THE GOSPEL ADVOCATE
T. FANNING AND W. LIPSCOMB, EDITORS
VOL. VII
NASHVILLE, DECEMBER, 1861
NO. 12
THE LESSON OF THE HOUR
In the hour of prosperity we know not our strength. ‘Tis only when the heavy hand of affliction is upon us, and the trials and temptations of the world crowd thick and strong around us that we learn who we are, and what power there is in us for a successful stand. No season of affliction ought then to be unwelcome to us, and its lessons should be received with that cheerful submission always becoming the followers of the quiet and uncomplaining Son of Man. We cannot live without trials and reverses. Our life demands them. The truth of God is very plain and its teachings of the purest simplicity. The examples of Christian life presented are of the most striking purity and earnest devoted godliness, and every conceivable inducement is presented to us to keep us humble, faithful, and obedient.
But while it seems almost impossible without the bitter lessons of the severe school of experience, for us to appreciate our privileges and walk in that humility which is fit. Continued prosperity brings arrogance, presumption, and infidelity. We forget that in humility there is strength, and in pride weakness. Our own history as a religious people but too truly exemplifies this. While few in number, and surrounded by continual persecutions and opposition, we were a zealous, earnest, self-sacrificing band. For years…
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However, prosperity in the eyes of the world has surrounded us. Our frequent boast has been of our numbers, our schools, our wealth, our costly “churches,” and our eloquent preachers. Each year brought thousands of wealthy, respected, and intelligent to our ranks, and many a vain glorious exultation was heralded of our victorious inroads upon the domain of sectarianism.
The question was rarely asked, are we with all this becoming a better people? Are we becoming more devoted in the midst of all this prosperity and seeming favor from God? Such a voice was an unwelcome note of discord amid the almost universal acclaim of self-gratulation. With all our canvass spread to the breeze and thoughtless of danger, we sped on before the favoring gale. But the empty boast of strength was of little avail when the real trial was upon us with all its rage and fury.
Pretentious societies, boasted numbers, with wealth at command, spread over this country North and South, eloquent preachers, and schools and colleges scattered throughout the land, were of little avail when each man and woman almost alone (with sorrow we say it) was called upon to breast the storm of worldly pressure that tornado-like was sweeping over all. How poorly prepared to meet the struggle we were; the sad results but too plainly show.
Instead of being together as a body determined to encourage and sustain each other in attempting to stand firm and unmoved by the standard of our Captain, we were torn by political schisms, struggling after the manner of this world, as if indeed we belonged to Caesar and not to Christ. Bitter enmity, suspicions, and mistrust filled the hearts of those whose souls should have been knit together in love, and a man’s foes frequently have been found to be of his own brethren. Such is the exemplification of the gospel which, with our boasted progress, we are able to give when the hour of trial comes.
Is there a sane man or woman, with the pure lessons of Christ before him, who can hesitate to pronounce this vaunted reformation practically anything more than a magnificent failure? In the theory of religion much may have been done which will yet bring forth fruit, but in the earnest, faithful, God-honoring life of the gospel, fearful indeed are our failures, and poor the exhibition we make of that devotion which should mark the lives of the peculiar people of God.
While we have been professedly earnestly striving to get out of the mists of Babylon and the fog of sectarianism for almost half a century, yet in all the noble characteristics that distinguish the true Christian, and raise him above the ordinary profession that passes as respectable in the world, we are still most lamentably deficient. We are still floundering in the…
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Filth and mire of political partisanship and worldly ambition, and are not giving our allegiance to Christ as the religion of the Bible demands. Here has been our great error. We have failed to cultivate and strengthen our hearts with that deep, earnest, prayerful faith which permits no worldly commotion to cause it the least disturbance.
We have not with prayer, fasting and godly living day by day endured our hearts to hardships and made them hard for the conflict. We have failed to learn to endure hardness as good soldiers of Christ, and the work of the church, the labors of love have not so engrossed our hearts that we have no time nor inclination for the vanities of earth. We have utterly failed to drink deep of that spirit of self-denial, of sacrifice, of determined trust that could enable us to exclaim with the apostle in contemplating all the tribulations, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril and sword, “Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.” Our faith has not been equal to the trials of the hour, and sad and humiliating in the sight of Heaven is the picture presented by those who profess to be in truth the followers of the meek, gentle and peace-loving “Man of sorrows.”
It may be thought now to be too late to make amends for our errors, but it is only by gathering up the sad experiences of the past that we can learn wisdom for the future. Our reformation was not an entire renovation. The old leaven still works in us, and fierce struggles and fiery trials alone, it seems, can make us free.
With all our bold and fearless advocacy of the word of God as the full and perfect directory of man’s life, and the church of Christ as the one body claiming the whole service of our lives, we failed practically to realize the meaning of these teachings. The well-beaten round of sectarianism was so familiar to most, that while we saw the truth, we could not shake off the shackles of the old habits. Our practical life was far short of the noble stand assumed as the only one honoring to Heaven and dignifying to man. We have not lived as if we believed the teachings so boldly contended for.
The idea of a church as the only agent fully appointed and furnished for the whole work of serving God and converting the world, was too simple and majestic for eyes so long accustomed to the cumbersome associations and machinery of the religious world. The truth that each and every member of the body is a living stone, having some important part in this temple of the Most High, and fit and capable of performing that part to the honor of God, and the building up of his brethren, was an advance too great for the men and women so long taught to worship God by proxy. Hence the church
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has not been a lively, active, powerful body—its members have been cold, indifferent and lifeless, wholly insensible of their high position and obligations. The ambition of the preachers have been to add numbers to the heap without taking any pains to instruct and urge them forward in the way of real Christian life. Their names stood upon the book, but they have been about as much service to themselves or others in the church as so many men of straw in their places.
The consequence is, that the struggle for life and death is upon us, and it is indeed a fearful one. Many may still be asleep and not realize its importance, but we are being tried, as in a furnace and we must prove either wholly chaff and dross or we may come forth purified, and prepared for a nobler struggle for the fullness and perfection of the Christian life. God grant that it may be so.
Of this halfway service of Heaven and half to the world we have had enough. Our ranks may be thinned, but the remnant, few though they be, will be true-hearted soldiers, fully ready to do their Captain’s will. There is no more place for the timid, trembling coward in the host of Heaven than in any other army. One valiant, unflinching hero is worth millions such. We trust the time is near at hand when to be a servant of Christ will have some meaning, and not be a bare, empty title.
When the church of Christ will become indeed a living institution, demanding and employing every power and capacity of its members. When this mere profession of the name of Christ with no appreciation of its meaning and obligations will give way to a real, living exemplification of the gospel, that will not be a burlesque and mockery in the sight of Heaven.
I sincerely trust that hour of trial is upon us, and that many will realize its importance. It is with us now either to become a time-serving, favor-seeking “respectable denomination” of the popular order or it is for us, by a noble, fearless stand for the word of life fully, purely and simply, to show that we believe and feel that there is power, truth and reality in the faith which we profess.
Many doubtless will prefer the easy way of popularity, and turn from those who are disposed to bear and obey the “things written,” but it should be no discouragement to those who are resolved to maintain manfully the truth. God is with his people though few and humble, and in doing his will there is no fear.
Let us then, brothers and sisters, learn wisdom from the past. Let us above all things learn that the name of being a Christian when our hearts and lives are strangers to the love and purity of the gospel is worse than mockery in the eyes of God. If we intend to be servants of Christ, let us be so with our whole heart.
