S. THE EVILS OF RELIGIOUS COMPROMISE

THE EVILS OF RELIGIOUS COMPROMISE I wish to illustrate the evils of religious compromise by considering the four consecutive propositions submitted by Pharaoh to Moses, and will read them in the order in which they were proposed. God through Moses had demanded of Pharaoh that His people should be allowed to leave Egypt and go three days journey into the wilderness to sacrifice to Him. Pharaoh peremptorily refused. But after four plagues in succession had fallen on Egypt, he began to propose compromises.

Compromise 1.

"And Pharaoh called for Moses and for Aaron, and said, Go ye, sacrifice to your God in the land." (Exodus 8:25.) Which Moses rejected.

Compromise 2.

"And Pharaoh said, I will let you go, that ye may sacrifice to the Lord your God in the wilderness; only ye shall not go very far away." (Exodus 8:28.) Moses rejected it and brought on Egypt three additional plagues.

Compromise 3.

"Go now ye that are men; and serve the Lord; for that ye did desire. But let your little ones remain." (Exodus 10:8-11.) Moses rejected it and brought two plagues more.

Compromise 4.

"And Pharaoh called unto Moses, and said, Go ye, serve the Lord; let your little ones also go with you; only let your flocks and herds be stayed.*** But Moses said, Our cattle also shall go with us; there shall not an hoof be left behind." (Exodus 10:24-26.) These four propositions may summarily be expressed thus:

1. You may serve God, but it must be here in Egypt.

2. You may leave Egypt to serve Him, but you must not go far away.

3. You may leave Egypt to serve God and you may go as far away as you please, but you must leave your children in Egypt.

4. You and your children may go out of Egypt and as far as you please to serve your God; but you must leave your property behind. The devices of Satan in endeavoring to prevent a clear testimony to the truth on the part of God’s people, are remarkably alike in all ages. The first device of Satan with reference to the truth is to persecute; to see if it cannot be destroyed by persecution. If that fails, his next device is to imitate the powerful works of the truth, and to make it appear that his servants can do similar things; and when that fails, then he falls upon his last expedient, the expedient of compromise. And there are presented here the four compromises with which he usually attempts to seduce the people of God from perfect allegiance, from complete obedience.

I want to examine these four compromises. The first one is this: God had commanded His people to separate from the Egyptians and that the separation should be an actual and a complete one. They were commanded to come out from among them. They were commanded to go to a place that He would give them.

Now, the compromise proposed is this: Worship God as you choose, but don’t separate from us. Offer your sacrifices here in the land. Fairly translated, this proposition means about this: We are willing to acknowledge that Jehovah is one of the gods, but we have gods also, and now let there be a mutual recognition of the claims of these several gods. We are willing that Jehovah shall be one, but ours must also be recognized among the number. Be charitable. Don’t monopolize.

Put the several gods of the several nations upon an equality, and let us meet in a

Chicago World’s Fair -parliament of religions, and let this quasi acknowledgment of equality be general. Here is Jehovah and there is Buddha, and there is Confucius, and here Mahomet. All religions are good and any religion is good and it doesn’t make a great deal of difference. Indeed what is the difference?

It was the device of the ancient Greeks and Romans. They were perfectly willing to give Jesus Christ a niche in the temple of their gods. They were willing to recognize Him as a deity, but He must also recognize Jupiter, Pluto, Mercury, Saturn, Venus, Bacchus and all their other gods. This was the proposition. And just here it would be well to answer a question: Did the representatives of the

Christian religion do right in that parliament of religions in placing Christianity in an attitude of receiving the other religions as guests and upon terms of equality, and receiving them as guests by a host so polite as not in any way to reflect upon their claims, but allow them on the hearth of the Christian religion and at its own hearthstone and altars to reflect upon the Christian religion? My deliberate conviction is that it was the most disgraceful and treasonable surrender of the truth that this world has ever known.

Consider its effect on the false religions. The followers of Buddha went home and said to their disciples who had been shaken by the missionaries of Christianity: "You are foolish to be so shaken by these missionaries. We have just returned from their home and our religion was put by the side of theirs, and if anything, we had the advantage, and they are much more ready to accept ours than theirs." Never since Christ gave the great commission has there been such a backset to the work of the missionaries in the land of Buddha as there has been since the return of these men who were received into the United States in this parliament of religions upon the footing of equality with Christians. That was exactly the proposition of Pharaoh: "Sacrifice to the Lord your God in Egypt. Do not invidiously put one over another. Be broadminded. Be charitable.

Don’t run in a narrow groove. We acknowledge your divinity and you acknowledge our divinity."

