Part 19

All we have to do to stand right before the people, is to _be sound_ in heart, in the faith, in the life; true to the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ; honest and faithful in the whole matter; maintaining, defending, advocating it, as the only divine and gracious system for the salvation of a lost world; enforcing it on men for its own sake, and for the sake of humanity. Our safety is not in a tribunal of learned men, who are _censors_ for us, but in the _judgment of an intelligent and enlightened brotherhood_. They render no hasty judgment and make no uncertain decisions. They do not anathematize nor hate any man. They do not pronounce on a man for a single utterance or an inadvertence. But when a man becomes perverse, his general course and bearing evincing alienation, and a disposition to be in the wrong—an aversion to the good, the true and the faithful—they begin to lose their interest in him. Every step he takes in the wrong direction lessens the affection for him in the hearts of the people of God, till he finds himself cut off, if not literally by the action of a church, that which is equally as fatal, the general turning away from him, and utter failure in any sense to support him.

May we all maintain soundness in the faith, in the gospel, integrity to it, faithfulness to it in all things, soundness in character, purity and holiness. May we strive to live nearer and still nearer to God.

DELAY IN TURNING TO THE LORD.

If a person has delayed turning to the Lord, till some hindrance comes, so that he can not take the steps, or do what the Lord has commanded, to become a christian, he has simply delayed till he can not become a christian. If he defers on any account, he simply defers becoming a christian. At some point, a man passes the possibility of becoming a christian. That point, or period, is generally thought to be at death. Some still sing, “While the lamp holds out to burn, the vilest sinner may return,” but this is not true. It is true that after death none can turn to God, but it is not true that before death all can turn to God. The apostle speaks of some men who were living in the literal sense, but whom he compares to “trees twice dead and plucked up by the roots. Such a tree as that never grows again.” He speaks of other men “past feeling,” and others, still living, for whom nothing remains “but a fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries,” and still others for whom nothing remains but “the blackness of darkness forever.” Some are given over to believe the lie and be condemned.

Our opinions are worth nothing in reference to those who can not do what the Lord commands. We do not know a thing about the salvation of any person only as the Lord has promised. He has promised that “He who believes and is immersed, _shall be saved_,” and commanded, “Repent, and be immersed every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins.” He who obeys the command has the promise. Outside of this we know nothing about it. Not only so, but if we give some _charitable opinions_ for those who can not obey, or in reference to deferring, on account of hindrances, these cases will become more frequent, and these opinions will be applied not simply to cases where persons _can not_ obey, but where they can not _conveniently_, and in a short time we have a system of salvation for those who _never obey_, and the gospel is set aside by our _opinions_.

There are but few sick persons that can not be immersed. We have immersed some half-dozen in the most critical situations, and some of them in less than two days of their death, without any physical injury, and with great relief to the mind. But we only allude to this to show that there are not many cases where it is not possible to obey the gospel, and not because this is the _time to obey_. It is not the proper time to be baptized, or to make a profession. The proper time is when persons first hear and believe the gospel; when their health, and strength, and reason, are unimpaired, and they can voluntarily _yield themselves_ to the service of God. When we come to die, one promise of God is worth more than all the opinions of uninspired men put together.

WIELDING THE SWORD OF THE SPIRIT.

“The sword of the Spirit” is defined by the Spirit himself, through Paul. It is the word of God. “Why is it called the sword _of the Spirit_? Because the Spirit _gave it_, and not because he _uses_ or _wields it_.” The Spirit gave it to men that they might use or wield it. There is not a more unsupported theory in this apostate age than the one that teaches that the Spirit wields the sword. He did not do this even in the age of miracles. Jesus said to his Father “The words that thou gavest me I have given them.” Given to whom? To the apostles. What did he tell them to do with these words, or, which is the same, the gospel? He commanded them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.” Preaching the gospel is preaching the word, or wielding the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. After Jesus died and rose and ascended into heaven, he sent the Spirit to guide the apostles into all truth; to bring all things to their remembrance. On Pentecost the Spirit came, and they spake as the Spirit gave them utterance. The history says, “When they heard this”—the word spoken—“they were pierced in their heart.” The Spirit brought the word to their remembrance, and the apostles preached it—spake as the Spirit gave them utterance. In Solomon’s porch, Peter preached, or wielded the sword—the word of God. Philip wielded the sword in Samaria. Peter wielded the sword at the house of Cornelius. Paul commanded Timothy to “Preach the word.” This was wielding the sword of the Spirit, the word of God.

