This is a really unique quote from Smith Wigglesworth . . . not his usual type:
A young monk came one day to his father superior and asked: "Father, what is it to be dead to self?" The father replied: "I cannot explain it now; but I have a duty for you to perform. Brother Martin died last week and is buried in the churchyard of our order. Go to his grave, standing close beside it, repeat in a loud voice all the good things you ever heard of him. After this, say all the flattering things you can invent; and attribute to him every saintly grace and virtue, without regard to truth; and report the result to me."
The young monk went to do his bidding, wondering what all this could mean. Soon he returned and the father asked him what had transpired. "Why, nothing," replied the young man. "I did as you told me and that was all." Did Brother Martin make no reply?" asked the superior. "Of course he did not, for he was dead," said the monk. The elder shook his head thoughtfully, saying: "That is very strange. Go again tomorrow at the same hour, and repeat at the graveside all the evil you ever heard concerning Brother Martin. Add to that the worst slander and calumny your mind can imagine, and report the result to me."
Again the young man obeyed, and brought back the same report. He had heaped unlimited abuse on the head of Brother Martin and yet had received no reply. "From Brother Martin you may learn," said the father, "what it is to be dead to self. Neither flattery nor abuse has moved him, for he is dead. So the disciple who is dead to self will be insensible to these things, hearing neither voice of praise nor retaliation but all personal feeling will be lost in the service of Christ."
The church must take right ground in regard to politics. . . The time has come that Christians must vote for honest men, and take consistent ground in politics, or the Lord will curse them. They must be honest men themselves, and instead of voting for a man because he belongs to their party, . . . they must find out whether he is honest and upright, and fit to be trusted. They must let the world see that the church will uphold no man in office, who is known to be a knave, or an adulterer, or a Sabbath-breaker, or a gambler, or a drunkard. Such is the spread of intelligence and the facility of communication in our country, that every man can know for whom he gives his vote. And if he will give his vote only for honest men, the country will be obliged to have upright rulers. All parties will be compelled to put up honest men as candidates. Christians have been exceedingly guilty in this matter. But the time has come when they must act differently, or God will curse the nation, and withdraw his spirit. As on the subject of slavery and temperance, so on this subject, the church must act right or the country will be ruined. God cannot sustain this free and blessed country, which we love and pray for, unless the church will take right ground. Politics are a part of religion in such a country as this, and Christians must do their duty to the country as a part of their duty to God. It seems sometimes as if the foundations of the nation were becoming rotten, and Christians seem to act as if they thought God did not see what they do in politics. But I tell you, he does see it, and he will bless or curse this nation, according to the course they take.
ReplyDeleteCharles Grandison Finney. Lectures On Revivals Of Religion. New York. Leavitt, Lord & Co. 1835.