THE GOSPEL ADVOCATE
Editors: T. Fanning, D. Lipscomb
Vol. VIII
Nashville, Feb. 20, 1866
Number 8
CHURCH OF CHRIST AND WORLD-POWERS, NO. 4
In our investigations we have found that God, at all times, kept a wide gulf of separation between his Jewish kingdom and subjects, and the world-institutions by which they were surrounded. No alliances—no affiliations—could exist as equals with the human government of their subjects. We were never engaged in without receiving a signal mark of God’s displeasure. May his subjects not have adopted some government of their own, and have harmonized in spirit with his laws, and thus received his approbation? In the beginning, as we have found, God gave the law, perfect and complete, in the most minute particulars. He left no room for human legislation—for the exercise of human discretion.
The law was, “Thou shalt not do all the things that we do here this day, every man whatsoever is right in his own eyes”—”whatsoever things I command you, observe to do it; thou shalt not add thereto nor diminish from it.” (Deut. xii. 8, 32). Yet we find in later ages a changed government, altered institutions among the Jews. How did these changes come about?
- Samuel’s Leadership: “It came to pass when Samuel was old, he made his sons judges in Israel. His sons walked not in his ways, but turned aside after lucre, and took bribes and perverted judgment.”
- Demand for a King: “Then all the elders of Israel gathered themselves together and came to Samuel unto Ramah, and said unto him, Behold thou art old, and thy sons walk not in thy ways: now make us a king to judge us, like all the nations.” But the thing displeased Samuel, when they said, “Give us a king to judge us”: and Samuel prayed unto the Lord. And the Lord said unto Samuel, “Hearken unto the voice of the people, in all that they say unto thee; for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them.”
He tells them the consequences of this course, but still they insist they shall have a government of their own to punish them for their folly in becoming dissatisfied with God’s government and desiring a human one. If the Jews would ever have been justified in interpolating human…
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Laws and human expedients into the Divine government, it certainly was when those institutions of God were perverted to base and unlawful purposes, and his officers failed to do their duties. We see that the desire of a man-government even then amounted to a rejection of God as their king and ruler. The introduction of this human polity was the main cause of Israel’s many sins and rebellions in her history, of the long bloody family feuds between Israel and Judah, brought upon her, her sorrows and woes, her overthrow and long and tragic dispersions as fugitives and outcasts among the nations of the earth. This king, as their head, was the chief cause of turning them from the law of God. We thus find Saul, David, Solomon, and others, in approval of God in their private manners, so elated with pride at their wonderful exaltation, that they violated God’s law themselves and led their subjects into sin. If the best among the kings caused their subjects to sin, and weaned their affections from God, divided their allegiance, diverted their sense of responsibility from the law of God to the law of the king, what must have been the fatal effects of her more corrupt and wicked princes. We find them continually leading them away from God’s law into sin. At their return from captivity in Babylon, under Ezra and Nehemiah, it is said Ezra ix. 2, “The hand of the princes and rulers have been chief in this trespass,” that had brought them into captivity. It was Hezekiah’s forgetfulness of God’s law in his anxiety to be courteous and friendly with the King of Babylon, that produced the second captivity.
Hosea, speaking of this same rejection of God and choosing an earthly king, says, “O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself; but in me is thy help. I will be thy king: where is any other that may save thee in all the cities? And thy judges of whom thou saidst, Give me a king and princes. I gave thee a king in mine anger, and took him away in my wrath.” Your dissatisfaction with my appointments, as I gave them, was your ruin. To punish you for this, I gave you a king who oppressed you, who involved you in difficulties, brought upon you war, trouble, famine, and slaughter, but when under this punishment, you failed to humble yourself and repent, but waxed worse and worse in your sin and rebellion, in my wrath I took from you your king and left you without either a Divine or human head, a prey to all your enemies, scattered over the face of the earth, a by-word and a hissing among all the nations, as a perpetual warning to all families, kindreds, tribes, and tongues, of the folly and sin of becoming dissatisfied with Heaven’s appointments. God, to some extent at least, recognizes this earthly king as a rival of himself, and indicates the impossibility of man’s having both a Heavenly and an earthly king. He clearly indicates that the Jew could not have another king, and at the same time be regarded as the subjects of Heaven. We find that the Jew was prohibited of God from either making alliances with human governments formed by nations not of God’s people, or of adopting into the government he had made for them, inst…
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tutions of their own devising. He was God, and He their only King, ruler, law-maker—they could have none other. To have another was to reject God. “What thing soever I command you, observe to do it. Thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it.” We thus find that God kept his subjects aloof from all connection with the world, or human governments. He considered his alliances with these institutions as adulteries in his espoused wife. Ezekiel 23. Under the type of the two sisters, Aholah and Aholibah, in their whoredoms, he represents Judah and Israel in their alliances with the world-governments. In their punishment by their lovers he typifies their punishment inflicted by those nations with whom they formed alliances.
