THERE are a great many withered Christians, who, in their early religious experience, put forth green branches and fragrant blossoms and promised much to the church. But since the novelty has died away and the first gush of feeling has subsided, they have gradually withered; their zeal has drooped, their love grown faint, and their freshness of joy disappeared.
You find these withered branches in every church. They have either too much self-respect or not enough courage to resign or withdraw, consequently they must resort to some subterfuge to cover up the decline in piety, and to conceal the pallid countenance and sickly form of their religion. Hence, they become wonderfully precise and dignified, great admirers of a fashionable religion, rigid formalists or semi-ritualists. Prayer-meetings become commonplace, if not vulgar. Missionary work they conclude is a waste of time; the ignorant masses are not worth saving, or beyond the hope of recovery. Why this sudden change?—They have "withered away." The dry leaves of a dead formality have taken the place of the fragrant blossoms of early piety, and a heartless philosophy has been substituted for living faith in a personal Saviour. They have "withered away." The reason is because the root element is wanting. This is the great defect in American piety. We are wonderful admirers of blossoms, abundant in foliage, and very calculating as to fruit. We promise, profess, and count up results, but have not much silent hidden force. The outside and visible occupy our thoughts, attention, and hearts. The invisible and hidden sources of life and power, the root element, we fail to recognize.
The popular idea of religion is show and noise, when, in fact, the sources of religious life and power are hidden and silent. The building of character is not the result of excitement and amid the din and clatter of worldly activity, but by silent convictions, secret communion, and the invisible touch of the divine hand. Our greatest victories are not external; no pen records them, no admirers applaud them, no banners proclaim them. Victory over selfishness, doubt, resentment, carnality, and worldliness—this is real victory.
Our noblest deeds are not winged and trumpeted. Our talking is not half so grand and enduring as our doing. Our best deeds are not the loudest-voiced; our noblest charities are not advertised; our piety don’t need labeling, and our Christian acts would die if traveled around in the jolting vehicle of publicity. Therefore, you see that the source of life, the building of character, the greatest victories, and the noblest deeds of the Christian, are silent and hidden. The root principle supplies all the life, and gives power and efficacy to all the actions. There would be no life, no foliage, and no fruit if there were no root.
The withering, then, is the natural and legitimate result of neglecting secret prayer, private meditation, reading God’s Word, and personal communion with God. The outer acts will be easy and natural if the inner supply is kept up. But when the fountain ceases, the streams fail. The Christian, then, is driven by the lash of conscience, and goaded by duty.
When a professor has no testimony for Christ, no joy in worship, no zeal for souls, no song of praise, no zest in labor, no buds of hope, and no triumph in trials, you may know he has neglected to draw upon God by faith, that the root is defective.
Our greatest neglect is secret prayer and personal communion with God. This is why we have so many dwarfed and withered professing Christians. Learn, therefore, O Christian, when thy heart is cold, thy faith weak, thy hope dull, thy zeal faint, thy works bondage, thy trials intolerable, thy duties taskmasters, and thy lot in life a divine mistake and impertinence, that the cause is in thyself. Thou hast neglected the Living Fountain. Thou hast no root. Thy life is not "hid with Christ in God."
—Christian Voices.
The Resurrection and Transformation
“BEHOLD, I show you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump; for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.” 1 Cor. 15:51–53.
NO RESURRECTION, NO SALVATION.
By W. N. G.
"THE wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." Rom. 6:23. This, with the statement that "all have sinned" (chap. 3:23), gives us at a glance the condition of the natural man, and the remedy for that condition. Adam was the head of the race, and he sinned. By his sin he brought not only death upon himself, but sin and death upon all his posterity. "In Adam all die." 1 Cor. 15:22. So far as Adam and the life we receive from him are concerned, death ends all; for the sentence upon Adam, and per consequence upon all his descendants, was, "Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return." Gen. 3:19. Then eternal life could not possibly inure from such a source; it is not in any sense hereditary. It is purely a gift — "the gift of God," not through Adam or anything derived from Adam, but through Jesus Christ.
