Chapter IX: Part 9

When at home he spends many hours alone, and some of the friends inquired whether he did not get lonesome. “No,” said he, “I never get lonesome. I talk to the Lord and he talks to me. I talk to him in my prayers, and he talks to me in the Bible.” This is keeping good company, and a glorious way to keep from getting lonesome. He reads up and keeps fully posted in all that is transpiring among us, and is fully alive to all the dangers now threatening the cause—the insidious steps now tending to undermine and overthrow all we have done. Still, like Paul, none of these things move him. He is firm as the everlasting hills. He has settled convictions and purposes, and can not be turned away from them. He can see, as Solomon says, that “one sinner destroyeth much good,” but adheres to another saying of much importance from the same source: “Fret not thyself because of evil-doers.” The Lord is with him and he is as happy as he can be, full of love and good-will to God and man. Thanks be to God for the faith of Christ that has the power to bear up the spirit, to console and comfort him in extreme old age, and opens to his view, now that he is about to let go this world, “a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens;” and now that he is about to surrender up this life, that opens to his view a life that never ends. Blessed be the Lord who is pleased thus to deal tenderly and kindly with him in his near approach to another world.

CHURCH DECISIONS.

But may not public opinion, or even the Church, decide wrong? It may, and, no doubt, does sometimes. So may any court, man can establish; and it may turn out that the world may become so bad, or the church may become so perverted or corrupted, that a man can not get a fair decision. Still, it is the best that can be done, for us all to be free alike, before the court of public opinion, and the church, and if we should get a wrong decision here, the last or final appeal is to the court of heaven, to the judgment of the Great Day. But in a country like this, where a man has been among a people all his life; been an upright and true man; conducted himself with consistency and propriety; there must be something very singular in his course, and peculiar indeed, if he can not get a fair hearing and decision from public opinion, or from the church. There must be something very peculiar in his course to unsettle their confidence; to start doubts in their minds in reference to his soundness; to fill the public mind with distrust. There must be something not _straightforward_.

REIGN OF A THOUSAND YEARS.

We know of no proof that the righteous will be raised a thousand years before the wicked. The Lord says, “The hour is coming when all that are in the graves shall hear his voice and shall come forth; they that have done good to the resurrection of life, and they that have done evil to the resurrection of damnation.” We see no _thousand years_ between the resurrection of those that have done good and those that have done evil here.

The quotation from John v. 28-29, above, connects the coming of Christ and the resurrection, and the following connects the coming of Christ and the judgment: “I charge you, therefore, before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at _his appearing_ (his coming) and kingdom.” II. Tim. iv. 1. Other Scriptures show the same. At the close of Matt. xxv. it will be seen, as it is from other Scriptures, that all will be judged at the same time, and at the same time that the righteous “enter into life eternal” the wicked “go away into everlasting punishment.” This connects the coming of Christ, the resurrection, the judgment, the separation of the righteous and the wicked, and the entrance into life on the one hand, and the going away into everlasting punishment on the other hand.

We listened to the Millerites in 1843, read pretty much all they wrote about a thousand years’ reign of Christ, between the resurrection of those who are Christ’s and those who are not his, and whatever the thousand years may mean in words, “the rest of the dead lived not again till the thousand years were ended,” we find no clear evidence of its coming between the resurrection of the righteous and the wicked. Sundry Scriptures show that the judgment of all, will be at the same time.

Christ sitting on the throne of David does not make him a king, in the temporal sense, as David was, but only that he is in the royal family, and, in the sense of that Scripture, he is now in that reign, and not to be in the Millennium. In the end he will deliver up the kingdom to God, even the Father, when he shall put down all rule, and all authority and power. For he must reign till he has put all enemies under his feet. See I. Cor. xv. 24, 25. “When all things shall be subdued to him, then shall the Son also himself be subject to him, who put all things under him, that God may be all in all.” I. Cor. xv. 28. The Lord has come to receive a kingdom, and is now reigning over that kingdom—a kingdom not of this world—and on David’s throne, in the only sense he ever will be.