But in process of time this nation of God is so corrupted by these earthly, human institutions and alliances, that God will no longer forbear with them. He abolishes this national institution, and in its place establishes his universal and eternal spiritual kingdom. What relationship does this new and eternal kingdom sustain to the world-institutions by which it is surrounded and with which it comes in contact? is the question of prime importance in our investigation, and one which, in importance to the well-being of the church, is not transcended by any known to the Christian world. The Jewish dispensation was the type of the Christian kingdom. The Christian kingdom or church superseded the Jewish and occupied the same position with reference both to God and the world that the Jewish did. Paul in his letter to his Roman brethren, says the Jews, through unbelief, were broken off, and the Gentiles, through faith, were grafted in. Without determining what is the special position from which the Jews were broken or cast, and into which the Gentile was grafted, it suffices our present purpose to note that just the position with reference to God and the world, from which the unbelieving Jew was broken, the believing Gentile was grafted in. The Jewish institution was the type of the spiritual, teaching through God’s dealings with it, how He would deal with the church; this could not be so unless they occupied the same relationship to God and the world. God’s dealing with the Jew in one relationship could not teach us how He would deal with the Christian in a dissimilar one. The treatment of the outward nations by the Jews could be no lesson to us as to how we should meet towards the unbelieving unless we occupied a like position with reference to them.
These things being so, and God having, through a period of four thousand years, kept a deep and wide gulf of separation between his people, his nation, his kingdom and the human kingdoms of earth with their subjects, having, under every possible form and on every occasion, besought and warned his children against such associations or alliances; against all alliances, individual or national; against relying upon the human institutions for aid or help in any of their difficulties, having shown that the help of the human institutions was weak, confusion and ruin to…
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In a word, God having separated them in every possible manner, and on every possible occasion, he did it not for them, but to teach that Christians must be a separate and distinct people. With all these teachings, through so long a period, so repeatedly, emphatically and distinctly set forth, it certainly is true, that without some positive act or declaration of God connecting or uniting them, the government of God with its subjects, must forever remain separated from the world-institutions with their subjects, with no alliance or communion, no participation of the one in the affairs of the other. Upon him that would connect them, the responsibility of showing when and how God unites them, and what that union is, certainly devolves. We shall, in our next, examine the Scriptures to see if they have been so united.
D. L.
RELIGION AT HOME
The influence of the religion of Christ is to hallow, and purify, and exalt every relationship of life. We are thereby made better humans, and wives, better parents and children, better beings in every social and business relation of life. The great misfortune with us all is that we fail to let it exert that power for good. By our worldliness, our carelessness, and our devotion to self, we cramp and hinder that holy influence and rob it of its sanctifying power. In the family, in the dear and sacred intimacies of the heart’s stone, most of all, I fear, do we fail to let its peaceful and gracious influence be felt. How few of the so-called Christian families of the land are there that really and truly cultivate, in their home relationships, the gentle graces that render the associations of home so enchanting, and make the family, indeed, a nursery of the church.
There are hundreds, yet thousands of families of which the head, and many members, are professedly of the body of Christ, in which there is never heard the gladdening song of praise—where the voice of prayer is never raised—where the word of life lies dust-covered and neglected in a hidden corner—where wrangling, and strife, and bitter disputings, and vile profanity drive away every holy influence, and render such homes the true hot-beds of wickedness, brutish selfishness and rudeness, and in the end, of the lowest degradation and crime. And shall we call such Christian families? Our Savior has said, “By their fruits ye shall know them.” If these be the fruits of our lives which show themselves in this earth, my brethren and sisters, how fearful must be the condemnation that will fall upon us in the world to come? Can we not bring this matter home to our own hearts and realize its importance—the importance of making our homes and families abiding places of holiness, peace and love?
