Christianity exists. It is beneficial to man. It commends itself to men's consciences as divine. The legislator, the philanthropist, the moralist, alike appeal to it as owning its value and claiming its help. As a fact, that portion of the habitable world which professes Christianity is the most intelligent, the most active, the most civilized. "Christian civilization" is the compendious expression by which the leading minds of the day present the object which is before them. It is undeniable that the advantages of those who are born and brought up where Christianity is the professed religion are "much every way." If to the Jews it was a great privilege to have the "oracles of God" committed to them, what must it be to be entrusted not only with the same oracles, but with the further history of Him to whom those oracles pointed, and the very oracles He Himself uttered?
The Apostle denied not, but most strongly asserted the privileges of the Jews, but he would not allow them to plead the privilege of their "light" as a cover for their sins. "Thou that makest thy boast of the law, through breaking the law dishonourest thou God?" The "Christian nations" may now also boast of their light, and of their true knowledge of God. They may point to themselves and their institutions as examples of the advantage of "the form of knowledge and of the truth" in the gospel. What then? Shall they turn the grace of God into lasciviousness? making the knowledge of it a cloak for their own willfulness. Shall they deny "the Lord that bought them," as if they were their own and could do as they liked? Shall they pretend to a pure spiritual worship, and present a system of ordinances?
Men derived light from the revelation of Jesus, and used their derived light to turn their backs on Him who is essentially "the Light." A result has been produced, and is being produced, from this borrowed light; and let the Scripture of truth tell us what that result is in the judgment of God. "And another angel came out from the altar, which had power over fire; and cried with a loud cry to him that had the sharp sickle, saying, Thrust in thy sharp sickle, and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth; for her grapes are fully ripe. And the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth, and cast it into the great winepress of the wrath of God." Rev. 14:18, 1918And another angel came out from the altar, which had power over fire; and cried with a loud cry to him that had the sharp sickle, saying, Thrust in thy sharp sickle, and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth; for her grapes are fully ripe. 19And the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth, and cast it into the great winepress of the wrath of God. (Revelation 14:18‑19).
It is readily acknowledged that war, pestilence, famine, blasting, mildew, and the caterpillar, are the sore judgments of God. But the sorest of all judgments is unperceived, the peaceful ripening of the grapes of the vine of the earth. It is when men say, "Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them." It will be in the moment of their rejoicing in the attainment of their object that judgment will come on them.