PRIZE-FIGHTING COMMENDED
Life is a
battle,” some one has truly said. We see amongst the brute creation a constant
struggle for existence, and it is the same with humanity. In business
competition it is a battle; in politics the strife goes on continually; in the
family, between the parents and the children, there is fre-quently strife for
mastery; and throughout the world it is largely each family for itself and each
individual for himself, all this strife being along the lines of ambition and
selfishness, sometimes almost to the extent of necessity.
The Lord’s soldiers were recruited from these miserable conditions, but to
another and different war-fare-a war against selfishness, avarice, covetousness
and all unrighteous, all unloving methods, all sin.--The Captain of our
Salvation is our exemplar, whose methods of warfare we are to copy. Although
he was holy, harmless, undefiled and separate from sinners, he was an
inveterate foe to sin, and laid down his life in opposing it. All who would be
accepted as followers of the cross must follow his example-“faith-ful even unto
death”-if they would have the great prize, the crown of life.
As we look at the world of which we once were a part, “Children of wrath even
as others,” we see that all of its strife is for some purpose. The politician
strives for emoluments and sometimes for honor; the merchant strives for
affluence and wealth; the strug-gles in the social arena are for place and
influence. These are their prizes, and in their efforts to attain their ideals
many are the sacrifices that are endured, many are the risks that are run, many
are the night vigils and careful plans and schemes and plottings.
Nevertheless, few of those who strive ever attain to their hearts’ desires.
The prize eludes their grasp; and the more fortunate ones who do grasp the
prizes find that there is much bitterness connected with the success, much
disappointment as to the real pleasure accompanying them. The Apostle compares
these earthly ambitions of the world with the higher ambi-tions of the soldiers
of the Lord’s army. He points out that those who strive in earthly matters,
either as race runners or as prize fighters in any department of the strife of
earth, put themselves to certain tests of patience, endurance and self-denial
in their endeavors to attain their ambitions; and he indicates that much more
the soldiers of the cross should highly esteem the great prize for which we are
called to fight the good fight-the prize of life eternal. The Apostle says,
“Every man that striveth is temperate in all things: now they do it to attain
a corruptible crown [reward], but we an incorruptible.”
These who strive for earthly prizes do so in the face of much
uncertainty. Every politician admits the strong probability of his defeat;
every one who seeks wealth will acknowledge a strong probability that he will
fail in his fight for it; but not so with the soldiers of the cross. The prize
is not only superlatively great and grand and incorruptible, but it is a certainty,
as the Apostle adds, “I therefore so ran, not as uncer-tainly; so fight I, not
as one that beateth the air.” We know that faithfulness as followers of our
Captain will bring results not only blessed to ourselves, but results which
will be under the Lord’s providences a blessing to all the families of the
earth. It is in view of this certainty on our part as to the results and the
grandeur thereof that the Apostle intimates that we, as soldiers of the cross,
should be willing to endure much greater hardness and self-denial and buffeting
for the sake of the cause we represent than would those who strive for the
earthly crowns and prizes. And if they practice self-denial and disciplines
late and early, in season and out of season, when convenient and when
inconvenient, whether of food and drink if preparing for some physical contest,
or of comforts and conveni-ences and pleasures if for political or business
contests, much more should we not be slothful in our business, fervent in
spirit, serving the Lord, fighting the good fight of faith, laying hold on
eternal life as a sure thing, not an uncertainty. The Apostle applies this
thought too, saying, “I keep my body under [its am-bitions, appetites,
desires], and bring it into subjection [to the new mind]: lest by any means
when I have preached to others I myself should be a castaway [re-jected from
being a member of the little flock].”-I Cor. 9:25-28.
The first essential in becoming a soldier of the cross is a proper
understanding of the only terms of enlistment-that it is not for an occasion,
nor for a year, but for life. Many err on this point, and after fight-ing
faithfully in a few skirmishes they seem to have the impression that they have
fulfilled the conditions of their enlistment, and drift into some other
service, some other kind of fighting, or into a slothful, indif-ferent ease in
the presence of the enemy and the evil against which they pledged themselves to
war a good warfare even unto death. Such occasionally get revived under the stimulus
of the Gospel or mental excitement, and for a time fight a little more, only to
relapse again into indifference and slothfulness. Some even plume themselves
upon these repeated reenlistments and purpose further reenlistments before they
die, not discerning that this is a wrong view of the situation-that no
volunteers are accepted save upon the terms of the Captain: “Be thou faithful
unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.” Such need to see that
participation in a few battles is not the condition of our call and enlistment,
and that the rewards-glory, honor and immortality-which the Lord has promised
to the faithful cannot be expected by those who do not fight the good fight
faithfully and continuously. We are not here discussing what portion will come
to those who are careless in respect to the terms of their enlist-ment. We are
not saying whether their portion will be in the “great company” or elsewhere;
but we are seeking to make clear that none can be counted wor-thy of a place in
the little flock, in the glory of the Kingdom, unless he shall have the proper
appreciation of his enlistment, and have been, at heart at least, thor-oughly
loyal to and active in the defense of the princi-ples for which his covenant
stands committed-the principles of righteousness at any cost, even unto death.