We know we are wont to satisfy ourselves with the acceptance that we are so much engaged in providing for the earthly needs of our communities, that we have no time for these things. The true reason, rather, is that the world, the flesh and the devil have yet so strong a hold upon us that we have…
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No inclination for such work. While such is the case, we can expect nothing but to see the children of so-called Christian parents become the rudest, most careless, profligate and Godless members of society.
The home of the Christian truly, where all is tempered and harmonized by the gentle spirit of love, is indeed, though rare, a most joyful sight. How pleasant to abide there! How sweet the influence that pervades its sacred quietude. Wherever found on this earth, those who go forth from it, bear with them the graces of true culture, there acquired, and no circumstances of this earth can obliterate that impress of true goodness and genuine worth made by a Christian father or mother in the training of the child.
How different the home (if it even be allowed a name so sacred) where crossness, selfishness and profanity reign triumphant instead of songs of praise, are heard the rude jest, the low ribaldry instead of the voice of humble prayer, the coarseness of debauchery; instead the reading of the Word of God, the angry, passionate dispute; instead of the voice of kind admonition and instruction from parent to child, the loud threat of punishment and the insolent, rebellious reply. All is jarring, grating discord. Every feeling of our souls recoil from the ludicrous, sickening sight.
How many of us are really constantly striving to bring our families up to the pure and holy pattern of the religion of Christ? Let acts and not words answer the question.
W. L.
OUR CONTEMPLATED COLLEGE
A committee of the Trustees of Franklin College, spent from the 14th to the 16th inclusive, of the present month, in consultation regarding the establishment, as early as may be possible, of such an institution of learning in Tennessee, as the wants of the country demand. Not only is it the settled determination of the Trustees to make the effort to build up a college, that will at least equal any other American institution in educational facilities, but some of our best citizens who have not hitherto cooperated with us, are lending an attentive ear to the proposition.
We expect the whole plan will soon take such a shape as will be easily understood, and will be submitted to the brethren and the public for examination. We hope that the idea of a college on a larger scale will not appear idle to our readers. In our judgment there is not a better country on earth than this, and it occurs to us that our people are really inferior to no others. They should be saved at least from the degradation of looking abroad for teachers and schools for their children. We have the men and the means in the South for managing our educational affairs, if they can be brought into service. Our heart is very much in this matter, and for its accomplishment, we think we are willing to labor.
T. FANNING.
THE GOSPEL ADVOCATE
MISSIONARY SOCIETIES
LEXINGTON, January 24th, 1866.
ELDER T. FAUNDING, Franklin College—My Brother:
On yesterday I received the first two numbers of the Gospel Advocate, for the 1st and 9th inst., and to my surprise and mortification, I found my private note of enquiry, and intended solely to be private, not only published, but most singularly perverted in every particular, both as to its design and language.
I was most heartily glad to hear that Tennessee would again have a periodical devoted to original principles, and that such a beginning argued well for a more favored state of religious intelligence. I was truly anxious to aid the circulation of the Advocate, and hence my enquiry in reference to your present position as to missionary societies. I knew that many of our brethren would not subscribe for it if your purpose was to discourage such efforts, and hence my brief enquiry.
To my great surprise, you charge that my letter was only apparently candid. In fact, it was anything else, you clearly intimate. Is this the course you intend to pursue with all such as may ask information at your hands? Deception is no part of my character, Bro. Faunding. It is a most wanton violation of Christian law that you should thus charge me before your readers. I cover up nothing that I wish to do.
You say you read our “apparently candid letters in dread sorrow.” You charge that we have made it “a new creed,” as a test of holding fellowship with you, and that without subscription to our new creed, that you must thrust from our fellowship? I can read nothing like this in my letter, nor can it be tortured out of it by any ingenuity.
Union upon the Bible alone, you think, can never be had again with us, according to our creed, and further say that “you have abandoned the cause of God for a human invention.” A bold charge and wholly unfounded.
Not content with these assertions, you also say, “Now, dear brethren, your course in this matter, and the course of those who cooperate with you in what seems to you a necessary union in vocation, (you had better have said experience,) will determine ours. We ask no fellowship but upon the authority of Christ. (Amen.) But if you are determined to impose upon us creeds, oaths and tests, to which no man in full Christian health can subscribe, after giving you a fair hearing, we may be compelled to bid you adieu.”