What if Elijah had been present! He would have stood up and said: "How long halt ye between two opinions; if Baal be God, follow him. But if Jehovah be God, follow Him." Both cannot be. The claims are fundamentally antagonistic and subversive of each other. There could much more readily be a dozen suns in the solar system than there could be a dozen deities governing worlds. There could much more easily be a dozen different and conflicting laws of gravitation than there could be a dozen deities governing the world.

Suppose Paul had been present, what would he have said? He would have said, "The things which these people sacrifice to their idols they do not sacrifice to God, but to demons, and you cannot partake of the Lord’s table and of the table of demons; you cannot take the cup of the Lord and the cup of the devil." When Washington said in his farewell address to his people, "Beware of entangling alliances," he condensed in that short saying supreme earthly wisdom, and it is heavenly wisdom when applied to questions of religion.

There can no way be selected by which the witnesses of the truth f God can more readily sacrifice the power of their testimony and divest themselves of any practical and important influence over the world than by putting themselves in a position that will make the religion which they represent only one of many and a matter of indifference as to which one the people shall choose.

Moses said, "What you propose we cannot do; our command from God is to come out and be separated. Egypt is not our place. We cannot obey the Lord half way. It is impossible for us to receive any blessing from Him while we trifle with plain and specific commandments which He hath given us."

Then Pharaoh said, "If you won’t separate here in the land; if you won’t sacrifice here in the land, then we offer you this compromise: Don’t go very far away; let it be a little separation. Let the line that defines between us be a dim one. Don’t be invidious, representing yours as clear light and ours as solid darkness. Take a twilight position on it; that is, you are neither all light nor all darkness, but you are mixed light and darkness."

How many tens of thousands of people are caught at the present day by this compromise? "Don’t separate too far. Let it be a matter of some difficulty to determine whether you have separated at all or not. Just a little way."

Allow me to enforce some maxims that will apply to other things as well as to religion. There is no weakness comparable to the weakness of taking a half way position on any matter. You are deprived of all of the power that would accrue to you from a clean cut and decisive stand, and you are subject to all the harm that will result from slightly leaving the camps of either hostile party. In other words, neither the one nor the other can regard you as a friend; both must look upon you with distrust. Neither will put any confidence in you, neither God nor the devil. You are where you have deprived yourself of any benefit from either side and where you have brought upon yourself the suspicion of both sides.

Now let me illustrate the feebleness and folly of all such methods. In the beginning of the Revolutionary war, it was not proposed that there be complete separation from England. Many thought it wiser to fight as British subjects. But after their struggle had gone on for some time, it at last dawned upon the minds of thoughtful men that they had put themselves in a position of exposedness to extreme danger, and a position of unusual weakness. They said:

"If we are not separated from England, then we are rebels. We are in arms against our sovereign. We are not even entitled to the position of belligerents in the sight of the nations of the world. We cannot expect any recognition from foreign powers. We have not the courage that comes from taking a clear, well defined position. We are deprived of potent incentives with which to stir up our people. We cannot offer them the rewards of true andcomplete independence." And at last this conviction found utterance in the speakings and writings of the leaders. They came out openly and fearlessly: "There is for us not one atom of hope except in complete severance, entire independence, and when we take that position, we may send to any foreign power representatives from our government and expect recognition and help." That is one of the most familiar lessons of the Revolutionary war. The history of Texas is another illustration. When it was proposed to strive against the tyranny of Mexico, what they called a consultation was held-not a convention, but a consultation. This consultation declared for the old Mexican constitution of 1824, and appointed a provisional government, a provisional council, a provisional army, and the object stated was: "We are not endeavoring to separate Texas from Mexico, not at all; we simply ally ourselves with one of the parties in Mexico, and we are fighting for the re-establishment of the constitution which prevailed when we were invited to come here and settle." That was their position. The weakness of it was manifest to many minds. Wise men spoke out against it: "By our own confession we are in arms against the central government." The troops that captured Goliad and that captured San Antonio, all of them, were without regular commissions or any regular authority. They could not in any way be held together. And then they were continually subjected to this possible calamity-that any defeat would put every captive at the mercy of the government of Mexico, and they could be shot down, and legally shot down as traitors and rebels. This lame method was followed to a ridiculous and ruinous extreme. Every letter they sent out, every man they commissioned was with reference to continuance with Mexico.

Even this feeble provisional government, for such a feeble purpose, was rendered more impotent by divided jurisdiction - a governor and a council with vaguely defined and conflicting powers. It was through the unwisdom of this council that so many precious lives were fruitlessly lost-every man whose life was lost under Grant, or in the Alamo, or under Fannin, or under Ward, or under King, making an aggregate larger than the army with which Houston won the battle of San Jacinto.