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and not be vexing and entangling ourselves with the vanities of politics, worldly ambition and such perishing trivialities. We will then have no need for many of the distracting questions that perplex us. If we are making the life of our Savior our pattern, and his teaching the only rule of our conduct, and are engaged deeply and sincerely in the labors of love that belong to our holy profession, we can have but little inclination for the excitements of the world, and will be kept safe from many hurtful snares. Is it impossible for us to do better than we have done? If this feeble wavering sort of life is the best that we are capable of rendering, it is indeed a poor, miserable return for the love of a Savior so richly manifested for our salvation. Shall we not at least make a determined struggle for a nobler and higher life as servants of our Blessed Redeemer?
W. L.
THE BESETTING SIN
The pointed vigor and force of many passages of the Holy Scriptures have been greatly weakened by a sort of generalized application of their meaning. Frequently where there should be directness and striking, energetic fitness the whole power is lost by this mistake. Many passages illustrative of this might be referred to, but for the present we call attention to the besetting sin spoken of by the Apostle Paul in the 12th of Hebrews: “Wherefore,” says he, “seeing we also are compassed about by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin that doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,” etc.
What is this sin that doth so easily beset us? Is it, as is commonly supposed and taught, any weakness that each individual may possess, and in which he or she is easily overcome? In one a fondness for spilling, in another a predisposition to plucking, in another covetousness and such like, is such the proper application of this language of the Apostle? We think not. The heavy force and energy of the language, to our mind, are greatly injured by such a loose application. When we look at the matter in its connection we have but little difficulty in readily apprehending the meaning of the Apostle. The subject of discussion was Faith as the great first principle of Christian obedience. Example after example does he present to the minds of his Jewish brethren from their own…
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Eventful history, or the power of this mighty principle. In vivid and living array does he marshall before their minds hosts of the faithful from the creation down; whose characters stood forth as monumental pillars along the pathway of their varied and eventful life as a nation. Here they saw the first victim of hate. Here Enoch, whom God permitted not to taste the cup of death. Here Noah, the father of the second world. Here Abraham, sorely tried yet always faithful. Here Isaac and Jacob and the patriarchs. Here Moses, the deliverer, and Joshua, and David and hosts of others, all men and women of Faith and blessed for their steadfast, unwavering trust in God.
Before this assembly of the nobility of the faith, the Apostle calls upon his Jewish brethren to lay aside every weight and the easily besetting sin. What then is that sin? Undoubtedly it is lack of faith in God. ‘Twas this that brought so great afflictions upon the Jewish nation; notwithstanding the lessons of power that God had given, they had always been a murmuring, unbelieving people, constantly disposed to forsake the God that had so often shown his power to them, and to put their confidence in their own strength. This too has ever been the crying sin of the Christian age. Man, vain of his own strength, has never been disposed to hear God and trust him. His continual struggle is for some device of his own. Something for which he can claim some glory and honor. In his short-sighted and infidel reasoning, he is unable to grasp the fullness of God’s purposes, and is ever disposed to complain of what God has done, and in vain self-confidence attempts to plan for himself a surer and swifter way of accomplishing great and important results.
To satisfy the demands of his restless haste, the world must be remodeled in a day, or he is full of murmurings and complaint. He utterly forgets that patience is a cardinal virtue of the Christian religion, and that it is one of the highest exhibitions of firm and steadfast faith. The history of the world is full of examples to show us the fate of those who are so soon ready to rebel at the hard fulfillment of God’s promises.
Come the sure voice of warning to those who are disposed to doubt when God has spoken, and falter where he has commanded obedience. This was scarcely more the besetting sin of the stubborn, stiff-necked and rebellious Jews than our own. This sin of unbelief. Who now is willing to hear when God speaks, and do without a murmur or misgiving all that he requires?
Now we are disposed to regard the examples of living faith presented in the Scriptures as wholly miraculous, and think that such exhibitions are entirely beyond our attainment. Is not this a weak…
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And cowardly delusion? Is it not a deception in which we cheat ourselves out of the noblest aspirations that ever dignified and ennobled human character? We thereby rob Christian life of that noble heroism of Faith that elevates it above the tame and meaningless profession that shifts its course and changes its character with each varying influence that comes in contact therewith. We make the profession of the religion of Christ a powerless and insignificant affair, and not the great and master influence of our lives.
No people ever had more cause for the exercise of the most earnest faith—no people ever more enjoyed the fullness of all the light intended for man’s instruction, elevation, and redemption. But withal, how fearfully do we fall short of our duty, and how sorely does this sin of unbelief beset us? With the words of our Master in the utmost plainness and simplicity at all times with us, “line upon line, and precept upon precept”—with the examples of the world’s history at our command, how poor indeed is the exhibition which we make of that earnest faith which is the lifeblood of the healthy and vigorous Christian life.
The world is full to surfeit of that meaningless sort of faith which is powerless when the day of trial comes—that floats smoothly with the current of popular opinion, but wholly fails when the storm of trouble and the fierce threatenings of opposition come upon us. Such faith as this may do for him or her who seeks the favor and commendation of the world, but it is not the faith that can meet fearlessly the tempest of sin and madness of this world, ride triumphantly over the angry flood of death, and finally secure for its possessor a sure entrance into eternal rest. Such faith as this never enabled the followers of our Master to endure all the trials, tribulations, and distress brought upon them not only without a murmur but with rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer for the name of their Master, and such faith is as utterly worthless today as it was then.
Our land, torn, distracted, belligerent, is a truly saddening sight, and deeply to be deplored—are the fearful waste and desolation and suffering that must ensue. But far more saddening is the spectacle that presents itself of the people who professed to fear and love the words of our Savior wholly forgetful of every sacred obligation of the religion of Christ, and entering heart and life into the mad struggles and strifes of this world. God and His cause are not honored. His truth is not respected, and His church is not exalted and made to stand forth supreme above all the powers and kingdoms of this earth.
Why is it so? Simply from the fact that in the midst of prosperity we have not cultivated the faith that could enable us to flee.
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Subject to Worldly Powers
While we feel no disposition to interfere in the controversy of Brethren Lillard, Harding and Ransom with “Disciple,” we find ourselves involved in so singular a manner, that we consider it proper and necessary to briefly notice a few points in the following article:
- We would willingly suppress the names of our brethren, were we not satisfied that by publishing their communication from “Murfreesboro,” some might conclude that all the members of that congregation entertain similar opinions, when we are conscious there are some who differ widely. We, however, feel responsible for the name of Disciple, and suggest to him that we would prefer giving it to any remarks he may desire to make. This is the only proper mode of procedure.
- Our reason for giving the remarks of Disciple without comment was, that we considered that there was no question of scripture involved. Disciple’s effort was to show the supposed inconsistency of our brethren, and no positive ground was taken by him.
- We are sorry to witness the effort of our brethren to place Disciple as well as ourselves in a position we never occupied. Neither has Disciple or ourselves intimated a doubt as to the scriptures requiring the disciples of Christ to live in subjection to magistrates and any civil government in which their lot may be cast, so long as they are permitted to enjoy the liberties of the kingdom of God. Unfairness in representing those from whom we differ is not calculated to add to the honor of the Lord’s cause.
While we doubt not our brethren at Murfreesboro’, as well as Disciple, are all loyal to Caesar, we see not the propriety of any of them becoming Caesar or of occupying his…
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Hence we find no authority for the charge that some of us oppose worldly governments for the world. We would respectfully suggest to our correspondents, that our controversy gives the strongest evidence that there is urgent necessity for us all to study the scriptures with more care. The times may not be the most favorable for examining the true characteristics of the spiritual kingdom in comparison with worldly institutions, but it strikes us the period may not be very far distant when the servants of God will look at the Bible and the church without the interference of the heavy anti-dark veil of worldly wisdom which has so long obscured the light of truth.