This is strange talk for one of good understanding, and I cannot avoid the conviction that you were strangely nervous when you penned it, or that you wished to create a sensation. What creed or oaths were either presented to you, or even hinted at by me, as a test of my fellowship or…
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Is it not my right to know what course is proposed by an editor upon any given subject, in order to direct my effort to circulate his productions? Or are they alone entitled to unbridled liberty? You seem to think so, and I am astonished that you should be heard to the world my note of inquiry, as one of grave offense against your Christian liberty. You should have answered my inquiry privately, and thus avoided all this fuss about nothing worthy of notice in your paper.
I say now that I am for the spread of the old Gospel in every way best calculated to give it success. If you think that the greatest amount of good can be done by this, or that way, I have no quarrel with you, provided you maintain Christ and him crucified. I bid you success, but if your purpose is to destroy our church cooperation, long since brought into successful operation in Kentucky, then I will not help you do it. Our operations are in perfect keeping with the views of Bro. A. Campbell, as expressed in his “Christian System” under the head of “The Church of Christ.” We interfere in no way with congregational liberty; all we do is voluntary and of free choice. No man’s liberty is infringed, nor is any church expected to give only as she chooses, and at any time our life may cease by their word.
Near three thousand souls have been brought into the fold of Christ since October, eighteen sixty-four, by our joint efforts, and thousands made to rejoice at an increased effort to conquer Satan. If you can work any better way, I say go at it. Work, work, is my motto, but I have been at work in the ministry since eighteen fifty-seven, now near thirty years, and I deliberately give my voice for church cooperation in connection with local effort.
I trust that Bro. D. will review his remarks about my inquiry, and that he will be able to see things in their true light, avoiding all causes of strife. Of course I shall expect this paper to go to your readers as my defense. I long for the success of the Gospel in Tennessee, and the triumph of your churches.
Fraternally,
GEO. W. ELLY.
To Bro. D. Lipscomb:—I say that I like your views as given upon the subject of human government and our obligations to them. They seem to be well considered, sound and judicious. May we all learn to lead a quiet and peaceable life in this world of strife and woe, is my prayer.
Truly,
G. W. E.
REPLY TO BROTHER G. W. ELLY’S PROTEST
Circumstances, not always of our own choosing, frequently impel us to do things disagreeable to ourselves, and not at all pleasant to others. The good physician often administers an offensive medicine in the hope…
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that, it may possibly, rid the patient of a deadly disease. The fact of the existence of such letters as we published in our second number, from Brethren Mannell and Elly, should satisfy any one that, there is, at least a suspicion of malfeasance or obliquity, either in the writers, or in the editors of the Gospel Advocate, and with the hope of obtaining truth, we give the letters and our response to the public and we now submit, for examination, the Protest of Brother Elly and our reply. In proposing to publish a paper in the South, devoted to the Christian religion, we had hoped to be met by a strong demand, to disclose our purposes, not regarding the Church of God, or anything written in the Bible—no one questioned our kindness touching such matters—but we were required by the Corresponding Secretary and President of an organization unknown in the precincts of the Kingdom of Heaven, to answer categorically, if we would defend a “human expedient,” and were plainly told that if we refused, we could not have their cooperation. To us, it was unpleasant and offensive, and we felt in our hearts that it was either a fatal oversight in our brethren, or manifested a fixed purpose to substitute other organizations in the place of the Church of Christ, for religious labor. Although the subject is disagreeable, we see no alternative but to meet the difficulties as best we can.
While we desire not to give any cause of offence, we are not satisfied that it would have been better to reply to Brethren Mannell and Elly privately. Their was a secret movement for public effect; but our judgment was that the worst should come to the light at once; and therefore, than the manner in which we met the threatened opposition, we think should cause no feeling of regret on our part.
Brother Elly will permit us to suggest that the style of his protest is, in our judgment, not only objectionable and offensive, but far beneath the dignity of the Christian profession. He says, for instance, that “a letter was perverted in every particular;” speaks of our “wanton violation of Christian law,” our “bold charge,” “wholly unfounded;” of our “strange talk of misunderstanding;” says “if your life depended upon the proof, you could not furnish it.”
We have no disposition to reply to these things, but must say to Bro. E. that if he expects to command our personal and Christian respect in future, it occurs to us a different style would be preferable.
We admit there was some ground for inferring from the expression “their authentically candid letters,” that we entertained doubt as to the character of our brethren, although we afterwards said, we “hoped for the best,” and spoke of our correspondents as “brethren whose motives were certainly good.”
