sheath! Let him demand the destruction of Babylon, that he be blessed by the Lord!
And so fulfil this command of the Lord with eagerness, ye rulers, ye servants of the Most High, and with the sword of righteousness banish the disorder with which the world is filled.
Busy yourselves, ye governors, ye faithful servants of Jesus Christ, and utterly destroy evil with the sword that is entrusted to you, with the two-edged sword of speech! Ye have seen that early youth is the best time to attack the evils of the human race; that the tree which is to thrive for ages is best planted when quite young; that Sion is most easily raised on the site of Babylon when the living building-stones of God, the young, are early broken, shaped, and fitted for the heavenly building. If we wish to have well-ordered and prosperous Churches, states, and households, thus and in no other way can we reach our goal.
But how to take this in hand and to carry it out with the desired result, this I will place before your eyes, I whose spirit the Lord has called to the work. See, hear, and mark its nature carefully, you to whom the Lord has given eyes to see, ears to hear, and minds to judge.
If a light, unseen before, be revealed to any, let him give God the glory and not grudge the illumination to the rising generation. But if he perceive any defect, even the smallest, in this light, let him complete and perfect it, or, that it may be perfected, let him recall the saying, “Many eyes are better than one.”
Thus we shall mutually help one another to carry out the work of God with unanimity; thus we shall escape the curse which threatens those who neglect the Lord’s work; thus we shall consult the welfare of the world’s most precious possession, the young, as much as is possible; thus we shall shine with the brightness granted to those that turn others to righteousness (Daniel xii. 3).
May God have mercy on us, that we see the light! Amen.
