THE GOSPEL ADVOCATE
T. Fanning, Editors
D. Lipcomb
VOL. VIII
NASHVILLE, JAN. 16, 1866
NUMBER 3
SHALL THE GOSPEL ADVOCATE TAKE ANY PART IN STATE MATTERS?
A very respectable, and doubtless, good Brother in Kentucky, and several Brethren further South, for whose judgment we entertain much respect, not only suggest, but urge us, to devote a part of our paper to matters of State.
That these Brethren are in earnest, we have no doubt, but it strikes us, that the governmental excitement for the past four years, has had a bewildering influence on thousands who previously took little or no interest in Governmental affairs. Possibly, were we to turn all of our energies to the subject of worldly institutions, we might be of some slight service to our race; but of this, we are not entirely sure, and with the view that we can be more useful in another direction, we decline for the present, any part in the affairs of State.
It is true, Christians owe duties to the state which are well defined in the New Testament, and which should not be neglected. Paul, in this day, exhorted that first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions and giving of thanks, be made for all men. For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior; who will have all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth.
It will be observed, that when this instruction was given, Nero, the bloodiest of Roman Emperors was on the throne, and we have no idea that the Apostle attempted to make the impression upon Christians that they were to pray to the Father to convert kings or rulers, but through the instrumentality of the Gospel. The first teachers of the Christian religion did not admit that earthly rulers had any rights in the kingdom of Christ. They were treated as children to spiritual influence, and the burden of their prayers regarding these rulers and officials, was to the effect, that God in His goodness might throw about them restraining influences, that they might not treat injuriously the servants of the Lord. Hence, the Apostle gave us a motive and reason for the prayer, that the disciples…
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might “Lead quiet and peaceable lives.” But the idea of associating with worldly rulers in prayer to God, as men do now in political, legislative and war gatherings, never entered the minds of the early Christians. Professors anciently “Turned aside to vain jangling,” when they attempted to become “Teachers of the law.” And Paul said, “Understanding neither what they said, nor whereof they affirmed.” But he recalled “That the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient; for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, for whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind, for menstealers, for liars, for perjured persons, and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine.” 1 Tim. 1:9, 10.
We invite special attention to the teaching of the Apostle. If all men were really and truly under the government of Christ, we would have no use for governments of men. Indeed the Apostle tells us, “The law is not made for a righteous man!” We do not wish to reiterate more than our friends can bear, but the prince of this world has an independent reign, and yet has “Nothing in Christ.” True, all authority in earth as well as in Heaven, has been committed to the Son of God, but all men have not yet been subjugated by him; still all who cannot be brought under his dominion, “Shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and the glory of his power.”
We will doubtless be pardoned for suggesting that, while we maintain the doctrine of Romanists and Protestants, that what they call Christian men can do much good in directing State matters, seems highly plausible, there is no Christian soundness in it. To be sure, we do not affirm that no Christian man or woman ever ascended the throne, but we are quite sure that no Christian ever ruled a nation by the principles of Christianity. The fact is, that the laws of Christ are not suited for the government of any of Satan’s subjects. We moreover, give it as our candid conviction, drawn from scores of examples, that no Christian man can engage in, or even a part of his time, to the affairs of human government without being greatly injured spiritually.
We do not pretend to give a reason for it; but we simply state the fact of corruption attaching to all that busy themselves in politics, and the ordinary excitements incident to human engagements. Ambition and false pride, have led many of our brethren into legislative halls, state and national, but in every instance, they are either swallowed up and lost in vice, or greatly injured by their associations and labor.
We would really be glad for our brethren who suppose that we might possibly be useful in giving part of our labor to the state, to furnish us with their best reasons for participation in this labor. We ardently desire a thorough examination of the whole question of Christians taking part in directing the affairs of the princes of this world.
T. F.
THE GOSPEL ADVOCATE
WILL FRANKLIN COLLEGE BE REBUILT?
We have frequent inquiries from brethren who feel deep interest in reference to the education of their children, touching the prospect of rebuilding Franklin College. In reply, we state that the Trustees have appointed a meeting for the 5th of February, with the purpose of considering, not only the reduction of rebuilding, but also to embody such a plan or operations as they may believe will be successful.
