Part 15

KIND OF PREACHERS AND PREACHING NEEDED.

We want no mere excitement about _a man_, nor _after a man_, who, as Simon the Sorcerer, induces the people to think that he is some _great one_. We want the clear, solid and telling preaching of the gospel, enlightening the people in reference to our Lord, the way to him, and how to serve him. We do not expect, as a general rule, to see much move among the people for the first ten days, but a gradual increase in the audience, the interest in the preaching and conversations about it; an account of the people hunting up their Bibles, inquiring whether these things are so, and occasional argument in reference to the matter. But after due time and deliberation, persons begin to step forward and confess Christ. While a good song is sung, everything in the assembly is solemn, and the impression deepens. While a few remarks are made of a solemn and impressive nature, and the confessions are taken, the audience sits in profound silence, in the deepest and most serious meditation, and tears are seen to flow freely from many faces. The audience disperses, and quietly retires, as if from a funeral. This is what we mean by _gospel work_.

We want nothing sensational, no tricks, no comic performance; no private maneuvering to induce any one to promise, “If you will join, I will;” no artifice to get round the people, come on them suddenly and surprise them. Come directly to the people from the start, and let them know what you mean, and work directly to the one point—the enlightenment and salvation of men. The man that can tell the story of the cross, and of a Savior’s love, in the most artless and unaffected manner, lose sight of and forget himself in his theme most completely, will accomplish the most in the Savior’s name. May we learn and tell the story of infinite compassion and love in all its fullness and completeness more successfully, with more faith and power than ever, and may we be enabled to bring souls to Christ more abundantly than ever.

WHERE IS THE POWER?

The genuine power—the power that will enable us to stand against all opposition and triumph at last—is not in this man or that, money or learning, talent or popularity, but in the _true position_. Learning is profitable, if used wisely, as a help in finding and determining the true position; but the power is not in the learning nor talent. A man of very ordinary learning and talent may find the true position, stand on and defend it. No matter what a man’s learning, talent or popularity may be, if he forsakes the truth, the right ground, if he undertakes to advocate false theories, it will become perfect weakness, and will be swept away like chaff. If men desire to stand, let them not think of their own power, learning, popularity, or personal influence, and talent, but of the _true ground_, “the right way of the Lord,” and depend on truth and the God of truth; never deviate from the truth, but be faithful to it, maintain their integrity to it, and the God of all truth and righteousness will hold them up. They will realize that the strength of the everlasting hills is underneath, and they cannot be moved. If men who once knew the truth, begin to higgle, tamper and trifle; if they, little by little, begin to show a want of integrity, a lack of moral honesty; a disposition to compromise with sectarianism; to ignore the distinctions between truth and error, the body of Christ and sectarian bodies; the way of the Lord and other ways, and finally begin to abandon leading principles and leading points of teaching, they will find their power gone and will soon amount to nothing. Many men have, in this way, literally thrown themselves away, and others are now going the same road.

If men desire to stand, they should seek the true ground, try to ascertain and determine what the truth is; find, with certainty, the _true position_, and place themselves squarely in it; maintain and defend it, not depending on _their own_ strength, learning, talent, influence or popularity, but on the truth; the _true position_; the _right way_. But some one is ready to inquire: “How can we find truth in the midst of so much error; the right way in the midst of so many ways?” This may be a little difficult to some. There is, however, one thing indispensable to it, and that is that a man receive “_the love of the truth_.” This lies at the foundation of the whole matter. Men will never be successful in finding, advocating, maintaining or defending the truth, who have never “received the love of the truth;” nor will they succeed in abiding in the truth. This is the very ground-work of the whole matter. All a man’s pretences of seeking the truth, are nothing but an empty sham, if he has not in him the love of the truth. He must have in him “a good and an _honest heart_,” to constitute him the “good ground” in which the seed of the kingdom, the word of God, will grow. But the man that loves the truth, desires it, longs for it, and has in him a good and honest heart, will make most diligent, careful and critical search for it. He sets out, not to prove this or that; not to maintain this theory or that, but to find the _true ground_—the _truth itself_, “as it is in Jesus”—and rarely fails to find the desired object, the highly prized jewel, the most precious gem. The love of the truth has an influence on a man, in different ways, in favor of his finding it, as follows:

_First._ It leads him to make diligent search for it. A man will certainly strive to find an object that he loves, and if he loves the truth, he will make most diligent search for it.

_Second._ It leads him to exercise the utmost discrimination, to distinguish between truth and error, that he may not be imposed on and deceived, and induced to think something is the truth that is not, and thus have a spurious article imposed on him.

