Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1885-09-11
NOT THE TRUE REASON.

The Imperfections of Christians Used as .
Pretext Ivy Men Whose Wills Are Set
Against God.
A favoritc theme of the scoffer, and a
stone of stumbling to the earnest-mind-
ed unbeliever, is the imperfections of
Christians. Glaring as those imperfec-
tions often are in the lives of those who
are on the whole honest in endeavor to
follow Christ, they are outshone by the
vices of those who make no ~pretense
OF living a religious life. Is not the lat
ter fact worthy Of ~atteneion as well as
the former? There is certain signifi-
canoe in the fact-if it be a fact-that
Christian people as a whole are better
men and women than those who live for
themselves and profess to do no more.
That this is the fact no candid man has
ever questioned.
1t is worthy of note, also, as a COM
panion tact. that nobody has ever
charged that Christianity has made the
world worse than it was before Christ
came. No man was W depraved by
attempting to lead a Christian life. He
may not be made especially better. or
he may not be made so much better as
other people think he ought to become,
but he is certainly not made worse. A
Christian profession encourages the
growth of no vices; it affords no excuse
for selfish indulgence or for dishonest
conduct: it offers no opiates to relieve
the stings Of outraged conscience; it
does not "debase the moral currency"
by clothingsin in the garb of virtue, by
speech or act. In short. so far as it has
Influence at all, a Christian profession
braces a man moral nature, makes his
conscience more tender, e]evates his
standard of duty, aud makes of him in
every way a better man.
Ii q religious life never harms but al
ways helps a man, if Christianity
blesses not b]ights wherever it goes. the
man who points to the imperfections
and Inconsistencies of Christians as his
reason for not entering the service of
Christ conyicts himself of the very sin
he reprobatcs in others-insinceritv.
For nothing a be palmer than the
fact that he is not giving his true reason
for refusal. He is bound to admit-he
always will admit, when pressed-that
there are genuine Christians, and that a
genuine religious life is a noble thing.
That others are not living that life is a
%]amentable fact. but it has no bearing
whatever on his w duty. You adj
NIT that genuine religion is good; very
we'll, why not be genuinely reTgious?''
you say 10 him. And his reply is: ..Be-
cause Smith and Jones are hypo-
critics"
The absurdity and ~irrelevance of his
reason are evident-as evident to
himself. n must think, as to
anybody. So transparent a sub
tcrfuge can not long impose upon
any one, even on him who uses it to de-
eeive himself. The man must wake ND
to the factin brief time that his answer
is not an honest one. His admission
that genuine religion is admirable
leaves him no escape from the duty to
become himself an example of that ad-
mlrable thing-no escape, that is to
say, but a simple refusal to do what he
acknowledges to be his duty. All! there
we have it, at last, the true reason why
men will not be Christians. Their re.i-
son is the essence of unreason: q stub-
born refusal, grounded on nothing of
which they can give ccount to them
selves or to, others. Their ..why not''
is a will not, nothing more. They do
not decline to follow Christ because of
the lmperfections of Christians, but be-
cause OF a settled unwillingness to sub
NIT themselves to a Master. Their wills
are set against God. They ID is of
whom the Apostle wrote: The light is
come into the world, and men loved the
darkness rather than the lightly. y.
Examiner.