We feel but little inclination to say much on the subject till there shall be presented, in some authoritative form, matter like deliberation; we suppose it will not be out of place to submit a few general remarks on the subject. We feel much more free to speak of school education, Franklin College and other colleges, than we did twenty years ago. Why it is so we can scarcely state; but from our pretty fair success as a teacher, we presume, we have often been mortified by the insinuation that we were in years past at least somewhat influenced by selfish motives. The fact that we had accumulated some little property, doubtless contributed to strengthen this impression, if not to suggest it. Now, we shall have some property, but not by school operations. As a class, teachers, and especially old teachers, are now, and have always been, poor in the things of the world. Our recollection is, that we have never known a man become wealthy by even the best school management. What little we had in the world we made by hard work, hard living and hard management. But our purpose is never again to be so interested in college pecuniarily at least, nor to allow the slightest occasion for anyone to suspect selfish motives concerning us.
Before the burning of our residence and furniture, and our losses in the destruction of Franklin College, we had been very much reduced, indeed, almost impoverished, with thousands of others, by the civil war that has just swept over the land, and in our face in life, it would be folly and madness to entangle ourselves in the affairs of this life. Therefore, we shall speak with unusual independence touching the education of youth, and especially regarding the education of the sons and daughters of parents in the Church of Christ.
Wishing to be fully understood, we intimate that we think it altogether becoming to say that the greatest concern regarding the education of the youth South of the Ohio River. For this, we have two good reasons. In the North the schools and colleges are, doubtless, well adapted to the wants of the rising generation, but in the South, we have no general system of education, and in fact, no college adapted to the wants of the brotherhood. The practice of sending the children of any section to distant, and, in many respects, a different country, to be educated, has always been, and must ever be, attended with most serious objections.
In the first place, it is a most degrading thought, that any country possesses not the adequate means to educate her children; secondly, its effect is to produce prejudice in the minds of those who attempt to give educational…
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Facilities to a destitute region; and, truly, there is no country on earth with such a vast territory as ours, and with inhabitants suffering so widely in manners and morals, whose youth are by any means suited for the same system of education. We, indeed, in the South, have at least two classes of people whose habits, destinies, and social position are, in our view of things, never to be identical. Good men in this section have long ardently labored to improve the intellectual and moral condition of the negro, and this labor of love will be continued. But the greatest work of philanthropists must necessarily be directed to the elevation of the white race. Most of our readers are mostly Southern people, and of course, whatever we attempt for the amelioration of the world, will likely be in the portion of the Mississippi valley, south of the fortieth degree of North latitude. For the present, however, we will say nothing upon the subject of general education, or of colleges in any general sense. But our vital object is to offer a thought or two in regard to rebuilding Franklin College, or at least an institution in its place. We say to our friends, to the brethren especially, and to the world, that we feel no local prejudices, and have no ends to observe save the glory of God and the happiness of our people.
That Franklin College, however, will be rebuilt, or an institution to take its place, on a greatly enlarged scale, we feel scarcely a doubt. So far, we have consulted but few persons on the subject, have made no attempt to raise funds, and have really no promises. But if asked for a reason of our confidence, we would reply that we have no doubt that the disciples of our Lord Jesus Christ in the South-west will, just so soon as a satisfactory plan shall be submitted, put forth a surprising energy.
We will be pardoned, we hope, for giving, at this early date, a single idea that will accomplish, in our judgment, all that should be desired. We contemplate a school, college, or college buildings in middle Tennessee vastly superior to any amongst the brethren, or even of the denominations North or South, owned and controlled by the Christian brotherhood, in which, from five hundred to a thousand youths may enjoy the very best educational facilities, without money and without price. Such an institution is not impossible, and indeed, in our view, there has never been so favorable a time for its establishment. Our mind is at least fully made up, and we, at present, can see no insurmountable barrier.
Correspondents
Correspondents will please address the undersigned, and all 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. J. FANNING
THE GOSPEL ADVOCATE
PERSONAL RELIGION
There is no limit known to man scarcely, more at war with his true interests, and with all that is useful and honorable in his character than the habit of idleness. Nothing more at variance with the true principles of the Christian religion and man’s real happiness than an indolent disregard of all useful employment. Under no dispensation of God’s dealings with man, has idleness been tolerated by God among His servants. Labor and toil was connected with Adam’s sojourn in the garden of Eden. As a part of his employment was a condition of his enjoyment of the blessings of paradise, he was to dress it and to keep it.
For a concomitant of his fall and the consequent curse that rested upon him, labor and toil was increased, as in some measure an antidote to, and relief from the sorrows and miseries that he must endure. Good, in the exercise of your duty, you may do things that are not your duty. Man’s duty, therefore, is imperatively made to engage for six days all, or the seventh rest from your toil, as God has commanded.