It will be found a great help to the weaknesses
of the fallen nature to have understandingly made a full consecration of the
will,-a full enlistment of every power and talent of mind and of body. He who takes
this proper view of his consecration to the Lord and enlistment in the Lord’s
army, realizes that he has nothing more to give to the Lord, and hence,
whatever struggle of the will he may have is all ended when he has finally
decided-“As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” The others,
who do not so rec-ognize the matter, have continually a battle with their wills
before they can engage in any measure in defense of the Truth. How important it is, therefore, that all the soldiers
realize that the term of the enlistment is until death, and that there is no
room for even consid-ering any suggestion to withdraw from the battle and cease
even for an hour to fight the good fight of faith.
The new recruits to the Lord’s army frequently have difficulty with
themselves because of the very different kind of fighting to which the Lord’s
soldiers are called. Used to fighting in the battle of life as members of the
fallen race, a battle for the Lord along the same lines is the natural
tendency-with carnal weapons, carnal objects, actions, methods, etc. Such,
however, are to heed the voice of the Captain, to fight only as he directs-for
righteousness instead of un-righteousness, for love and generosity, and against
self-ishness instead of for selfishness. They may not even take the
suggestions of certain moral reformers and begin a battle for pure politics nor
for total abstinence nor for social uplift-because the Captain’s com-mands have
not been along these lines. They may, nay they should, feel a deep sympathy
with all of these commendable efforts, and should smile rather than frown upon
them; but their time, their influence, their talents may not go in these
directions, however much their sympathy may go toward them, because they are
under the orders of the Captain. They are not fighting at their own charges
nor to accomplish their own wills; they are not the heads of the army, but the
subordinate members, and thus look for their directions to the Captain. He has
called them for a special purpose, and has given them particular instructions
respecting the same, and their every energy and talent, not absorbed in
procuring the necessities of life, must be considered as devoted and beyond
their control.
After enlistment each soldier should expect his share of the provided
armor-helmet, breastplate, sandals, shield and sword; and his first work must
be to put on this armor-to prepare himself. The armory from which these
articles can be obtained is the Word of God, which is so well stocked that
“The man of God may be thoroughly furnished unto every good word and work.”
(2 Tim. 3:17.) He who rushes into a fight without waiting to hear the
Captain’s command and without waiting to put on the armor provided, is certain
to meet with measurable defeat and a disaster more or less consequential.
Would that every soldier who enlists could realize the necessity for hearkening
to the Word of God, and appropriating to himself the armor of Truth which it
provides. The helmet, repre-senting the Truth, which would fortify the Lord’s
sol-diers intellectually by giving them a clear and intelli-gent appreciation
of his plan, is necessary; the breast-plate, which represents the knowledge of
righteousness and an appreciation of God’s provision for our covering in the
great redemptive sacrifice, is also essential as a covering for our hearts, for
our spiritual protection; the sandals, representing our expectation of trials
and dif-ficulties in the narrow way and our readiness to accept them all, with
the assurance that they would all work for our good, are indispensable; also
the shield of faith, which grows larger and larger in proportion as it is
handled and used, is very important; no soldier can possibly acquit himself
acceptably to the Captain except he have such a shield-without it he would be
exposed to the darts of the enemy. Notwithstanding his having on the whole
armor, the sword of the Spirit, the Word of God, sharper than any two-edged
sword, must not be forgotten. He who has not on part of the armor will be unable
to keep the foes of righteous-ness at a respectful distance; and this sword
becomes stronger and larger in the hands of the soldier as he grasps it firmly
at the hilt and uses it in his battles for the Lord and the Truth.
