Life and Labors of Elder John Kline, the Martyr Missionary: Collated from his Diary by Benjamin FunkKline, John
Religion
Life and Labors of Elder John Kline, the Martyr Missionary: Collated from his Diary by Benjamin Funk
Kline, John
Kline, John, 1797-1864
But human laws restrain by fear, and God would have all restraint from
evil to spring from love. The gulf between these two principles is
immeasurably wide and deep, quite as much so as the chasm between
heaven and hell. I said: Human laws restrain by fear. Why does the
heart murderer not kill? He is afraid that if he kills me, and it is
found out on him, somebody else will kill him who feels himself in as
much danger from his bloody hand as I was. Why does the heart-rogue
not steal? He is afraid his booty may not balance what it may cost in
the way of punishment. So with all criminality. With those who have
not the love of God in their hearts, nor the love of their neighbor
which springs out of this love, nothing but fear restrains them from
the worst of crimes. But this is a very unhappy state to be in,
because all fear hath torment. Human beings can never be happy in
their social relations, when the fear and dread of each other is the
governing principle in their lives. The heart of man was originally
created for the exercise of love, for perfect love, which knows no
fear. All the happiness and peace of heaven spring out of love made
perfect.
"There love springs pure and unrepressed;
There all are loved, and love again:
Love warms each angel's glowing breast:
Love fills each shining saintly train."
Fear, with its long and varied list of torments, primarily springs
from a sense of guilt. We have a clear example in proof of this in the
third chapter of Genesis. Immediately after the fall Adam is
represented as saying to the Lord: "I heard thy voice in the garden,
and I was afraid, and I hid myself." Now, Adam had heard that voice
before; it was the voice of love; but, oh! how changed! The voice
itself was not changed; but the ear that heard, and the eye that saw,
and the heart that felt its power, these, _these_ were changed. Ever
since that sad day man has been subject to fear, and has sought to
hide himself from the presence of the Lord. But the Lord God still
loved Adam, and right there and then gave a promise to save man. That
promise is in these words: "I will put enmity between her seed and thy
seed: it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." This
was spoken to the serpent. Christ Jesus our Lord is the seed of the
woman. He bruises the serpent's head under our feet whenever we
sincerely desire him to do so. The head of the serpent stands for sin
and transgression of God's holy law in all its forms, with the evil
loves which prompt us thereto. The heel which the serpent shall bruise
is man's natural body, and the natural feelings incident to him from
his connection with this body. Diseases, the infirmities of age, with
all the pains and anguish of body and mind; yea, death itself, and the
fear of death, all, all are but the bruises which the serpent, the
devil and Satan is inflicting upon the heel of the woman's seed.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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