonds. Scores of necks were emblazoned with necklaces of gems costing from $200,000 downward. While the dance went on amid Aladdin splendors, 100,000 starving miners in Pennsylvania were scouring the roads like cattle in search of forage, says an Eastern journal. Some of them lived on cars and some committed suicide to avoid seeing their children starve. “Yet one necklace from the metropolitan ball would have rescued all these from hunger.” It was one of the “great social events” of a nation called Christian. Sometime ago the Philadelphia Press published the following: “There is no doubt about it that New York is divided into two great classes, the very rich and the very poor. The middle class of reputable, industrious, fair-to-do people are gradually disappearing, going up in the scale of worldly wealth or down into poverty and embarrassment. It seems unquestioned that between these classes exists, and is rapidly growing, under intentional fostering of evil men, a distinct, pronounced, malignant hatred. There are men5 here who are worth $10,000,000 and $20,000,000, of whom you know nothing. There are men here who twenty years ago sold clothes on Chatham Street, who to-day live at an annual expense of $100,000, who wear jewels costing at reasonable stores $25,000.” In the World's Work, for September, 1903, it was affirmed that during the year 1902, this country spent $10,000,000 for sporting goods, two millions of it being for golf clubs and balls. The golf club houses, with their grounds, were, in the same year, valued at $20,000,000. Wealthy Americans have invested $50,000,000 in yachts and other pleasure craft. The expenses incident to the running of a first-class yacht for one year are $100,000. A yacht can be chartered at $5,000 to $20,000 a month, exclusive of running expenses. Yachting “fairly smells of money.” Each of Sir Thomas Lipton's efforts to recover the famous British cup cost him $1,000,000, and the defenders twice that amount. In 1898 there were only thirty-five automobiles in the United States. In 1902 there were 7,000 in the city of New York, alone, valued at $20,000,000. These machines were all devoted exclusively to pleasure and recreation. In New York State the average daily amount of money bet on horse-racing amounts to $1,000,000. At Saratoga alone the daily betting aggregates $200,000. In 1895 the people of New York State paid for admission to racing grounds $500,000; in 1902 they paid for the same purpose $3,500,000. A wealthy man of New York City spent $1,000,000 in simply furnishing his palatial home. Another magnate of the same city paid $500,000 for three pieces of French tapestry. A New York woman of wealth paid $125,000 for a set of furniture consisting of but four pieces. A wealthy United States senator invested $250,000 in a set of French rugs. Rev. Thomas Dixon, of New York, in a sermon given nearly ten years ago, said:— In the midst of hunger and cold, and even starvation among thousands, the rich are busy amusing themselves. There has been no time since the days of the Emperor Nero, when wealth strutted amid squalor with greater contempt for its surroundings, and with vainer display of all its vulgar trappings of gold and silver. The palaces of the rich in the days preceding the fall of Rome were pig-pens compared with the marvelous piles of architecture and decorative art of which our modern cities are full. The banquets given by the great gluttons of Nero's day are not to be compared in cost or display to the elaborate affairs of the year of our Lord 1893, at a time when 20,000,000 of the human race are in a starving condition. Tailors are busy inventing costumes for dogs, while children freeze for want of clothes. With threatened labor uprisings in many nations, the money kings of the world have just precipitated one of the greatest panics of the nineteenth century. They have made billions of dollars.
In England no less than $20,000,000 are yearly expended for the cruel sport of fox hunting. While thousands of poor families are huddled away in dark garrets and damp cellars, hunting dogs have palatial houses lighted by electricity. There, where the poor man is not allowed land enough to raise a hill of potatoes, there are 15,700,000 acres of land kept only for a game preserve and shooting ground for “my lord.” The following description of a dog banquet given several years ago in New York, is taken from the Young Lutheran:— A Mrs. ———, one of the upper “four hundred,” owns a pet Japanese dog that listens to the name of “Ootah.” In order to please her pet, the other day she sent out invitations printed in the English and Japanese languages, to a number of Japanese dogs (or their owners), inviting them to a banquet. Twenty of these high-bred canines accepted the invitation. Ootah, in company with his nurse, who appeared in full Japanese costume, received the guests, whose nurses were also clad in appropriate costume. Whenever one of the pets became unruly, the nurse would mollify his temper by tender kisses. Ootah's guests were led to the banquet tables, which were six inches high and accommodated four dogs each. The banquet consisted of fried chicken, Japanese cake, sweetmeats, and ice-cream. After the banquet was over, the dear little creatures were carefully wrapped up and taken home in cabs. Instead of sending missionaries to the heathen in Africa to convert them, they should be sent among the “four hundred” of New York to make men and women out of them.