Religious teachers must soon open a new chapter or desist from their profession. It would require one of some discrimination, judging from surroundings, to tell who are Christians and who are not, or to define clearly the line between the church and the world. When Jesus claimed to be head of a spiritual empire, the people said, “We found this fellow perverting the nation, and forbidding to give tribute unto Caesar.” (Luke xxiii, 2.) He was not only charged with disloyalty, but lost his life for maintaining that his kingdom was not of this world.
Will our brethren pardon us for requesting them to exercise a little more cautiousness in their wholesale charges of disloyalty to human authority, against their friends who perhaps may be as well read in the institutions of the world as themselves, and are not tenacious to respect all proper human authority as any men living. A little more time and patience, with a good degree of careful examination of the Sacred Oracles, we trust will bring us all to the full measure of the truth. We hope brethren L., H. and R. will continue to furnish us with their views. There is no subject of greater moment to Christians.
P. I.
MURFREESBORO’, TENN., December 9, 1861.
Brother Fanning, — We wish to notice very briefly a communication signed “Disci pl.” in your last number. This correspondent in criticizing a communication in your September number, upon the duties of Christians in the present war, finds much to amuse him in the fact that the author of that communication construes the 13th chapter of Romans as an instruction to the saints to be subject to the civil powers, and thus furnish a stick to break their own heads; for if we are commanded to subject ourselves to the civil powers, he cannot see how we could have justly rebelled against the old Government, or how the people of the North could do otherwise than fight under the banner of…
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Abraham Lincoln. Your correspondent is laboring under difficulties which we would do much to remove, and which we regret to believe are the result of want of reading of the word of God; because if the Apostle Paul has failed to make himself understood upon that subject in the chapter referred to, he has elsewhere so expressed himself that the very commonest mind could not doubt his meaning.
In his Epistle to Titus, 3rd chapter, Paul tells him to “put them in mind to be subject to principalities and powers, to obey magistrates, to be ready to do every good work.” And for fear that your correspondent may suspect that Paul might here have referred to bishops, overseers, or other Catholic priests, we beg to refer him to 1st Peter, 2nd chapter, where the Apostle Peter tells the saints to “submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake, whether it be to the king as superior, or unto governors as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evil doers, and for the praise of them that do well.”
Now, as your correspondent cannot find it consistent with his ideas of the justice of Southern resistance to admit that we are here or elsewhere instructed to be subject to the civil powers, we are left to suppose that he believes the Apostles here allude, by a sort of figure, to church powers; but as in all our reading we have never seen or heard such an idea suggested outside of the pages of the Gospel Advocate, we were disappointed that he, though filled with amusement at the ridiculous construction which all theologians have placed upon those passages, should have failed to give a fuller exposition of his views; especially as he has counselled them to earnestly desire the milk of the word, that they may grow thereby, “for,” he adds, “the grown can only digest strong meat.”
Now we cannot claim to be as fully grown as your correspondent intimates somebody else is; but we trust he will pardon us for endeavoring, in our infancy, to remove some of the difficulties with which we feel he is beset. We freely acknowledge our obligation, in accordance with the teaching of those Apostles, to be subject to “principalities and powers,” and yet we see no inconsistency, as does your correspondent, in refusing to obey the mandates of the usurper, Abraham Lincoln.
We believe that God recognizes laws and other civil authorities for the government of the world as preferable to anarchy, and that governments exist by the will of God, and although they are not always conducted in the best manner, yet God prefers them to no government at all.
For this reason, although Christ was persecuted by Caesar, he…
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“commanded the people to pay tribute, and render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s.” The Jews in that day were under the impression that as they were the peculiar people of God, they were doing wrong to submit themselves to the government of the Gentile world, and that those governments stood in the way of the direct government of God. Many Christians were no doubt under the influence of those prejudices, and for this reason Christ thought it proper to teach that they should pay tribute to whom tribute was due, and render unto Caesar the things which were Caesar’s.
From that day to this, there have been religious zealots proclaiming doctrines of that sort. We have all read of those fanatical sects of Anabaptists, in the 10th century, who, after the efforts of the great reformers of that age had unsealed the Bible to the masses of the people, and fired their hearts with the spirit of civil and religious liberty, were so enthused with the idea of breaking down papal despotism, that they madly attempted to overthrow everything like civil government; urging upon their followers to forsake their folly in originating and defending their frail institutions of earth, and accept the sovereignty of their Redeemer.
They set up an ecclesiastical government from which all holding civil offices were excluded, and no member was allowed to hold private property. Their creed allowed no defense of life and liberty which required violence against their fellow men. They entertained the utmost aversion to capital punishment. They thus hoped to overthrow civil government by having nothing to do with it, under the delusion that Christ was ready to set up his earthly sovereignty upon its ruins.
Some, however, were not so moderate. They took up arms to level all distinctions, and to abolish all law and order in society; they deposed magistrates, and converted all private property to the common use, and it was not until more than 100,000 of these deluded creatures had perished by the sword, that the civil powers, aided by the leaders of the reformation, succeeded in checking this dangerous zeal.
But had as we think this doctrine, it does not seem so objectionable as a newly sprung doctrine which asserts, that while wicked men are justified in resisting to the last extremity in defense of life and liberty, and in participating in the direction and control of the government, good men are not justified in armed resistance, nor indeed are they to attempt to direct or control in the least degree the government, but to leave the old crazy, God-forsaken concern, to be worked exclusively by the wicked; and urges upon good men to “forsake their folly in…”
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originating and defending their full institutions of earth and accept the sovereignty of the Redeemer.” – See Advocate pages 197 and 261, vol. 7.
Our government is controlled by the votes of the people, and this doctrine deprives all good men of the right of suffrage. If it is wrong and sinful for a man to vote, hold office, or otherwise assist in the control of the government, then all voters, magistrates, congressmen, etc., are unfit for church membership, and should be excluded.
We do not know that the adherents of this theory thus act consistently with their doctrine as the Anabaptists did, but we shall see.
When your correspondent, “Disciple,” shall have read all that Paul and Peter have said on this subject, we do not apprehend any difficulty in convincing him that we are instructed to be subject to principalities and powers, but we doubt if we can succeed in convincing him that the people of the South are justified in their rebellion, or that the people of the North are justified in disobeying the edicts of Abraham the first.
Our convictions are clear upon this subject. In our government we have, strictly speaking, no rulers. The government exists by the consent and control of the governed. The only civil power to which we acknowledge allegiance is the constitution of our country. That ruling power has been violated and trampled under foot, and in which we claim to have taken no part, and we have felt it our duty to frame another. We have elected no rulers, but only agents to carry out that power, and when Abraham Lincoln or Jeff. Davis dares to trample it down, and erect his despotic standard upon its ruins, we shall think rebellion no breach of Christian duty.
Now, Brothers Fanning, we wish to say a few words to you. You know, as does everyone else who has read the Bible, that we are commanded to subject ourselves to principalities and powers. If this be so, says your correspondent, we should still be subject to the ordinances of Lincoln and his Cabinet; assuming that they properly constitute the ruling power in the government. The North believes that they are, while the South contends that power exists in the constitution.
Upon this important question “Disciple” sides with the North, and only stands connected with the South upon the absurd pretext that we are not instructed by the Apostles to be subject to civil powers at all.
You of course understand the tendency of such teaching, and we feel disappointed that you should allow such an article to appear in your pages without a single word of comment.
Respectfully yours,
Brethren in the Good Hope.
