no power, except it is given you from God in heaven.” For a man to think that he has something of himself is an open admission of mental bank ruptcy. Some of the most depressing words of Scripture tell us, “And Cain went out from the presence of the Lord” (Gen. 4:16). How black and bleak that must have been! Yet, today the world itself has gone out from the presence of God and really is saying that it wants nothing to do with Him. Verse three of the Second Psalm states: “Let us break their bands asunder.” This actually referred to the yoke which animals wore. Wheth er he likes to think of it or not, man still has God’s bands upon him. There is still a moral conscience, no matter how dull it may have become. Yet to break all connections with God is the vain attempt which goes on. The Lord Jesus Christ gently and lovingly invites us instead, “Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me, for I am meek and lowly of heart, and ye shall find rest for your souls.” This is What man wants ultimately. He is so desperately seeking for rest and satisfaction. In his warped and distorted mind, he foolishly thinks that the only way to final content ment is to get rid of any restraint whatsoever. To further amplify this, the Re- troit Free Press recently quoted a minister who is the chairman of the Farmington Township, Michigan, Youth Guidance Committee. He proudly asserted, “We are advocat ing that teenagers who have parental consent be permitted to live together as if they were married. The state should place no restrictions in this regard on individuals.” This, mind you, comes from the lips of a so- called minister, in charge of a young people’s action group. It makes one shudder! No matter where We look today, there no longer seems to be any standard of truth and righteousness.
certainly p ic tu re s these times, “Where there is no view of right eousness, the people are naked.” That’s precisely w ha t we find throughout the land in styles of dress for example. LIFE magazine recent ly carried a major article concern ing the spread of nudity. There are open flagrant avenues of immoral conduct which are seen as people worship this insidious cult of nudity. One other comparison can be noted in Living Proverbs which tells us, “Where there is ignorance of God, the people run wild.” We find today officials of our large cities urging people to stop arming themselves for potential riots. Notice one little word in this third verse which is perhaps the most de scriptive. It completely gives away these people in the end times who would have nothing to do with God. .It is the word “us.” This is certain ly not something new. Away back in the 11th chapter of Genesis, the 4th verse, we find a similar declara tion. Nimrod, one of the generation from Noah, had gone out to start a new world. From this advanced so ciety a tower was to be built which could be a lasting memorial, not to God but rather to man. It was to be high enough, too, to avoid any fu ture floods of judgment. Five times in this one statement we discover the use of the personal pronouns “we” and “us.” Notice, “Let us build us a city and a tower . . . and let us make us a name lest we be scat tered abroad.” Seeking human inde pendence, away from God, has been man’s whole history. Do you remem ber the incident at the trial of our Lord Jesus Christ when brought be fore Pilate? That lame-duck ruler blatantly asked the Saviour, “Don’t you understand? I have the power either to crucify you or to release you?” How that must have caused our Saviour an inward smile at the sheer absurdity of those words. Christ rightly responded, “You have
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