We would urge this point at the outset. It is impossible for any one to recognize and rally around the proper “standard” unless he can declare his “pedigree.” In short, it is impossible to take up a true position in the wilderness so long as there is any uncertainty as to this great question. How could an Israelite of old have taken his place in the assembly—how could he have stood in the ranks—how could he expect to make any progress through the wilderness, if he could not distinctly declare his pedigree? Impossible. Just so is it with Christians now. Progress in wilderness life—success in spiritual warfare, is out of the question if there be any uncertainty as to the spiritual pedigree. We must be able to say, “We _know_ that we have passed from death unto life”—“We _know_ that we are of God”—“We believe and are sure,” ere there can be any real advance in the life and walk of a Christian.
Reader, say, can you declare your pedigree? Is this a thoroughly settled point with you? Are you clear as to this in the very depths of your soul? When you are all alone with God, is it a perfectly settled question between you and Him? Search and see. Make sure work of it. Do not slur the matter over. Build not upon mere profession. Say not, I am a member of such a church; I receive the Lord’s supper; I hold such and such doctrines; I have been religiously brought up; I live a moral life; I have done nobody any harm; I read the Bible and say my prayers; I have family worship in my house; I give largely in the cause of philanthropy and religion. All this may be perfectly true of you, and yet you may not have a single pulse of divine life, a single ray of divine light. Not one of these things, not all of them put together, could be accepted as a declaration of spiritual pedigree. There must be the witness of the Spirit that you are a child of God, and this witness always accompanies simple faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. “He that believeth in the Son of God hath the witness in himself.” (1 John v. 10.) It is not by any means a question of looking into your own heart for evidences; it is not a building upon frames, feelings, and experiences—nothing of the sort. It is a childlike faith in Christ; it is having eternal life in the Son of God; it is the imperishable record of the Holy Ghost; it is taking God at His word. “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth My word, and believeth on Him that sent Me, _hath_ everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment [κρίσιν], but _is passed_ from death unto life.” (John v. 24.)
This is the true way to declare your pedigree; and be assured of it, you must be able to declare it ere you can “go forth to war.” We do not mean to say you cannot be saved without this. God forbid we should say any such thing. We believe there are hundreds of the true spiritual Israel who are not able to declare their pedigree; but we ask, Are such able to go forth to war? are they vigorous military men? Far from it. They cannot even know what true conflict is: on the contrary, persons of this class mistake their doubts and fears—their dark and cloudy seasons for true Christian conflict. This is a most serious mistake, but, alas! a very common one. We continually find a low, dark, legal condition of soul defended on the ground of Christian conflict, whereas, according to the New Testament, true Christian conflict, or warfare, is carried on in a region where doubts and fears are unknown. It is when we stand in the clear daylight of God’s full salvation—salvation in a risen Christ—that we really enter upon the warfare proper to us as Christians. Are we to suppose for a moment that our legal struggles, our culpable unbelief, our refusal to submit to the righteousness of God, our questionings and reasonings, can be viewed as Christian conflict? By no means. All these things must be regarded as conflict with God; whereas Christian conflict is carried on with Satan.—“We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against wicked spirits in high place.” (Eph. vi. 12.)
This is Christian conflict. But can such conflict be waged by those who are continually doubting whether they are Christians or not? We do not believe it. Could we imagine an Israelite in conflict with Amalek in the wilderness, or with the Canaanites in the land of promise, while yet unable to “declare his pedigree” or recognize his “standard”? The thing is inconceivable. No, no; every member of the congregation who was able to go forth to war was perfectly clear and settled as to those two points. Indeed, he could not go forth if he were not so.