_Third._ The love of the truth has wonderful power over a man to cause him to _retain it_. If he loves it he will not give it up.

If a man receives not the love of the truth, it affects him badly in the following respect:

_First._ He will exercise no diligence, to find it. He will not search for it.

_Second._ He will not be honest when it is presented to him, but will evade, cavil, quibble and mystify it if possible; kick up a dust to blind his own eyes, and thus keep him from understanding and receiving the truth. The Lord will abandon such men to “believe a lie, _because they received not the love_ of the truth that they might be saved.” There are many men now who receive not the love of the truth that they might be saved. They will never be enlightened or brought to the knowledge of the truth. The truth condemns them and they do not want it. They hate it and those who love it.

Truth has one grand quality about it; the more you know about it, the more clearly you see that it is the truth. It is like an honest man; the more you know about him, the more clearly you see that he is an honest man. The more you know about error, the more clearly you perceive it to be error. In the same way, the more you know about dishonest and heartless men the more clearly you see that they are dishonest.

Be careful and occupy the right ground, the true position, and no man can ever overthrow it, or prove it to be anything else but the true ground. It is a great thing in favor of an army to take a _strong position_.

We have taken the strongest position that can be taken, and if we fall back from that, no matter what we fall back to, we shall find it a weaker position. We have gone back to our Lord and looked up to him, and committed ourselves to him. He has given us a position and placed us on it. It is not _our_ position but _his_ position. We know it is right, because it came from him and is his. We have simply received him, with all he said and did—his holy and inspired apostles, with all they said and did. We have nothing of _our own_, but have received Christ and his gospel, the apostles of Christ, and the gospel of the grace of God, which they preached; the teaching of Christ and his apostles; all things as they came from this divine source, without anything added or taken away, anything more or less. None can find a position above this. It is the highest ground that can be taken. The gospel which the apostles preached is right. The apostles’ teaching for the churches is right. This nobody denies. We have no position of _our own_, or doctrine of _our own_, but have taken precisely the position of the first Christians, and the teachings under which they were placed, and no other. We, therefore, have nothing but our Lord, his gospel and teachings, as they emanated from himself and his inspired apostles, and no position only the one on which they have placed us to defend.

We are weak and can do but little. Let us not rely on _our own_ position, but the one the Lord has appointed; _our own_ views or theories, but the clear teachings of our Lord and his apostles. Here is the strength, and those who stand here will find the Lord of hosts with them. We must plead for the Lord, the gospel, the teachings of Christ and the apostles, the ground on which they stood, maintain that and nothing else. Here is the power, and it is nowhere else.

COMMUNION.

The Lord gave the commemoration of his sufferings and death to _his disciples_, and Paul, in Corinth, gave it to the congregation of the saints, and not to any others. Those who are his disciples, who are in Christ, in the body, are communicants, and those not in Christ, are not communicants. We “neither invite nor exclude,” but show to whom the Lord has given the communion, and that no others have any right to it, only those in good standing in the body, and _give it to no others_.

But for any preacher or church to arrange _purposely_ for communion with persons whom they know are not in Christ, not in the kingdom, and try to blur over the clear violation of the law of the kingdom, as thus deliberately arranged for, by defining the position of his church to be that they “neither invite nor exclude,” is certainly a weak and shallow device. It is an attempt to ignore the very act by which we enter into union with the Father and with the Son, as, also, the “whole family in heaven and on earth,”—immersion into Christ, into the name of the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, under the sham pretext of a _union_ meeting, a _union_ communion. There is no _Christian union_ in any meeting that intends to ignore the clear law of induction into the kingdom of God. It is only a _union in disloyalty_ to the Great King—_ignoring his law_.

WANDERING PILGRIMS.

We know of two or three wandering pilgrims that are now old men, of good enough talent to have made a permanent record long ago, and yet received in doubt wherever they go, held in distrust, and, to say the least, they have nothing that could be called a standing. To be safe, all the overseers in the church need do is simply to receive no man till he produces clear evidence of good standing. Look back over the record and see where the men have gone to who have tried the _gospel of soul sleeping_. Where are Elias Shortridge, Wm. P. Shockey, Wm. S. Speer, J. K. Speer, Snooks, and others of the same ilk? and where are their works? A streak of desolation has followed in their train all the way. They have divided churches, set the people of God at variance, and sown the seeds of discord. This is the kind of fruit that has been gathered from their work. Look back over the ground and see what has followed every man that has stranded among us. Nothing but ruin has followed. Men that stood fair, had line talent and valuable attainments, by some kind of departure or other, have gone, little by little, blaming those that loved them, and would, had it been in their power, have done anything to make them happy, till all is lost and they feel averse to almost everything. This is what it brings to get restless and dissatisfied with the plain truth of the Scriptures.