THE GOSPEL ADVOCATE
SUPREMACY OF THE BIBLE AND POWER OF MUSIC
DEAR BROTHER F.: After my ride to you, at 4 o’clock on Friday last, at Helena, I was soon seated in my buggy, and though the evening was murky, and the road heavy from the morning rain, yet, when I communicated through the medium of my whip to my faithful quadruped, my wish to reach “sweet home” in “double quick,” Chorley responded at the rate of six miles the hour, and soon I was seated where sweet pleasures dwell.
My meditations have dwelt much upon the halo of glory which you proved, in your lucid and cogent discourse, in Helena, to enshrine God’s Holy Record—proving the Bible to be the embodiment of God’s will, the science of Eternal Life and the Art of living well. When you contrasted this grand luminary, the Bible, with the twinkling stars (the creeds) of human devices, and drew your conclusions in favor of the one grand book as the concentration of God’s will, I could but think of a passage in Cicero. Cicero, who argues the ground of Socrates respecting the pre-existence of the soul, but goes further, and speaks of it as un-originated and unborn, reaches but a trembling conclusion, calling the doctrine of immortality “the surmise of future ages;” and declares that what he shall speak of it has only the likelihood of truth, and that he would deliver nothing as fixed and certain; and after adducing the opinions of several philosophers, he concludes by saying: “Which of these is true, some god must tell us; which is most like to truth is a great question.”
I inferred from your argument, that there is great dubiousity about one and all of those human ecclesiastical creeds, and that, if any one of the thousands be right, “some god must tell us,” for sure it is that the Bible condemns them all!
Let me affirm, as a distinct proposition, that there is not a creed, as a whole, that can be sustained by the Bible! Human philosophy and human weakness are stereotyped upon them all, and lacking the sanction of God, they are without the Heavenly divinity.
Your discourse afforded the good citizens of Helena high satisfaction. But, alas! what is to become of the clergy, who are bound in the premises to support their church formularies, that their formularies may support them! “I would rather be a dog and bay the moon, than such a stipendiary as one of those.” Preach the word, much anxiety pervades the community to witness your return to this floral and fertile selection.
A. C. Kimball thus writes on Music. The universe is an instrument…
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ment, and God is the player.
Omnipotence alone can touch the mystic keys that unlock such sweet harmony. It was the time when light broke over Eden, and the day, rosy with delight, marched to the secret music of the spheres, that the morning stars sent up their sweet songs. Richer and fuller swept the pean through the portals of the skies, until the symphonies of Eden grew discordant, and the reckless finger of man mingled discord with the divine consonance, and threw the world out of tune.
Then followed a prolonged train of dissonance, until it melted away into celestial melody over Bethlehem’s plains, and a star throbbing to music’s measure, hung trembling over the manger, that sheltered One, who was to tune the discordant universe. Earth thrilled at the divine Eloi Sabachthani, rising high above all spirit melody, rang against the crystal bars of Paradise!
It was a sad prelude to the faultless harmony that shall make glad the earth: That pierced hand has never ceased tuning at the world’s heart, converting the jangling keys of discord into sounds of concordance!
Nature herself, like a great Organ, yields her own peculiar music. Her seasons, like a four-part song, hurry on the march of Time. Spring with her April alto seconds the full soprano of Summer; and Autumn’s high falsetto gales with the roaring bass of Winter winds, fill up the chord of the Year’s Quickstep.
I have seen the night come out with all her diamonds, and glide with such a hushed footfall, that she might not disturb the melody that went up like a mist or the very twilight of music that rose faintly to her ears; and I know it has moved her to tears, for I have often turned back to the closed leaves of the blossom and found that pearl of feeling.
The very breath of the Rose may come like a sigh of music to the zephyr’s ear, and who shall say that the clustering sprays are not singing together, while their leaves dance to the strain! Nature’s voice contains the beautiful varieties of all harmony—the pathetic, the cheering, the inspiring. I have heard a tender wail-like solo quiver out from the pines, until the wind went away sobbing; and when the night breeze came down to play with the River-reeds, one may distinctly hear them humming serenades to the water-lily. Often, too, I have noted the beautiful descend and diminishment of a summer shower—very soft and low the music comes springing through the air, over the roof and against the panes. The verchile brightens,
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the proud beauties of the garden bend their heads, and listen, and electric thrills shoot through the dark bosom of the cloud, while the thunder comes in with a booming chorus that sets the aspen to quivering. I have analyzed the music of a stream, from the fountainhead to the sea.
The drops that spring from the mountain rocks fall into the little pool below, with a quick tinkling drip, like the highest note of the piano. Further down where confluent rivulets form one common stream, a lower but louder treble gladdens the woodland; while yet, farther south where the city and town grow on the banks of the broad river, we hear those deeper notes that assist in making up the foundation of all harmony, and, finally, when the wide stream is lost in the tide of Ocean, we hear the grand bass that rolls up from the foot of the rocks from the sea.
What is life but a song? Our early notes are sweet with the burden of tenderness and affection, the middle stream is imperious and startling in its melody; and at last, in a softened, a mingled melody, we glide down the scale, and mingle in that best of all harmony—eternity’s grand anthem. Then the war of life will be hushed into one eternal quiet, and Heaven, our home, will resound with the music of our celestial harpsichords.
J. A. BUTLER.
ENQUIRY
Brother Terrell Jasper asks: “Whether immersion by the Baptist or Methodists is the more valid?”
REPLY
We think it possible a man may read the Bible, believe it understandingly, and be acceptably immersed by either Baptists or Methodists, but if he believes the doctrine of either that he is pardoned in answer to his prayers, by faith alone, or by something they call the regeneration of the Holy Ghost, immersion by either is not obedience to the Gospel. The validity of immersion depends mainly upon the character of the candidate, and yet, no one save a Christian anciently was authorized to perform the ordinance.
We much doubt the propriety of Baptists, Methodists, or others, who teach the salvation of the soul anterior to the obedience of faith—burial with Christ—in immersing at all. There is no act performed in an acceptable manner, if the knowledge is not correct and the heart is not in proper condition.
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To be sure, we expect no one to understand fully every passage that refers to the subject when he is immersed, but it must be known: it is submission to Christ, which is fully expressed in any such declaration of Scripture, as believe and be immersed in order to salvation, repent and be immersed for remission of sins, buried with Christ in immersion and rise to walk in newness of life, immersed into Christ, and thereby putting him on. Immersion is the seeking of a good conscience, etc.
Any one of the passages to which we have referred evidently covers the whole ground, but no one can obey in total ignorance of these things, and he who is immersed in obedience to the general teaching that men are pardoned and entitled to Christian fellowship, before obeying from the heart the form of doctrine given, whether by Baptist or Methodist, surely does not honor Christ. The twelve who were immersed at Ephesus, no doubt by Apollos, although honest in intention, in consequence of ignorance of the truth, were deceived, and when they come to a knowledge of the truth by the preaching of Paul, they were immersed into Christ.
The immersion of any partisan preacher, merely to get persons into the respective denominations, it occurs to us has no connection with the obedience required of God.
T. F.
A BRAVE SOLDIER OF HIS COUNTRY HAS FALLEN
We learn from recent dispatches that our old friend and quondam brother, Pierce Butler Anderson, fell at a late battle in Western Virginia.
He was educated at West Point, was for sometime a legislator of the State from McMinn, served bravely through the Mexican war, afterwards spent some two years as a Professor of Mathematics in Franklin College; while with us submitted to the King of Zion, but soon afterwards, from bad health and other causes, retired to Tullahoma, where he led a quiet and perhaps not a very profitable life till the opening of the present civil war.
He went to Virginia in Col. Turney’s regiment, soon after was appointed Captain of Artillery by Gen. Lee, and conducted himself as a soldier till he was called from earth. He was a high-toned soldier, and were we superstitious we might conclude he had a presentiment of his fatal death. When he bade us farewell in Nashville, he said, with tears in his eyes, he would go to the war but never expected to return.