In a description of the palace belonging to an English millionaire, which cost $15,000,000, the London Weekly Sun says: “The pictures in the galleries alone are worth $500,000, and the books in the libraries as much more. It is without doubt the finest private residence on the globe.” At an art sale in London, $10,000 was paid for a dessert service; $6,000 for two flower-pots; $15,000 for a chimney ornament; $50,000 for two vases; $5,000 for the flowers of a single ball. The papers recently stated that a gentleman of Syracuse, New York, had just completed a barn costing $700,000, and that a $200,000 necklace is worn by one of the fair leaders of New York society. One of the wealthiest women of New York, February 10, 1897, gave a fancy ball, which in the aggregate actually cost $369,000. There were 700 guests present, attired in silks and satins and decked with diamonds. Almost every character of note in the times of Louis XIV. and Louis XV., from the plebeian peasant to the jewel-crowned king or queen, was personated. The furniture was exclusively of the Louis XV. period. The fabulous cost of this affair is vouched for by the Boston Herald, of about February 3, 1897. The San Francisco Examiner, of June 12, 1904, gave an illustrated description of a $500,000 gown, worn by a millionaire lady of Boston, when she was presented to the king and queen of England. The following is a part of the Examiner's description of perhaps the most magnificent gown the world has ever known:— Think of a gown costing five hundred thousand dollars! A gown sewn with pearls and spangled with real diamonds for dewdrops! A gown of shimmering satin softly losing itself in the dazzling lengths of a court train of cloth of silver veiled in silver tulle, like moonlight shining through the fretwork of fine cobwebs. The whole effect of the gown was to suggest a brilliant moonlight idyl of spring. In glittering folds the gown fell away from a corsage magnificently wrought in real emeralds, whose beauty was brought strongly out by the diamond settings mingled with them. Upon her beautifully-coifed head Mrs. Anderson wore a tiara of emeralds, picked out in diamonds, that was more splendid than many a queen's crown. About her beautifully-rounded throat the young American matron wore emeralds that defied any but the clearest skin to so adorn itself. Indeed, only a dazzling complexion and the loveliest neck and arms could stand the white glimmer of satin, the silver shining of a moonlight veil, and the sharp green of emeralds, all combining to show unsparingly any defect in the texture of the skin in pitiless contact with them.
The whole gown was richly embroidered in wheat heads, wrought in small imitation Hindoo pearls, the silver spears of the wheat being tipped by dewdrops of real diamonds. The fashionable and beautiful decoration was intermingled with a delicate fretwork of pearls and diamonds over the gown, and sewn in such a manner as to accentuate the beauty of the decorative scheme.
The splendor of the gown, however, culminated in the corsage, which was draped in sheer silver tulle that was confined beneath a wide stomacher wrought in rare jewels, which vied with the fringes of jewels that fell over the tulle draperies, in the sparks and rays of vivid light which they emitted. These rays seemed concentrated in the jewelled ornaments and epaulets which decorated the shoulders and held in place the court train. The soft round arms glimmered delicately beneath the loops and fringes of jewels which fell over them from the shoulder, and the sparkling rays of the emerald necklace were repeated in those which flashed from the tiara which graced the rippling hair piled softly about the head.
We could go on illustrating the fulfilment, in our day, of the foregoing prophecies, almost endlessly. Space, however, will not admit of additional illustrations. O, think of the countless numbers of helpless children, for whom the Saviour died, that are sobbing and famishing for bread! O, the wantonness, the heartlessness, the inhumanity, of these votaries of fashion and pleasure! Women and men of boundless wealth and exclusive fashion are dawdling over champagnes and iced teas, coddling and pampering dogs, while the children of the poor, cold and famishing, are growing up in hopeless ignorance, squalor, and vice! The student of prophecy, however, need not be surprised; for one of the many sins that Paul tells us will be prevalent in the last days is that of being “without natural affection.” Do we not all feel constrained to pray, with the Apostle John, “Even so, come, Lord Jesus”? CHILDHOOD’S BLESSINGS.
