“Playing with the Souls of Men”

OUR duty this year, as Christians, must be to seek to counteract the fearful doctrines that are being spread abroad “that death in battle saves the soul.” Everywhere this doctrine is gaining ground. I had a letter from a Christian worker, who tells me that after giving a Testament to a soldier the question was asked him, “Are you sure of going to heaven?” His ready answer was, “Yes, because I am fighting for my country.” He had been taught that his self-sacrifice would save his soul. And Christ need never have died for him.
I had a most solemn letter from the Front from a very earnest Christian soldier to whom I had sent a parcel. He says: ― “What opportunities there are out here, and yet some of the preachers are telling the men twaddle, simply playing with the, souls of men. What a state of things! Tens of thousands of men here, and scarcely any one to tell them the real true gospel. Surely God will require the blood of these men at the preachers’ hands!” Yes, the day of requisition will come, for God is not mocked.
Another writes me: ― “Your tract, ‘The Sin against the Soldier and the Saviour,’ is very necessary. At the beginning of the year I spent two months among the men at Boulogne, and heard this doctrine frequently. It seemed an awful thing to hear these dear fellows simply and innocently, it would seem, putting themselves on a level with our crucified Lord.”
Another dear soldier from the Front writes me, speaking about these terrible errors: ―
“It is enough to make one sad when one thinks of it all-how grand to look away from the mere speculations of men to our blessed Lord, and find in Him all our resources. May our blessed Lord deliver these brave men out here from being deceived and deluded by the devil. May the continued supply of Testaments come along, so that all the brave boys may have a Testament of their own. I need your prayers mat amid the false hopes which the devil is spreading abroad in the Army, there may be raised up servants who will be faithful and loyal to Him... to declare the gospel of Christ to the lost and perishing amongst our brave men. I am so thankful to the Lord that I have your prayers. Eternity alone will reveal what those prayers have done, when we are in His blessed presence.... Surely the midnight cry has gone forth, ‘Go ye out to meet Him.’ Things may be looking very dark, but it is the Lord Himself we are looking for, who will change our vile bodies and fashion them like unto His glorious body. May the blessed Lord cause His glorious name to be heard during the closing moments of this day of grace, that multitudes upon multitudes may be gathered into the gospel net ere the Lord comes. I have just received another parcel of yours. Praise the Lord. May He bless you and encourage you greatly in your service for Him.”
Thank God for these faithful men who are standing for the truth of God.
I wonder that fire and brimstone does not come down from heaven upon the nation for the deep dishonor done to the Son of God in our midst. Everywhere His atoning work is being set aside, and His precious blood trampled under the feet of men. Some of the very men who are supposed to lead us in intercession to God now, on behalf of our country, are heading a crusade against Christ. Honoring God (?) and dishonoring His Son.
One of these religious leaders says: ―
“He” [Christ Jesus] “stood for all time; He stands still, as an ideal at the head of the race; but whether Jesus the carpenter had any more right to speak about the mysteries of the universe than I or you have, who can tell? We cannot be sure.... What think you of the ideal Christ? Mark, it may be an illusion.”
And again he says: ―
“But it might startle the questioners to be told that even if the Jesus of Bethlehem had been born at some other time, or if His advent had taken some other form, the Christ would still have preceded Him. We might, by a reverent play upon His own words, say, Before Jesus was Christ is.... What name shall we give to this soul of good?... He called Himself the Christ, well knowing that the Christ indwelt every soul of man... The being of Christ was greater far than the body of Jesus could contain... and now the body of Jesus is no more, the spirit of Jesus, which is the spirit of the Christ, still indwells the souls of men. Humanity is the body of Christ; the human Christ and the divine are the same. There is no point at which humanity leaves off and divinity begins, or at which divinity leaves off and humanity begins.... Those who would see Jesus as He once was must learn to read Him in the Christ that shines through every noble deed and every holy life. For there, indeed, He is.”
And the man who has said these awful things about our blessed Lord, the man whose mind is permeated with these unholy thoughts, has been, we are told, admitted to “holy orders.” And yet we expect God to bless us when our prayers are led by men like this! Over and over again these men tell us that death in battle saves the soul. They take for their text those beautiful words, “Greater love hath no MAN than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” This is the soldier’s passport to heaven, they say. Like the Mohammedan leaders, they tell them that the gates of heaven are under the banners of war. You may be an infidel, an idolater, an agnostic, a skeptic, a blasphemer, a unitarian—no matter—if you die in battle heaven’s gates are open for you. Your love for your fellow man shall be more potent than the blood of Christ to save your soul. You shall scale the heights of heaven with your sword in your hands.
The pulpits of England are ringing with this “sentimental blasphemy.” This is bad enough; but what shall we say of men who face thousands of soldiers, going to death many of them, and who deliberately do their best to take away all chance of salvation from them, by telling them they can save themselves. In eternity God will require the blood of these men at the hands of these false teachers, and woe betide those false guides who have led poor sinners down to hell instead of bringing them to Christ, the sinner’s Friend.
A man may be saved upon the battlefield in his dying moments, and thousands have been, we believe, but to tell a man he is saved because the bullet takes his life instead of disease at home is as wicked as it is illogical. Is the whole plan of redemption to be set aside, and God’s eternal purposes of love to man in Christ to be nullified to please the sickly sentimentality of God-dishonoring men? There is a greater love than the love of man, even if shown in death for his friends―it is the love of the God-man, who died for His enemies, praying as He died, “Father, forgive them, they know not what they do.” We can say: ―
“Thou for Thine enemies wast slain,
What love with Thine can vie?”
No human love can vie with that unparalleled love that led the Son of God to come from heaven to die for us.
A writer says: ― “Never was there such a time when men were so eager to have a copy of the Scriptures to carry in their pocket.”