The race of some men is short, and the mischief they do is certain. The ruin they bring to the churches is inevitable. Nothing is more important than that the churches should guard against false teachers. In the place of being flattered that all is well, and that they mean all right, we should be on the lookout; watch all unscriptural words and phrases; every false move and pretence; every doubtful man and measure, and encourage that which is safe, sound and good. Make every public man sensible that it is of importance to him, and to the cause, to be known to be sound in teaching; to hold fast the form of sound speech that can not be condemned; to be entirely safe and reliable; to have a good record during his past history as a preacher. Make all our young men specially sensible of the importance to them to become permanent men, firm, decided and determined in their course. We want no milk-and-water men, a little this way and a little that, but men of settled principles, religious convictions and reliable purposes. Be careful who you “indorse” as preachers of the gospel. Men who want good indorsers should be good men.

DEDICATION OF CHURCH EDIFICES.

Nothing is more common than reading of the dedication of the Temple by Solomon as appropriate on dedication occasions. Only a few short years ago, a young brother of fine talent read of the dedication of the temple, and appropriated it to the occasion of dedicating a new meeting-house. But this is a perversion of a very inexcusable character. It loses sight of the significance of one of the most important types of the Old Testament. The temple was no type of a meeting-house, nor was the dedication of the temple a type of dedicating a meeting-house. The Lord did not give us the minute description of the building of the temple and the dedication to show us how to build _fine houses_ and _dedicate them_.

The temple was the type of the _spiritual building_; the _congregation of the saints, lively stones_, built together for an habitation of God through the Spirit. This is the temple that God dwells in—the house of God. The dedication of that ancient temple was typical of the dedication, or the consecration of men and women to the service of God. The work of the Pope is to lose sight of the dedication, or the consecration of men and women to the service of God, symbolized by the dedication of the temple, and turn the eyes of the people to great gatherings of people, to the flummery and parade of laying corner-stones, dedicating houses, immense piles of stone, brick, wood and mortar, baptizing bells and furniture, etc., etc.; but this is no work for the followers of Jesus, nor is there anything in it to put one in mind of our Lord.

We have no objection to holding a good meeting in a new house, setting the congregation of the Lord in order, if it needs it in it, and preaching the gospel to the people of the world. But we see no use then in making a great ado about it, or thinking any more of it than a good meeting in an old house. We do not like _extra occasions_. We like the regular worship appointed by the Lord, with every item from him, and not an item not from him. We love the things of God, but nothing not of him. We want no dedication occasions, nor any others not authorized in Scripture. When a new house is built, go into it and use it precisely as you would if it had been there fifty years. What the Lord has appointed will occupy our whole minds and hearts and hands.

THE CHURCH IN THE WILDERNESS.

There was certainly an assembly or congregation in the wilderness, as mentioned by Stephen. Acts vii. 38; but this congregation or assembly in the wilderness was the nation, or the national assembly of Israel—fleshly Israel. It consisted of the fleshly descendants of Abraham, as described in the language of God to Abraham, “Those born in thy house,” or the Jews. This congregation or assembly, the nation of Israel, or the Jews, was not the church, or body of Christ, but, as a body, it rejected Christ, persecuted him and instigated putting him to death, persecuted his followers and the church he established. Those of whom the church on Pentecost was composed came out of that old persecuting church, abandoned it and “were added to them”—to the apostles and the one hundred and twenty brethren—the new church—the one the Lord said (Matt. xvi. 18), “I will build.” “On this rock I will build my church”—the “one new man” (Eph. ii. 15), “to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace.” “Man” here is used figuratively, and stands for _church_, and one _new_ man is one _new_ church. It is not the perpetuation of an _old_ church, Adamic, Abrahamic, Mosaic or any other, but to build _one new church_ was what the Lord intended and accomplished.

The matter now is, not to be a descendant of Abel, nor of Abraham, nor Jacob, or Israel; nor to be of any particular line of flesh and blood, but to be born again—born from above, born of God. “That which is born of the flesh is flesh; that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” This new church has a new basis of membership, not in the flesh but in the Spirit, not in being born in the family of Abraham, but in the family of God, not in the first birth, but the second birth, not in a birth of the flesh, but a birth of the Spirit, not founded in natural generation, but in regeneration, not children of God by blood, but “all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.”