By Hurlburt
JOHN RUSKIN, in counting up the blessings of his childhood, reckoned these three for first good: Peace. He had been taught the meaning of peace in thought, act, and word; had never heard father’s or mother’s voice once raised in any dispute, nor seen an angry glance in the eyes of either, nor had ever seen a moment’s trouble or disorder in any household matter. Next to this he estimated Obedience; he obeyed a word or lifted finger of father or mother as a ship her helm, without an idea of resistance. And, lastly, Faith. Nothing was ever promised him that was not given; nothing ever threatened him that was not inflicted, and nothing ever told him that was not true.—Hurlburt. [The fundamental doctrine of American Government is “that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men;” deriving their just powers from “the consent of the governed.” Our country now holds as subjects about eight millions of people, who have for years waged war for freedom from oppression. These have been purchased for a price and are to be governed for gold, if greed is to have its way. They are deprived of the rights of American citizens; Spanish tyranny is condoned, and the basic principles of American justice and freedom are repudiated in practice, or left to an indeterminate future. The following lines of Whittier are to the point.] Is THIS, O countrymen of mine, a day for us to sow
The soil of new-gained empire with slavery’s seeds of woe?
To feed with our fresh life-blood the Old World’s cast-off crime,
Dropped like some monstrous early birth, from the tired lap of Time?
To run anew the evil race the old lost nations ran,
And die like them of unbelief of God, and wrong of man?
Great Heaven! Is this our mission? End in this our prayers and tears,
The toil, the strife, the watchings, of our younger, better years?
Still as the Old World rolls in light, shall ours in shadow turn,
A beamless chaos, cursed of God, through outer darkness borne?
When the far nations looked for light, a blackness in the air?
When for words of hope they listened, the long wail of despair?
The crisis presses on us; face to face with us it stands
With solemn lips of question, like the Sphinx in Egypt’s sands.
This day we fashion destiny, our web of fate we spin;
This day for all hereafter, choose we holiness or sin;
Even now from starry Gerizim, or Ebal’s cloudy crown,
We call the dews of blessing or the bolts of cursing down.
By all for which the martyrs bore their agony and shame;
By all the warning words of truth with which the prophets came;
By the future which awaits us; by all the hopes that cast
Their faint and trembling beams across the blackness of the past;
And by the blessed thought of Him who for earth’s freedom died,
O my people! O my brothers! let us choose the righteous side. INDEPENDENCE DAY—ITS MEANING.
About the time this paper reaches its readers the blow of bugle and trumpet, the whistle of fife and roll of drum, the crack and fizz and display of fireworks, and the roar of cannon, will be heard throughout the land. “Old Glory” will wave from liberty pole and masthead, from public edifice and private residence. Spread-eagle oratory and original poems will recount heroic deeds of the past, and predict great blessing and glory for the future. The Fourth of July will be everywhere in evidence. Yet how few, comparatively, realize what the day once meant and what it should still stand for. To the great majority it means “a day off,” “a good time,” a picnic, a holiday. They know nothing of the days in which it was born, or the principles which gave it birth. The old Revolutionary days of strenuous struggle for liberty, revived during the Civil War, are waning in interest, and under the era of “good times” and “prosperity” interest in them grows less and less. The days are now strenuous for pleasure and profit. But to the fathers of the Republic the Fourth of July meant something. It stood for essential principle of sound, rational, just, and free government. As expressed on the reverse side of the great seal of the United States, “Novus ordo seclorum;” it meant a “new order of things.” The old order was to perish, the new order was to change the face of the world. There are two great principles dear to mankind; they always have been dear, even when seen in the dim or dreary dreaming of slavery. One of those principles is the equality of man as regards rights of opportunity, and the other is religious liberty. True, these things had been taught by one religion—the Christian. “One is your Master, even Christ; and all ye are brethren,” was the teaching of its Founder. “God . . . hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth,” was the teaching of the great apostle to all nations. This—and there is much more—for the first principle. The second—religious liberty—is thus voiced by the Master: “If any man hear My sayings, and keep them not, I judge him not: for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world.” And that apostle to the Gentiles, not a whit behind any other, declared that the faith of men was not to be regulated even by apostolic mandate. “Not that we have lordship over your faith, but are helpers of your joy; for in faith ye stand.” “Knowing therefore the fear of the Lord, we persuade men.” No nation of the world in centuries knew these principles of life and liberty. No religion of the world, save the Christian religion in its purity, knew them. But when Columbia sprang to life, these principles had