Peter emphasized this fact when he said, "Neither is there salvation in any other; for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved." Acts 4:12. Then the remedy for the present sinful condition, of which death is the natural consequence, is through Jesus Christ; and this is an eternal remedy, for it gives eternal life.
The Scriptures having settled this fact, the question arises, How do we finally come into the enjoyment of eternal life through Christ? It can not be by virtue of anything in the natural man; for "if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature." 2 Cor 5:17. He is not a patched-up affair; he is new. That is true spiritually even in this life; "old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." Id. In order to obtain anything through Christ we must follow Him, follow Him spiritually and physically. He lived a life of humility, and "became obedient unto death." Paul says, "I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that6Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures; and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures." 1 Cor. 15:3, 4.
That Christ died, that His life was absolutely resigned, is shown, first, by His having assumed human nature for that very purpose (Heb. 2:14-16); second, by His declaration on the cross, "Father, into Thy hands I commend My spirit," to which is added the statement, "and having said thus, He gave up the ghost" (Luke 23:46); third, by the fact that He was raised "from the dead" by the power of God (Eph. 1:19, 20). True, Christ said to His disciples concerning His life, "I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again." John 10:18. But that was all committed to the Father to use for Him; and the Father gave it to Him again after the resurrection. See Matt. 28:18-20; Eph. 1:19-23. In the same sense "God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son." 1 John 5:11. "For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory." Col. 3:3, 4. We have this thought again expressed in Paul's contemplation of his own death: "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith; henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at that day; and not to me only, but unto all them also that love His appearing." 2 Tim. 4:7, 8.
Now all the blessings we have and are to have in Christ are dependent not alone upon His humble life and sacrificial death, but upon His resurrection. Could the adversary have held Him in the grave, the plan of salvation must have failed. The Son of God would have lost in the controversy in behalf of the fallen race. But for the resurrection, He never could have given to the church that blessed assurance, "I am He that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive forevermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death." Rev. 1:18. He never could have held the keys of hades (the grave) had He not come forth from its silent confines Himself. By this was demonstrated for all time His ability to fulfil His words to Peter when that disciple acknowledged Him as "the Christ, the Son of the living God," of which great truth He said, "Upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of hell (hades) shall not prevail against it." So long as the Lord holds the keys to the tomb, the gates to that dark sleeping apartment can no more hold its occupants on the great resurrection day than could Joseph's new tomb, with the Roman seal upon it, hold the Son of God on the day appointed for His resurrection. That the plan of salvation would have fallen short without the resurrection of Christ, is plainly set forth in the fifteenth chapter of 1 Corinthians. This exposition was called forth because some brethren had imbibed the idea that "there is no resurrection" (verse 12), and Paul reasons on this wise: "If there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen; and if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain. Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God; because we have testified of God that He raised up Christ; whom He raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not. For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised; and if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins. Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished." Verses 13-18.
Therefore Christ in the tomb was powerless to save, and even those who believed on Him and slept in the tomb were perished, without His resurrection. There would be no virtue in being baptized in His name if He were dead. "What shall they do which are baptized for the dead, if the dead rise not at all?" Verse 29. So His resurrection, and consequently their resurrection, was and is essential to salvation. But could not God raise them up without the Son?—No; for the plan of salvation contemplated "eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." Salvation must be through faith in His name, and if He be not raised up from the dead, "your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins." So God raised Him from the tomb and gave Him the keys. For what purpose?—That He might open unto others. "For as the Father raiseth the dead and quickeneth them, even so the Son also quickeneth whom He will. For neither doth the Father judge any man, but He hath given all judgment unto the Son." John 5:21, 22, R.V.
If the dead Son of God could not have life again without a physical resurrection, much less can the natural children of men. So Paul argues: "If after the manner of men I have fought with beasts at Ephesus, what advantageth it me, if the dead rise not? let us eat and drink; for to-morrow we die." 1 Cor. 15:32. Surely Paul had no idea of a future life only through a resurrection from the dead. In further confirmation of this doctrine, he says: "Behold, I show you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?" Verses 51-55. So then immortality is not inherent; it must be put on at the resurrection. And the grave is victorious until the resurrection takes away its victory. "Thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."