This church in which we are “all the children of God by faith in Christ”—by virtue of a new creation, a birth of water and of the Spirit, is not the one in the wilderness, nor any other church, congregation or assembly found before Pentecost, but it is the one the Lord said, “I will build,” but which was not built when the Lord said this; the one _new_ man, or _new_ church which the Lord made of the twain, or the _two_, the Jews and the Gentiles. This is the “one body” into which all were immersed in the time of the apostles—the body of Christ—the “temple of God,” in which God and Christ and the Holy Spirit dwell. To be “in Christ” is to be in this _one body_, to be “in the kingdom of God,” “in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,” to be in union with the Father and with the Son, with the whole family in heaven and on earth. To be in this one body brings us to all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. This is the body or the church that Jesus loved, and for which he gave himself, that “he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word”—“the church of the living God, the pillar and support of the truth.” It is “the building of God,” established “according to his eternal purpose” to “the intent” that “to the principalities and powers in heavenly places may be made known by the church the manifold wisdom of God.” See Eph. iii. 10.

SOUND MEN.

Why do men regret to hear us say of a man, “He is a gospel man;” “He is a sound man;” “He is a New Testament man.” It implies that there are some that are not “gospel men,” not “sound,” not “New Testament men.” What if it does? Why need any man be troubled about that? Certain men will be suspected of being unsound! Indeed! Must we shut our eyes and think contrary to what we know to be matter of fact, that all are sound? But, you imply that some are not sound! Certainly, and you imply that some are not honest, when you put a lock on your stable, crib or smoke-house, lock and bolt your doors at night, and when you will not trust all men alike. When you say, “I will trust him, his word is as good as his note,” you imply that some other man is not good—that his word is not as good as his note.

But we tell you of A, B, C, D and E, that we have trusted, and they have all paid, and we believe all are alike honest, and will pay. If you are a business man, you will reply, “Yes, and I have trusted many more than that, all of whom paid, but I have trusted a long list that did not pay, and you need not preach to me that all will pay.” So referring to a few men who, on a few occasions preached the gospel faithfully, does not prove that _all do this_, or even that _these few_ always do it.

That we have the men now who are making it a constant and prayerful effort to reproduce the gospel and all its fruits; to reproduce the Church and all its blessings to man; to maintain all things as delivered to us by Christ and his apostles, we rejoice to know. That we have another class of men, who have no heart in this, and have even repudiated the idea, we entertain not a doubt. Those determined to reproduce the gospel of Christ and all its fruits, the Church, and all its blessings to man, introduce no innovations; nothing new and foreign to destroy the peace of the children of God, and are the cause of no dissensions and no divisions. Those standing off are not from among them. They will stand with God, with Christ, with the Holy Spirit, with the things of God as set forth in Scripture. We stop not to count the number, whether great or small, nor to consider whether they shall be popular or unpopular, rich or poor. The only question is, are they of God? Does God require that the gospel of his grace, as given by his Son and the apostles, shall be reproduced? Does he require that the church shall be reproduced? We maintain that he requires that the gospel, in all its entirety and completeness, shall be reproduced, and we shall be satisfied with nothing short of it. He requires that the Church, in its entirety and completeness, shall be reproduced. These are matters settled with us. The man whose heart is not in this work, and who aims not at it, is not one with us, nor in sympathy with us.

CHRISTMAS.

We do not believe that the 25th of December is the birthday of our Lord. We have seen abundant reasons for this, and could adduce them, if the importance of the matter required it, though we have not the works at hand now to refer to, as we think, settling the matter.

There is not an intimation of the first Christians making anything of the birthday of our Lord, observing it religiously in any way, or regarding it as a holiday, or a _holy day_ at all. This accounts for the uncertainty about the day. If the first Christians had observed it, or in any particular way celebrated it, as the Jews did the Passover, there never could have been any doubt about the day. Anti-christ is great on _holy days_, specially if, of his own appointment, or if some paganism is mixed in them. This was one source of corruption in the primitive church—the continual tendency to mix up pagan ceremonies and superstitions with the simple, pure and holy religion of our Lord. Worldly and carnal-minded men in the early ages conceived the idea of popularizing the religion of Christ and commending it to the world by mixing pagan ceremonies, customs and superstitions with it; adorning it with philosophy and the pagan ideas of refinement. But all this only corrupted and degraded it.