been trodden down by the apostasy for more than a millennium and a half. Light had broken into the darkness through the Reformation. Germany and Great Britain had taken mighty strides toward the light, but the foregoing fundamental principles were still claimed by caste and class in the church and the union of church and state in religion. But the far-seeing, liberty-loving fathers of the republic struck for them both,—“a church without pope, a state without a king,” free men civilly and religiously. The first of these principles is embodied in the Declaration of Independence:— We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these rights governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, etc. The second of these principles—implied in the Declaration of Independence—is thus expressed in the First Amendment to the Constitution:— Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, or abridging the freedom of speech or of the press. These noble principles—found alone in the Christian religion of all religions, expressed in the fundamental charter and organic law of this government of all governments—have been guiding lights to the darker nations of the world. The influence of the “new order of things” overturned religious intolerance and class privileges in nations still bound by medievalism. The progress toward the fruition of these principles in this nation struck high noon at the close of the Civil War. Since that time the influence of greed and gold upon our government and upon religion has mightily checked the current of liberty and freedom, and in principle turned it backward to the stagnant, poison pools of the Dark Ages. These two Christian principles in civil government, and their repudiation in principle, and at last practise, are set forth in Rev. 13:11–17. (See the Sabbath-school lesson on page 14.) The beast with two horns like a lamb—symbol of Christ—finally speaks like a dragon—symbol of tyranny, oppression, persecution. Wealth and militarism are essentially imperialistic. They breed classes and inequality. They stimulate, if unwisely used, discontent, hatred, injustice, rebellion. They exalt the thing more than the man. They paralyze the spiritual power and the moral courage of the Gospel minister and hold back or make void the message, which would alarm and save or restrain. With a Protestantism departing from its first and vital foundation principles, with a democracy repudiating the very reasons for its existence, what can await but the destruction of both? The many evidences of mob law, the misrule and corruption in church and municipality and state, the increase of crime and violence, the frequent manifestation of mob law in old, legally-organized communities, the war between capital and labor, such as is now going on in Colorado, the constant steps in religious legislation, point clearly the fact, whatever be the cause, that the people are rapidly coming to that condition where they are not fit to be free, where strong, rigid, centralized government is necessary. There are voices in the wilderness crying for fundamental principles, but they are not in touch with the masses. Imperialism or revolution, or, truer, imperialism and revolution seems the order which the logic of events is programming. There is a score of political panaceas, but all will alike prove futile to heal the disease of the body-politic. This country’s only hope, the world’s only hope, is in Jesus Christ, as a personal, divine Saviour, bringing to the individual life and righteousness and liberty, quickening a sleeping church, and moulding in Christ’s own way a sinful world. In the Gospel of Jesus Christ alone, in the consummation of that Gospel—the second coming of Christ—lies the hope of mankind. There is none other; but that is all-sufficient. Once God's people held His holy law in its integrity. Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Elijah, and all the prophets, even to Jesus Christ and His apostles, loved God's law and observed His Sabbath. They did not even question it; they ever affirmed its authority. But in the Christian age a change has come. “The foundations of many generations” have been, in the church of God, broken up; waste places have been made in the moral hedge; a breach has been opened in the Decalogue, and the sign of the Creator has been obscured by a day which the apostasy claims as the mark of its power. And yet God's law is the same, and is to be restored in His remnant church. Noble souls will seek out the truth, will turn from the errors of pagan apostasy, will “ask for the old paths, where is the good way” (Jer. 6:16), and will hold up to the world once more the banner of God's truth. Of this remnant, those who will break from every form of unholy tradition, the Lord says: “And they that shall be of these shall build the old, waste places; thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations; and thou shalt be called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in.” And a prime condition is, “If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on My holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable.” Isa. 58:12, 13. In Rev. 12:17 it is said of this remnant people that they “keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.” Here also is predicted the persecution of those who observe the Sabbath of the Lord. It is said that “the dragon [the devil] was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God.” THE PURPOSE OF LAW IS PEACE.