In the expression "we shall be changed," in the foregoing scripture, the apostle refers prophetically to the righteous ones who shall be living at the resurrection day, and will be translated. That he did not expect himself to be one of that class is shown by 2 Tim. 4:6: "I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand." This letter was written shortly before his execution. The verses following this one have been already quoted in this article, and show the apostle's expectation concerning himself. This is further emphasized in his ardent desire as expressed in Phil. 3:10, 11: "That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto His death; if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead."
The change, or translation, of the righteous who shall be living at the "first resurrection," or resurrection of the righteous dead, is equivalent to a physical death and a resurrection with a new, incorruptible body. The change places them on an equality with the resurrected ones. "For this we say unto you by the Word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent [or precede] them which are asleep. For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first; then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air; and so shall we ever be with the Lord." 1 Thess. 4:15-17.
CHRIST IS RISEN.
By C. M. Snow
THE sound of shouting and the tumult ceased,
And pitying Night a melancholy pall
Let down o'er Palestine. The Christ of God
Was sleeping in the tomb of Joseph now
A dreamless sleep; and angry hosts had slunk
Away to reason with their consciences,
Or drown them in the flow of ruddy wine.
Earth slumbered with her Maker sacrificed,
And held Him to her bosom—dead.
The crown
By mocking jesters pressed upon His brow
Had left its cruel impress in the flesh
Condemned. The hands whose office work had been
To pour upon the head of youth and age
The kindliest blessings of a loving God;
The feet so often weary with the way
O'er mountain steep or by the rocky shore;
The lips that once had launched the moving spheres
And spoke to life the Adam of the race—
Were lifeless all, and man in type was dead.
The night of sin—a dreary, cheerless night—
Had here fulfilment manifest, and sin
Itself, in type, triumphant sat enthroned.
Old earth was tottering on the verge
The Morning of the Saviour's Resurrection.
Of ruin absolute, while in the tomb,
In bonds of death to satisfy the law
By mortals broken, lay the Gift of God,
Enwrapped in Death's habiliments, that He
Might work the purpose of Jehovah's mind,
To conquer all that triumphed over man.
The ear of Heaven was bowed to earth, but earth
Was slumbering still, unconscious of the scale
Jehovah held to weigh her destiny.
The book of God was fair, the pages clean,
And 'gainst the name of Jesus there appeared
No sign of sin committed, or of thought
To show that aught but fealty to God
Inhabited the heart now held of Death.
"O Christ, come forth; the keepers of the dead
Hold not dominion over you!" The stone
By Roman order sealed is powerless
To hold whom God does not condemn.
Roll back,
Frail figment of the Roman realm, nor think
To stifle with the hand of stone the life
That paid sin's penalties from Adam down.
Roll back, ye somber, silent gates of death;
The conquering King comes through. Roll back, ye dark
And threatening clouds of doom; the Sun comes forth
To lighten with His gleam from pole to pole
The sorrowing regions of a stricken world.
Roll back, roll back, ye hosts from heaven flung;
For man in type has conquered every foe,
And stands triumphant with the keys of death.
O grand, O glorious liberty is that
Which stepped with Christ from Joseph's open tomb,
And trimmed anew the fading, dimming flame
Of hope, and set a star to guide the race
From earth's long night to heaven's glorious day!
That tomb a cradle was; and pillowed there
Our freedom lay in natal robes, and harked
The velvet footfalls of the angel guard.
Down all the rolling years that since have passed,
A thorny way she threaded through the myths
Of pagan rites, and struggled hard to plant
A nobler tree, whose leaves should heal the wounds
Oppression rained upon the hearts of men.
That tree is blooming yet whose seed was sown
Behind the stone a Roman law had sealed—
Within the tomb that shut a Saviour in.
His death our immortality insured—
His tomb the birthplace of our liberties.
Yes, Christ is risen, and our souls are free—
Free in the liberty His life has given;
Free from the death that knows no waking hour;
Free from the sins that long have pressed us down;
And free to worship, and obey His will.