The Lord of all the earth will do right. His will be the reward of an honored defender of his country. Our old friend has fought his last battle.
T. F.
THE GOSPEL ADVOCATE
LETTER FROM TEXAS
Dear Brethren:
Several reasons impel me to write to you; you may imagine that we have forgotten our obligations to the King Eternal and the excitements around us.
Our Big Tent meetings commenced the first Lord’s day in August, on St. Gabriel, Milam county. I never saw a better meeting. The disciples generally stand fast, and are zealous for the work of the Lord. We had twenty-two additions, notwithstanding the severe rain and the election of State officers. We opened polls on the ground, to prevent persons leaving, and all went off well. The next meeting was at Lompacasas Sulphur Springs. Here the entire congregation had to remain under the Tent all of Lord’s day night. The rain continued till Monday night, and we were compelled to close Tuesday morning to reach the next engagement. The Jocllnns also were near us, and some had to leave to attend to them; still eleven were immersed, and the friends of the Gospel seemed as much determined, and as happy in the Lord, as I ever saw any people anywhere.
The next meeting was on Sandy Creek, Bastrop county. Here the older brethren think the religious enjoyment and devotion excelled. I could hardly imagine a happier meeting. There were twenty-six additions.
You should remember that our congregations are not large, compared to those you are accustomed to in the old States; though no other people get such congregations here as our people do. The above named congregations all meet weekly for worship, whether they have preaching or not. Very few have backslidden since last year. I am trying to visit as many places as I can, but especially the congregations nearer home. We are very much determined to work on, as for eternal life, fully believing that “all things work together for good to those who love God.”
Let no one say the war renders it useless to preach. There could not be a greater mistake.
Hurried away, I laid this by and now add the narrative of two additional meetings. The first was in Burnett county, on St. Gabriel, some twenty-eight miles west of me. From this place I wrote you last year. Our old Alabama friends were there again, still this side the Christian’s rest, but were more determined for it. The Methodists had a camp-meeting in about four miles, though ours was announced last year, and one of their preachers was present. There is a great deal of herding stock here, and I heard some persons supposing our
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Methodist friends had concluded to herd their flock at so dangerous a time. A few of them got away, however, and aided in swelling our additions during the meeting to fifty—one-forty-five immersions. Perhaps not more than a half a dozen unconverted persons remained on the ground. The meeting lasted five days.
I am just now from Little Walnut Creek, Travis county, in six miles of Austin. This was a hastily gotten up meeting, at a time I had thought of resting, still it resulted in eleven immersions, and several other additions to the congregation. Had we been able to continue only to next Lord’s day it is not doubted that many more would have been added.
We have at these meetings from six to twelve—or more preachers; still the brethren require me to labor from two to five times per day, counting lectures at the water and at the sunrise prayer meetings. I am, therefore, greatly worn down; but having adopted the habit of talking in a plain, easy style rather than preaching in the popular sense, I can go on with but little rest.
Affectionately in the Lord,
O. KENDRICK
Salado, Texas, October 4, 1861.
COOPERATION OF THE DISCIPLES OF JESUS CHRIST IN THE FIRST JUDICIAL DISTRICT OF ARKANSAS
The brethren in the first Judicial District of Arkansas met at Spring Creek, Phillips County, on Friday, October 13, 1861, for purposes of consultation and co-operation. Messengers from most of the churches were present, and also Brother Doherty, from Mississippi, and Brother Fanning, from Tennessee, were in attendance.
Brother P. D. Robinson was called to preside, and Brother B. Perryman to act as Scribe.
After considerable discussion as to the mode of procedure in future, the brethren assembled determined to abandon the “circling system” in their evangelizing operations, and to recommend the churches to send out all the Evangelists in the District, whose circumstances would allow them to labor in the vineyard, with the understanding that, without any special pledges by note or subscription papers, the congregations would divide whatever of earth the Lord may bless them.
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Contents
Amongst such as would really devote themselves to the work of the ministry.
Whereupon Brethren P. D. Robinson, Tool, and Butler were especially recommended to the grace of serving the churches, in sending out the glad tidings to the world, with assurances that “the ox which treadeth out the corn” shall have the grain to which his labor and wants may entitle him.
The brethren also recommended each co-operation in the State to use all proper means to establish one or more High Schools under Christian influences, especially for the education of their own children, and to exercise such influence for good amongst their fellow citizens as might be in their power. And that the several co-operations call conventions, to be composed of three delegates from each congregation in the respective co-operations to settle the premises as to when and how these schools are to come into existence.
We, the disciples of Christ assembled, recommend the brethren throughout the State to a liberal patronage of The Gospel Advocate, a monthly, published in Nashville, Tenn., and edited by our firm and well-tried valorous Tolbert Fanning and W. Lipscomb. The paper is able, cheap, and reliable.
Our thanks are due to God for the famous visit of our well-beloved Brother Fanning. May his counsels and aid prove a blessing to us and the good cause which he has so long and successfully advocated. The brethren in consultation feeling most sensibly the effect of must and should be regarded as a permanent separation from all the publication facilities of our brethren North, take this occasion to respectfully recommend to the disciples of Jesus Christ in the Confederate States of America, and especially in the State of Arkansas, the propriety of adopting measures, as soon as practicable, for publishing first, a new and revised Hymn Book, and secondly, for the publication of such other books as may be calculated to promote the cause of the Savior.
We also recommend the adoption of measures for preparing and publishing such improved school books and works devoted to Literature and Science as may be best calculated to advance the interests of Education and general improvement in our country.
Thanks are cordially tendered to the citizens of Spring Creek neighborhood for the marked kindness tendered to visitors during the meeting, and also to Col. Moore, of Helena, for the use of the Cumberland Presbyterian Meeting House for Bro. Fanning.
THE GOSPEL ADVOCATE
Next Co-operation Meeting
The next Co-operation meeting will be at Spring Creek, to commence on Friday before the first Lord’s day in October, 186~.
The Editors of the Gospel Advocate are requested to publish this report.
P. D. ROBINSON, Chairman
R. PENBYAN, Scribe
IN HONOR PREFERING ONE ANOTHER
Our Apostle has informed us upon all matters necessary for us to know, and he evidently intended that we should do all he commands. This being true, let us “in honor prefer one another.” I heard an intelligent brother not many days ago make the remark that among the preachers there is a spirit of jealousy, and “I partly believe it,” as said a wise man.
Brethren of the pulpit, shall we suffer such things to be reported of us? It was once reported that a wise philosopher was acting in bad faith in a certain matter, and he, being informed of the report, in place of hunting it up said perhaps I have given room for the report and I will do better in the future. Brethren, perhaps we have given room for the report.
Let us amend our lives. Let us make or give a description of matters. A holds a meeting and immerses a great number, and gets to himself a great name. B comes to the same place to preach, and immerses more, and gets no name. B stops with brother C., and informs him that A is not such a great preacher after all—that he has his faults—that brother such a one does not like him, and, in fact, he is not smart no how, for he has no education, only makes believe—and manages rather badly, is lazy or has the big head woefully, and is not popular at home, his wife is not saving (as though brother C. would trust anything in her hands—foolish man), and his children are mean or if he is a bachelor woe be to the poor fellow (and such ought to be punished).
A comes back, has another good meeting, puts up with brother C. also. C tells A what B said of him. A laughs, and says why B never did any good in his life, and in fact is not looked upon as much of a preacher—rather goosy.
After a while A, B, and C are all present at the same meeting—all ashamed—all out of “fix.” A preaches, B goes to sleep and C reads more hymns than ever he did at once in his life—never looks up, turns his book all the time. Then B preaches, and A sleeps and C joins him. They preach three or four days and do no good.