This whole theory about the word being a dead letter, whether so intended or not, is the very thing to neutralize the gospel, and cause honest people who believe the gospel, to wait for some immediate power to do something more for them before they come to God. This very theory, in the place of being Scriptural, is directly opposed to the very spirit and intention of the Scriptures, and is, we doubt not, chargeable with hindering more souls from turning to the Lord and receiving the salvation of God than all the out-and-out infidelity in the country. They hear the word of God—the gospel of their salvation—the power of God to salvation to every one that believe it, and honestly believe it. They hear the preaching of the cross of Christ, the wisdom of God and the power of God, and believe it with their whole hearts; but the preacher says you must wait till the Spirit makes it effectual, and till the Spirit quickens you and prepares you to receive it, about which there is not one word in the book of God.

WE ARE NO SECT.

We belong to no _sect_ or _heresy_, no “denomination,” and recognize none in any sense, only as existing in opposition to the will of God—in a rebellion against the government of God. We know sects only as antagonistic powers to the law and kingdom of God. They are heretical and schismatical, in alienation to each other and to the kingdom of God. We find them in no complete union on anything of importance, except in opposing the gospel of Christ. In this they are a unit. Never did loving brethren more completely unite than they one and all do in this. One voice sounding out the gospel precisely as preached by the apostles, and propounding the terms of pardon as they came from the ambassador of Jesus, to whom he gave the keys of the kingdom of God, will silence all their jars among themselves, their differences and disputes, and bring them all around side by side, facing the common foe. It will call out their confusion of tongues, and the cry, “Lo! here, and lo there,” will be heard on all hands. The cry is raised. “To your tents, O Israel! to your tents! Danger! danger! dangerous doctrine! Do not hear him! Keep away! keep away! He will unsettle your views!”

Why are they all opposed to this? There is a very good reason for it. It is opposed to all of them. In its very nature it proposes to sweep them all away. It leaves not an inch of ground for one of them to stand on. We came not with a new doctrine, but with the gospel of Christ, a distinct entity in itself, not only having no fellowship with any other gospel, but pronouncing a curse on man or angel who shall preach any other, no matter whether near like it or not near like it—a perversion of it or mutilation. The gospel of Christ itself is the thing to be preached, and nothing else; the power of God to salvation to every one that believes; the preaching of the cross, the wisdom of God, and the power of God. To this nothing is to be added, and from it nothing is to be taken away. In this gospel, Christ, the “one Shepherd,” is presented, and the one kingdom of God, or one body of Christ. All the followers of Christ are members of this one body, or citizens of this one kingdom. There are no “denominations” of them. They are all members of his body, citizens of his kingdom by faith, the children of Abraham, heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ, saints, holy brethren. They know no other king but the “King of kings, and Lord of lords.” Their King, in his times, will “show who is the only Potentate.” Their King has no negotiations with any other spiritual kings. He puts them down _against him_. He has no communications nor negotiations with Pope Pius, or any other Pope. He has no _fraternal greetings_ for any of them, but his Father has sworn with an oath that he shall reign till he shall put down all rule and all authority and power—till he has put all his enemies under his feet.

The kingdom of Christ recognizes no other kingdom. It is an absolute monarchy. Christ is the Monarch. He has no Parliament, no Senate or Congress, no legislative body in his kingdom. As the rightful Sovereign and the absolute Monarch, he is the Law-giver. His will is the law, as spread on the pages of Scripture—the absolute authority—and his subjects have simply to consult the law, ascertain what it requires, and _obey it_. They are not responsible for the law. They need not trouble themselves about results or consequences. Do as the Supreme Authority commands, and leave the consequences with him. He is so wise, good and great, that he will bring all out right, for all those that put their trust in him. His subjects stop not to counsel with those who have other laws, to compare them with the law of the Lord Messiah, to see how near they are to his, or how far from it. They have no authority to make any other laws, no matter how near like his law, or how far from it. Their business is to throw aside all other laws, and accept him as their Monarch, and _his law_, and _obey it_. This is simply all there is of it. He who is not for him is against him.

The citizens of his kingdom have no authority from him for negotiating with any sectarian party, about union with his people, comparing their views and determining how nearly they agree. He has left them no discretionary power to compromise with anybody, or to stipulate terms of union and fellowship. He has stipulated the terms for us all. If we comply with these terms he receives us, and we are bound to receive each other, and certainly will desire to do so. If we comply not with these terms he will not receive us, and no saint has any right to receive us. No man has a right to prescribe terms on which to receive any man. The terms are already prescribed in the law of the great King. We must not go to man, but to the King, to know who shall be received. It is not a question whether _man_ will receive us, but whether the _Lord_ will receive us.