Many soldiers in the Lord’s army are surprised to learn that the Captain’s name
is the Prince of Peace, and that all the enlisted ones are expected to battle
for peace. The matter seems at first to be contradictory. Battling is
warfare, peace is the result; we are called to be soldiers and called to be
peacemakers. Many of the soldiers, without waiting to learn the rules and
commands of the Captain, without waiting to study the proper use of the sword
of the Spirit, spring cour-ageously into the fight and begin to wound their
neigh-bors, their friends, and sometimes their fellow soldiers in the Lord’s
army. This is a great mistake: this is an attempt to use the spiritual weapons
in a carnal manner and is contrary to the example and word of our Captain. All
such would do best to put up their swords again-to refrain from using the word
of God in a belligerent manner, in a smiting way against those with whom they
have to do. We must learn who is our foe, and not recklessly and blindly smite
down any and everything opposing us.
But some one inquires, Are we not to smite down error, and does not this
mean the smiting of those who uphold the error? We answer that those all about
us who are upholding error, and those who despitefully use us and persecute us
because we are on the Lord’s side, are blinded by ignorance, and it is not the
Lord’s intention that we should fight against them;-rather we would fight for
them to lift them out of their igno-rance and blindness, their superstition.
So the Lord expressed it when he said, “The Son of man came not to destroy
men’s lives,” but that they might have life, and that more abundantly. He has
not changed in the interim; he still has the same generous sentiment toward the
poor world that he had when he died, when he tasted death for every man. The
Apostle will instruct us who are our foes. He says, “We wrestle not against
flesh and blood, but with princi-palities and powers and wicked spirits in
exalted positions.”-Eph. 6:12.
Ah, then, our real opponents are the fallen angels, the demons; and our poor
fallen fellow creatures who oppose us and who oppose righteousness do so
because they are under the power of Satan, more or less blind-ed by his
sophistries and deceptions,-as it is written, “The god of this world hath
blinded the minds of them that believe not”-has deceived the whole world-(2Cor.
4:4; Rev. 20:2,3.) Our sentiment against all opposers of righteousness amongst
men should there-fore be that of benevolence and compassion, realizing that
they are under the Adversary’s power, though they know it not. And if we
suffer at their hands as soldiers of the cross, our sentiments should be,
“Fa-ther, forgive them; they know not what they do,”-“Lord, lay not this sin to
their charge.” As the Apostle Peter explained respecting those who crucified the
Lord Jesus, that in ignorance they did it, so we should regard that present
oppositions to righteousness and to those who are on the Lord’s side are
largely the results of ignorance and superstition, and of the blindness which
comes from the great deceiver against whom we are enlisted and seeking to fight
a good fight.
Our good fight of faith, as the Apostle
explains, consists in a considerable measure in our
defense of the Word of God, which includes also our defense of the character of
God. This is implied in the Apostle’s words, “Contend [fight earnestly]
for the faith once delivered unto the saints.” This
will mean our willingness to stand for the Truth at any cost and against any
number of assailants-against the creeds and theories of men, which would
misrepresent the good tidings of great joy which the Lord and the Apostles have
announced, and which shall, thank God, yet be unto all people. As the Apostle
again says, “I am set for the defense of the Truth.” We can do no less than
defend the Truth. The Truth is God’s representative, Christ’s representative,
and hence our standard, and as true soldiers we must defend our standard, even
unto death. Not every truth, however; for although we may feel in
sympathy with all truth yet we are enlisted under a Captain whose command
indicates that it is one special line of truth that we are to defend with our
lives-the truth of divine revela-tion-the divine message, the Gospel, the good
tidings of redemption through the precious blood, forgiveness of sins, and in
general the divine plan of salvation as set forth in the inspired Word. It
will be noticed that this measurably ignores truth on other lines, on
mathematics, on astronomy, geology, not to mention other sciences falsely so
called, respecting which the Lord has given us no revelation-respecting which,
therefore, his sword of Truth has never been sent offensively nor defensively.
It is for the “faith once delivered unto the saints,” and that only, that the
soldiers of the cross are to battle.
We have already noticed that the contesting is not to be with carnal weapons,
even when it is for the faith once delivered unto the saints; and by carnal
weapons we understand more to be meant than many at first surmise. Not merely
are swords, spears and guns car-nal weapons, but anger, malice, hatred, strife
and a general contesting and combative spirit are all carnal weapons; and
whenever these are used in defense of the Lord’s good cause they do it injury
instead of ben-efit, whatever the users may intend. It is important to
remember that all the soldiers fighting in this battle for the Truth win not by
injuring others, but by show-ing to others such noble examples of fidelity to
the principles of righteousness (truth) even unto death, as will commend to
them the Lord and his cause. Those who fight with anger and malice and strife,
who fight carnally, misrepresent the Captain, however un-intentionally, and do
injury to his cause. There are many of these fighters who are not warring a
good warfare, not fighting a good fight, and who will con-sequently fail of the
chief reward-the glory, honor, immortality and joint-heirship with the Lord in
the Kingdom.