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Brethren, these things ought not so to be. In honor let us prefer one another. Let us all speak well of each other, and be sure that none of us give any sort of grounds for rumor. Then the private brethren will “esteem all for their work’s sake.” The preacher is not to drink, he must not lie, cheat, steal, swear, tattle, strike, act the dandy, act the clergyman, act the pope, act the politician, act the humbug. Nor must the brother or the sister who does not preach do any of these sinful things. This is not my creed, but Paul’s. Let us all be good one to another, and defend one another in the right, and reprove in the wrong, and God will be honored and we all saved.
J. K. SPEAR
ADDRESS TO AN AFFLICTED BROTHER
JOHN R. CAUTHEN, Esq.
Dear Sir, — Your letter of recent date is before me, cargoed with most melancholy reflections! We had learned of the demise of your dear son, and let me assure you that we mingled our deepest sympathies with your overflowing grief! We are commanded “to weep with those who weep.” William was a gentleman by birth and education, and a philanthropist by practice; he won upon the affections of all who knew him. But death has paled his genius, and the grave has received another inmate. His dear and godly mother had preceded him to the “house of all the living,” and you are left a sad wayfarer in a world of deepest gloom! But, thank God, no cloud is so dark but God can fringe it with the light of mercy. God may turn these afflictions to good account.
Sir, like multiplied thousands of our youth, your son was caught up in the folds of this fratricidal war and passed to the tented field, in the midst of a burning summer, where the death-dealing malice forced him to encounter that stern monster, who conquers kings, and is the king of conquerors! Dr. J. R. Thompson, the very flower of society, and cousin to your young friend, Mat. Sanders, has just been transferred from the camp to the bosom of friends and relatives, a prisoner of death! His heart-stricken parents reside in Phillips County, Ark. How lamentable that the noblest men of earth are now in battle array upon the soil of their birth and education! “Madness rules the hour,” humanity pales, Christianity blushes; our Literary Institutions are costumed in mourning.
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ing, commerce is draped in sorrow, and what else of evil, but besides our once prosperous Eden!
And around which-so-ever flag the garlands of victory may be entwined, the self-same banner will be draped in deepest grief! The shout of triumph will be the echo of wailing! “The English won the battle at Trafalgar, October 21, 1805. But English, French, and Spanish were all virtually conquered. The battle of Lake Erie, fought 1813, was won by Perry, but it was a blood-bought victory! “He paid dear for his whistle.” The “Wasp,” commanded by Paul Jones, stung the British sloop, “Frolic,” till the sloop died! But O, how mournful the results to both! Such victories brighten the victors’ eyes. Yet the transient luster will be marked by the tears of sorrow!
In the present conflict, the Dragon of death may not yet be fully unchained, and only snaps at random, dealing here, there, and yonder, the blows of death. But should he be fully unchained, no hecatomb will satiate him, for multiplied thousands will bite the tented field, to grace his ghastly banquet!
Let the Christian and Philanthropist, who alone can look beyond the outward splendors and fantasies of home-struggle, dwell upon the soul-sickening picture! Not on the toilsome march, not on the pensive camp, not on the dreary quagmire, not even on the lamented death, but on the mangled, stinking with agony, and often denied one drop of water to cool the burning thirst! The cantteens are empty, and the only streams are those which gush red and warm from the life fountain, through mangled bosoms, and dismembered frames!
Let the demon’s heart who, when the drum and fife play merrily, can listen to the victim’s groans, who, when the burnished bayonets glisten, and the brilliant banners flaunt gracefully in the breeze, can gaze upon the coffin and the shroud, and who can dwell upon the picture, and on the desolated homes, and bereaved ones without compunction, tremble for his fate in the day of retribution! Every good man in the nation should bestir his manhood for peace. Let him shout peace in full bugle-notes, till the whole country trembles with the sound. And the prayer for peace, and not for blood, will the God of peace hear. “Cry aloud and spare not” ye lovers of humanity, while demons howl for blood.
But, one kind word to my much esteemed friend: Were there a country on earth uniting all that is beautiful in nature, all that is lovely in virtue, genius, and the liberal arts, and numbering among its citizens the most illustrious patriots, peels, philosophers, and philanthropists of our world, with what hurried haste would we find it. But immeasurably greater…
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There are the attractions of Heaven. There reside the elder brethren of creation, the sons of the morning, who sang for joy at the creation of our race; there the great and good of all ages and climes, the benefactors and ornaments of earth, the patriarch, prophet, and martyr, the heroes of public and private life, the parents and children, yes, all the redeemed who have gone before of Adam’s family. There they are safe from earth’s wars, and earth’s evils, asking that you and I, and all come up and join them in songs of everlasting praises. Shall we suffer the gulf to separate us from such society now and forever? Let us drive all gloom from the soul, and court the sunshine of Heaven, and all is well. In my next, I will address you more in form, upon the dark theme of war. In the meantime, please read the 4th and 5th chapters of St. James. May Heaven shield thee.
J. A. BUTLER
THE END
MA”ON HALL, TENN., Nov. 30, 1861.
Bro. Fanning, — In one of your numbers you ask, “If the sixth seal is about to be opened, and are we ready to call on the rocks and mountains to fall upon us and hide us from the face of Him that sitteth upon the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb.” My reading of the Scriptures leads me to believe that the end is nigh, even at our doors. I have long been impressed with the conviction that God in His wisdom determined that the world should remain a thousand years for each day He was occupied in creating it.
In the end of the revelation which is at hand, “The greatness of the kingdom under the whole heavens will be given to the people of the saints of the Most High, and all kingdoms and dominions shall serve and obey Him.” It is said, in Revelation 11:15, that at the sound of the trumpet, there were great voices in heaven saying, “The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever.”
Other facts satisfy me that the end is close. There have been three ages or worlds, two of which have closed. One about two thousand years after the creation; and the next some four thousand years from the beginning. The first dispensation was closed by the flood, and in the end of the second world Jesus Christ appeared to put…
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away sin by the sacrifice of himself; and we can but believe, at the close or about the close of the next two thousand years, there will be a new heaven and a new earth wherein righteousness will be triumphant. It seems probably, from the behavior of professed Christians in destroying each other in the present unnatural way, that the Lord intends to put to shame much of the religion of our times, and thereby overthrow Babylon. At the fall of the mystical city, the Jews will return to their own land, as is plainly set forth in the thirty-seventh chapter of Ezekiel. Then will occur the battle of Gog and Magog, as taught in the thirty-eighth chapter of the same book. This is to be fought at Jerusalem, as is fully revealed. Zephaniah iii, 8, gives a beautiful picture of the end of this dispensation. The Lord said,
“Therefore wait ye upon me, until the day I rise up to the prey; for my determination is, to gather the nations, that I may assemble the kingdoms, to pour upon them my indignation, even all my fierce anger; for all the earth shall be devoured by the fire of my jealousy. For then will I turn to the people a pure language, that they may all call upon the name of the Lord, to serve him with one consent.”
What do the brethren think of these things?
ROBERT ORR.
NOTICE
The Board of Managers of the Educational Stock Company met at Franklin College, December 12, 1861. It was ordered by the Board, that the Treasurer make a call for the second installment of one-fifth or twenty dollars per share, due the 1st of January, 1862. The Treasurer was ordered to collect the portion of the installment still remaining unpaid. O. T. Craig, Franklin, Tenn.; is authorized to receive and receipt for any moneys paid him under either of these calls. It is hoped that these calls will be promptly responded to by the subscribers.
DAVID LIPSCOMB, Treasurer.