MAINTAIN A PURE FAITH AND WORSHIP.

Who, in the midst of all this demoralization, will stand for God, for the anointed and for the eternal Spirit; for the only supreme and absolute, the final authority, the revelation from God to man, as set forth in the Bible? We must maintain this or we shall be ruined forever. We must resist all broad-guagism, liberalism, this terrible demoralization, and maintain the purity of the religion of Christ itself. We have taken our stand on the highest ground and must maintain the highest purity and order, the greatest perfection and refinement of which we are capable. We must maintain pure morality, pure faith and worship, utter abstinence from follies and all doubtful practices, all things held in suspicion among good people. It is a time for general humiliation and supplication—one mighty and united appeal of all the true and holy to heaven to save us from the general avalanche of iniquity that threatens the ruin of the country, and specially of religion. Jews may look on with a sneer, infidels may mock and scoff, and hell may appear to exult; but the Lord God the Omnipotent reigns, and the wicked will be overthrown. It matters not how popular they may be, how great their talent, how much money they may have, nor how great their number, the strong arm of the Almighty can reach them and bring them down. Their doom is certain.

THINGS NOT FORBIDDEN.

Where has God forbidden infant baptism? Where has he forbidden sprinkling for baptism? Where has he forbidden the offering of incense, the counting of beads, in worship? What harm is there in all this? This is sophistry, deception, delusion, and that, too, of a very low and unworthy order at that. Where is the divine authority for doing this or that? If there is no divine authority for doing this or that, in religion, or worship, that very circumstance is _divine authority against it_. “Who hath required this at your hand?” is the inquiry of the word of God, to all such as introduce things into religion or worship, not authorized in Scripture. We may add nothing to the religion of Christ, the faith or practice, the precept or example, the worship, the rewards or punishments.

Those who consider themselves free to do anything _not forbidden in Scripture_, are out at sea, pretty much cut loose from the Bible. They have in their horizon a broad range. They are not in search of divine authority, not engaged in that for which there _is divine authority_, but things for which there _is no divine authority_—things _not forbidden_. They are not studying how to do the commandments, but whether men can not be saved without doing the commandments; how to obey the gospel, but how men can be saved without obeying the gospel; not how to build up the church of God, set it in order and keep it in order; how to worship according to the Scriptures; but how to make the church attractive, entertaining and popular. Their theme is not the gospel, nor is their mission turning the world from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God; but to so model and fashion the church as to please the world as it is, in its unconverted state, without the work of turning it to God. Let them have their way, and the church, in a short time, will be so let down that men will need no conversion to come into it. There will be no cross nor self denial in it. Be careful and not fall “into the trap,” as Luther did. If there is no divine authority for a thing, that is enough. We need no Scripture forbidding it.

We can unite on the things required in Scripture—the things commanded—but we never can unite on the things not forbidden. There are too many of this latter class; they are too various, contradictory and inconsistent. Let us stick to the things that are written. These are divinely authorized. The things not written are not divinely authorized. Let us stand to the prescribed terms of pardon, the prescribed life of the saints, and the prescribed worship. Those who depart from this _are going back_.

BRANCHES OF THE CHURCH.

When we say the body, we do not mean any sort of body, or any kind of body, but _the body of Christ_; _the one body_ into which all were immersed in the time of the apostles. This is the same as in “the Church of God,” “the kingdom of God.” The body of Christ has no _branches_ except the individual members. There are no _branch bodies_. The kingdom of God has no branches. Every citizen is in the kingdom, and those not in the kingdom are not citizens at all.

The Church of God, the body of Christ, or the kingdom, is a divine institution. The Lord built his church on the rock, and no man who understands the matter, “loves the Lord Jesus Christ with all his soul” while he says, “I care not to what church a man identifies himself.” The man who identifies himself with the Church of God, or the body of Christ, identifies himself with God, Christ and the Holy Spirit—with the entire heavenly family. This is what we _care for_. But identifying a man with those bodies styled _branches_ is another matter. We can not love the Lord Jesus Christ with all the soul and _care not_ whether we are identified with his body, or, which is the same, with him or some other body or person.

But let us inquire about these branches. Are they branches of the Church of God? The Church of God has never _branched any_ that we know of. The body of Christ has no branches except the individual members and they all belong to _the body_, and not to a branch of the body. A man is simply in the body, or not in it. The kingdom of God has no branches. A man is simply _a citizen_, or _he is not_. If our correspondent desires to know whether he is in a branch of the Church of God let him trace the _branch_ with which he is identified back to where it _branched off_, and see what it branched off from; whether it branched off from another branch, or from the main body. If it branched off from another branch, then he might trace that other branch and see what it branched off from. Before he gets back to the _body_ he may find some _branches_ that are no credit to anybody.