It may be inquired, then, How can these soldiers expect to have any battle
if they abstain from carnal warfare either with their hands or their tongues,
speaking only that which is good, and endeavoring so much as lieth in them to
live peaceably with all men? How can such soldiers have any battle at all? Who
would contend with them? Surely, says one, it is not supposable that the world
would battle or in any wise injure or oppose those who seek only its good, its
wel-fare, its blessing, its peace. Nay but, we answer, the Master suffered for
his fidelity to the faith once de-livered, and forewarned us, saying, “Marvel
not if the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If ye
were of the world the world would love its own: but because ye are not of the
world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.”
“The world loveth darkness rather than light.” Guided by the Master’s words, we
look to see what constituted the world from his stand-point. We perceive that
he could not have meant that the enemies of the saints would be wholly nor
chiefly the hoodlum element of society, the thieves and thugs and murderers.
Not from these are we to expect the hatred and persecution which, the Lord
forewarned us, all true soldiers would experience from the world. When the
Master said that the world hated him, we perceive that it was not the heathen
or Gentile world, but the religious world as we might term it-the churchianity
of his day-the chief priests and scribes and Pharisees who took counsel against
him and who finally secured his execution. It was the same profes-sedly religious
world that through the dark ages per-secuted the light and the Truth even unto
death, and it is the same nominally religious world, deficient in the Spirit of
the Lord surely, and more or less blinded by the god of this world, which will
continue to be the persecuting power against the soldiers of the cross down to
the very close of this dispensation-until the last soldier of the cross shall
have proven faithful unto death and the elect company shall be finished.
Here we get the broad view that the heathen re-ligions are all of Satan, that
he has misled the heathen people into gross darkness, and that whatever measure
of superstition and darkness still clings to Christianity is so much the power
of Satan working in and through those who are nominally and professedly the
Lord’s people. The soldiers of the cross all down through this Gospel age,
following the example of the Captain and of his lieutenants, the apostles, have
held up the banner of the Truth, the light, not aggressively but de-fensively,
and have been considered faithful in propor-tion as they have endured hardness
with meekness and patience and long-suffering, brotherly kindness and love, not
rendering evil for evil, slander for slander, reviling for reviling, but, like
the Master, when revil-ed reviled not again, but blessed their enemies, and did
good to those who despitefully used them and persecuted them, praying for them
and hoping for them divine mercy in the future, to the opening of the eyes of
their understanding. So also we must expect it to be today.
Doubtless, in harmony with the Scriptural decla-ration, we may expect that
in the near future all the soldiers of the cross will be exposed to much more
severe attacks from the great Adversary and those whom he has blinded. The
attacks are to be so severe that, according to Scriptural declaration, a
thousand shall fall at our side to one who will stand-the merely nominal
soldiers will fall. Only the faithful, the over-coming ones, the very elect,
will be able to stand in that evil day, and they because they will have on the
whole armor of God provided for their protection. The Apostle mentions all
deceivableness of unright-eousness in the perishing ones as being one of the
characteristics of Satan’s manifestation in our time. We see some of
this deceivableness manifested in the many wonderful works, healings, etc.,
performed by Spiritualists, Mormons, Christian Scientists and
oth-ers-calculated to deceive if possible the very elect. But it will not be
possible to deceive this overcoming class, because the true soldier will take
careful heed to the instructions of the Captain and will have on the whole
armor of his Word for their defense and protec-tion from all the wiles of the
Adversary, who, now that his kingdom is tottering to its fall, is forced to
bolster it up by feigning works of mercy and goodness as a garment of
light.-Matt. 12:26; 2 Cor. 11:14.
Foregoing we have considered the outward bat-tlings of the Lord’s soldiers; let
us now notice the more secret drillings and battlings which come to each
individual soldier, to test his loyalty and to develop his character.
