policy. The teaching of the Bible would have implanted in the minds and
hearts of the people those principles of justice, temperance, truth,
equity, and benevolence which are the very corner-stone of a nation’s
prosperity. “Righteousness exalteth a nation.” Thereby “the throne is
established.”(412) “The work of righteousness shall be peace;” and the
effect “quietness and assurance forever.”(413) He who obeys the divine law
will most truly respect and obey the laws of his country. He who fears God
will honor the king in the exercise of all just and legitimate authority.
But unhappy France prohibited the Bible, and banned its disciples. Century
after century, men of principle and integrity, men of intellectual
acuteness and moral strength, who had the courage to avow their
convictions, and the faith to suffer for the truth,—for centuries these
men toiled as slaves in the galleys, perished at the stake, or rotted in
dungeon cells. Thousands upon thousands found safety in flight; and this
continued for two hundred and fifty years after the opening of the
Reformation.
“Scarcely was there a generation of Frenchmen during that long period that
did not witness the disciples of the gospel fleeing before the insane fury
of the persecutor, and carrying with them the intelligence, the arts, the
industry, the order, in which, as a rule, they pre-eminently excelled, to
enrich the lands in which they found an asylum. And in proportion as they
replenished other countries with these good gifts, did they empty their
own of them. If all that was now driven away had been retained in France;
if, during these three hundred years, the industrial skill of the exiles
had been cultivating her soil; if, during these three hundred years, their
artistic bent had been improving her manufactures; if, during these three
hundred years, their creative genius and analytic power had been enriching
her literature and cultivating her science; if their wisdom had been
guiding her councils, their bravery fighting her battles, their equity
framing her laws, and the religion of the Bible strengthening the
intellect and governing the conscience of her people, what a glory would
at this day have encompassed France! What a great, prosperous, and happy
country—a pattern to the nations—would she have been!
“But a blind and inexorable bigotry chased from her soil every teacher of
virtue, every champion of order, every honest defender of the throne; it
said to the men who would have made their country a ‘renown and glory’ in
the earth, Choose which you will have, a stake or exile. At last the ruin
of the state was complete; there remained no more conscience to be
proscribed; no more religion to be dragged to the stake; no more
patriotism to be chased into banishment.”(414) And the Revolution, with
all its horrors, was the dire result.
“With the flight of the Huguenots a general decline settled upon France.
Flourishing manufacturing cities fell into decay; fertile districts
returned to their native wildness; intellectual dulness and moral
declension succeeded a period of unwonted progress. Paris became one vast
almshouse, and it is estimated that, at the breaking out of the
Revolution, two hundred thousand paupers claimed charity from the hands of
the king. The Jesuits alone flourished in the decaying nation, and ruled
with dreadful tyranny over churches and schools, the prisons and the
galleys.”
The gospel would have brought to France the solution of those political
and social problems that baffled the skill of her clergy, her king, and
her legislators, and finally plunged the nation into anarchy and ruin. But
under the domination of Rome the people had lost the Saviour’s blessed
lessons of self-sacrifice and unselfish love. They had been led away from
the practice of self-denial for the good of others. The rich had found no
rebuke for their oppression of the poor, the poor no help for their
servitude and degradation. The selfishness of the wealthy and powerful
grew more and more apparent and oppressive. For centuries the greed and
profligacy of the noble resulted in grinding extortion toward the peasant.
The rich wronged the poor, and the poor hated the rich.