We do not wish to believe that the brethren would trifle with sacred things, but really the developments surprise us, yet should we become…
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It is established that they love the truth more clearly than “human experiences,” and we will rejoice to publish it to the world. With the hope of getting the main subject of deliverance before our readers in proper light, we will notice a few items in the explanatory statements of the protest.
Brother Elly, in his first letter, said: “By public judgment, that you are opposed to our societies, I will not keep you do it.” Look at these two extremes, Bro. Elly. You first admit that it is your “opinion the Editors of the Advocate, believe that you are in error.” As you express concern to protest, why do you talk thus?
Next, you say, “Our operations are in harmony with the views of Brother A. Campbell.” Let me be clear, under this head, “The Body of Christ.” (1. 63.) Let us see what Bro. Campbell says under this head. On page 75, he says, “The church is a community composed of many particular communities, much of which is built upon the same foundation, walks according to the same rules, enjoying the same charter, and is under the jurisdiction of no other community of Christians.” On page 75, he says, “Temperance is a part of the Christian institution.” “One hundred churches, adding in number, will do more than twice the number, without any connection.”
In all the penance on the subject now before us, there is not a word in reference to church cooperation. And everything was considered other congregations. Now let us hear how misinformed others think.
We turn to the “Kentucky Christian Missionary Society,” of which George W. Elly is President.
Thomas J. Nunnally, Corresponding Secretary.
Art. 1. The name of the society shall be the Kentucky Missionary Society, and its membership shall consist of all brethren in Kentucky who contribute to its fund.
This article does not even recognize the society of which Brother Elly is President, nor is there a word about church cooperation, but it says that certain persons in Kentucky can be members by paying money. In the Constitution, it says, “The Executive Committee shall select candidates and fix their compensation.”
You point us to the fifth page of the Christian system for evidence! But Brother Campbell taught as your society teaches. Did A. Campbell ever teach that there should be certain executive committees to select candidates for religious service? Did he know that there should be certain executive committees to select candidates for religious service? If you do, we have no arguments to offer on the subject, and not an unkind word to utter.
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You say that “3,000 souls have been brought into the fold of Christ since October, 1864, by your joint efforts, and they have been saved from ruin, and should rejoice at an increased effort to conquer Satan.” The whole idea is that the missionary society has done this good work. Is not this taking all the honor from the church and giving it to an institution founded in the wisdom of man? If this, and other missionary societies, are able to save souls and churches from ruin, why not adopt them exclusively and abandon churches? All such efforts, sooner or later, will lead to such a result.
Finally, Bro. E. makes light of the whole matter, and advises us to “avoid all this fuss about nothing.” We were disposed to be quiet, but you would not let us; and although you now call the matter trifling, you thought it of sufficient magnitude to attempt privately to extract from us a pledge to advocate the authority of a church-creating, church-regulating and church-saving society, not recognized by the spirit of God, upon the peril of disaffiliation by you and the secretary of your body. It seems almost providential that you have written what you have. It will open the eyes of the brethren to the insidious and certain danger of human devices in religion, and we trust in God that it will open your eyes to the danger of your course. In both your letters, as well as your intention, you make our authority or your Society a test of your cooperation and fellowship in our Christian labor; and if you persist, we can look for nothing short of other tests of fellowship soon. We would not be surprised to hear of you and your very zealous secretary requiring brethren to subscribe to the most extraordinary religious or political tenets in order to enjoy your cooperation. But surely good and godly preachers will return from such a lamentable departure from the simplicity of the appointments of Jesus Christ, in which we so heartily rejoiced together ten years past. You have drawn the lines, brethren, not we.
Plainly, deliberately and firmly we declare to all whom it may concern, that it is our solemn conviction that the adoption or substitution of any excellent, society or plan for Christian work, besides the “kingdom not of this world,” is an insult to God, and a disgrace to the Christian profession. We can offer more arguments in favor of introducing among us that powerful engine, “the mourning bench,” than anyone living can offer, for a society of human invention, for the cooperation of churches or the members of Christ’s body. We are mournful and grieved at heart, to know that we, who stood so long with an unbroken front in defense of the Constitution of the Kingdom of Heaven and the union of all Christians upon the one foundation, are now threatened with discord, alienation, strife and “unnameable heresies,” from the introduction of machinery not constructed in Divine wisdom or tempered in love. We are not “scemblitarians”—never were—but unless our brethren return to the original.