Man’s duty then, is undoubtedly made to engage for six days all, or the seventh, in some useful employment. It was not only made as one of the primal laws of his existence, but the necessity of labor is interwoven into his very constitutional organization. Active exercise is necessary to the health and vigor of the body, the sanity of the mind, and it alone can give tone and energy to the moral feelings. Steady, diligent industry alone cultivates the spirit of man to the true sense of its own helplessness and worth and gives that true courage and dignity of character that distinguishes the man of truth and authenticity.
We are presented to us all through the Old Testament Scriptures, both by precept and example, the follies, sorrows, and crimes that follow a course of indolence and idleness, and the opposite comforts and blessings that flow from careful, faithful, diligent labor. In the New Testament, God also presents to us His disapproval of idleness, bringing forth among the different of toil, the example according to the example of His own beloved, only begotten Son—the colored wife of Joseph the carpenter.
Among his followers, the chief servant was to be the greatest; the most honored of all. Among the highest crimes and the most probable causes of sin, the Holy Spirit places idleness. Witness Paul’s first letter to Timothy 5:6. “But she that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth,” and again, “And withal they learn to be idle, wandering about from house to house, and not only idle, but tattlers also, and busybodies, speaking things which they ought not.” Again, Paul to the Ephesians, 4:28. “Let him that stole, steal no more; but rather let him labor, working with his own hands, the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth.” Thus God dismisses idleness with a mere life of…
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Pleasure in both male and female with the darkest crimes and most degraded characters of humanity. He makes them at once the source and cause of wantonness and theft, and teaches us plainly that they utterly disqualify those who live such lives for association with the people of God.
See also, Acts xx, 35; 1st Thessalonians, iii, 10; ii, 11, 12, in which the condemnation extends even to the point, that they who will not work are not permitted to eat. From which we are sometimes led to doubt whether it be a Christian duty to help an idle, lazy person who will not work.
We know such characters have no place among the people of God nor will find a place in Heaven without a thorough reformation. The parent then, that under a mistaken kindness or from indifference, permits his or her children to grow up without forming youth habits of industry, violates the solemn command of God, “Bring up your children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord,” starts those children, no matter what their position or prospect in this world, down the straight road to want, ruin, and degradation in this life, and to the dark pit of eternal despair in the world to come.
When we see a young man or an old man, profess to become a Christian, see him without regular employment, loitering around the streets with nothing to do, falling into the companionship of grog-shop lovers, we know what the end of that man must be. It would take something more than a miracle to save such an individual from very soon abandoning his solemn oath of fidelity to God, and hastily deserting the cause of God and man, for a life of dissipation and revelry, surely tending in want and infamy here, and the eternities of the soul in hell.
When we see a young woman or an old woman enter into the Church of Christ, still spend her time in the vain effort to find happiness in the round of worldly, fashionable pleasures, pass her days in idle frivolities, and take up her heart with the bonds of dress and fashion, we know that all the holy sympathies of that woman’s heart are stifled, and its possessor is utterly unfitted for the solemn duties of a true and earnest life. With such an individual there can be no just appreciation of the high and ennobling religion of the Savior, and all professions of Christianity on the part of such a person must be but a vain, empty, deceptive pretense, the only influence of which will be to make them hypocrites in life, terror-stricken children of despair and anguish in death, and miserable outcasts from God in eternity.
Responsibilities of Christian Mothers
Mothers, Christian mothers; what responsibility rests upon you to direct the first purest aspirations and affections of the infantile heart toward God, Heaven and virtue, toward purity and holiness. But how are you meeting this responsibility, is the question that some day or other will press itself home very close to your hearts.
Better welcome it today, my sister, as a constant home-guest in the secret council chamber of your soul. Say, are you, with a true Christian mother’s deep anxiety, for the present and eternal happiness of that innocent babe, the sinless impress of your own being, earnestly, humbly striving to choose for it that better…
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Part, the one thing needful, that cannot be taken away from it; are you striving from earliest infancy to direct its tastes, affections and steps in the way that God has marked out for us to Heaven, or are you, ere its infant lips have learned to lisp your own name, with the luxury of ornament and dress, moulding a taste for the gewgaws and displays of fashion?
Are you, Father, with a steady, gentle hand checking the imperious will, curbing the rising passions, and teaching the youth self-control, self-denial, steady and industrious habits, as a necessary training for obedience to God? Or are you, under a foolish and mistaken idea of developing the manly spirit, permitting the temper to run without restraint and the appetites to riot in uncontrolled license? If so, you may be sowing to the wind, but you will surely reap the whirlwind of over-mastering passion and debauchery. “He that ruleth his own spirit is better than he that taketh a city.”
