Britain as a nation has been raised up to heaven with privileges and blessings. When the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ returned to our land in Reformation times it proved a turning point in the nation’s history. The fruit of the gospel was seen in every department of the nation’s life. For several centuries our nation was raised to a high place among the nations of the world. God was acknowledged in the land throughout much of this time, apart from seasons of relapses, and God was pleased to give the nation His blessing.
When a nation or an individual departs from God it is a solemn matter, but more so in the case of a nation. An individual’s departing from God affects only a few; a nation’s departing from God affects multitudes. This has been the case with our nation. In the last century the people of the land began to turn their back on the Bible, which is the Word of God. As the spiritual plight of the nation increased, so did her moral state decrease. The result has been a national decline from former moral standards so that the nation has become morally debased by outbreaks of evil of every kind on every hand.
The standard by which a nation’s morality ought to be judged — the standard of the inspired and infallible Word of the Living God is no longer acceptable to a nation wise in its own eyes but not cleansed from its filthiness. The true standard by which actions might be weighed has been set aside and replaced by man’s own standard. This standard, as we might expect, is like man himself — a very low one. What is acceptable to the majority of people, or what people may be willing to tolerate — that is now the standard. What a fallible standard this is! On what a slippery slope are people or a nation when public opinion is to determine what is right and what is wrong.
When a nation departs from God — that is solemn! When a nation begins to forget God — that is solemn! When a nation turns its back on God — that is solemn! When God is no longer even in the thoughts of the leaders of the nation, and His Name no longer upon their lips — that is solemn. Yet there is something more solemn still — that is, when God departs from a nation and leaves it to its own will. Into what depths will it not plunge itself then? What evils and abominations will it not tolerate and even sanction them? It is then that it will call evil good, and good evil; put darkness for light, and light for darkness; put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter. This is the road along which our nation has been travelling — a path that leads it further and further from God and into accepting all manner of false religions, while the religion of the One Living and True God, the religion of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, is cast aside as a thing of nought and His Name every day blasphemed.
One area in the national outlook and belief that has tragically suffered through this decline is that of the sanctity of human life. The protection of human life from conception until death was safely guarded, and was regarded by all, except the most abandoned, as sacrosanct. The preservations of the life of the unborn child, as well as the life of each individual from birth to the grave was hedged about with safeguarding sanctions. To take away life unjustly was regarded as a crime of most serious dimensions. The tenet of a life for a life was no empty threat but was brought to bear upon the party guilty of deliberate premeditated murder. The Scriptural enactment: “Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man” was the sanction imposed for such a crime. But when the nation departed from the fear of God, leaders arose that were wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight. To them the standards of the divine law were of no account. To them the principle of retribution for evil was a hateful concept, and the practice of rehabilitation must take its place. The avenging of the blood of the slain was to such thinkers a relic of Old Testament times. The adoption by our nation of their unscriptural creed and practice has left the blood of multitudes at the door of the nation. Let us mark well that it is not the blood of the innocent that is the burden of those who have adopted this false creed but the blood of the guilty. It is a small step from this to the slaying of the innocent in the womb and the slaying of the unwanted aged in their beds. A nation that will not tolerate the execution of the murderer will stand silently by as the lives of millions are terminated in the womb and as the process of the slaying of the aged gets underway.
However it is not how man regards these matters which ought to concern us most but how God regards it. Is it with a benevolent and approving attitude that the God of heaven looks upon these evils, perpetrated and approved by a nation that has forgotten God?
Surely not! He has left on record in His holy Word what His mind is towards such a nation and people. “Shall I not visit for these things? saith the Lord: shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?” The situation of our nation, therefore, is perilous at the present time. What a call there is to repentance lest His judgments break forth upon us. His exhortation to us in His own Word is: “Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little.”