In many provinces the estates were held by the nobles, and the laboring
classes were only tenants; they were at the mercy of their landlords, and
were forced to submit to their exorbitant demands. The burden of
supporting both the church and the state fell upon the middle and lower
classes, who were heavily taxed by the civil authorities and by the
clergy. “The pleasure of the nobles was considered the supreme law; the
farmers and the peasants might starve, for aught their oppressors
cared.... The people were compelled at every turn to consult the exclusive
interest of the landlord. The lives of the agricultural laborers were
lives of incessant work and unrelieved misery; their complaints, if they
ever dared to complain, were treated with insolent contempt. The courts of
justice would always listen to a noble as against a peasant; bribes were
notoriously accepted by the judges; and the merest caprice of the
aristocracy had the force of law, by virtue of this system of universal
corruption. Of the taxes wrung from the commonalty, by the secular
magnates on the one hand, and the clergy on the other, not half ever found
its way into the royal or episcopal treasury; the rest was squandered in
profligate self-indulgence. And the men who thus impoverished their
fellow-subjects were themselves exempt from taxation, and entitled by law
or custom to all the appointments of the state. The privileged classes
numbered a hundred and fifty thousand, and for their gratification
millions were condemned to hopeless and degrading lives.”(415)
The court was given up to luxury and profligacy. There was little
confidence existing between the people and the rulers. Suspicion fastened
upon all the measures of the government, as designing and selfish. For
more than half a century before the time of the Revolution, the throne was
occupied by Louis XV., who, even in those evil times, was distinguished as
an indolent, frivolous, and sensual monarch. With a depraved and cruel
aristocracy and an impoverished and ignorant lower class, the state
financially embarrassed, and the people exasperated, it needed no
prophet’s eye to foresee a terrible impending outbreak. To the warnings of
his counselors the king was accustomed to reply, “Try to make things go on
as long as I am likely to live; after my death it may be as it will.” It
was in vain that the necessity of reform was urged. He saw the evils, but
had neither the courage nor the power to meet them. The doom awaiting
France was but too truly pictured in his indolent and selfish
answer,—“After me, the deluge!”
By working upon the jealousy of the kings and the ruling classes, Rome had
influenced them to keep the people in bondage, well knowing that the state
would thus be weakened, and purposing by this means to fasten both rulers
and people in her thrall. With far-sighted policy she perceived that in
order to enslave men effectually, the shackles must be bound upon their
souls; that the surest way to prevent them from escaping their bondage was
to render them incapable of freedom. A thousandfold more terrible than the
physical suffering which resulted from her policy, was the moral
degradation. Deprived of the Bible, and abandoned to the teachings of
bigotry and selfishness, the people were shrouded in ignorance and
superstition, and sunken in vice, so that they were wholly unfitted for
self-government.
But the outworking of all this was widely different from what Rome had
purposed. Instead of holding the masses in a blind submission to her
dogmas, her work resulted in making them infidels and revolutionists.
Romanism they despised as priestcraft. They beheld the clergy as a party
to their oppression. The only god they knew was the god of Rome; her
teaching was their only religion. They regarded her greed and cruelty as
the legitimate fruit of the Bible, and they would have none of it.
Rome had misrepresented the character of God, and perverted His
requirements, and now men rejected both the Bible and its Author. She had
required a blind faith in her dogmas, under the pretended sanction of the
Scriptures. In the reaction, Voltaire and his associates cast aside God’s
word altogether, and spread everywhere the poison of infidelity. Rome had
ground down the people under her iron heel; and now the masses, degraded
and brutalized, in their recoil from her tyranny, cast off all restraint.
Enraged at the glittering cheat to which they had so long paid homage,
they rejected truth and falsehood together; and mistaking license for
liberty, the slaves of vice exulted in their imagined freedom.
At the opening of the Revolution, by a concession of the king, the people
were granted a representation exceeding that of the nobles and the clergy
combined. Thus the balance of power was in their hands; but they were not
prepared to use it with wisdom and moderation. Eager to redress the wrongs
they had suffered, they determined to undertake the reconstruction of
society. An outraged populace, whose minds were filled with bitter and
long-treasured memories of wrong, resolved to revolutionize the state of
misery that had grown unbearable, and to revenge themselves upon those
whom they regarded as the authors of their sufferings. The oppressed
wrought out the lesson they had learned under tyranny, and became the
oppressors of those who had oppressed them.