METHODIST CLERICAL PRETENSIONS.

Who duly appointed the ministry in the Methodist body? A body that is not, and admits that it is not, the body of Christ! Where did this body get authority to appoint a ministry? It has no authority to appoint any thing in the kingdom of God. Who “divinely called” the ministry in the Methodist body? Not the Lord, for he has no Methodist body. He never called a man to minister in a body that he never authorized. The men called in that body were not called of God at all, nor divinely called. They either _called themselves_, or were called by a body that has no divine authority in it, and therefore are not divinely called. Nor are they divinely qualified. The apostles were divinely qualified. They had the Holy Spirit to guide them into all truth. They never preached any Methodism, nor built up any Methodist churches. They never authorized a Methodist steward, class-leader, circuit-rider, presiding elder, or bishop, any more than they authorized that unmeaning _bread and water love-feast_, the band-society, the class-meeting, circuit or conference, either quarterly, annual or general. The Methodist church has not a duly-appointed ministry, a divinely-called and sent, or divinely-qualified ministry in it. Its worship, ordinances and discipline are not duly nor scripturally administered. Indeed, it has but little in it that hears any similitude to the original church. To talk of its having a divinely-qualified ministry will strike any one a little acquainted with the Scriptures with peculiar force. A more absurd idea could hardly be uttered.

The apostles were divinely called, sent and _qualified_, and should one of them appear in a Methodist revival, where persons are “seeking religion,” crying, “What shall we do?” as they did on Pentecost, and answer as Peter did on that occasion, “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins,” in the place of the loud response, “Amen,” dismay would run all along the line, and the _divinely-qualified_ ministry would want the divinely-qualified apostle out of the meeting. His voice would be a _strange_ voice in their meeting. If he were to tell the seekers, as Ananias did Saul, “Why do you tarry? Arise, and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on the name of the Lord,” they would soon want him out of their meeting.

MOODY AND SANKEY.

The above named men referred to in the following, were popular evangelists among the sects, and, though not educated for the ministry, or ordained to that holy calling, performed all the functions of those divines who claim to be called and sent of God. The recognition they received in the great cities of the land, by clergymen of all sects, Bro. Franklin regarded as a surrender of their clerical pretensions and as equivalent to an acknowledgment of the fact that any christian man, possessed of good christian character, and a knowledge of the word of God, may preach the word.

J. A. H.

In the operations of Moody and Sankey, as also others that have conceived virtually the same idea, and their surroundings, we have some lessons of much importance. To some of these we now invite attention:

In all the principal parties there are some clerical pretensions. They nearly all have some kind of clerical standard, that a man must pass, to enter into holy orders at all. They have some kind of regular process through which a man must pass, to be an authorized minister, or to be permitted to minister in holy things at all, or to make ordinances valid administered by his hands, or to give him official grace and functions. But here come Moody and Sankey, Whittle and Bliss, or Hammond, without ever having been tried by the _clerical standard_, or ever having passed through the regular process to holy orders, and never made clergymen at all, preaching and exercising ministerial functions. All sorts of clergymen are rallying to them, recognizing and indorsing their work! What becomes of clerical pretensions in all this? Clergymen of all sorts recognizing and indorsing _laymen preaching_, and laymen exercising all the functions of the ministry, who have never been measured by the ministerial standard, and never have been made clergymen. In this they are conceding that their clerical pretensions and claims are empty—that there is nothing in them, that men that have never been measured by the standard, nor made clergymen at all, have as good a right to preach and minister in holy things as they. In this they concede that the clerical cloak is nothing, and that men can and may rightfully preach the word of God, without having it on. The people ought to lay hold of this concession, read the Scriptures, learn them and teach others, and thus go on till they fill the earth with the knowledge of God. No man need wait to have clerical hands laid on him to authorize to preach Jesus, or teach the saints in the way of righteousness. To know the gospel and the teaching of Christ, and be able to preach Christ and teach saints the way to heaven, prepares any man to preach and teach. To appear in a proper manner and exercise a good influence in preaching and teaching, a man must be a christian, and have a good life as such, a life of piety and devotion, corresponding to the preaching and teaching. But a man is in no shape to appear before the world as a preacher of Christ, and a teacher in the kingdom of God, who has no standing in the church of God, where his home is, and a good recommendation to satisfy those abroad that his standing is good at home.