Thoughtful men inquired: "Why should we send commissioners to the United States? They will say, ’We can’t help you while you occupy that position. It would, be interference with the internal affairs of another nation. If you expect sympathy in the United States; if you expect recognition by the American government, you must put yourselves in a different attitude. You must, through the voice of the people in convention assembled, sever forever your connection with Mexico. Come out from them and be separate; locate yourselves, be somewhere; then we will come and help you.’" That is the precise thought involved here. Israel cannot accomplish anything by separating just a little way, and Pharaoh knew it, and that is why he offered to compromise. Neither can Christians accomplish anything by separating only a little way from the world, and the devil knows it. Hence his offer to compromise. Your religious convictions stir within you. You feel impressed to turn toward God, and if the devil cannot restrain that, he says, "That’s all very well; have those feelings; pray a little; come out a little; separate a little; but don’t go very far; hold on to the world and don’t take any clean-cut, decisive position." That is the very compromise upon which the usefulness of over half the Christians in this world today is wrecked. I will make a plain statement. You may regard it as an audacious one. I stand upon it anyhow ¾ nine-tenths of the professed Christians in Waco today are powerless as a testimony for God, because the line of separation is a dim one; because they go not very far away from the position occupied by the devil. They get no internal enjoyment; they bask in no smiles of God; they are not able to break down the bulwarks of Satan because they cannot ask God’s favor, nor can they ask the devil’s favor. They are just a little separated; they are in a spiritual twilight that is neither day nor night. Their whole condition is an anomalous one. They may easily be counted both as traitors to God and traitors to the devil. When Pharaoh found that Moses could not be seduced by any such offer and the plagues descended upon him hotter and hotter all the time, he, still fighting for every, inch of ground, makes his third proposition of compromise, which is this: You grown people go into the wilderness; separate as widely as you please, but leave your little ones here with us.

Wherever a man’s treasure is, there is his heart, and it would amount to but little for men and women to go off and draw a line of separation between them and the devil and then let the devil educate their children. That was the very compromise which brought on the flood, the very one. The song of Seth married the daughters of Cain. The children followed the mothers. They remained in the devil’s camp.

He now says to you church members: "If you think it best to be a Christian, be that, but don’t worry your little ones with Sunday School. It is well enough for men of mature minds who are converted-it is well enough for them to go to church and worship God, but don’t worry the children. Wait till they are grown; wait till they are converted; wait till they occupy the position that you occupy; but leave them with me in the meantime. You go on now, but leave your children here with me." That is his proposition. He knows that he who educates the children of the people is the master of that people.

I do not know of a more seductive form of compromise the devil’s ingenuity could devise than this-never say anything to these little ones about God; just leave that out; hands off of childhood. And mark you, how plausibly his agents put it. They say, "Don’t preoccupy the child’s mind; let him grow up, and then when he is grown, decide for himself." Which is equivalent to this: "Religion, you let this child alone; irreligion, you preoccupy him. We will take possession of that .pliant mind; we will educate it; we will fortify it; and when we have made a Gibraltar of his heart, and when we have blinded his eyes and deafened his ears and hardened his heart and bound him hand and foot, why, then you may turn your batteries loose on him." That is the proposition. And occasionally you find a Christian, or a so-called Christian, who occupies the position taken by the too chivalrous French Count d’Estaing at Savannah. He came upon that town with a formidable army of both French and Americans. It was easy to take immediate possession of it. The wily British general said, "Give me twentyfour hours to consider your proposition of surrender. I want to sleep on it." And the Frenchman allowed it. The British general did not sleep on it; he stayed awake day and night; he brought up his reenforcements; he strengthened his fortifications; and when the twenty-four hours had expired he was ready to meet any assault that could be made upon his impregnable works. When too late, the assault was made. ¾ It was a butchery-twelve hundred killed and wounded men paid in their blood for the Frenchman’s folly.

Well, now, that is just exactly what the devil says to us: "Let grown people be Christians, but don’t interfere with the little ones; don’t you establish Sunday Schools; don’t you try to lead them to Christ; leave them in my school, and when I have fortified, then you may assault if you choose."

Let us proceed with our lesson. When the plagues still descended heavier and heavier and hotter and hotter on Pharaoh, and God’s stern and inexorable word relentlessly repeated itself, "Let my people go," he said to Moses, "I will consent to let you go, grown people and children; let them go as far as they choose, but leave your property behind." Which being translated is: "All I ask you to do is, after you have acknowledged God’s sovereignty over your person and over your child, don’t acknowledge it over your purse. Take this maxim: ’Religion is religion and business is business.’ We will let God have Sunday, but not the other six days; we will let Him be Jehovah in the church, but not Jehovah in the counting-house; not Jehovah in the office; not Jehovah in our property. Let your property stay behind."