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Platforms, divisions and disgrace are inevitable. Come, brethren, let us reason together. You have certainly committed a high offense against our King and your coadjutors, and if you persevere in your human expectations, we can hope no longer for peace.
— J. F. Fanning
MISSION OF THE CHURCH
The true object of the Church of Christ has been greatly misunderstood by even the members themselves. Its design was never to bring about a state of indolent peace and ease with any given standard of morality. But its object was and is to induce the members of that church to submit themselves unreservedly to the law of God. Peace in the Church of Christ is not only impracticable, but even undesirable unless it is attained by the whole church coming up to the perfect standard of God’s law. Until this is attained, continued, earnest effort, investigation and discussion upon the part of the members of the church must be kept up until they all come “to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.”
The unity and harmony of the faith are to be attained but only through “the knowledge of the Son of God.” A unity, then, of faith itself is attainable only as it may be in complete harmony with the teachings of the Bible. The schisms and divisions of Christendom are certainly to be deprecated as the work of the evil one. Yet, a union of these sects in error would certainly be a more fatal, and more to be dreaded calamity. Indeed this would be a calamity so dire and fearful in its character, that we are persuaded God in his overruling Providence will never permit it, at least until the hour of the final overthrow of all opposition to God and his cause. We gather strength in this conviction, from his dispersing the Babel builders and confounding their language, when forming a union in rebellion against God.
Therefore, too, those human bonds of union in the church-creeds, contrary to all the calculations of the wise, instead of proving bonds of union, like the tower of Babel, have resulted in the worse confusion and wider separation of those framing and relying upon them. Unity in error, then, is not desirable, but only that unity that is according to the “knowledge of the Son of God.” That unity is to be obtained only by learning the truth as it is in Christ Jesus—in the fullness of all its parts and in earnestly teaching it to others—especially the members of the body of Christ.
But there is no teaching of truth without the correcting of error; this will necessitate discussion. It will sometimes result in embittered strife, owing to the faulty tempers of those engaging in the investigation. Yet better have this than the church to have peace and union in error. The great object of the church then, is to assist its own members and the outside world in learning the truth of God, the law of Christ, and then persuading and encouraging them to obey that.
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Law
Its true unity then can never be attained by compromising the truth, or by winking at and tolerating error, but by the diligent, and earnest, and continual striving to learn the whole truth, and to teach it to others, by an unceasing effort to bring the church up to the perfect standard of Christian truth and Christian practice. We should be much more fearful of tolerating error, which breeds sin, than of tolerating investigation. We should be more anxious to make the impression upon the world that we will use every means in our reach, and make every effort possible, for the discovery of truth, than to make the impression that we are in perfect peace and undisturbed quiet. Such an impression will command the respect of every man that values truth higher than popularity, and will give a new, high, holy incentive to activity and energy in the Church of Christ.
D. L.
THE GREAT QUESTION
The great question of the age in the religious world, is in reference to human authority in religion. How many men go to devising expedients for the Church of Christ? The Romanist, the Episcopalian, the Presbyterian and Methodists will each claim authority for the church to alter, annul, or in different ways change the law of God, each according to its own established rule and manner. The disciples of Jesus Christ have ever held that His authority is sovereign, His work is complete and perfect—that man’s province is simply to use diligently the instruments which Heaven has provided for him and to reconcile the issues with God. When acting thus, we are doing God’s work; when we use means and institutions of man’s devising, we are doing man’s work. Man’s work, from the days of Cain to the present hour—no matter how plausible in appearance, has brought in their end, confusion and sorrow. God’s work, when humbly submitted to, no matter how weak and foolish it seemed, has ever brought peace and happiness.
Shall man then labor in and through human institutions or through God’s?
D. L.
CHRIST THE SAVIOR OF THE WORLD
The sealing testimony in behalf of Jesus Christ being the Son of God in His own estimation, as given to the disciples of John, was, “The poor have the gospel preached to them.” The world today needs this same sealing testimony, that it may believe that Jesus is the Son of God. Every preacher that pretends in the name of Jesus Christ, seeks the rich and the learned and the fashionable to preach to, instead of the poor and simple-hearted and unpretentious, by that course nullifies the power of the great truth, that Jesus is the anointed one that was to come into the world to save the world. Such a preacher is no co-laborer with God, no true minister of Christ, but a servant of the wicked one in the Liveliness of Heaven.