We turn no tearful eyes to Joseph's tomb;
We bend no knee in mosque Mohammedan,
Nor slay in strife to win the vacant place
Where rested once the Saviour of mankind.
Go forth, go forth, and tell a waiting world
The Son of God is in His tomb no more.
Say not the heart, the head, the hand must yield
A servile homage to a human creed.
The life that burst the shackles of the tomb
Will burst this prison, too. The mind of God
Is broader, deeper than the wisest mind
His hand has fashioned from the clay of earth.
The strongest cord your puny hand may weave
Is rope of sand, and ne'er will anchor you
Within the vail. Ye can not build a tow'r
More stable than the pile that crumbles now
On Shinar's plain; and such is every creed.
But vacant tombs are all these instruments
By human mind conceived, and empty all;
They are but shells, and all are tenantless;
For Christ is risen—you'll not find Him there.
Nor is the presence of that Holy One
Enlinked with laws that seek by finite force
To scourge to God th' unwilling wanderer.
The Son of God leans not on reed so frail
As human law, to work His holy will.
His law who made the spheres is not so weak
That laws of men must prop it or it fall.
We may not place against the ark of God,
Wherein His law abides, a steadying hand.
The lesson writ is ours to learn, and we
Are wiser when we heed. The fearful one
Who flees from laws oppressive to the shield
He finds in creed professed has buried deep
The love that would have won him to his God.
From such a tomb the Spirit flies. Our strength
Is weakness while we think to hold Him there.
Proclaim this truth in glorious ministry:
Our Christ is risen, and the soul is free.
C. M. SNOW.
LIFE AND IMMORTALITY.
By L. A. Phippeny
THIS world affords many desirable things, but nothing in nature, as we see it, nothing devised and brought to a state of usefulness and beauty by man, can compare with the mere joy of existence, of living. True, the material things may enhance that joy, or, under specially adverse conditions, detract from it. But there are few, indeed, that do not love life, and cling to it with all the powers of their being.
The only thing in the way of man's plans, his hopes, his earthly pleasures—and it is a tremendous thing—is death. He may expend the whole of his wealth, and make almost superhuman efforts to prolong his life, but in the end death comes. It is a terrible thing, for it would seem to be the end of everything. He would give all the world, if it were his to give, if he could escape it, and live eternally, provided, perhaps, the perplexities and sicknesses of the present life were taken away.
Well, praise the good Lord, just such an eternal life is possible and provided for every man, woman, and child who will exert the necessary effort to obtain it.
To this end are the promises: "This is life eternal, that they might know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent" (John 17:3); "God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He that hath the Son hath life;" but "he that hath not the Son of God hath not life." The man who hath not the Son is "alienated from the life of God through . . . ignorance," which is sin. He knows not God, and is without "hope, and without God in the world." Eph. 2:12. Unless he finds Christ, he "shall not see life." "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life; and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life." John 3:36. "God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." John 3:16. These promises and statements are in the present tense, and mean that, or nothing.
Our Example; Eternal Life Now.
Christ is the great Example for all mankind, and His way of gaining the victory over death is the way for every soul in the world to gain the same victory. As He had eternal life, so are we to have it. 1 Peter 2:21; 1 John 2:6, etc. And if a man longs for eternal life, and believes the Word of God that the record is true, he will allow no obstacle that earth may present to stand in the way of his following in Christ's footsteps. This is belief in Jesus Christ and in God, who sent Him, and the same power that strengthened Christ in the flesh is ready to strengthen the sinner and the saint to-day. It does it the moment he gives up his own ways, his own plans, his earthly hopes, and decides to walk as Christ walked. The power works, and he knows it, for it enables him to do that way, and to resist sin, which he could not do before. And to such living belongs eternal life for him, the same as it did for Christ. And he has it.
Now, since the fall, try as he may, flatter himself as he may, man can not live in harmony with God by his own efforts. In his sinful flesh is absolutely no power to do right, according to God's standard of righteousness, to which his thoughts and actions must conform in order that he may enjoy eternal life. Sin7has robbed him of that power. But God's own glorious, almighty, creative power is ever present where the desire and determination are to do right according to God's way. For this power Christ prayed "with strong crying and tears unto Him that was able to save Him from death, and was heard in that He feared." Heb. 5:7. "I can of Mine own self do nothing," He Himself said. This power was administered to Him constantly, and thus was He enabled to live in perfect harmony with God, and keep His character in its integrity, "pure and unspotted from the world."