TOO LATE FOR THE CARS.

On going to the depot we found our information about car time was wrong, and we got to the depot just in time to see the train go out and leave us. This has two lessons in it: 1. That it is not true “that what a man thinks is right, is right to him.” The time we _thought was right_ proved _not to be right_. 2. That we ought to be cautious about saying, “There is time enough yet.”

LORD’S DAY MEETINGS.

Churches should not be compelled to hear preaching every Lord’s day, and that the dullest and dryest kind, from the same man, the same thing, over and over again; but instead of this, have a variety of good songs; sundry readings of interesting Scriptures, from different persons, each occupying from five to ten minutes, with two or three prayers at suitable intervals, and words of exhortation. The overseer who can so conduct these matters as to interest the whole congregation, develop and bring out the most talent, and make the whole the most conducive to the edification of all, is the most efficient and successful overseer, whether he can preach or not himself. No man, overseer or not, ought to appear before the people publicly more than is acceptable to them. Many men kill themselves off by talking too much and being too officious.

LAYING THE CORNER STONE OF A CATHOLIC CATHEDRAL.

But what was to be done? What was all this about? We are ashamed, for humanity’s sake, to tell. It was to see a bishop _pow-wow_ over a corner stone, _bless it_ and _lay it_ for a Romish meeting house! That was what all this was about! What was there in that? No more than any other pagan ceremony. No more than to see any other Irishman laying any other stone or brick in any other building, aside from tradition and superstition. This is the procedure of the Anti-christ, the Man of Sin, the power gone out to deceive the whole world with sorceries; a compound of Judaism, Paganism and Christianity, but described in the book of God as the Apostasy. It has corrupted the four quarters of the earth with its abominations and idolatries. It has two hundred millions of the human race under its domination. It has caused the blood of fifty millions of martyrs to flow. But the tide is receding. The wheel is turning back. His secular power has departed. He does not have Victor Emmanuel to bow down and kiss his great toe, nor to come and crave favors of him. But he goes to Victor Emmanuel to know what favors he can have. This puts the shoe on the other foot. Prince Bismarck banishing the Jesuits from Germany, is another turn in the same direction. The revolution in Mexico is in the same direction. The Pope gets no favors in all these moves. He is strengthening his hands in the United States a little just now, but this is only temporary, and, we trust, will only serve to open the eyes of the people in this country. Our people need a few demonstrations to rouse them from their slumbers. They need to be made sensible who they are that want their drinking saloons, and want them open on Sundays, that intend to parade our streets with bands of music and long processions on the Lord’s day, who they are that are trying to undermine our common schools and ruin them, who they are that publish in our faces that our marriages are all null and void—that we are all living in adultery because we were not married by priests! We need a little more of this impudence in our faces to rouse us up and cause us to see the viper we have taken into our bosoms, and see what claim this Mystery of Iniquity has on our charities.

It refuses to allow its adherents to become members of the Masonic order, because it is a _secret Order_. The trouble is that it is a _secret Order_ itself, with its _sworn members_ and _bound priests_, its prowling Jesuits, nuns and friars, the most dangerous and complete and perfect—the consummation of all secret Orders, from the hired girl in the kitchen, and the hired man on the farm, up through every position held, every situation in life, and every office held by a Papist, to communicate intelligence to a set of men bound up in this _Order of secrecy_, who are not even citizens in our Government, that they may report to the Holy See in Rome! It is a secret, Pagan and Jewish mixture with Christianity; an intriguing, insidious and stealthy scheme, prying into the secrets of every nook and corner of every land, and every move of every civil government on earth, and a friend to no civil government on the face of the earth, only so far as it can be made subservient to the purposes of the Pope.