There is no doubt in the world that the devil successfully works this compromise on many professors of religion; people who willingly concede that they are under obligations to the Lord Jesus Christ as to their person, as to their wives, as to their children, but draw a line of demarkation when it comes to the question of money or property. "This is mine; I deny that I must give it to God, and I deny that the Lord Jesus Christ has a right to sit over my treasure and watch it. I deny that He is king over the money that I have made."

Well, if you grant that much to the devil, that is enough. He will destroy your usefulness. He knows that God will not occupy a part of the throne. He knows that God will not occupy three hundred and sixty-four days in the year if you deny Him the three hundred and sixty-fifth. He knows that God will not occupy eleven chambers of your heart if you deny Him entrance into the twelfth. He knows that if you take away one hair’s breadth from the total of God’s sovereignty, you destroy the sovereignty. In other words, if He is God at all, He is God over all, and if He be not God over all, He is not God at all. That is to say, any God whose sovereignty you deny over your property, you may, by parity of reasoning, deny His sovereignty over your person. And if you deny Him Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday and Thursday and Friday and Saturday, you may, by the same reasoning, deprive him of Sunday.

What was the reply of Moses to this? He says, "Our cattle shall go with us; not a hoof shall be left behind us, not a hoof. We are the Lord’s, our wives are the Lord’s, our property is the Lord’s, and the Lord commands us to come out and be separate and to be wholly separated and to bear undimmed testimony to the sovereignty of Jehovah." It resolves itself into this: Never acknowledge any being as God unless you are willing to acknowledge Him as God over everything. You injure yourself, you put yourself in a position of weakness, you deprive yourself of the benefits of the position you do take if you have a reservation of any kind whatever.

Now, that makes the difference between men; that makes the difference in their success. Let me illustrate this thought by a preacher. Here is a preacher who says that he is called of God to preach; that he is the servant of the Lord; that he is purchased with a price and that he claims nothing as his own. That is his original position. But after such a declaration he begins to reach out and make some kind of alignment with the world, the flesh and the devil. He attempts some kind of compromise, and then wonders why he has no power; he wonders that somebody else, not his equal, is succeeding where he is failing. The truth is simply this: the man never did burn the bridges and ships behind him; the man never did come out and take a clean-cut and decisive position absolutely, wholly and forever committing himself to the service of God as God’s minister and relying solely and wholly upon the divine power, and God will not be with him, and will not bless him.

I mean just this: that whenever God calls any man to preach, whatever may be his natural ability, whatever may he the fulness or the deficiency of his acquirements or education, whatever may be the poverty of his purse, if that man will absolutely trust God and will rest on His promise, and will go out fearing neither the world nor the devil, and will preach the truth and rely wholly upon the Spirit’s power, then all the powers of hell cannot keep him from being a success. But whenever he begins to put on Saul’s armor, whenever he begins to make alliances, whenever in his mind, in his heart, in his secret moments, he leans upon any earthly broken staff, he is like Samson shorn of his locks, and is as any other man without knowing that he is as any other man. It is the easiest thing in the world for the devil to put out his eyes and take away all his strength, or utilize it by making him blindly grind in his own mill. The Apostle Paul, who had profoundly studied this question, and who had been instructed from heaven, addressing the Corinthian people in the language of one of the scriptures that I have read to you, said,

"Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers, for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? And what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? Or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? For ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them and walk in them, and I will be their God and they shall be my people. Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing, and I will receive you." (2 Corinthians 6:14-18.)

Here, then, is a lesson that every Christian can very safely apply to himself. Look at these promises: "I will be your God, I will be a father to you, I will be in you and dwell in you; no weapon that is fashioned of hell will prosper against you; when you lie down you will lie down in safety; the angels of God will camp about you; your heart shall be full of gladness even in the days of sorrow, and when you come to die there shall be no bitterness in death to you, and I will take you home triumphantly to myself."

These are the promises, and having these promises, as says Paul, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and of the spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. Here is Christian power, just as much for a private member of the church as for a preacher. Nothing on earth that you may gain by any compromise will compensate you for the loss of God’s presence; for the loss of the power that He confers upon you.

Then, as Christians, he decisive; occupy a definite position; be somebody. Don’t be a wandering star. Don’t be an erratic meteor. Don’t be a restless, roving wave of the sea. Don’t be a well without water. Don’t be a tree twice dead, plucked up by the roots; but come out and be separate and testify bravely for God, and whatever may be the portion of any other man or woman, you shall have power from on high and a conscious realization of the divine presence while you live and when you die.