No more sacred obligation was ever entrusted to man, than that committed to parents of moulding the hearts, tempers, affections and habits of their children for humble and faithful service in the kingdom of Heaven. The Church of the living God. No more holy responsibility rests upon the Elders in Israel, the overseers and guardians of the Church of Christ, than that of seeing to it that the young comforts have some regular, steady employment in some useful calling, whereby they may be enabled to make an honest livelihood, and by which they may be kept from idle and dissipated habits, and evil associations and commitments, which corrupt good manners. “Let him labor, working with his own hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth.” “Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might.” “Not slothful in business.” “Seest thou a man diligent in his business, he shall stand before kings; he shall not stand before mean men,” and numerous other like scriptures, together with the unrecorded inspiration, “The idle man’s arm is the devil’s workshop,” should be deeply impressed upon the heart of every child, and every professor of the Christian religion, old and young, male and female, throughout the land.
D. I.
MISSIONARY AND OTHER ORGANIZATIONS BESIDES THE CHURCH, FOR CARRYING FORWARD THE WORK OF GOD.
In the early part of our Christian warfare, we felt no apprehension or differences amongst the brethren; but now, we have cause of sincere regret in consequence of quite opposite views on plain matters. While we desire not to avoid responsibility, we are not inclined to engage in controversy with men professing the same faith. For four years we have seen but a small amount of what has been written by men professing to take the Bible as their government in things spiritual, but we have seen enough to satisfy us that there are differences on vital questions. Below, we have an article from Elder Jacob Croath, for instance, which speaks a strange language. To whom is Brother C. speaking? To men who may have long boasted that there is but “one faith.” There seems, however…
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ever, to be a clear issue, and if differences have really crept in, their cause, brethren, should be examined, and the demon of discord should be speedily expelled. If the brethren are really discussing the necessity of other organizations besides the church for our Christian service, we will cheerfully give equal space to both sides. Brother Creath takes very high ground and writes like an earnest man. If he is not correct in his conclusions, the better way should be shown.
For the Gospel Advocate
Messrs. Editors: I rejoice at the resuscitation of the Gospel Advocate. I regard it as an omen for good. I hope to see a speedy return to the days of the Christian Baptist—the early days of the great work in which we then engaged.
For one, I will try to hold up your hands as Aaron and Hur did the hands of Moses. We need your publication now as much as we did the Christian Baptist forty years ago. The modern missionary schemes are now becoming as popular among our people as begging was among the friars of Wycliffe’s day in the fourteenth century. Then these friars said the ancient Christians were monks, the apostles were friars, and our Savior was a begging friar, until they turned England over to fill the coffers of Rome. No man could see Heaven who was not a begging friar. And so it is now, the ancient Christians were missionaries, the apostles were missionaries, our Savior was a missionary.
When you find time, please to republish the sermon on making the goals, from the Christian Baptist. All mischief begins in the name of God, says the German proverb. The clergy are at the bottom of all this mischief of the last forty years. They are a cunning set of men; they know how to hoodwink the people; how to plead for themselves. Let me recommend to your readers to employ their own missionaries, teachers, mechanics, artisans, farmers, preachers; to patronize their own schools, colleges, academies, manufacturers, blacksmiths, shoemakers, and all others. There is not in the Old or New Testament a plainer, more definite, specific, unparalleled and unalterable, positive law, than the one governing missions, in Matthew x., Mark vi., and Luke ix. No man can touch it without imbalancing or overthrowing the authority which enacted it. I would just as soon assail the author of the New Testament as to touch that enactment, one clause of which reads thus:
Provide for yourselves neither gold, nor silver, nor brass to put into your purses, nor scrip for your journey, neither two coats, nor shoes, nor staves; for the laborer is worthy of his support. (Matt. x. 9, 10)
This is the infallible law governing the missionaries of the New Testament, and never did they depart from it in one instance. Let him that says they did show it. According to this law, how many missionaries are now in existence? There is no new law on the subject of missions. This has not been revoked. When, where, and who revoked it? If not revoked by the author of it, who revoked it? The man of sin? The modern clergy? No. But it was designed to govern the twelve, the
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sc\·euty, nnd the apostles c.xclusivdy? Who said so? Those interested in saying so. What is their saying worth, in competition with a Divine law feucNl about with Divine authority? Nothing. We had just as well say that the whole of the New Testament was designed for the twelve apostles exclusively. Some persons say the Sermon on the Mount was addressed exclusively to the disciples, but the context says: And many multitudes followed him from Galilee, and Decapolis, and Jerusalem, and Judea, and from beyond the Jordan. And seeing the multitudes, he went up into the mountains, and when he had set down, his disciples came to him and he taught them—the multitudes and the disciples. The disciples were indeed, but the multitudes were all around, and not excluded. The conclusion says the people were astonished, not the disciples only.
