The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-03-13

For even as we have many members in one body
being many are one body in Christ and severally
members one of another.
But having gifts differing according to the grace
that Is given to US, whether prophecy, let rs
prophesy according to the proportion of our faith;
or service. let US give ourselves to our serving;
or he that teacheth, to his teaching; or he that
exhorteth, to his exhortation. He that giveth,
let him do II with singleness of heart; he that
ungrudgingly. Let love be without false pretense.
Abhor the evil. cleave to the good In love of
the brethren be kindly affectioned one with an
other, IN honor preferring one another; in dill
gence not si0Shful; in spirit, feryent, serving
trioulatiOn; continuing steadfastly; eommun1cat-
ing to the necessities of the saints; pursuing
hospitality Bless them which prosecute you;
bless and curse not. Rejoice with them that re-
joice and weep with them that weep. BE of the
same mind one toward another. Mind not high
things but be led away by the things that are
lowly. Ee not wise in your own conceits. Give
back to no one evil in return for evil. Take heed
beforehand that your conduct be honorable in the
sight OF all men Ii 1t be possible, as much as IN
you lieth live peaceaby with all men. Dearly
beloved do not seek to vindieate yourselves, but
yield to the wrath of your enemies. For 1t is
written: "Vindication is mine; will requite,
saith the Lord" Wherefore, II thine enemy
for in so doing thou shalt heap Goals of fire on
ms mead. BE not overcome by evil, but over
come evil by good.
THE CITIZEN AND THE STATE.
I'm the next chapter Paul takes up the
relation of the citizen to the state Of which
no 10 d AlSilUSI, Out II IS the ISlcilAOA1, SOO
remember, Of the Christian citizen; that is,
1t is the relation of the man who has got
new and divine life in his heart. How is
he to look toward, how is he to consider,
government? You must remember at this
time the government of Rome as have de-
scribed it already, as bad as government on
earth has been or ever could be, absolutely
despotic, intolerable, cruel, monstrously cor
t. Nhricf oiff
zen living under this government? How
shall he regard it? Paul replies: Let every
soul subject himself unto the higher pow
ers, for there is no power but from God.
Those that be are ordained of God. So that
he who arrays himself against the power
arrays himself against the ordinance of
which is difficult If not impossible, to rep
resent in the English. The word ordinance
and the words arrays himself are different
forms of the same Greek word. Perhaps a
little suggestion of that circumstance might
be indicated by the following not altogether
felicitious translation: THE powers that be
are placed Of God; whosoever therefore dis
God
Remember, we are, trying to find out
what Paul teaches and how that teaching
is to be applied in our own time. We are
to remember that when Paul wrote this he
was living and the Christians to whom he
addressed it were living in the capital of the
Roman empire, under the worst government
perhaps the sun has ever shone upon, and
WHAT he says IS, w no arrays nlLlSNll dSeLll
the power arrays himself against the ordi-
nance of God. Does Paul then declare that
there is no higher law than human law?
When Seward said there is higher law
and he was laughed to scorn for IT., were
they who laughed at him right and was
Seward wrong? Was Daniel wrong when
reared on Chaldean plains? Were the
apostles wrong when they were told not to
preach the gospel any longer and they said
Judge you whether wo shall do right or
wrong?' Were the Abolitionists wrong when
they said, We will give succor and refuge
to the fugitive slave seeking his freedom?
No, Paul does not say that you are always
to obey all the powers: he Ways that you
are to be subject under the powers, and that
ject unto the the powers when he allowed
himself to be cast into the lions den. The
apostles were subject unto the powers when
they were brought before the court and an
swered the accusation. Jesus Christ was
subject unto the powers when he stood be-
fore the court of Caiaphas and Plate UNI
complaining and unresisting. Does Paul
say that there is to be no overturning of
government. that there are to be no revolu-
tionS, that no matter how bad government
is, it is to be still submitted to and endured?
Does he stigmatize wrong the attempted
overthrow of Bourbon deSpotiSm in Europe!
Does he stigmatiZe as undivine and wicked
the revolution by which Cromwell dethroned
the Stewards and by which Washington and
his compatriots drove from these shores the
British scepter and the British crown? No,
he does not do that; for to change a gov
eminent is not to array ones self against
all government: revolutionize a government
is not of itself to destroy government.
FAMILY, CHURCH AND STATE.
''Let us try to make this clear. There are
three divine institutions the family, the
church and the state. And, according to
Paul, they are equally divine. The family
is divine; the church is divine; and the
state or the political order or organization,
is divine. But it was not undivine for men
L. ~, no Of Do
was badly founded and badly ordered 1t
was not undivine to say, we will try and
revolutionize the family, and instead of hav-
ing marriage a co-partnership we will en-
deavor to bring back that notion of mar
riage which is involved in the VOW for
richer. for poorer, for better, for worse, till
death US do part They revolutionized the
family, but they recognized the sanctlty
and sacredness of it. The church is divine.
And Luther did rot set himself against the
church, but he set himself to purify the
church by revolutioniZing the church, and
by revolutionizing the church make q new
and better church. He did not deny the di-
vinenesS of the church, he sought to drive
out the corruption from 1t and make 1t
church that should be truly divine SO
eminent, nor Washington and Hamilton the
divinity of government. They ala not seek
to abolish government; they did not seek 20
substitute laWleSSness for law; they sought
to make a good government in place or
bad one, a righteous government in place or
an evil one. What Paul says is this: Gov
eminent is divine ordinance. 1t does not
depend on compact Which men have entered
into with one another, and 1T does not de-
pend upon the force Of bayonets or OF arms;
it is a part of the divine plan that men
should live in family, that men should live
in the church, and that men should i've IN
the state or political organism: What PAU
condemns is the spirit of lawlessness that
would set all government at defiance and
abolish it. He condemns the spirit of philos-
ophic anarchism which says there ought TO
be no government as it is represented, Tor
instance, by such writer as Prince hra-
potkin. He sets himself against the nouon
that government is a necessary evil ana the
least government the better, as 1t was rep
resented to some extent by JEFFERSON, ana
still more radically by Thomas Paine. he
sets himself against the notion that govern
ment is an organism framed by a partner
ship by which men surrender their unerty
and their rights-the Rousseau doctrine
and he maintains this: that government is
divine decree, divine order, part CT the
divine order of the world.
but he sets himself not less against the
spirit of lawlessness, of which we have
seen too much in this country. only last
week we read in our papers that norrlble
tragedy in South Carolina; man, his wife,
his children, the babe in. arms shot to death
because he dared accept position as post
master under the national government in
a community that did not want q colored
postmaster. That is the South. we also
read in our papers how after one eHort
after another made by brave and loyal
governor in Indiana to bring the rlngleaders
of a great mob to justice, one OF them was
4 H-Ar