Living a Christian Life.
Zion's Advocate, Vol. 42, No. 2, February 1903, Part 3.
"If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me." Matt. 16: 24.
In baptism the child of God takes on himself the holy garb of christian service. He rises from the watery grave to walk in newness of life. What a beautiful garment this is, and how lovely is the walk! The most delightful scene ever witnessed by mortal eyes - eyes that have been opened by the anointing salve of grace - is that of the humble child of God, adorned with the becoming robe of a christian profession, walking in the new life of devotion to the cause he has thus professed.The willing one, who has denied himself and taken up his cross, is required to follow Jesus. Hundreds will read this who profess to be on the way thus marked out. Think, dear readers, oh, think of him whom you are to follow. If you will carefully study the way he went, and observe the way the world is going, you will have a two-fold guide. Do as little like the world as possible, and as near like Jesus as you can. Many are young in natural life, and young in this godly walk. Dear children, our very heart goes out in love to you. You have hardly learned to walk. Well do we remember the time we started on this journey of service as a follower of Jesus. How happy we felt the next morning on our way to school! With a heart swelling with love to God and his people, and overflowing with praises to his sweet, blessed name, we sang as we never had before,
Jesus, I my cross have taken,
All to leave and follow Thee.
How glad we were to leave all to be his follower! How much better it was to follow him than to follow the world! A cross it was, sure enough, but on taking it up it became a light yoke, and we found a rest that was so sweet to our weary soul. As our young voice sang,
Naked, poor, despised, forsaken,
we felt that the line applied specially to us, but
Thou from hence my all shalt be,
made up the loss to us a million times. We were then only sixteen, but a burning thirst for knowledge raged within us that was rather unusual at that age. Our ambition was great, and we had hoped and sought and known what were only air-castles, but what appeared possibilities to us and almost certain realities. We can never express the joy we experienced as the words flowed out upon the chilly breeze of the early morning:
Perish every fond ambition,
All I've hoped or sought or known,
Yet how rich is my condition,
God and heaven are all my own.
It seems a pity that the buoyancy of this heavenly life should ever be hampered with a despisable, carnal nature. How little we then knew of the pitfalls which satan would set for us! Dear young pilgrims, beware of the enticements of the evil one. He will try to persuade you to believe that this little path and that little path leads not far from the way that Jesus went, and that as you are young you should not deny yourselves of the amusements that belong to those of your age. The degrading, disgraceful ball-room (which is a shame and disgrace even to non- professors of religion) is too far away for you, but a little shuffling of the feet to a foolish ditty can not lead much aside. Look out! Satan chuckles to see you step there, and the amused world is saying, "That young christian has forgotten his religion." Give the devil no such advantage of you. Show him no quarter, allow him to lead no step of yours.
To get beastly drunk with intoxicating drinks is too low for you to stoop. Satan knows this, but he whispers to you that just one drink with your "friends" will do no harm. Stop! Step not in that entangled pathway. We are rather opposed to "toddy drinking" in our families, and we are not ashamed for the world to know it or "christians" either. Some say they can use "it" right, that they can either take "it" or let "it" alone. Better let "it" alone, then. That is really the only way to use "it" right. "Hear thou, my son, and be wise, and guide thine heart in the right way. Be not among winebibbers, among riotous eaters of flesh. For the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty, and drowsiness shall clothe a man with rags." Proverbs 23: 19, 20, 21.
Have you living parents? If you are ever left here without them, it will be well for you if no unkind word spoken to them haunts your bleeding heart. Be kind to them, and listen to their advice, for they need your kindness in their declining days, and it is due them in return for their kindness to you; and they are wiser than you, for they have learned many things by experience and observation that you have not yet learned. It is good and acceptable before God that children shew piety at home and requite their parents. I. Timothy 5:4. "Children, obey your parents in all things, for this is well pleasing unto the Lord." Col. 3:20. "Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right." Ephesians 6:1. "Hearken unto thy father that begat thee, and despise not thy mother when she is old." - Proverbs 23:22. Heed this golden advice and you will never regret it.
The christian pilgrimage is through a sinful world that despised the Holy One who marked out the way by his own walk, and those who journey this way are as much despised. Jesus says, "If ye were of the world, the world would love his own; but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you." John 15:19. To follow the world, then, is to follow our enemy. Can we expect favors of those who hate us? Will they prove agreeable companions? Never. Let us live as far from the world as possible, and as near to Jesus and his true followers as we can. One of the many objections we have to God's people belonging to secret societies is, that it brings them in very close touch with the sinful world and binds them up with the ungodly in a way that is a disgrace to the name of religion. If this were all the objections that could be urged against such ungodly institutions it would be enough to keep a child of God out who wants to live separate from the world. Of course Satan will whisper, What harm can there be in joining a charitable (?) institution for the good (?) of mankind? Charitable! What a charming word that is! Who cannot see the false glitter? To be sure, "religion" is mixed into the secret workings and public displays of these worldly institutions, but this renders the mockery all the more palpable. To see a band of "brothers," some of whom are the worst men in the community, reciting in trained concert their parrot recitations of pretended religious ceremonies, at the laying of a "corner-stone," or at the burial of the dead, is utterly disgusting, even if there are no professors of religion among the "brotherhood." Such is very far from following Jesus. Let all who would follow the Lowly One stand entirely aloof from the societies of the world. If you follow Jesus you will have no time to follow the world - no time at all.
Following the world and following Jesus are opposite courses. You can no more do both at the same time than you can travel in opposite directions at the same time. "Whosoever will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God." James 4:4. Oh, dear brethren and sisters, let us think about this! The world, with all its societies, with all its unscriptural doctrines and practices and pharisaical worship, stands opposed to God and his cause. If we are friends to one, we are enemies to the other. Where are we disposed to let our friendship rest? Under whose banner do we want to march? Righteousness has no fellowship with unrighteousness; light has no communion with darkness; Christ has no concord with Belial; the believer has no part with an infidel; the temple of God has no agreement with idols. Come out entirely from them, then, and be completely separate. God your Father will then receive you as his own valiant, faithful, obedient sons and daughters, and will be a Father unto you indeed. Oh! Dear readers, let us forsake all others for him.
J. R. D.
Copyright c. 2005. All rights reserved. The Primitive Baptist Library.
