The Bulwark of Christianity

I should have denied the God that is above.--Job. 31: 28.

This statement by Job follows a number of ifs . . .

"If I have withheld the poor from their desire, or have caused the eye of the widow to fail, or have eaten my morsel alone, and the fatherless hath not eaten thereof--

"If I have seen any perish for want of clothing, or that the needy had no covering, and if he hath not been warmed with the fleece of my sheep--

"If I have lifted up my hand against the fatherless--

"If I have made gold my hope, and have said to fine gold, Thou art my confidence--

"If I have rejoiced because my wealth was great, and because my hand had gotten much . . . and my mouth hath kissed my hand:

"This also were an iniquity to be punished by the judges; for I should have denied the God that is above.”

If Job had behaved in the manner described . . .

If he had shut himself up in the cabin of self and labored for himself alone, refusing to recognize any social obligations--if he had ignored the cries of the poor, the ill-fed, the ill-clad, the widow, the fatherless--if he had sought to gain power that he might use it against others to enrich himself, to set himself in high place--if he had made gold his god and hope--if he had boasted in his wealth, kissed his hand for its cunning in achieving so great success, thus accrediting it to his own genius, dismissing the thought that he was In any way indebted to God . . .

Such an attitude and selfish conduct on the part of Job would have been equal to a denial of the God in whom he professed to believe.

In other words, it would have been practical atheism.

It is not theoretical atheism but practical atheism that is doing the greatest harm to the cause of religion.

The infidel may rail against the Bible; he may argue against the Christian creed, but there is no argument he can make against Christian character.

Christian character, with its natural expression of love, kindness, generosity, and sacrificial service, is the bulwark of Christianity.