Brother T. Stather is preaching with success in Sumner county, Tenn. Recently eight additions were made to the cause near Hartsville.
Brother W. C. Hoffman writes that, “No one in his acquaintance is working more earnestly for the cause.” The friends should build Brother Stalher a new house.
T. F.
THE GOSPEL ADVOCATE
A PLEA FOR “UNION.”
Reader, do you believe? The man Christ Jesus, is the son of God? Have you counted the cost of confessing His name? Are you willing to die in the warfare? Then listen. You believe—I believe—but are we “one?” We believe, He prayed for us. His last prayer—His dying wish for us was “may they be one!” Believers, are we “one?” No. The world mocks our divisions—Satan exults in our disunion. The blood of the Redeemer cries out from our souls, for we are not “one,” and the world cannot believe.
The last wishes of a loved one—are they not sacred? Yet, we mock His dying prayer and say “believers cannot be one.” Make Him a liar—for to Him is “all power” given, and He prayed “may they be one.”
Ah! if we could be “one.” What hinders? My party name? I have none. The name of Christ, the Lord of Heaven and Earth is mine. I have no other. What! I, a member of His body, own another name than His? Never.
Then what hinders? My “platform?” It is the Word of God. What! I, with an “infallible rule of faith and practice,” clinging to a human platform. Hold a “stumbling block” to unbelievers, divide His body—block His last prayer—His dying wish. I, for whom He lives—I cling to. “Stumbling block?” No! Never.
Then what hinders? “One Baptism.” Well, is there not one baptism? Dare you, dare any man, say that a believing penitent, immersed into the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, has not been baptized? No. Then we have “one baptism.”
Then shall we not, O, shall we not be “one”—we who love Him—we who wait for Him—we who “love His appearing”—shall we not be “one,” and “with all lowliness, and meekness; with long suffering, forbearing one another in love; endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace?”
Shall we not “in one body, and one spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of us all,” shall we not with this platform, under “one Captain,” fight the “good fight?” He will clothe us with armor of proof, and give us victory. Then the world will believe, and our warfare will cease. Yes, war will cease, and soon “death shall be no more, neither sorrow nor crying.”
Or shall we mock Him and say “believers cannot be ‘one.'”
THE GOSPEL ADVOCATE
Lookout, Dade Co., GA., Aug. 17, 1861.
Dear Bro. Fanning,
On Monday before the first Lord’s day in this month, I left home for New Bethel Meeting House, in Calhoun Co., Ala., for the purpose of holding a meeting of some days with the beloved brethren at that point. Through the kind favor of our Heavenly Father, I arrived there safe on Friday morning, and found that the brethren, as usual, had all things in order, and at four o’clock the evening of the same day addressed the brethren from the first chapter of the Epistle of James. I endeavored to show to them their duty to their Heavenly Father, to one another, and to the world. I was joined in my labors on Saturday by some highly esteemed Brother, K. W. Smith, evangelist for the State of Georgia, whose praise is in all the congregations of the saints. He labored faithfully up to Tuesday noon, when he was forced from his engagements to leave. I, with the aid of Bros. J. W. Wheeler and Campbell Boring, two new beginners, produced the meeting up to Wednesday night, at which time our efforts ceased at that point, with ten additions—nine by immersion, and one for restoration. To the Lord be all the glory, now and ever. Amen.
We would take this opportunity of tendering our thanks to the brethren and friends for their kind hospitalities during our visit to Bethel.
If the brethren at New Bethel will stand firm in their present scriptural organization, and will not let the national leaven creep into their body, great good may grow out of their example in a coming day. May peace, love, and favor from God our Father abide with them.
Now, Brother Fanning, a query or two with reference to Timothy, Paul’s son in the gospel.
- Were supernatural gifts conferred upon any by the imposition of the hands of Timothy? (No. 1. T. II.)
- And was not the impartation of those supernatural gifts confined to the Apostles alone? (Yes. 1. T. II.)
I need not say to you that I am a limited man. Be plain in your answers, and give examples or unadulterated data to predicate the conclusion on.
Your much-esteemed visitor is quite slow in these days in his very welcome salutations. If the July number did not reach me until August, I consider it a great treat; I would not be without it for no small consideration. May the good Lord long continue your useful life among us.
Could Brother Fanning be with us at our Co-operation meeting at Union in…
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this county? If so, please let us know, and we will make arrangements to meet him at Whiteside Depot, on the Nashville and Chattanooga Railroad. The meeting commences on Friday before the third Lord’s day in September. Other engagements will prevent.
T. F.
Your Brother in the bonds of the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ,
WASHINGTON BACON.
HALFORD PRAIRIE, DUNN CO., TEXAS,
October 23, 1861.
BROS. FANNING AND LESCOTT,
The cause of truth is making some advancement in this far-off country. I commenced a meeting on Saturday before the third Lord’s day in October at Antioch Church in this county, and was aided by Brother Behea on Lord’s day following, and continued till Tuesday evening. We had eight additions to the army of the faithful. Two by letter, one from the Baptists, one from the Methodists, and four noble hearts confessed the Savior and were buried with their Lord in baptism to rise and walk in a newness of life. The brethren and sisters were built up in the most holy faith, and were made to rejoice in the hope of happiness beyond the Jordan of death. Oh, may we all labor more faithfully in these troublesome times for the advancement of the Redeemer’s kingdom.
TERRELL JASPER.
RELIGIOUS WORK
Beloved brethren, we gravely ask the question, Are we doing all that is in our power for the glory of God? From much of our time do we devote to studying the Holy Oracles? Do we appropriate many of our moments through the day to prayer and meditation? What are we doing for the sick and afflicted? the fatherless and the widow? Are we endeavoring to point our dying fellow men up to God and heaven? Are we in earnest? Do we really believe the Gospel of Jesus Christ? The world cannot believe, or it would be saved. Would it not be well for each Christian, not only to inquire of himself, if there is nothing more he could do—to improve his own heart and life, or to benefit his erring brothers of earth?
THE GOSPEL ADVOCATE
OBITUARIES
Buena Vista, Shelby Co., Tenn.
Dear Bros. Fanning and Lincomb,
I have been called to pay a tribute of respect to the memory of sister Martha Ann Matherson, wife of brother W. P. Matherson, who left for her reward on 1st of October, 1861; who obeyed the Gospel on the 25th of August, 1850. Lived a consistent Christian happy life, and died a triumphant happy death, and has left six children and brother Matherson, a Christian evangelist, to mourn their bereavement.
So oft the solemn dirge I hear,
The mournful sounding in my ear;
A wife and mother now is gone
Down to the silence of the tomb.
So sudden I was forced to part
With one the dearest to my heart,
A tender and beloved wife,
The joy and comfort of my life.
I not the only one bereft,
My little children too are left
Without a mother to impart
One ray of comfort to my heart.
May this our consolation be,
That she from sin, and sorrow free,
Her troubles and her trials o’er,
And she will weep and sigh no more.
But she with Jesus Christ will be,
Who bled and died on Calvary;
No more will care and pain oppressed,
And in her Father’s bosom rest.
And when my work is done below
I trust to glory I will go;
To take the far and distant flight,
To dwell with Martha in glory bright.
W. P. MATHERSON
Brother J. K. Speer writes, November 26, 1861, “My life is all saddened—my dear little girl, the oldest, is dead.” This brief announcement can but touch the cords of deep sympathy in our hearts.
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The loss of our children is especially trying. In the very morning of existence, full of promise and the center of many a fond hope, they are cut down and are no more. They are pure and innocent, and of such, says our Savior, is the kingdom of God. Let us then bow meekly and kiss the rod that brings sorrow to our hearts.