Love worketh no ill to his neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.” The divine purpose is absolute, universal, voluntary peace. The basis, and the only possible basis, of such peace is love. Where love is the ruling spirit, there can be no ill toward any one; for love does not, can not, work ill in any manner. “Love suffereth long, and is kind; love envieth not; love vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not its own, is not provoked, taketh not account of evil; rejoiceth not in unrighteousness, but rejoiceth with the truth; beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Love never faileth.” I Cor. 13:4-8, R. V. What, then, is the purpose of law?—It is to prevent ill to a neighbor, and thus to perpetuate peace. A law of love, in full, unrestricted force, will prevent ill to the neighbor by precluding the disposition to do ill in any way. The Lord, through the Gospel, is working to raise up a people for His kingdom on earth, as in all other parts of the universe, who will choose to have His law written in their hearts, that it may rule there. It is a law of love; a perfect law (Ps. 19:7), holy, just, and good (Rom. 7:12). It forbids only evil things, such as disturb men’s peace; it commands only love: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” Thus love fulfils the law; it does not repeal or destroy it. Then what about human law, or government? That was ordained as a temporary necessity, on account of sin. The advent of sin (transgression of God’s law, 1 John 3:4) made it impossible to govern men by the law of love (Rom. 8:7), and thus preserve peace. So the working of “no ill to his neighbor” is, as far as possible, to be enforced upon men, so as to insure at least a modicum of peace while the Gospel of real peace is being proclaimed to the fallen race. Enforced peace and order is necessarily imperfect, and is always unsatisfactory; but it is better than anarchy, for the reason that under anarchical or disorderly conditions men can not be attracted by the appeals of the Gospel. Every experienced person knows that only when men are mentally calm and physically quiet can they be induced to give intelligent attention to any Gospel message. This is why the devil hates law and order, and uses every possible means to create discord among men, and to disturb their peace. And this is why, seeing that men are to have law, he uses his perverting influence to have enacted such unjust, unequal laws as will thwart the purpose of legitimate law, and produce oppression and discontent. It ought to be a cause of humiliation to every human being to know that laws of force—as all human laws must be in principle—are necessary in order to keep him from doing ill to his neighbor. It is natural for each one of us to imagine that I would not do any harm to a neighbor, that the law was made to protect me from the incivilities of others. But I must not forget that the law is designed to protect my neighbor against my possible inclination to do him harm. If each one will take a view of human law, and the conditions that make such law a necessity, from the standpoint of his own part in the human mass, he will be more likely to realize what manner of creature he is naturally. From such a view-point he can not help seeing that, without the grace of God, he is one against whose inclination to do ill7 Just as long as sin predominates this world, every man whose heart is not in full harmony with the law of God—no matter what his profession may be—must needs be restrained by some law of force from doing ill to his neighbor. If he does not in some way do the ill that is naturally in his heart, it is because of some law that he fears. The purpose of the Gospel is to gather out of every nation, kindred, tongue, and people those who are susceptible to a desire to be governed by the law of love. Such will admit the law of God in the heart, thus coming into the new-covenant relation with God. When this work shall have been accomplished, the Lord will come and gather this people to Himself (John 14:3; 1 Thess. 4:15-17), and the remainder will be put out of existence (Ps. 37:9-11, 22; Malachi 4:1; John 3:36). In the new earth righteousness will rule absolutely (2 Peter 3:10-13; Rev. 21:1-8); then there will be no further need of enforced restraint of any one from doing ill to his neighbor. The former things having passed away, love will in all things fulfil the law, and peace will prevail throughout the universe according to God’s eternal purpose. “The kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.” Rom. 14:17. “The work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness quietness and confidence forever.” Isa. 32:17. PROMISES TO A BURDENED CHURCH.
