This is a well-known maxim in political circles. At election time it serves as a stimulus to the canvassers for the votes of the electorate, especially where the margin between success or failure is small. Every vote then is precious.
Two candidates A and B perhaps secure the same number of votes, 5,000. But suppose that just one individual, who voted for A, had voted for B. One vote taken from A would make his number of votes 4,999; one given to B would make his number of votes 5,001—a majority of two over his opponent. The one voter therefore counts two on a division.
Now we know a young Christian, who lives in lonely, dreary lodgings in a great city. He is within easy reach of all the ensnaring tinsel that this world knows so well how to display. There is the appeal to the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye and the pride of life. He is strong, life surging through his veins with all the vigour of youth.
It is a case of real temptation. Will he succumb to all this, or will he take his true stand as a Christian?
There are tens of thousands of such cases, and it is for them we write, though what we are about to say, we are persuaded, has a voice to us all.
We want you to remember that “One counts two on a division.”
We get it in the verse, “He that is not with Me is against Me; and he that gathers not with Me scatters abroad” (Matt. 12:30).
Note there is no neutrality as to position or practice in this verse. No person can say, “I am not with Christ, but I am NOT against Him.” It is either a case of “with” or “against.” Nor can a person say, “Though I do not gather, I do NOT scatter.” It is either a case of “gathering” or “scattering.” One counts two on a division. How searching this is!
And this holds good whether it be a matter of persons or actions. Our thoughts run thus. Suppose our young Christian friend, finding the tide of the world running too strongly for him, insensibly, perhaps to himself, yields to a certain extent. Suppose it is a prayer meeting night, and he usually attends this important gathering. But some worldly friends, decent enough in their way, invite him to a pleasant evening with them. He yields, and soon he is sitting with them. We need not picture what takes place, perhaps nothing very wrong, but the atmosphere is of the world, worldly, blighting, lowering for the Christian. But see how it works. The young Christian loses the help the prayer meeting would have been, if he had been present. That is a great loss! Does it stop there? Nay, the world will get a grip on that young man, unless he is miserable over his backsliding, and gets into the Lord’s presence, and seeks His power to keep him. One absence from the prayer meeting, one presence amid the worldlings, without any testimony for the Lord. “Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful” (Ps. 1:1).
Truly, “one counts two on a division.” One—the Spirit is grieved and His power in the soul weakened. Two—the world gets a little more grip, the spiritual sensibilities are deadened, the young Christian is in the perilous position of being a backslider.
It is a real peril. The young Christian, it may be, is away from the atmosphere of a Christian home. He can slip off to questionable places of amusement, and nobody be any the wiser. Nobody the wiser? “THOU GOD SEEST ME” (Gen. 16:13) was a great deterrent and safeguard to the writer in his youthful days. God sees, God knows, God notes. Is nobody after all the wiser? God is reality! “Everyone of us shall give account of himself to God! (Rom. 14:12).
Personal piety is alas! a decreasing quantity in this world, and the world is poorer that it is so.
We make a strong earnest appeal for personal piety. “Wherefore shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to Thy word” (Ps. 119:9).
May we all be anxious so to walk in this world as to please God. It is said of Enoch, “He had this testimony that he pleased God. But without faith it is impossible to please Him” (Heb. 11:5, 8). Life is a tragic failure if we fail in this.