It is the argument of those who say, "Well, I cannot imagine Christ carrying a rifle or operating a bomb-ug aeroplane, and that is enough for I need not say that I have the deepest sympathy with the spirit of this plea. In the light of all the facts, however, regarding the authority of Christ's example and our present duty, that plea is not final. Perhaps could best explain my point of view by an illustration. People who desire to cultivate tracts of low-lying land at is liable to be swept at times high tides, find it necessary first of all to build a sea-dyke.
That elemental protection they must have before they can get on with he pleasanter tasks of building nomes and tilling the soil. The build-ug of the sea-dyke will not be their highest duty. but it will be their st The arts of civilization, and the refinements and joys of Christian life imply cannot exist on that sea-swept land until that first task is complete.
It has pleased God, in His wisdom, o set before the world in Christ Jesus an example of perfect love, lived in the setting of a quiet and simple environment amid _highw and byways of Galilee, an environment which in His day was secure behind the high, strong ramparts of Roman law and Roman power. He Himself, had no responsibility, and felt no responsibility either for the erection of that rampart of national security, or for its maintenance.
The responsibilities and duties, in the quiet and loving discharge of which He revealed the love of God, re far other, and, in a sense, far finer and purer than the immense and formidable responsibilities of building a dyke of Roman law for Roman lands against the seas of disorder and chaos. But someone had to build and maintain that dyke. Without it, humanly speaking, the Galilean mi istry could not have been, In a sinful and imperfect world similar ramparts have to be built and maintained in every age and in every clime by someone; without them the quiet and happy tasks of ordered Christian life would be impossible. And since the earth is the Lord's, and since all the conditions end responsibilities of an ordered moral society have been ordained by Him, it is plain to me that the rough, harsh work of erecting and maintaining the dykes can be undertaken in the fear and love of God. I can believe that, even though that work might involve the carrying of a rifle, or even the operating of a bombing aeroplane against aggressors who would destroy the dyke.
We are right, in our everyday lives, in keeping the images of the historic Christ where God Himself put them, in the environment of a quiet and ordered life, where men and women in security can buy and sell, sow and reap, love, marry, raise up children, and be gathered to their fathers, conscious throughout of the power of God as their aid, and the will of God as their law. It is at times necessary, however, to remember that these pictures are foreshortened. The sheltering ramparts do not always appear. In a sinful world, however, they are essential to Efe.
The ultimate question is not, "What did Christ do?" but, "What would He have us do in order that His Kingdom of righteousness, joy and peace may exist in this world?"
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.