“He that overcometh, and keepeth My works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations; and he shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers; even as I received of My Father. And I will give him the Morning Star.” Rev. 2:26-28. This is a peculiar promise, inasmuch as it is given to an overburdened people, but implies a prospective exercise of great power. It is primarily given to the church in the Dark Ages, when undergoing a great stress of persecution, at the time of which Jesus speaks when He says, “Except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved.” That it is a promise to a burdened church is shown by the statement that “I will put upon you none other burden,” and this notwithstanding the fact that the church at that time was not faultless, but was given to “a few things” which the Son of God could not approve. In that particular age the true church was much under the nations, which, in turn, were under the domination of the apostate church; being the instrument which she used in enforcing her decrees against the people of God, who refused to accept her dogmas. The oppressed ones were encouraged by the promise that they should be given power over the nations. This was not a political promise. It was not a promise of political power, nor yet a promise of victory through political means. Through the influence of the Gospel, promulgated by the courageous Reformers, the church was given such power over the nations that they ceased to be the instruments of tyranny in the hands of Rome. But the promise is not confined to the church of that age; there is encouragement for the oppressed of our own time as well; for the power of the Gospel in the hands of faithful disciples is just as great to-day as ever it was. The second feature of the promise applies equally to Christians of all ages, having special reference to the coming of the Lord. “He shall rule them with a rod of iron,” etc., is the promise made to the Son of God Himself through the prophet David: “Thou art My Son; this day have I begotten thee. Ask of Me, and I shall give Thee the heathen for Thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for Thy possession. Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; Thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.” Ps. 2:7-9. So the Son takes the overcomer in with Himself, extending the promise to him also. This ruling over the nations with a rod of iron is a judgment scene; it can in no way imply their conversion. The prime factor in conversion is the love of God, ministered by the Holy Spirit through the Word, and is not in any sense analogous to a rod of iron, or the dashing of a potter’s vessel to pieces. David further testifies by the Spirit of prophecy: “The Lord at Thy right hand shall strike through kings in the day of His wrath. He shall judge among the heathen, He shall fill the places with the dead bodies; He shall wound the heads over many countries.” Ps. 110:5, 6. That the saints will participate in the judgment of the wicked, is shown by various scriptures. In the vision recorded in Daniel 7, the prophet says: “I beheld, and the same horn [Rome] made war with the saints, and prevailed against them; until the Ancient of days came, and judgment was given to the saints of the Most High; and the time came that the saints possessed the kingdom.” Verses 21, 22. On this point Paul also testifies: “Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? and if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters? Know ye not that we shall judge angels [that is, evil angels]? how much more things that pertain to this life?” 1 Cor. 6:2, 3. Again, David says of the wicked: “Like sheep they are laid in the grave; death shall feed on them; and the upright shall have dominion over them in the morning; and their beauty shall consume in the grave from their dwelling.” Ps. 49:14. The expression, “in the morning,” evidently refers to the resurrection morn. The last part of the promise may be applied as a continuing promise, throughout the Gospel age. Christ Himself is the Morning Star (Rev. 22:16), and the overcomer must needs have Him in order to overcome. “He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.” 1 John 5:12. He has already given Himself to the world, and all who will appropriate the gift by the obedience of faith will be overcomers by feeding upon Him. He is “the way, the truth, and the life;” and of His sheep He says, “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.” John 10:10. What the overcoming pilgrim needs daily is more and more of the Morning Star to guide him in the way. Praise the Lord for the inestimable promise. “He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.” Legal Protection for Neighbors
his neighbor stands in need of enforced legal protection FAULTFINDING is simply Pharisaism. Any one can be a faultfinder, because imperfection is everywhere on the surface. Therefore, the chronic faultfinder has a very easy job, and when his religion consists in picking flaws in the work and ways of others he has a religion whose practise requires very little effort, because there is no self-denial in it. The faultfinder's ever-ready excuse for not helping in the work is, that things aren't going right; some one is not doing as he ought to do, and those who are bearing the burdens and responsibilities come short of being what they ought to be. The very reason why he ought to help and to be forward in doing is his excuse for not doing. The faultfinder's continual criticism of those who are endeavoring to do something, much or little, is a standing proclamation of his own holiness, his own ability to see the right. In all this he condemns his own do-nothing policy (the chronic faultfinder is always a do-nothing progressively); because if he is so far-sighted as his criticisms virtually claim, he surely ought to be foremost in every good word and work, whether he is appreciated or not; but he is not forward in good works, because he is always on the negative side of every progressive question. Moody, the evangelist, once said: “I never saw a man who was aiming to do the best work whose work might not be improved in some respect, but to contract the habit of constantly finding fault is very damaging to spiritual life; it is about the lowest and meanest position a man can take.” Besides, the habit of adverse criticism so warps the mind that it soon becomes incapable of correct judgment as to right or wrong. Even the perfect Christ becomes an agent of Beelzebub through the imperfect vision of the chronic faultfinder. Matt. 12: 22-24. The danger of such a course is emphasized by our Lord, in His sermon on the Mount: “Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged; and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.” Matt. 7: 1, 2. Courage to Walk Straight Ahead
“COURAGE to walk straight ahead is better than genius.”