THE Church, in the language of Scripture, is Christ’s Bride, the Lamb’s Wife. She occupies the closest and most intimate of all relationships that it is possible for finite beings to enjoy with her Lord. He purchased her with a great price and fitted her to occupy the glorious position which she shall be privileged to enjoy for ever. Fidelity and loyalty to her Lord at all times and in all circumstances, are not only duties, but honoured privileges in view of all He did for her. She is to live with all the chastity of a virgin, ignoring and rejecting the seductive offers of the World. And it is in proportion to the faithfulness with which the professing Church of Christ in the world lives up to the standard set before the Church of the living God in the Scriptures that it may expect His blessing, and be acknowledged by Him as His Witness in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation. The tendency of the professing Church to fall away from its integrity is traceable to the fact that in the hearts of the best of God’s people there is a great deal to which the World can appeal with tremendous effect. It is not so much the amount one may possess of the world that is to be dreaded (though that may become a snare) as the place that the world has in the heart. One may have very little of the possessions of the world and yet the heart be full of it. When the Scripture speaks of the World it clearly indicates that it is that order of things which is in direct antagonism to Christ and His kingdom. It is a kingdom with another ruler—the god of this world—ruling and governing it. With the cunning and subtlety of the serpent Satan has cast his spell over the minds of men. And though Christ in His death broke the magic of that spell for all that believe in His name, that did not lessen the activities of Satan to lead the freed men of Christ into bondage again. Hence the many devices adopted by him to make men believe that it is quite legitimate to make compromise between two orders of things that are eternally different.
When the professing Church is true to her Lord she turns a deaf ear to the logic and arguments of the god of this world. But when her love is like the ebbing tide, it is then Satan finds her an easy prey. If she is to be a power in the world he argues there must be a lowering of her high standard of profession and, in order to drive home his argument under the cloak of religion, he suggests to men in the Church that this is a very reasonable proposition. By its acceptance, he suggests, the Church will do more good in the world. The narrow outlook of the Church, as he terms it, is detrimental to her progress, and there must be a broader outlook and a forward movement from the old positions so that the carnal appetites of men and women may get a little more satisfaction. The Scriptural order of things is far too rigid; when people meet together allowance should be made for the fact that they are not all saints and the worship of God’s house should be regulated to suit this condition of things. This surely, he argues, is a reasonable suggestion, and if the Church has forgotten that the true worship of God as set before us in Scripture nowhere hints that it is set up to please men but to please God then she falls from her integrity, and Satan has gained a victory. He suggests that by coming down from her high position to meet the World she will raise the World and thus do more good than occupying a position of cold aloofness from its pleasures and joys. This is an argument that has swept thousands off their feet with the result that hundreds of professing Churches throughout the land have set up all manner of attractions to keep a hold of the young. These began with social gatherings, and, if a few protested against such seemingly harmless things Satan had two or three supplied with the crushing argument: What harm is there in a cup of tea? Christians meet together in the home, and what harm is there in social gatherings in the Church?” And the simple-minded are immediately disarmed. But the discerning meet this argument by saying: “It is not in the cup of tea the harm is, but in the motive that made the social meeting a possibility.” Having discovered the usefulness of this argument, Satan enters it as one of the main propositions of his system of logic. What harm is there in sales of work, bazaars? And having broken down opposition here he asks again: “What harm is there in a game of cards, or for that matter of it, dancing and boxing?” So it has come about that Churches have their whist drives and opportunities are provided for the young to indulge in dancing and boxing.
A more subtle method adopted by the god of this world is to suggest that the worship of God should be regulated to meet the tastes not merely of God’s people, but of carnal men and women who have no more religion than the stones of the street. Provision should be made, he suggests, by making the services as attractive as possible. Fine music, he argues, has a very uplifting effect and calls forth the devotional spirit, whatever that means. The result is that the organ makers become
busy and Satan has gained another victory, and the Church’s power is weakened.
Where he has failed in his efforts to seduce he adopts another method to break down any opposition that is offered to him. He pours contempt upon any cause that stands out against him. He says to men, there is no use of paying any heed to those people, as they have none of the influential men of the country on their side, and then they are but a few. Surely, he argues, the whole country can’t be wrong and these two or three right. “That is splendid logic,” says the World, “and the sooner we despise these people the better.” All the while it is forgotten that the rule of God’s kingdom is not how many support a cause, but whether they have the truth or not. When Satan has driven home the above argument he then pours the poison of prejudice into the minds of those whom he has influenced. And we have known people in so-called Christian Scotland who would sooner attend every place of amusement Satan ever devised than that they should cross the threshold of a building in which the pure truth of God was declared. The Church of Christ, if she is to be true to her Lord, must listen to what He says and admit nothing into her worship or practice but what He has commanded.