Unhappy France reaped in blood the harvest she had sown. Terrible were the
results of her submission to the controlling power of Rome. Where France,
under the influence of Romanism, had set up the first stake at the opening
of the Reformation, there the Revolution set up its first guillotine. On
the very spot where the first martyrs to the Protestant faith were burned
in the sixteenth century, the first victims were guillotined in the
eighteenth. In repelling the gospel, which would have brought her healing,
France had opened the door to infidelity and ruin. When the restraints of
God’s law were cast aside, it was found that the laws of man were
inadequate to hold in check the powerful tides of human passion; and the
nation swept on to revolt and anarchy. The war against the Bible
inaugurated an era which stands in the world’s history as “The Reign of
Terror.” Peace and happiness were banished from the homes and hearts of
men. No one was secure. He who triumphed to-day was suspected, condemned,
to-morrow. Violence and lust held undisputed sway.
King, clergy, and nobles were compelled to submit to the atrocities of an
excited and maddened people. Their thirst for vengeance was only
stimulated by the execution of the king; and those who had decreed his
death, soon followed him to the scaffold. A general slaughter of all
suspected of hostility to the Revolution was determined. The prisons were
crowded, at one time containing more than two hundred thousand captives.
The cities of the kingdom were filled with scenes of horror. One party of
revolutionists was against another party, and France became a vast field
for contending masses, swayed by the fury of their passions. “In Paris one
tumult succeeded another, and the citizens were divided into a medley of
factions, that seemed intent on nothing but mutual extermination.” And to
add to the general misery, the nation became involved in a prolonged and
devastating war with the great powers of Europe. “The country was nearly
bankrupt, the armies were clamoring for arrears of pay, the Parisians were
starving, the provinces were laid waste by brigands, and civilization was
almost extinguished in anarchy and license.”
All too well the people had learned the lessons of cruelty and torture
which Rome had so diligently taught. A day of retribution at last had
come. It was not now the disciples of Jesus that were thrust into dungeons
and dragged to the stake. Long ago these had perished or been driven into
exile. Unsparing Rome now felt the deadly power of those whom she had
trained to delight in deeds of blood. “The example of persecution which
the clergy of France had exhibited for so many ages, was now retorted upon
them with signal vigor. The scaffolds ran red with the blood of the
priests. The galleys and the prisons, once crowded with Huguenots, were
now filled with their persecutors. Chained to the bench and toiling at the
oar, the Roman Catholic clergy experienced all those woes which their
church had so freely inflicted on the gentle heretics.”(416)
“Then came those days when the most barbarous of all codes was
administered by the most barbarous of all tribunals; when no man could
greet his neighbors or say his prayers ... without danger of committing a
capital crime; when spies lurked in every corner; when the guillotine was
long and hard at work every morning; when the jails were filled as close
as the holds of a slave-ship; when the gutters ran foaming with blood into
the Seine.... While the daily wagon-loads of victims were carried to their
doom through the streets of Paris, the proconsuls, whom the sovereign
committee had sent forth to the departments, reveled in an extravagance of
cruelty unknown even in the capital. The knife of the deadly machine rose
and fell too slow for their work of slaughter. Long rows of captives were
mowed down with grape-shot. Holes were made in the bottom of crowded
barges. Lyons was turned into a desert. At Arras even the cruel mercy of a
speedy death was denied to the prisoners. All down the Loire, from Saumur
to the sea, great flocks of crows and kites feasted on naked corpses,
twined together in hideous embraces. No mercy was shown to sex or age. The
number of young lads and of girls of seventeen who were murdered by that
execrable government, is to be reckoned by hundreds. Babies torn from the
breast were tossed from pike to pike along the Jacobin ranks.”(417) In the
short space of ten years, multitudes of human beings perished.
All this was as Satan would have it. This was what for ages he had been
working to secure. His policy is deception from first to last, and his
steadfast purpose is to bring woe and wretchedness upon men, to deface and
defile the workmanship of God, to mar the divine purposes of benevolence
and love, and thus cause grief in heaven. Then by his deceptive arts he
blinds the minds of men, and leads them to throw back the blame of his
work upon God, as if all this misery were the result of the Creator’s
plan. In like manner, when those who have been degraded and brutalized
through his cruel power achieve their freedom, he urges them on to
excesses and atrocities. Then this picture of unbridled license is pointed
out by tyrants and oppressors as an illustration of the results of
liberty.
