JESUS CHRIST came into this world, as he said to Pilate, to “bear witness unto the truth.”
The purpose which brought him here is the same which brings every individual into the world who is “born again.” Christians, like their Master, are here to bear witness unto the truth.
It is because of this, which condemns the world, that the world has hated them and persecuted them.
Christians are not in this world to ask favors for themselves of the world. If the world leaves them free to enjoy the exercise of their rights, well and good. But in any case their enunciation of the doctrine of individual rights, as with any other Christian doctrine, is for the purpose of bearing witness to the truth, which concerns all man alike.
Before the bar of truth all men stand; by it all must be judged. Whether the Christian be in the private assembly, or before the legislature, or in court to answer for obedience to the dictates of his conscience, these [82] conditions remain unchanged. The real bar is the bar of truth. Christians are the witnesses; and by their testimony those who hear it are to know whether they themselves stand justified or condemned.
This was forcibly illustration in the experience of the apostle Paul. Brought before Felix in bonds, to answer for the crime with which he has charged by the Jews, Paul bore witness unto the truth, which, while vindicating him against the Jews, was of such magnitude and universal application that Paul the prisoner was lost to view before the overwhelming significance of the eternal principles of right conduct. The record is that ‘as he reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come, Felix trembled, and answered, God thy way for this time; when I have a convenient season, I will call for thee.” Acts 24:25.
In bearing witness unto the truth, as it is in Jesus Christ, self is lost to view, and in its place all mankind appear as heirs of the inalienable rights which God has given them—rights by the exercise of which they are to determine their eternal destiny for weal or woe.
It is thus that Christians stand before the legislatures of the land, asking that no laws be enacted which will interfere with the individual prerogative of rendering to Cesar the things that are Cesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.