With this kind of living, with this kind of character, ever belongs eternal life. Death pertains only to sin. But "He did no sin" (1 Peter 2:22); therefore eternal life was His. He lived righteously all the way through; therefore "in Him was life," eternal life, all the time. John 1:4. It was His by right of righteous living. "In the way of righteousness is life." Prov. 12:28. But everlasting existence can be possible only where there is no corruption, no seeds of death. Christ's body, however, was dying flesh. Hence the imperative demand—a demand as long and broad and as high and deep as eternity, upon the eternal justice of God—that after His death His body should be brought forth from the grave, refashioned into a glorious body in which should not be found one seed of death. And to the everlasting credit of a faithful heavenly Father, and for the everlasting assurance of a like salvation to every man who believes, He came forth by the mighty power of God, and lives eternally.
Now the power that works for the sinner to enable him to follow Christ is resurrection power, for according to law the transgressor unto death is already reckoned as dead. His living, and moving, and having being (Acts 17:28), by virtue of his physical activity, are not accounted as living at all. He is dead spiritually, and remains in death as long as he is in sin. And as a resurrection is necessary for the dead to live again, so belief, true belief in Christ, is a spiritual resurrection from spiritual death now. "Reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord" (Rom. 6:11); "You hath He quickened [made alive], who were dead in trespasses and sins." Eph. 2:1. The man is "transformed by the renewing" of his mind. Rom. 12:2. He is by the power of God created a new man in Christ Jesus. Eph. 4:24. He has a new mind, a new character, and new ways of living. He is then alive in the only sense of living that the Lord recognizes as true living.
In him there then exists precisely the conditions that existed in Christ. When he dies, because of the demands of sin in the flesh, his by inheritance, he must come forth again from the grave with a new and glorious body, by Almighty justice and fiat. And so Paul says: "If the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies because of His Spirit [His mind, purpose] that dwelleth in you." Rom. 8:11, margin. Therefore, "let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus" (Phil. 2:5), because it is absolutely your only surety of a resurrection from the grave. Do not lose it, for if you do you lose eternal life, and relapse again into the spiritual death of sin. And in the plan of God, the time between death and resurrection is not accounted a break in the eternal life of the Christian. His "life is hid with Christ in God," and when Christ, who is his "life, shall appear," at His coming, "then shall" he "also appear with Him in glory." Col. 3:3, 4.
Immortality.
The word "immortality" has two significations, closely related, however. As used in 1 Tim. 6:16 and in 1 Cor. 15:53, 54, "immortality" is translated from a word signifying "deathlessness." In other places its different forms are from a word signifying "incorruptibility,"—the "incorruption" of 1 Cor. 15:42, 50, 53, 54. Again, the word signifying "incorruptibility," or "incorruption" in the latter texts, is rendered "immortality" in the English in Rom. 2:7 and in 2 Tim. 1:10.
Both of these expressions are applied to God. "Now unto the King eternal, immortal" (incorruptible) (1 Tim. 1:17), "who only hath immortality" (deathlessness) (1 Tim. 6:16). These words signify qualities of being. Incorruptibility is the quality that enables anything to be incorruptible. Deathlessness is the quality of being deathless, undying. So if one of the ideas prevails, it is that of incorruptibility, or incorruption, which is for that reason the quality of being deathless. Immortality, therefore, inheres only in God. His being is of an incorruptible, deathless nature. Eternal life, eternal living or existence, is His also inherently. While immortality conveys the idea of quality or property of being, eternal life carries the idea of duration of time, that is, in eternity.