The new Cardinal in this country is a minion of the Pope, and, without being a citizen of the United States, when he pleases to do so, will control the vote of some six millions of our population; and this all done by the _secret workings_ of the Papacy, without any man seeing the secret wires that are pulled to do it. These priests, bound all over by religious _vows or oaths_, in a _secret conclave_, plan schools to be taught by nuns, all in the _secret Order_, and gather up vagrant children, while many of their own children are beggars, to make Romanists of them, and shut them out from the light of the common schools and colleges of this country.

Then how do these priests propose to gain power? Do they propose to come out in open day; publicly teach the people and enlighten them? Not a word of it. Do they propose to discuss their claims? Not a bit of it. How then are they doing this work? _Insidiously._ It is all in the dark, except an occasional demonstration like that we had here on the first Lord’s day in July. What were the people taught on that day? Did any one hear any instruction? Thousands of dollars were expended. Thousands of people were weary and exhausted, but no one was enlightened. No one was taught even Romanism, except those, who from the word of God have learned the power of the grand delusion, the mystery of iniquity that now works. They can understand the power of the sorceries practiced to deceive and allure unwary souls.

UNIVERSALISM UNBELIEF.

The mission of unbelief, in this direction, is—

_First._ To force the Bible to agree with the Atheist, in theory, that a man’s conduct in this life, no matter what it may be, can not destroy his happiness in another life.

_Second._ That there shall be no reward in another world, for virtue, righteousness and obedience rendered to God in this life.

_Third._ That there shall be no punishments in the world to come, for disobedience, corruption, and crime, committed in this life.

_Fourth._ That the death of Christ amounts to nothing, as the consequences of sin all follow now, and fall upon man just as they did before he died.

_Fifth._ That repentance amounts to nothing, as the punishment of sin is simply the natural result of a violation of a natural law, and must follow its violation whether you repent or not.

_Sixth._ That there is no pardon of sin—that as you put your hand in the fire, the burn must follow—as you spend your money, you must become poor—as you dissipate, your physical energies must be impaired; so, as you sin, in all cases the penalty must follow.

_Seventh._ All this being conceded, the grace of God is at an end. There is no such an attribute as mercy in the government of Jehovah.

_Eighth._ No love of God is manifested either in the life or death of Jesus, nor has his death produced any change in the world.

No wonder that infidels hail this theory with joyfulness, flock around the Universalian preacher, and call him “brother.” His operations are fatal to the Bible, to the mission and divine authority of the Lord Jesus, and better calculated to turn the whole subject of religion into ridicule, than any open infidelity ever advocated in the world. By this kind of circumlocution, the Bible is now sought to be subverted, and its influence upon the world destroyed. But all men of discernment can see, that this is only a scheme to pull down and destroy—that it has no efficacy to save, to make good, or improve mankind—that it can do no good, in any event, to one soul of our race, either in this world or the world to come. It is only an instrument, one of the most effectual instruments of unbelief, in destroying all good, all virtue, and all piety.

PERSONALITY OF THE DEVIL.

Denying the personality of the Devil. Here we have more _negative preaching_—more _denying_. What a world of gospel there is in this! Who is to be saved by denying the personality of the Devil? Who is comforted and built up with this sort of stuff? The infidel laughs. The Universalist nods assent; but who repents? The scoffer is delighted. That is the man for him! But does he quit scoffing? We have recently heard of a man who had stripped his feet bare after a rain of a warm summer’s day, and, walking up through the mud to an old preacher, denied the personality of the Devil; when the preacher, pointing behind the man, replied: “He must be _alive_ and _personal_, for _there is his track fresh in the mud_!” Another preacher allowed that when the Devil has a man so completely blinded that he does not believe there is any Devil, or that he is a personal being, he never expects to have any more trouble with him. He will never listen to the truth any more.

CLERICAL YOUNG PASTORS.