When error in one garb has been detected, Satan only masks it in a
different disguise, and multitudes receive it as eagerly as at the first.
When the people found Romanism to be a deception, and he could not through
this agency lead them to transgression of God’s law, he urged them to
regard all religion as a cheat, and the Bible a fable; and casting aside
the divine statutes, they gave themselves up to unbridled iniquity.
The fatal error which wrought such woe for the inhabitants of France was
the ignoring of this one great truth: that true freedom lies within the
proscriptions of the law of God. “O that thou hadst hearkened to My
commandments! then had thy peace been as a river, and thy righteousness as
the waves of the sea.” “There is no peace, saith the Lord, unto the
wicked.” “But whoso hearkeneth unto Me shall dwell safely, and shall be
quiet from fear of evil.”(418)
Atheists, infidels, and apostates oppose and denounce God’s law; but the
results of their influence prove that the well-being of man is bound up
with his obedience of the divine statutes. Those who will not read the
lesson from the book of God, are bidden to read it in the history of
nations.
When Satan wrought through the Roman Church to lead men away from
obedience, his agency was concealed, and his work was so disguised that
the degradation and misery which resulted were not seen to be the fruit of
transgression. And his power was so far counteracted by the working of the
Spirit of God, that his purposes were prevented from reaching their full
fruition. The people did not trace the effect to its cause, and discover
the source of their miseries. But in the Revolution, the law of God was
openly set aside by the National Council. And in the Reign of Terror which
followed, the working of cause and effect could be seen by all.
When France publicly rejected God and set aside the Bible, wicked men and
spirits of darkness exulted in their attainment of the object so long
desired,—a kingdom free from the restraints of the law of God. Because
sentence against an evil work was not speedily executed, therefore the
heart of the sons of men was “fully set in them to do evil.”(419) But the
transgression of a just and righteous law must inevitably result in misery
and ruin. Though not visited at once with judgments, the wickedness of men
was nevertheless surely working out their doom. Centuries of apostasy and
crime had been treasuring up wrath against the day of retribution; and
when their iniquity was full, the despisers of God learned too late that
it is a fearful thing to have worn out the divine patience. The
restraining Spirit of God, which imposes a check upon the cruel power of
Satan, was in a great measure removed, and he whose only delight is the
wretchedness of men, was permitted to work his will. Those who had chosen
the service of rebellion, were left to reap its fruits, until the land was
filled with crimes too horrible for pen to trace. From devastated
provinces and ruined cities a terrible cry was heard,—a cry of bitterest
anguish. France was shaken as if by an earthquake. Religion, law, social
order, the family, the state, and the church,—all were smitten down by the
impious hand that had been lifted against the law of God. Truly spake the
wise man: “The wicked shall fall by his own wickedness.” “Though a sinner
do evil a hundred times, and his days be prolonged, yet surely I know that
it shall be well with them that fear God, which fear before Him: but it
shall not be well with the wicked.”(420) “They hated knowledge, and did
not choose the fear of the Lord;” “therefore shall they eat of the fruit
of their own way, and be filled with their own devices.”(421)
God’s faithful witnesses, slain by the blasphemous power that “ascendeth
out of the bottomless pit,” were not long to remain silent. “After three
days and a half the Spirit of life from God entered into them, and they
stood upon their feet; and great fear fell upon them which saw them.”(422)
It was in 1793 that the decrees which abolished the Christian religion and
set aside the Bible, passed the French Assembly. Three years and a half
later a resolution rescinding these decrees, thus granting toleration to
the Scriptures, was adopted by the same body. The world stood aghast at
the enormity of guilt which had resulted from a rejection of the Sacred
Oracles, and men recognized the necessity of faith in God and His word as
the foundation of virtue and morality. Saith the Lord, “Whom hast thou
reproached and blasphemed? and against whom hast thou exalted thy voice,
and lifted up thine eyes on high? even against the Holy One of
Israel.”(423) “Therefore, behold, I will this once cause them to know, I
will cause them to know Mine hand and My might; and they shall know that
My name is Jehovah.”(424)
Concerning the two witnesses the prophet declares further: “And they heard
a great voice from heaven saying unto them, Come up hither. And they
ascended up to heaven in a cloud; and their enemies beheld them.”(425)
Since France made war upon God’s two witnesses, they have been honored as
never before. In 1804 the British and Foreign Bible Society was organized.