We have already noticed that the soldier is the New Creature and not the flesh,
that the enlistment was a surrender of the fleshly will and the acceptance of
the headship or captaincy of the Redeemer. From that moment of full surrender
to the Captain, enlist-ment under his orders and in the service of
righteous-ness, the New Creature has experienced a conflict with its mortal
body and its weaknesses, passions and ten-dencies for sin. The new will cannot
free itself from the fleshly body, and although the reward promised by the
Captain is a new body, perfect and in full har-mony with himself and with
righteousness, neverthe-less the new will is required to demonstrate its
loyalty to the Captain and to righteousness by its faithful combat with the
flesh-with the desires and propensi-ties of its own mortal body.
Here is the great and continual battle, for although
the new will asserts itself and puts the body under and compels its subjection
to the new mind, nevertheless the mortal body, not being actually dead, is
continu-ally coming into contact with the world and the Ad-versary and is
continually being stimulated by these and reinvigorated with earthly cares,
ambitions, meth-ods, strivings, conflicts and insubordination to our new will.
No saint is without experiences of this kind--fightings without and within. It
must be a fight to the finish or the great prize for which we fight will not be
gained. For although the New Creature mas-ters the mortal body by the Lord’s
grace and strength repeatedly, nevertheless until death there can be no
cessation of the conflict, for the “flesh lusteth [desireth, striveth]
against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the
one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.”-Gal. 5:17.
The Apostle urges that we do not seek for the cooperation of the flesh,
but rather anticipate in advance its opposition and proceed at once to mortify
[put to death] the flesh with its affections and its de-sires, assuring us that
as the death of the flesh will result in our begetting to the new nature, so
the death of the flesh actually will be a precedent to our attaining the birth
of the Spirit. The Apostle’s words along this line are comforting to us. He
says: “For which cause we faint not [in our battlings]; but though the outward
man perish, the inward man is renewed day by day [we become stronger in the
Lord and in the power of his might], for our light afflictions [trials, etc.,
which may include these battlings with our own flesh], which are but for a
moment [as compared with the eternity we hope to gain], work out for us a far
more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.”-2 Cor. 4:16-18.
It is because the Adversary works in the hearts of the children of
disobedience, and because the chil-dren of the light, the soldiers of the
cross, are in con-tact in the flesh with the children of this world, that thus
the Adversary is able to work powerfully against them and repeatedly to
resuscitate their flesh, so that all need to follow the Apostle’s course as
expressed in his words, “I keep my body under”-the thought being that there is a tendency for the body, the flesh, to arise from
its condition of reckoned deadness, and that hence the new nature needs to be
continually on the alert to maintain its ascendancy, to fight the good fight of
faith and to gain the prize as an overcomer. These battlings of the new mind
against the flesh are a good fight in the sense that they are fightings against
sin and weaknesses that belong to the fallen nature. They are a fight of faith
in the sense that the entire course of the New Creature is a course of faith as
the Apostle says, “We walk by faith and not by sight.” The New Creature
has faith in the Word of God, in the promises therein contained, and with the
eye of faith sees the heavenly city and the crown of righteousness which the
Lord has in reservation for the overcomers, joint-heirship with the Redeemer.
It is a fight of faith in the sense that no one could keep up this battle
against his own flesh and its propensities and desires, and come off conqueror,
except as he can exercise faith in the promises and in the Lord as his helper.
Considering particularly what some of these battles of the new nature are,
we suggest that many of them pertain to the weaknesses of the flesh through
hered-ity-sin working in our mortal bodies and seeking to bring us more and
more into captivity and to separate us from the Lord and the righteousness
which he in every way represents. In proportion as the Lord’s people receive
the new mind, the gross sins of the flesh become distasteful to them-for
instance, robbery, dis-honesty, murder, filthy communications, etc., and when
these are put away unquestionably a large victory has been gained-a great
advance over what was in some hearts when first they heard the voice of
the Lord. But the spirit of murder and the spirit of dishonesty often lurk in
the hearts of those who have become thoroughly the Lord’s people, and
these dispositions hide themselves, cloak themselves in such a manner that they
frequently deceive the new will, which indeed needs to be educated up to an
appreciation of princi-ples.
It is an advance lesson in the school of Christ that gives us to understand
that he that hateth his brother is a murderer, and hence that those who enlist
as sol-diers of the cross are not only to hate murder but are to hate the
murder spirit and to cast it out entirely, so that they would have nothing but
love in their hearts for any, even their enemies. Only the more advanced and
better drilled of the soldiers of the Lord see clear-ly and distinctly the
meaning of the Apostle’s words when he denominates anger, malice, hatred,
strife, en-vyings and evil speakings to be all works of the flesh and of the
devil.
