Jasper County Democrat, Volume 19, Number 65, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 November 1916 — THE POWER OF THE WILL—SELF-CONTROL [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

THE POWER OF THE WILL—SELF-CONTROL

Th» Evils of Intomprinc*—Restraint Liberty For the Sake of Others—A Word of Warning fa Regard to Proper interpretation of Scripture—Faith vs. Condemnation Application of Royal Law of Love., *'/* U pood not to eat fletk, nor to iilel •Pine, nor to do anything tckerrbg thy hinhi etumbleth.’'—Terse 11. CERTAINLY no one claiming benevolence .of heart and soundness of judgment could ; possibly advocate or encourage intemperance, realizing that it is a fruitful source of crime, depravity, immorality, etc. We note with pleasure the spread of local option and of total prohibition in these United States and elsewhere not that such restraints are the highest ideals of liberty, but that those who love true liberty are willing to share the bondage of restraint for the sake of those to whom full liberty is injurious. Esther climatic variations or else financial and social changes account for the fact that in the days of our Xnrd and the Apostles there was less tendency to drunkenness than there is now; and probably for this reason the

Scriptures have less to say respecting this vice, which is one of the chlefest evils of our day. But no amount of interest in the temperance question should permit us to read into God's Word that which was not intended by its inspired writers, al-

though we may properly enough draw conclusions. First of -all, we most take the lesson provided for ns as we find it Today’s Study 1s a part of the Apostle's discussion of law and liberty, custom and conscience, on questions prominent at the time of writing. With his accustomed vigor St. Paul is marking out the path of proper Christian conduct, in harmony with the second great Commandment of the Divine Law—“ Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” Those who during the Gospel Age make a full surrender of their wills to the Lord and receive in return begetting of the Holy Spirit are Script urally termed New Creatures in Christ. (2 Corinthians 5:17.) Their wills are subjected to the Divine wilL The lessons of God's Word and all of life’s experiences under Divine provision are promised to work for their good—to strengthen their wills if too weak, to make their wills properly pliable if too rigid, and eventually to make of them the most that is possible in the present life and to prepare them for the life to come.

Such are addressed by St Paul in today’s Study. They are exhorted not to judge the brethren in the sense of condemning them, but rather to judge themselves, criticize themselves, thus to make of themselves shining examples for others to copy. Sooner or later all must give an account to the Lord. Therefore our judging of others is unnecessary. Hence if in the past we have judged, criticized, others, we should avoid so doing in the future and should criticize .only ourselves—our words, our deeds, our thoughts. Faith vs. Condemnation, The ceremonial cleanness or uncleanness of food is nothing to the Christian, who is free from all but the Law of Love. But this Divine Law controls, and forbids us to stumble or even to grieve a brother less well-informed than ourselves. How could one controlled by love either eat, drink or speak in a manner that would injure another? It is good to have liberty; but let us use it so as not to injure those less advanced than ourselves. The Gospel Call is to joint-heirship with Christ in His Millennial Kingdom. But shall we say that the advantage of our relationship to the Lord consists chiefly in the liberty to eat and drink what we please? Surely not! Our chief blessing consists in justification, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit To minds laboring under the delusions of the Dark Ages, the Apostle's

words in Verse 23 sound extremely harsh; for the idea is conveyed that whoever defiles his conscience by eating meat which be mistakenly thinks unclean would be sent to eternal torture. But no soch thought was in the Apostle’s mind. He is emphasizing the thoughtwho ever eats meat,

however clean, but thinking that in ao doing he was committing a sin. would consequently be under condemnation of conscience for having violated his judgment of the Load’s will; and that this condemnation would act as a bar ri«r between him and the Lord. The Apostle explains why this condonna don would hold, saying, “because he eateth not of faith”—not In harmony with his consdenee; and whatever is not in harmony with faith and conscience is sin. The application of this principle to the question of using or not using spirituous liquors would certainly be profitable to all of God’s people. -Whoever uses these liquors when be believes that their use Is a sin is thereby violating his coa■elence, and violating the law of Lora.

Ought Not Please Ourselves.

The Kingdom - Not Meat and Drink.