W. L.
DEATH OF BROTHER W. H. HUFFMAN
Dear Bros. Fanning and Lipscomb,
With deeply depressed spirits, I communicate to you the death of my son, William H. Huffman. He was in his 23rd year since the fifth of December last, and was Orderly Sergeant in Captain Rogers’ Company, Fifth Regiment, Tennessee Volunteers. He had been encamped at Union City from the time the Regiment was organized until the first of August. At that time they were marched to New Madrid, Missouri. On his march to that place he was taken with typhoid fever; his condition was very bad, with little or no attention. He was then sent to Memphis, Tennessee, to the care of the most benevolent society I have ever known, called the Southern Mothers. There he had every attention that kind ladies and good physicians could confer upon a sick soldier, but it was too late for good treatment to save his life.
He underwent so much exposure before he got there that he was in the first stages of recovery. His mother and I got to him on the 18th of August, 1861, and on the 24th he died. We brought him home and buried him in our family burying ground, where we had buried seven of our children previous to him, but his death goes harder with us than all the rest. They had all died under nine years old. He had grown to manhood. He had become a member of the Church of Christ about two years before he died.
I had placed my hopes upon him, but alas he is gone from the troubles of this world, with as firm a hope of his change being for his own eternal good as any person I ever saw, young or old. He said to me, the first day I got to where he was, that the disease had taken such a hold on his system he was confident he could not recover, and he was as perfectly in his mind as I ever saw him, and talked as deliberately. He said if he had his choice he would rather live to be an aid and comfort to me and his mother in our old age, but if he had to die he had no fear before him, he believed the gospel and had obeyed it.
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“He wanted us not to grieve after him, but to counsel his younger brothers as we had counseled him; that he expected to meet us all in a better world. He had no fears of his sister and his older brothers, for, said he, they are Christians. I have no recollection of ever hearing him use a profane, wicked expression in his life. A number of his company came to see him at Memphis; all said he read his Bible regularly, and was their best model of piety. I have every confidence that he is happy, and I ought not to grieve, but human nature is very frail.
W. C. HUFFMAN
Near Ebon College, Sumner Co., Tenn.
Brother and sister H. have our sincere sympathy.
T. F.
Chickasaw County, Miss., Oct. 16, 1861.
Dear Brother Fanning,
I write to inform you, and the readers of the Gospel Advocate, of the death of my youngest brother, M. T. McLendon, which occurred at Shubuta, Chickasaw county, Miss., on the 18th of last month (September). He died of congestive fever, after a few days’ illness; aged 31 years, 5 months and 17 days. My deceased brother made the good confession and was baptized into Christ by Brother T. W. Caskey, in Chickasaw county, Miss., in July, 1851, since which time he had lived a consistent member of the Church of Christ. It is true, for the last four years, his situation had been isolated, so that he was deprived of the privileges of the Lord’s house, but still he preserved his integrity to the last and departed in peace. He possessed many virtues which I shall not attempt to enumerate. Few men were more honest and upright in their dealings with their fellowmen than he was. He was generous almost to a fault. They who knew him best loved him most. But he has left these low grounds of sorrow and gone to his reward, leaving a devoted young wife, to whom he was married on the 7th of July only, and a numerous circle of relatives and friends to mourn his untimely loss. Amongst his relatives he has left an aged father and mother, than whom none feel his loss more sensibly or more deeply.
Yet we sorrow not as those who have no hope, being assured by the word of Inspiration that all such as he was, the Lord will raise up at the last day, and transplant them in the Heavenly Canaan, where sin, sorrow and death are felt and feared no more forever. May such be our happy lot, my dear Brother!
In Christ, your brother,
W. Y. W. MCLENDON
THE GOSPEL ADVOCATE
GONE! “WHERE THE WICKED CEASE FROM TROUBLING AND THE WEARY ARE AT REST.”
Died, at the residence of Bro. Col. Scoby, of Wilson county, Tennessee, September 2, 1861, brother James Scoby, who was born in Orange county, North Carolina, Feb. 14, 1777. His aged partner in affliction, Polly Scoby, having no more desire to remain on these earthly shores, died Sept. 9, 1861.
These veterans were amongst the earliest advocates of the cause of Christian religion in Tennessee. Their house was the home of the venerable B. W. Stone, Byron, Palmer, Daniel Travis, Abner Peeler, Abner Hill, and scores of the earliest and ablest preachers of the great reformation of the nineteenth century, and with more intelligent and devoted Christians it has rarely if it has ever been our good fortune to associate. We knew them well for thirty years, and in the religious conflicts of the age we never found them in the wrong. They both died in peace, looking confidently to the blessed hope of the Gospel of Christ. Though dead their examples still live in the memory of devoted relatives and a large circle of earnest and warm-hearted friends. They left rich in faith, and their reward will be ample and sure. The Lord be praised for the hope of immortality.
T. F.
ACIOTRIFF, Conn Co., GA., Nov. 16, 1861.
Bro. FANNING, — Hoping you will hear with me in my distress, I write to inform you of the death of my dear husband, Samuel L. Henderson, aged 27 years and 7 months. After a severe attack of typhoid fever he died on the 16th of September, at Richmond, Va. He had volunteered his services to defend his country and left his home on the 2nd of August for that purpose, but disease smote him ere he met the enemy. He was a member of the Christian Church, and I feel assured that his spirit is at rest—that we shall meet around God’s throne. O what a consolation this is to my broken heart—the only balm for my wounded soul! I have four little children to rear, and pray God to aid me in the task. If you deem this worthy a place in your paper you may insert it. I am not a subscriber but have access to it, and read it with great interest.
Your sister in Christ,
MARY LOUISA HENDERSON.
“We deeply sympathize with our afflicted sister.”
T. F.
THE GOSPEL ADVOCATE
DEAR BRETHREN
It will undoubtedly be a source of deep regret to many of you, (and especially to our preaching brethren,) to learn of the death of our aged and highly esteemed brother, Samuel A. Baker, of Dunlap Church, Hickman County, Tenn. He died at his late residence on the morning of the 22nd of September last, of congestion, having spent near three-score years on these shores of mortality and sin. But he has crossed over the Jordan where there is no more death.
Brother Baker’s piety and zeal in the cause of truth and righteousness was known, and will no doubt be appreciated by a very large circle of brethren and friends who are left behind to mourn his absence. We truly sympathized with his family and the church who have sustained so great a loss. He left the world in the triumph of that faith through which he fought a good fight, and finished his course. May we all die the death of the righteous that our last end may be like his.
We also announce the death of our justly esteemed young brother, William Cochran. He was deeply pious, and was always prompt in his attendance at the assembly of the saints, and the observance of the ordinances of the Lord’s house. May the Lord bless his heart-stricken lad. May we all be encouraged by the hope of eternal life.
H. B. THIMBLE.
L’pefs Look, Tenn., Oct. 5, 1861
Bro. P. J. Southern says the cause of Christ is gaining accessions in the region of Buan Vinh, Texas. We rejoice to know that many government are ardently laboring in the Lord’s vineyard.
T. H.
THE GOSPEL ADVOCATE
Influences which we cannot control compel us, for a time, to suspend the publication of the Gospel Advocate. This rest we deeply regret, but God overrules in our plans and we must submit. To be forced to cease from our mutual labors with our beloved brethren and friends grieves us beyond expression.
We humbly trust the Lord will soon open a way for continuing with renewed energies our publication under more favorable auspices.
We have been receiving for the St.
You will be returned if arrangements are not made for sending the labor by our May meeting in Franklin.
We will be permitted to stay before taking our leave, to labor successfully in the South, about which better understanding must exist among the friends of our ministers.
Brethren, we are one, and have but one work to perform.
Farewell,
T. P. FANNING