Testimonies for the Church, Volume 9 - Ellen G. White

souls. He was not to be turned aside from this to
take up the duties of a civil magistrate.
How often today labor is forced upon the
church that should never be allowed to enter the
work of the gospel ministry!
Again and again Christ had been asked to
decide legal and political questions. But He refused
to interfere in temporal matters. He knew that in
the political world there were iniquitous
proceedings and great tyranny. But His only
exposure of these was the proclamation of Bible
truth. To the great multitudes that thronged His
steps He presented the pure, holy principles of the
law of God and spoke of the blessing found in
obeying these principles. With authority from on
high He enforced the importance of justice and
mercy. But He refused to become entangled in
personal disputes.
Christ stood in our world as the Head of the
great spiritual kingdom that He came to our world
to establish --the kingdom of righteousness. His
401