D. L.
THE GOSPEL ADVOCATE
BENIFICENCE
“And to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how He said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive!'” — Acts xx. 35.
The rights of God, the Great Benefactor of all, are poorly recognized in this selfish and selfish world. The gold and the silver, and the great banks, are often appropriated and misapplied in so many attractive, splendid, and magnificent ways, as if the sovereign Proprietor had never said, “The silver is mine, and the gold is mine.”
“The failure,” says a writer, “to understand this fact, and to act upon it, has caused, for ages, the confusion of the world, and left countless millions to perish without the hope of redemption.” How pitiable and lamentable the thought! The redemption of a perishing world cost the riches of heaven—its Father’s darling Son. The consummation of this great achievement was committed to “earthen vessels.” It is made the peculiar privilege of the followers of Christ to co-operate with Him in saving a lost world. They are to co-operate by the use of their means, their talents, influence, and opportunities. All may not be competent to preach, but as a brother once said in a Virginia congregation, “Brethren, I can’t preach, but I can pray, and that will do as well.” Talents, influence, means, are all consecrated to the matter.
When the Apostle would present an all-potent incentive to zeal and activity in winning souls to Christ, he would say, “Brethren, know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, for your sakes He became poor, that, through His poverty, we might be rich.”
We are truly not our own; everything we possess we are bought with a price, and such a price! “All price is beyond.”
Though curious to count the mighty sum, it is beyond the reach of human thought that heaven had that which might redeem.
Beneficence is the practice of giving. It means more than mere generosity. It is the active, the diffusive principle which impels and actuates its possessor to imitate the Master, of whom it is said, “He went about doing good.” The rule by which it is regulated is a very plain one. It is the ratio of ability. Man’s obligation cannot exceed his ability.
Impart, says the Lord, is the just and equitable law of God. Grace, every Christian must remember that, if there be first a willing mind, “it is accepted according to what he hath, and not according to what he hath not;” that is, a man is not accepted if he gives less than he is prospered, nor if he ostentatiously gives more.
Remember the Widow’s mite. The Master saw many of their number throwing into the Lord’s treasury costly gifts; but the poor widow…
THE GOSPEL ADVOCATE
Love of God, there in all the had—the mine. It was more than all had done. The Savior admired and commended her for it. How many do as much? The primitive Christians cheerfully made sacrifices for Christ’s sake. How many are willing to do so now, in the present distress? Are we willing to economize for the Master’s cause? Surely, if we are possessed with the disposition of our Master, we will. “The liberal soul shall be made fat, and he that watereth shall be watered again.” Do we believe it? The eccentric Dean Swift was invited to deliver a “Charity Sermon” before a large audience. He rose and deliberately read, “He that giveth to the poor, lendeth to the Lord.” “My friends, if you like the security, down with the dust.” A genuine contribution was raised at the close of this brief sermon. Why not? If God is our security, why not trust Him? When we give, too, let it not be merely from impulse, or because we are importuned, but from principle, and according to Divine rule, namely, “the Lord has prospered us.” No other law should govern the Christian—no other one will be acceptable to the Christian’s Lord and Master.
J. R. PHARME.
UVALDE, TEXAS, Nov. 29th, 1865.
Bro. Fanning & Lipscomb: I embrace the present opportunity of dropping you a few lines to let you know that I am still among the survivors, and am very desirous to know whether your lives have been spared through the past convulsions of our country. I have tried every means in my power to learn what had become of you. I hope that your lives have been spared that you may still continue to hold out the Olive Branch of peace to a dying and perishing world.
Brothers, I wish to know whether you are still publishing the GOSPEL ADVOCATE, and if you have continued its publication during the war. If so, I wish to know if you have the back numbers to 1862, if so, what is the price of back numbers, and what your terms of publication now? I wish to know if the following brethren are still among those that have survived the troubled waters: A. Campbell, Reece Jones, D. Franklin, and James Challen, and whether they continue their publications or not? The laboring brethren in this State, so far as I have been able to learn, have been spared. In compliance with the above requests, you will much oblige a friend and brother in Christ.
Yours, &c.,
C. C. McINNEY.
The brethren inquired after, are all still living. Dr. Franklin only continues to publish his paper. The Harbinger is still published by Bros. Pendleton & Loos. The weight of years and labors has compelled Bro. Campbell to cease his work, though he still lives. The other questions our brother will find answered in the ADVOCATE.