This was followed by similar organizations, with numerous branches, upon
the continent of Europe. In 1816 the American Bible Society was founded.
When the British Society was formed, the Bible had been printed and
circulated in fifty tongues. It has since been translated into more than
four hundred languages and dialects.(426)
For the fifty years preceding 1792, little attention was given to the work
of foreign missions. No new societies were formed, and there were but few
churches that made any effort for the spread of Christianity in heathen
lands. But toward the close of the eighteenth century a great change took
place. Men became dissatisfied with the results of rationalism, and
realized the necessity of divine revelation and experimental religion.
From this time the work of foreign missions attained an unprecedented
growth.(427)
The improvements in printing have given an impetus to the work of
circulating the Bible. The increased facilities for communication between
different countries, the breaking down of ancient barriers of prejudice
and national exclusiveness, and the loss of secular power by the pontiff
of Rome, have opened the way for the entrance of the word of God. For some
years the Bible has been sold without restraint in the streets of Rome,
and it has now been carried to every part of the habitable globe.
The infidel Voltaire once boastingly said: “I am weary of hearing people
repeat that twelve men established the Christian religion. I will prove
that one man may suffice to overthrow it.” A century has passed since his
death. Millions have joined in the war upon the Bible. But it is so far
from being destroyed, that where there were a hundred in Voltaire’s time,
there are now ten thousand, yes, a hundred thousand copies of the Book of
God. In the words of an early Reformer concerning the Christian church,
“The Bible is an anvil that has worn out many hammers.” Saith the Lord,
“No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue
that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn.”(428)
“The word of our God shall stand forever.” “All His commandments are sure.
They stand fast forever and ever, and are done in truth and
uprightness.”(429) Whatever is built upon the authority of man will be
overthrown; but that which is founded upon the rock of God’s immutable
word shall stand forever.
16. THE PILGRIM FATHERS.
[Illustration: Chapter header.]
The English Reformers, while renouncing the doctrines of Romanism, had
retained many of its forms. Thus though the authority and the creed of
Rome were rejected, not a few of her customs and ceremonies were
incorporated into the worship of the Church of England. It was claimed
that these things were not matters of conscience; that though they were
not commanded in Scripture, and hence were non-essential, yet not being
forbidden, they were not intrinsically evil. Their observance tended to
narrow the gulf which separated the reformed churches from Rome, and it
was urged that they would promote the acceptance of the Protestant faith
by Romanists.
To the conservative and compromising, these arguments seemed conclusive.
But there was another class that did not so judge. The fact that these
customs “tended to bridge over the chasm between Rome and the
Reformation,”(430) was in their view a conclusive argument against
retaining them. They looked upon them as badges of the slavery from which
they had been delivered, and to which they had no disposition to return.
They reasoned that God has in His word established the regulations
governing His worship, and that men are not at liberty to add to these or
to detract from them. The very beginning of the great apostasy was in
seeking to supplement the authority of God by that of the church. Rome
began by enjoining what God had not forbidden, and she ended by forbidding
what He had explicitly enjoined.
Many earnestly desired to return to the purity and simplicity which
characterized the primitive church. They regarded many of the established
customs of the English Church as monuments of idolatry, and they could not
in conscience unite in her worship. But the church, being supported by the
civil authority, would permit no dissent from her forms. Attendance upon
her service was required by law, and unauthorized assemblies for religious
worship were prohibited, under penalty of imprisonment, exile, and death.