THE POWER OF INFLUENCE TO DESTROY

The weak king, as one “whom Jezebel his wife stirred up,” for thus the sacred historian speaks of him, is evidently completely under her influence, and when he perceives the effect his narrative has upon her, his opinion is quite changed, he begins to take another view of the wonders at Carmel, as also of Elijah himself. Jezebel resolves to gratify her bloodthirsty revenge, and she is the adored mistress of Ahab’s affections. The deluded monarch appears not to have dared to think differently from Jezebel his wife. He appears as a lamentable instance of one who, though not totally insensible to the voice of truth, continues a wretched slave to the father of lies. His heart was given to Jezebel, and her affection is the price to which every thing else was to be sacrificed. On her behavior to him was all the happiness of his life suspended. He was the sport of her tempers, and she exercised over him unlimited control. Pliant, like clay on the potter’s wheel, and capable of taking any form, he was always ready to be what she was pleased to make of him. Sold, by affection, under her influence, he soon lost the last remains of manly steadfastness, and before he was aware, his own individuality was so much sunk in that of his proud and imperious mistress that he heard only with her ears, saw with her eyes, and felt and thought only with her.

A great many persons, in every age, are thus led blindfold by human influence. The chains with which the prince of darkness binds mankind to his yoke and banner are not always the grosser vices and lusts: he secures thousands of souls to himself and to hell by attaching them with the silken cords of a tender affection to persons who have taken a decided part with the enemies of the cross of Christ. Now, whatever the bond may be, whether paternal, filial, conjugal, or social, the effect is the same. The influential person or persons rule with irresistible power, and the poor captive soul thinks not for itself, has no firmness or independence; friends and party govern it altogether, and this in spite of the most distressing convictions. Nor is it by perverted human affection alone that men are kept back from the truth. There are others, and not a few, who are equally far from the kingdom of God, by reason of the homage they pay to human intellect, either in themselves or others. The corrective of all these different sorts of error would be a heartfelt belief of those plainest declarations of the gospel: “Ye are not your own, for ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s,” 1 Cor. 6:19, 20. “He that cometh from heaven is above all,” John 3:31. “I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life,” John 8:12. And again, “I am the way, the truth, and the life,” John 14:6. And you who exercise influence over others, take heed that you prove not, in this respect, the agents of the great enemy of souls; for if through you any “weak brother perish,” “his blood will be required at your hands.” Remember, that whoever destroys a soul, “him will God destroy.”

Woe then unto those men of talent and acquirements who, with revolting ingratitude, transmute the gifts and abilities, which God has vouchsafed them, into weapons of darkness; who, under the influence of the great deceiver, assault the most sacred things of God! Woe unto those much-admired rulers of literature who, in wicked self-deification, use the power they possess over the minds of men to rivet more firmly the bonds of infidelity and hostility to Christ upon the neck of the present generation, and who exert their genius in preparing those intoxicating notions and antichristian systems which delude themselves and others to their destruction! Woe to those laurel-crowned heads that cover the kingdom of sin with fantastic enchantments, and, overturning every sacred restraint, implant the horrible delusion in the mind that he sins not who only contrives to sin poetically and elegantly! Woe to those whose voices give the tone to the world, who have sufficient talents for becoming the Ezras and Nehemiahs of their time, but who are a pestilence to the age they live in by darting forth their wit in seductive and blasphemous falsehoods, and abuse the weak understandings of those who hang in admiration upon their lips, in order, imperceptibly, under the pretense of superior light, to scatter sparks of rebellion against Jehovah and his Anointed! Woe, woe unto these betrayers of mankind! Their part will soon be acted. A time is coming when, from the very lips that now satiate them with their plaudits, only the dreadful thunder of furious execrations will meet their ears; and when the very hands which now crown them with laurel will be extended towards heaven against them, to draw down upon them the lightning of an eternal curse. Be not deceived! mistake not the present course of things for the final decision. That decision will be pronounced by Him, whose eyes are as a flame of fire, and who weighs with other scales than those of the deluded world, which only pays homage to external glitter. Your glory has its season and its period, like the flower of the grass. “All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away,” 1 Peter 1:24.

Excerpt from Elijah the Tishbite by F. W. Krummacher

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