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Communications: For The Signal Of Liberty: One Word More To ...

Communications: For The Signal Of Liberty: One Word More To ... image
Parent Issue
Day
7
Month
July
Year
1845
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

Mr. Editor: - May I again ask admission to some córner of your paper, whence I may addrcss a few more words to those of your readers who profess tobe disciplofChristf Christians, let me press the questiun home upon the reasoning conscience wtihin you. VVhy have you no more power God and man? At tliis age of intellectual development, whcn mere scienlific, mercenary mínd has made its power feit throughout tho material world, annihilating time and space and taming the lightnings to its will, why havo you not secured to the mind that was in Christ Jesús, tho mind of the gospel, a sublime ascend ency over all principalities and powcrs, and brought every knee to bow and every tongue to confess to the only name given under heavcn by which men, societies and nations may be saved, and human governmont be made perfect, in its spirit and functions, as that of the great Law-giver oí the world is perfect? Wli) has not the fulness of the fulness oí the Gentiles ulready come? why lias no the fullness of science come, and all the rulcrs and dominions of the eaith come to be tributaries and obedient subjects to that King and Kingdom to which thev so rightfully belong? Why is therc to day one solitary boing made in God's im nge still bowing down to gods which hi own hands have made? VVhy have younot deliiged, as it werc, the whole world with the light of the gospel, putting a Bi ble into the hands of evcry human bcing on the globe? Why has not the Chrisl ian religión that self'difiusing powc which, under its primitive apostles, car ried its principies almost upon the wing of the wind, self-prcaching to the con sciences of men, as the power and wis dom of God unio salvation? Are the pa gans of to-day more incorrigibly idola trous than thosc who bowcd to the sceptefEmnnuel in Paui's day? Christian, i ho Prince of Peace to whom you liave worn allegiance, will hold you ' le for the present condition of man kind. ( You have given,your power tothe Beast, vhich has so long dcsolnted this world vilh sin, suílering violence and misery. You have cut away from the religión of [e8Ua Christ its Sampson locki'; its ■ est principles,and despoiled it of almost the i only attributes that distinguish it from the religión of the hcathen world. Every religión invented by man patronized the lusts, the instincts.the "natural laws" of human nature. The religión of Jesus Ghrist was given to extírpale those lusts, (o subjugate thoso instincts, to displace -thoso "nntural laws," with ncw laws wrlt1en by the spirit of God on tho human heart. But, in your love and leniency to human nature, you have pleaded and prevailed with religión to spare those instincta and lusts, and let them stand above all that is called God, above all the teachings of the Saviour paramount to all dh'ine Irelalion. These enthroned, deified lusts and instinct"?, usurping the place of the I highest attributes of tho Christian ( gion, havo rcigned for nearly fiíleen dred years, and filled the earth with i olence and blood. The Christian era i would seem to distinguish a period when the battle breeding lusts of human nature have invented new forms of ferocity and new faculties of destruction, under the stimulus of a more vigorous religión than the old dull, sodden ethics of paganism.Let us open our eyes to the light, ever poinful it may be, and confess to the j world our folly in crowning our lusls and l instincts, and natural laws with the diadem which should sit upon the brow of the Son of God. And, in the docility oí honest penitence, let us review the process by which we have been cheated out of our moral strength, by which we have bied out of the religión we profess the great element of its moral power. Christian brother, is there any ambiguity about the mind that was in Christ Jesus? Is there any thing hesaid or did, from the manger to the cross, which wil 1 permit you to put sin ngninst sin, eyil ngainst ovil, reviling against reviling, and injuryigainst injury, let your natural instincts md spontaneous laws of action díctate what they rnáyf No; yon cannot charge the Saviour of mankind ivitti theoinission of a single precept or example which was necessary to prohibit his followers from engnging in war of any kind. When he said at Pilate's bar, tliat his K.ngdom wqs notof this vvorld, he did notsay that it was not in and over this world. He did not renounce his title to its scéptrè,os king of natioris and kingof kings. - But he said it wns noto" thís world; that t wns not foundod on ils policy, nor inspíred with its spirit, nor söstaihed by ts brute and brutalizing ibrce; that hiskingdom was liis leligion. and that was not of tliis world, nor of the human heart, nor the cnnilure, nor the subject of ts natural instincls, lusts and laws; and therefore the subjects of bis kingdom and thedisciples of bis religión could not ght.

Article

Subjects
Signal of Liberty
Old News