[CHRISTIANITY.]
CHRISTIANITY literally subverts everything else, sets aside all isms, doctrines and commandments of men of every grade, as the most insignificant childish play. It comes to men, claiming the right to have the attention of all as though all beside were undeserving of any note or any regard whatever. Not only so, but it gives no chance to assail, expose and refute, for it maintains nothing but the Bible, but Christianity, but what God has given by inspiration and proved by supernatural signs and wonders, accompanied with gifts of the Holy Spirit, which all its assailants have to admit true! Can we expect to present the only true religion; the religion of Jesus Christ itself; the only true system; Christianity itself; the only revelation from God; that contained in the Bible; the only authority of God; the authority of the Word of God; the only true doctrine; the Gospel of Christ itself; and declare everything else unauthorized—null and void; hindrances to the progress of truth and righteousness; to the edification of saints and the conversion of the world, and meet no opposition? Not rationally. The watchmen on the old party walls of their little Zions will see the tendency of all this. They will see—they can not help seeing—that precisely in proportion as we succeed in fixing the attention of the people upon God, his authority, his Son, our gracious Redeemer and Savior, his word, his law, his religion, as a distinct, complete and perfect system, with all the power, grace, wisdom, mercy, benevolence, and authority of the Almighty in it, calling the attention of man to it as the only medium of salvation, all their systems must necessarily lose their attraction, their command and influence, and hasten to ruin. Many of these watchmen are pledged for life, too bigoted to look if they may be mistaken, too obstinate, and self-willed to yield, and will oppose to the last.
[KEEP POLITICS OUT OF THE CHURCH.]
IF a man has a leading object in view, no matter whether religious or worldly, let him come out in his proper color, declare his object, and drive directly at it. If a man has a favorite political scheme let him declare it, publish a paper advocating it, or maintain it in public addresses; but not under the name of Christian; not in the name of the Lord, nor under a pretence of preaching Christ; for this would be a manifest imposition, no matter how good the political doctrine. But every attempt to make the religion of Christ auxiliary to political ends, is a perversion, and in direct opposition to the whole spirit and entire bearing of the Lord’s own reply, when charged with being a political aspirant. When arraigned before Pilate, and charged with claiming to be a king, he explained the matter, and obviated the charge, or set it aside, by saying, “My kingdom is not of this world; if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews; but now is my kingdom not from hence.” John xviii. 36. While he frankly admitted that he was a king, and that he came into the world to bear witness to the truth, he set aside all ground of suspicion against him, as an aspirant to the throne, or any other part in the civil government, or one who would in any way meddle in the civil institutions of his country, by declaring that his kingdom is not of this world. This declaration was no evasion, but a clear, important and divine truth, and must be shown in the lives of the disciples of Christ, by following his example, or the cause will suffer immeasurably.
Our Lord was so careful to keep his kingdom and his mission distinct from civil affairs, that when he was appealed to, to arbitrate a dispute touching an inheritance, he inquired, who made him an arbiter in such matters, or where was there any authority for him to step aside from his mission, or, rather, pervert his mission and his office from their high, spiritual and divine object, to a worldly, temporal and business object. He was so careful to keep his mission distinct from the world, and worldly relations, that when engaged in the work of his mission, he refused to recognize a fleshly relation—his own mother, brother and sister. In his kingdom he recognized no fleshly relation, as a basis for any application to him, or a reason for his institution conferring any benefit on any human being, not excepting his own mother, according to the flesh. Those who do the will of God, regardless of all fleshly ties, political conditions, or worldly circumstances, whether male or female, bond or free, are mother, sister or brother, to the Redeemer and Savior of man. So perfectly distinct did our Lord and the apostles keep their mission from politics that there is not the remotest hint that they ever participated in civil affairs, in a single instance, in the whole of the sacred record. They either never participated in politics in any way, or else looked upon the whole matter as so distinct from their mission and work, as not to be once mentioned in the whole Christian revelation. So distinct is the New Testament from political institutions, that it contains not one word of instruction to civil officers, in regard to their duties, not one hint what kind of men we should vote for, or what form of government we should favor. It simply enjoins that Christians “obey every ordinance of man, for the Lord’s sake:” “submit to the powers that be; for the powers that be are ordained of God,” and declares that “rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil”; that “the ruler is the minister of God, and bears not the sword in vain.”