As soon as this is perceived, the true soldier starts a campaign against these
well-intrenched evils and weaknesses of his own fallen flesh, and he needs to
keep continually before his mind the thought that perfect love must rule in the
hearts of all who in the end will be esteemed of the Lord overcomers, worthy of
a share with him in the Kingdom. He must see that perfect love worketh no ill
to his neighbor (Rom. 13:10); he must see that evil speaking comes from evil
thinking, because “out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh;”
consequently he must see that there is an evil condition still entrenched which
needs eradication, and only in the name and with the assist-ance of the Lord can
he hope to conquer fully and completely all such evil heart conditions. True,
the Lord reckoned us pure in heart from the moment we made full consecration to
him, and his mercy covers all the blemishes that were in us, ignorantly and
un-willingly, and thus he receives us into his school, into his army-but
receiving us meant our education, our instruction, our drill. As the
instruction progresses, the obedience must also have made progress, else we
will not have been considered in the Lord’s sight as pure in heart, pure in
intention. Evidently it is the divine purpose that all in this school of the
Lord shall ultimately come to the place where their hearts will approve nothing
but that which is approved of the Lord-noble, pure, good-however perfectly or imperfectly
they may be able to express all this in their mortal flesh.
If once the soldiers of the cross could get the
proper thought that slander and evil speaking are as-sassinations of the
character of another, and that defa-mation is the robbery of another’s good
name, the sooner they will see this matter in its truly awful light as it must
appear in the Lord’s sight, and once seeing the matter from this true, divine
standpoint must awaken the new creature to the greatest activity possible in
the overcoming of such works of the flesh and of the devil. Each will seek to purge
out the old leaven of malice and envy and strife and crookedness and
evil speaking, that he may be pure in heart, a copy of the Lord.
The Scriptural declaration is “Speak evil of no man,” and all who can
see the matter in its true light as above set forth will feel a zeal for God
and for right-eousness that will burn against all such iniquity wher-ever it
may be found, especially in his own flesh.
But if it be reprehensible to speak evil of any per-son, if that be contrary to
the spirit of love, the Spirit of the Lord, how much more evil in the Lord’s
sight must it be if any of the Lord’s brethren should speak evil of one
another-speak evil of a member of the Lord’s body! How terrible is the thought,
how surely an evil-doer would lose the Captain’s favor and ulti-mately be cut
off from all relationship with him and with the body. The Lord refers to such,
saying, “Thou givest thy mouth to evil, and thy tongue fram-eth deceit. Thou
sittest and speakest against thy brother; thou slanderest thine own mother’s
son [all of the house of sons, brethren of Christ, are figura-tively
represented as being the children of the Sarah covenant, the Abrahamic
covenant.] These things thou hast done, and I have not kept silence; Thou
thoughtest I was altogether such an one as thyself: but I will reprove
thee.”-Psa. 50:19-22.
Many have the thought that the evil speaking which the Scriptures forbid
refers to false witness; but not so. The Lord certainly does not expect any of
his people to have any sympathy with lies. If we might speak of sin in a
cumulative way, we might say that to speak evil is a sin, and that if the
matter were untrue it would be doubly sinful in the Lord’s sight. The
principle which underlies the matter should be clearly discerned by all of the
Lord’s people. It is this: The law of the New Creation is love, and who-ever
loves another would not only not lie to his injury, but would not even speak to
his injury if the thing were the truth. Whoever, therefore, finds in his
heart, in his own disposition, a love to tell about others some-thing that is
to their detriment, to their discredit or injury, should see that he is
proportionately deficient in the spirit of love, in the Spirit of the Lord.
Love worketh no ill to his neighbor, justly or unjust-ly; it is ready to
believe all that is good, and anxious to disbelieve and avoid mentioning
anything that is discreditable. Only duty would move it to speak at all of
that which is to the discredit of another, and then it would be spoken only in
such a manner as the Scriptures and the spirit of love would approve to those
who ought to know, and with a view to the assistance of the wrong-doer.
Let us then as New Creatures be encouraged with every better understanding of
the Captain’s word and will respecting us, full of confidence in his wisdom and
in his grace-that he is willing and able to bring us off conquerors in the full
sense if we are obedient to him. Let us strive that we may be able to say with
the Apostle at the close of our experiences, “I have fought the 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.”-2 Tim. 4:7,8.