D. L.
THE GOSPEL ADVOCATE
RELIGIOUS INTELLIGENCE
New Harmony, Tenn., Jan. 29th, 1866.
Bro. Fanning:
I deem it the duty of Ministers of the Gospel to report, through the Gospel Advocate, what they have been doing in ministerial labor during the ravages of war. My labors have not been as regular and efficient as I desired, yet I have been preaching whenever and wherever I thought I could do the greatest good, and by the blessing of our Heavenly Father a goodly number of persons have heard the truth, believed it and obeyed it, and are now walking in the discharge of their Christian duties. The churches where I have labored are those of New Hermon, Bedford County, and the Cane Creek Church, where I have my membership. During the last two years there have been many additions to the congregations. The brethren at New Hermon are much encouraged in the way of the Lord, and the brethren at Cane Creek have resolved to build a new house of worship during the present year.
In many places within my knowledge, a general awakening prevails, and the brethren complain of being deeply in debt, and that they have lost nearly all their earthly substance, and therefore, they are not able to do anything just now for the Lord’s cause. O, why can we not all have the same integrity that Job manifested in the midst of his losses of earthly possessions and the bereavement of all his children? My dear brethren, the time has come when all must take position either for the Lord or against him. I hope that we all may be found in the discharge of our Christian responsibilities, even if we are compelled to make some pecuniary sacrifices in doing so. If Christianity is worth what the Bible sets forth as its value, it is worth all things beside it. Yes, earthly possessions, grandeur of person, strength of intellect—in a word, nothing created can at all be compared to its eternal worth.
There is a great desire among the aliens in my knowledge to hear the truth now, than has been for years in the past. The field is broad one, and but very few to labor in it. “O that men would praise the Lord for his goodness to the children of men.”
Your brother in Christ,
C. R. Darnell.
TO CORRESPONDENTS
Several anonymous letters have come to hand. Brethren, sisters, friends, whoever you be, we wish to be as courteous as possible, but we cannot find time even to read anonymous articles. If you do not wish your name given to the public, send it in a note to the editors, or one of them, then your communication will be read, and if thought to be of sufficient interest or importance to the cause of Christianity, it will be published; otherwise, not. We say to all, especially our young scribes, study conciseness and brevity. More articles are rejected from lack of these qualities than any other.
EDITORS
THE GOSPEL ADVOCATE
All agents can send names at club prices, without waiting to complete lists; provided they will fill out the clubs after sending. When an agent has once made a club he can afterward send any number of names at any office at the club rates.
D. L.
CORRESPONDENTS will please address the undersigned, and all communications connected with Franklin College or Hope Institute, at “FRANKLIN COLLEGE, DAVIDSON COUNTY, TENNESSEE.” Be sure to put Davidson County. It will prevent many letters from going to the town of Franklin, Tennessee.
T. FANNING
PROSPECTS OF VOLUME VIII. OF THE GOSPEL ADVOCATE.
The undersigned proposes resuming the publication of “The Gospel Advocate,” as a Weekly Journal, January 1, 1866.
The purpose is to maintain the right of Jesus Christ to rule the world, the supremacy of the Sacred Scriptures in all matters spiritual, and to encourage investigation of every subject connected with the Church of Christ, which we may consider of practical interest. The Kingdom of God is a real, permanent institution, “The pillar and support of the truth,” upon a proper appreciation of which, the welfare of the world and the happiness of mankind depend; hence, its origin, organization, history, labor and influence, and its relation to worldly powers, civil, military and religious, and her final triumph, will occupy much of our attention. The cultivation of the moral principles of Christianity, and the training of Christians for immortality, will constitute an important part of our labor.
The work will be published at Nashville, Tennessee, in weekly numbers of sixteen pages, the size of the former Gospel Advocate, neatly folded and stitched, at
$2.00 for single subscribers.
$1.25 for five subscribers.
$1.00 for ten subscribers, invariably in advance.
We would be pleased to have the cooperation of the Brethren generally, and the preachers of the West (especially), in circulating the paper. In making remittances, send all sums of $10, and under, in registered letters by mail at our risk, and all sums over $10, by express, or in checks or Post Office drafts.
Direct all communications for the Advocate to
T. FANNING,
D. LINCOLN,
Editors & Publishers, Gospel Advocate,
Nashville, Tenn.