That there should be occasionally a young man, with the views that have been fostered and encouraged by some among us, of a “pastorate,” who would assume authority to cast persons out of the church, and give letters of commendation, is not strange. There were some even in the time of the apostles, when no such views of a “pastorate” existed, who assumed such prerogatives and “prated against us” (the apostles.) In III. John 9, 10, we have a reference to one of them. “I wrote to the church,” says John, “but Diotrephes, who loves to have the pre-eminence among them, receives us not. Wherefore, if I come, I will remember his deeds which he does, prating against us with malicious words: and not content therewith, neither does he himself receive the brethren, and forbids them that would, and casts them out of the church.” We have fallen on the track of a few young men, and some old ones, of this stripe; but their race is short. The brethren, whatever else is true of them, are not prepared for clerical assumptions. They will not have the manacles put on them. Such men will not trouble us long. Some of them will go over to sectarianism at once, thinking that the shortest road to a “pastorate.” Others will go to law, medicine, or to nothing. But the main body of our young men are true and noble in the highest sense, as humble and faithful as can be found anywhere. They are studying to know and do the will of God. We are not sure that, as a class, they are not generally sounder than their instructors in the gospel.

We regret to see anything like collision or rivalry between old and young preachers. Young men get a little _fast_ sometimes, and old men become a little _cross_; but these matters will all work their way out. As a humorous writer said some years ago, after writing a long piece about nothing, as a burlesque on certain persons, “We are all poor _critters_.” We need a great deal of mercy and grace.

It is a little trying for old men, after toiling a lifetime in the cause, and when they are struggling under the infirmities of age, to be shoved aside, as we know some of them are, and treated with contempt by the young men who ought to be a comfort and consolation to them. The cause is the Lord’s, and we are his, and we shall all give account to him. Let us keep pure ourselves, and keep the church pure; let us make a record of which we shall not be ashamed when the Lord shall come. We must study to bear our burdens, and to do so without murmuring. What we can not cure, we must endure.

EVERLASTING AND ETERNAL.

Everlasting and eternal are from the same in the original. “Everlasting punishment,” and not everlasting annihilation, nor everlasting extinction of being, nor everlasting non-existence, is what the Lord threatens. Matt. xxv. 46. At the same time the righteous enter into “life eternal,” the wicked “go away into everlasting punishment.” The original word _aionion_ here is translated, in the common version, “eternal” in one place, and “everlasting” in the other. There is no reason for not translating this word the same way in both places. It means precisely the same in both places. At the same time we repeat, that the righteous enter into “life eternal,” the wicked “go away into eternal punishment.” The same word used by the Lord, in the same sentence to express the duration of the life of the saints, is used to express the duration of the punishment of the wicked. It is as likely that the life of the saints shall terminate, as that the punishment of the wicked shall cease. There is no word in any language that more certainly expresses unlimited duration than this word _aionion_. It is used to express the duration of the life of the saints, the praises of God, and even the existence of God. A word may be used with less than its full import, but _never with more_.

ENDURING HARDNESS AS GOOD SOLDIERS.

It matters not from what cause we suffer, whether inability on the part of brethren, or parsimoniousness, we must bear hardness as good soldiers of Jesus Christ, suffer and toil on, for we shall reap if we faint not. We must not raise up a money-loving and worldly people; and in order to this end we must not be _money-loving preachers_, nor _worldly_ men ourselves. This is our security against the evil of covetousness.

We do not believe the Lord will accept meeting in two or three conventions in a year, and making three or four contributions and a few speeches for missionary work. We must have more telling evangelizing than this. This kind of work is demoralizing the brethren and drying up all the veins of generosity in them. We shall have more and more _dying churches_ till we change our course and go out into the field as we did thirty-five and forty years ago, and hunt up these churches and wake them up. We must not live with the idea of _sending_ some one to them, but we must _go to_ them; and they must not be _helpless creatures_, and think to support those who go to their relief by _relating their stories about their being few and poor_, but do according to their ability, and not let the preacher who visits them sacrifice more than a dozen of them, and they only do their little _occasionally_, and he making his sacrifices _every meeting_. This will not stand in the day of judgment.

HOW A PREACHER MAY STAND FAIR.

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.