By The Editor
False Spirits
A correspondent who is serving as a private with the R.A.M.C. writes as follows: ― “During one Sunday morning service at the hospital reference was made to the life of our soldiers. The preacher believes that their souls will pass through to God, whether saved or not, and that their fighting will purify others and draw the coming generation nearer to heaven. He prays for their departed souls. What can you make out of this, and what can be done to stop this spreading evil or delusion, which many ministers are supporting, using the Word of God deceitfully?”
How can we detect these “false spirits”? By their fruits ye shall know them (Matt. 7:15,1615Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. 16Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? (Matthew 7:15‑16)). From the spirit-world today there is a world-wide revolt against the atoning work of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is a most striking fact that during the most vital war that Great Britain was ever engaged in―what has been proving a struggle for national existence―every fundamental truth of God has been assailed in our midst. The atoning work of the Son of God is being deliberately set aside, and the last message is being given over and over again, by so-called ministers of God, to soldiers about to die, that death in battle saves the soul.
Nero fiddled while Rome was burning, and surely the devil today can rejoice to see a nation rushing away from God. Never were the theaters and music halls fuller than they are now. They tell us they are getting larger houses, and paying larger dividends than before the War began. The land is full of sin, and the pulpits, many of them, are full of blasphemy. A thin veneer of conventional religiousness is deemed sufficient to hide the festering corruption that lies beneath.
Listen to these faithful words of a follower of Christ. He says: “Do people know how eager the soldier is to talk about serious things? We are told the most touching stories of the British soldier, showing how deeply he feels, how seriously he takes, this War, and how faithfully he entrusts himself to the mercy of God. Such men as these, do they want comic songs before they go into the trenches? Comic songs! Does any rational man suppose that comic songs are better for courage than a psalm or hymn? Are not these songs a national shame for us?”
Yes, they are a shame to us indeed, and the whole wicked spirit that pervades Great Britain today is a shame to us and a defiance to a holy God. Millions of copies of newspapers are sold on the Lord’s Day, actors and actresses and paid entertainers are brought out to the Front to amuse men moving under the shadow of impending death. I had an extract from the Morning Star sent to me by a friend lately, and I reproduce it now: ― “After a recent concert given for the entertainment of a number of soldiers one of them was asked to propose a vote of thanks. He rose and said: ‘We are all very grateful for the amusement afforded to us tonight, and we appreciate all the musical talent brought for our enjoyment — but we are off to the Front tomorrow, and I do not know how to die! I am not prepared to meet God. I only wish there had been something for our souls tonight.’”
Dear fellows, they are hungering for the Bread of Life, and they are given stones; they want heaven, and these men with their comic songs and entertainments are leading them down to hell! God’s great day of wrath will come for those false men, who often under the guise of religion are doing the work of devils. “They want to know how to die!” My heart bleeds when I think that these men who know they are not prepared to meet God are given a diet of “comic songs sandwiched between religious addresses.” How can they be taught the holiness of God when an uproarious comic camp song ushers them into His presence? How can they be taught the sinfulness of sin, if the “Amen” of a prayer is the prelude to another worldly song and burst of merriment.