The departures from the body and from the law of God are not honored as _branches of the body_. They are styled in Scripture a “falling away,” the _apostasy_. They are departures from God, from Christ and from the Holy Spirit. The great apostasy is styled the Man of Sin, the Son of Perdition. That is the first branch. We do not want to be identified with it, or any branch of it, or any _branch of a branch_ of it. We have gone back to the body of Christ from which it departed, and become identified with that body itself, and will recognize no departure from it, no matter how many pretty names may be given to it, nor how many good people belong to it, but will still hold it to be an apostasy, or a departure from God. There can be no union in _branches_ only _branch union_; there can be union in the _one body_, in the one faith, under the one Lord, and nowhere else, such as the Lord will approve.

WHOM THE LORD RECEIVES.

There is no half-way fellowship to which we can receive persons, and allow them all the privileges we enjoy, and they not in full fellowship. It is not a question about _our_ receiving a person, but the Lord receiving the person. The very _act_ in which the penitent sinner comes and is received by the Lord is baptism. When he comes in _full assurance of faith and penitence_, and is immersed into Christ, the Lord receives him. All we do in the matter is to execute the law of Christ. The entire matter of inquiry is about _how the Lord receives persons_. This is all we inquire about.

When we turn aside from the way the Lord receives persons, and receive them in some other way, it is no difference what that other way is. It may be styled more _liberal_ than the way in which the Lord receives persons, but the Lord does not propose to present something more liberal than men; but he is a Law-giver, and lays down the law on which he will receive men, and if men desire him to receive them, they must come in the way laid down in _his law_. But if we only desire to be received by men, we can consult them and learn the terms on which they will receive us; but when we act thus we must not deceive ourselves, and think we are becoming servants of the Lord in so doing. We are simply becoming servants of men.

NOT OF ONE CLASS.

In what sense except an extremely _general one_ are the Romish, Episcopalian, Methodist and Presbyterian clergy of one class? Not that there is much fraternity, fellowship or agreement among them; nor even that there is any general sympathy, harmony or co-operation; nor that they are engaged in _one work_. They belong to separate kingdoms. In their official acts they never act together. If they act together at all, it is not officially, nor in any sense, only on certain occasions, to be friendly, courteous and polite toward each other, but with the distinct understanding that it is _not official_. Their actions are as distinct as those of a United States Congressman and a member of the British Parliament. They are both _officers of State_, and so far on _common ground_, and, as such, treat each other with respect and courtesy; but, in their official acts, they have no fellowship, and are not under the same government. In the same way the clergy of the different parties we have mentioned, in their official acts never act together, and have no fraternity. They are not acting under the same government, nor are they officers in the same kingdom. The official acts of one of them are not regarded by another at all.

In what sense, then, are they _classed together_, or what is it that is _common_ among them? Simply that they are _ministers of religion_, or men whose lives are devoted to religious instruction, and matters of church. But not of the same order, nor of the same church; not of the same religion; not of the same faith, nor of the same practice. They do not speak the “same thing,” nor are they of the “same mind and the same judgment,” or “perfectly joined together.” They are not of the “one fold and one shepherd.” They are not “one as we” (the Father and the Son) “are one;” nor were they “all baptized into one body,” nor are they in “one body,” with “one Spirit” and “one hope,” under “one Lord,” and with “one faith,” and “one baptism,” and “one God and Father of all, who is above all, and in you all.”

We have not a railing accusation to bring against these men as a class, nor do we hate or denounce them; nor have we an unkind feeling toward them. We can recognize every good trait they have; all the moral influence, the learning and intelligence, as well as their devotion to their several causes. We can make all reasonable allowance for early training, association and education, and admit all their good intentions. We can treat them with all the common courtesies and civilities of an enlightened and a refined age, as gentlemen, and moral and orderly men. All this and much more we can do. What we can not do is not from any unkind feeling toward them, nor because they have treated us with a special indignity, or given us any personal offence, or anything of the kind. But it is because we can not, without setting aside principle that we are as certain is correct as we are that the Bible contains a revelation from God, recognize their airs, pretensions and claims. We can not without ignoring, overriding and utterly disregarding matters of the most vital, fundamental and central importance. It is not the class of men that we denounce, or that we speak against, but the _positions they assume_, the work they are doing and the obstruction they are in the way of the work of Christ.

HOW THE WORLD REGARDS DANCERS.