These definitions find application in the history of man. God bestows freely the blessings of both life and immortality under the proper condition. This condition is loyalty to Him, which means, in its fullest sense, perfect service of a perfect mind and a perfect body. He has in the true Christian now perfect service of mind, and so He bestows eternal life in the spiritual nature now. But even this can not be realized in its glorious fulness until the body is redeemed from sin, which will be at Christ's second coming. Then every trace of sin, which is the only thing in the universe that produces corruption, will be removed, and the body will be made incorruptible. This will be immortality for the man,—incorruptibility, deathlessness, and eternal life.
This is what Adam enjoyed, in common with other sinless beings, in the beginning. He came from the hands of his Creator endowed with perfect powers of mind and body. He was made in the image and after the likeness of God. Gen 1:26; Eccl. 7:29. In him the perfect condition existed for the enjoyment of these gracious gifts of his Maker, and he entered upon the glorious pathway of eternal life with no taint of corruption in his nature. But both life and immortality were lost when he sinned. They became hidden by sin. And these are the things,—"life [eternal life] and immortality [incorruptibility]"—that have been brought again "to light through the Gospel," for the race lost in the darkness of sin.
But the happy day is at hand for the complete and glorious redemption. The apostle says: "The trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we [the living at that time] shall be changed [translated]. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal [dying] must put on immortality [deathlessness]. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality [deathlessness], then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory." 1 Cor. 15:52-54.
The Limits of Americanism
MANY people in the United States seem to think that everything in the line of Christian life and Christian work must be American in order to be effective. But Bishop Cranston (M.E.) slightly punctures this little bubble when, in speaking of probable mission work in the Philippines, he says, "Manifestly we are bound to do something in America, or enlarge our idea of Americanism."
It is time would-be Gospel workers were learning that the "American" blanket is too short to cover all the temporal and spiritual interests of the earth. The Christian church was purer and more effectual in its efforts when Pagan Rome ruled the world than it ever has been since.
CRIMES; SINS.
By G. W. Copley
CRIMES are infractions of civil laws, or laws enacted by earthly governments.
The first object of all civil governments is to perpetuate their own existence; hence, treason is usually punishable with death. All civil laws are enacted from the standpoint of self-preservation, or selfishness; but the character of the selfishness of nations may be enlightened or stupid according to the wisdom or folly of their legislators. The legitimate function of all civil governments is to administer laws that are purely secular. God has granted to all persons certain reserved or inalienable rights. The right to think and labor and worship is God-given, and with it the State may not justly interfere. It is a misnomer to call any government civil where Church and State are united, and these inalienable rights are disregarded. Such governments are neither civil nor ecclesiastical, but mixed. Logically they are corrupt, because they have attempted the impossible, that is, to unite dissimilar, not to say antagonistic, elements.
Sins are transgressions of the moral law, the Ten Commandments. God takes cognizance of the thoughts and intents of the heart (Heb. 4:12); the civil law can only deal with the overt act. A person may be morally corrupt at heart (and every sinner is so), and yet not be amenable to the civil law, nor molested in the least if his outward conduct is civil and orderly. But let him do an act of violence to another, and the civil law springs to life, and punishes him. Why?—Because such acts are acts of disorder and violence, and if not restrained would ultimately be subversive of all civil government.
These acts are sins as well as crimes. But here is a different case. Mr. A works in his garden on Sunday. The civil law, so called, criminates him, and casts him into jail. He has committed no sin, and yet he has to pass thirty days in an uncomfortable jail for the crime of working on Sunday, which is the first day of the week, and in no sense the Sabbath of the Lord according to the commandment. Ex. 20:8-11. All such cases ought to be thrown out of court for want of jurisdiction.
Now Sunday is a human institution; and an unwarranted jurisdiction is exercised in such cases.
Would to God the American people could be led to see what this invisible empire is doing to enthral them through these invalid Sunday laws. Had the legislators of the various States held to the true American idea of civil government, the absolute separation of religion and the State, this government would not now be entangled in the meshes of this web of deceit, which is all brought about through the attempt to enforce the observation of a spurious sabbath contrary to the express command of God.
So we see that there are crimes that are sins, and crimes that are not sins, and crimes that it would be a sin not to commit; and all this confusion in the popular mind is the result of not knowing where Cæsar's jurisdiction ends and the Lord's jurisdiction begins.
