The Pilgrim Path---Proverbs 14: 34

“Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people.” Proverbs 14: 34

RIGHTEOUSNESS EXALTS A NATION…

From Noah Webster: The moral principles and precepts contained in the Scriptures ought to form the basis of all our civil constitutions and laws. All the miseries and evils which men suffer from vice, crime, ambition, injustice, oppression, slavery, and war, proceed from their despising or neglecting the precepts contained in the Bible.

From A. A. Hodge: If Christ is really king, exercising original and immediate jurisdiction over the State as really as he does over the church, it follows necessarily that the general denial or neglect of his rightful lordship, any prevalent refusal to obey that Bible which is the open law-book of his kingdom, must be followed by political and social as well as moral and religious ruin. If professing Christians are unfaithful to the authority of their Lord in their capacity as citizens of the State, they cannot expect to be blessed by the indwelling of the Holy Ghost in their capacity as members of the Church. The kingdom of Christ is one and cannot be divided in life or in death. If the Church languishes, the State cannot be in health; and if the State rebels against its Lord and King, the Church cannot enjoy his favor. If the Holy Ghost is withdrawn from the Church, he is not present in the State; and if he, the only “Lord, the Giver of life,” be absent, then all order is impossible, and the elements of society lapse backward to primeval night and chaos…I charge you, citizens of the United States, afloat on your wide sea of politics, THERE IS ANOTHER KING, ONE JESUS: The Safety of the State can be secured only in the way of humble and whole-souled loyalty to His Person and obedience to His Law (A. A Hodge, Evangelical Theology, pp. 246-248).

From John Adams: We have no government armed in power capable of contending in human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate for the government of any other.

From Harold O. J. Brown: unless we control our appetites, we cannot control our government. We certainly cannot expect it to limit itself, because it senses our appetites far more strongly than it is persuaded by our claims that we are tired of bureaucracy, taxes, and government interference. If the ultimate goal of government is to “do everything and change everything,” really an infinite challenge, then it will require an infinite effort---in fact, infinite taxes, infinite paperwork, and infinite interference: infinite in the sense that there will be no limit to them, no place at which people will say, “This is clearly all that we want or need,” until the limits of exhaustion are reached. Infinite goals mean infinite controls. And infinite controls mean zero freedom…

From Charles Hodge: There is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God (Romans 13: 1). All authority is of God. No man has any rightful power over other men, which is not derived from God. All human power is delegated and ministerial.

Please pray for all those in authority---that they will know what it is to daily look in humility---to the LORD of Heaven and Earth. That they will know the Only Redeemer---Jesus Christ the LORD. That they will be moved---and directed---by the sacred precepts of God’s Holy Word…

HYMN

Lead on, O King eternal, the day of march has come;

Henceforth in fields of conquest thy tents shall be our home:

Through days of preparation thy grace has made us strong,

And now, O King eternal, we lift our battle song.

Lead on, O King eternal, till sin’s fierce war shall cease,

And holiness shall whisper the sweet amen of peace;

For not with swords loud clashing, nor roll of stirring drums,

But deeds of love and mercy, the heavenly kingdom comes.

Lead on, O King eternal: we follow not with fears;

For gladness breaks like morning where’er thy face appears;

Thy cross is lifted o’er us; we journey in its light:

The crown awaits the conquest; lead on, O God of might.

Earnest W. Shurtleff, 1888

Grace and Peace in Jesus, the Only Redeemer of broken and wretched souls, Pastor Jason