Any man asserts that the law governing missions is repealed, or does not now govern missions, I challenge him to show it. If any man now calls himself a missionary, either domestic or foreign, who does not obey this law, he is an impostor and a wolf with a sheep’s skin on. If any church desires to be a missionary under this law, he can do so.
**Suppose this case were tried before a court of justice, under this law, what could our modern missionaries recover for being called impostors? The missionaries of the New Testament never held a missionary meeting; never even a society; never preached a missionary sermon; never made a collection for missionary purposes; raised a subscription for that purpose. Let him that says they did, prove it from the New Testament, or acknowledge himself deceived. If there had been any greenbacks in existence then, Christ would have prohibited them as well as gold, silver, and brass. They were to look to God and the people to whom they preached for support, and not to have it promised or in hand before they started, like the modern sectarians, would be missionaries. The idea of missionaries and remuneration are inseparable; they are related words, like father and son. If these men say that the history of the country for the last three years proves that we are a heathen nation, and not a civilized nation, and that we need missionaries to civilize us, then we will agree to it, and let them go on under the law of missions in the New gospels, and not be led astray by these humbug societies. If some of our own preachers will come among us and preach the gospel, and cannot publish, we will help to support such a man. But if any man comes among us sent out by one of these humbug societies, we shall let him pass. Ancient Christianity was spread by individuals, and not by such calls or frolics, as is the modern gospels. And when a man becomes worthless, and his brethren have no confidence in him at home, he scrapes up an office in one of these falsely called missionary societies. The Jerusalem church scattered the gospel or her brethren, and effectively, after the resurrection of Christ, believed another church existed to assist her, through Judea, Samaria, Phrygia, Cyprus, Antioch and to the utmost parts of the earth in the…
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First Century of the Christian Era
Acts i, ii, and xi chapters. As this mother and model church spread the gospel, so did the other churches individually (not from societies), such as Antioch in Syria, Acts 11, and Thessalonica.
Let any church now do the same as these ancient churches did; let each member do all he can to spread the gospel. If a church or person is not able to do anything to spread the gospel, nothing is required of that person. Christ never gathers where he did not stay. It is required of us, according to what we have, and not according to what we have not. In no case is a man to have a salary promised him before he starts from home for preaching. The gospel has suffered more from man than from poverty—more from human learning than from ignorance. We oppose all modern missionary schemes and societies to spread the gospel. We will never attend one of these societies, nor countenance their men or measures.
OUGHT EVERY CHURCH TO HAVE ITS PREACHER?
Is a question that is sometimes propounded. We answer emphatically. Every congregation should have its own preacher. Ought to use him at home and send him abroad! He is needed. Then brethren go to work and raise you a preacher, or a group of them. It is a poor, feeble church that exists for three years and cannot in that time inspire a single one of its children with faith and devotion enough to induce him to preach. That does not inspire a single one of its children with affection sufficient to induce him to defend his mother’s character and encourage her domain. The lives of the children constitute the result that the parent boasts.
We say then, to every church in the land, raise you a preacher, inspire him with a true preacher’s devotion, train him in the Lord, work with him, feed him. “The laborer is worthy of his hire.” But this we object to. When a congregation, poor in the world’s goods, rich in faith, raises itself a preacher, we object to some cold-hearted, worldly-minded, money-loving congregation that never had faith and zeal enough in its whole body, and all heeded to concentrate in one individual, to have made one decent Christian, bribe with its money that poor congregation’s preacher to forsake and desert his own mother. The world cannot respect the man that for the sake of the goods the rich possesses, forsakes his own flesh and family circle, and adopts another. So too, the preacher that forsakes the mother that has borne him and nurtured him within her own bosom, has trained him for usefulness, the brothers and sisters that have aided him in his weakness and encouraged him in his hours of gloom, for the sake of identifying himself with, and enjoying the blandishments of the wealthy, is lacking in the elements of character necessary for a true minister of Christ.
D. L.
THE GOSPEL ADVOCATE
There is not a sadder aspect presented by the religious condition of the community, to the truly sensitive Christian heart, than the scarcity of earnest preachers of the Gospel. I but tell the experience of every preacher in our section of the country when I give my own. Jesus Christ commanded his disciples to “go into the world and preach the Gospel to every creature,” yet the experience of the writer of this during the past year was, that out of every hundred earnest, pressing calls, almost entirely to come and preach for us, from lack of time and strength, we were compelled to leave unheeded and unresponded to. We have never known so earnest a demand for the preaching of the pure word of God as now exists throughout our State. Not unfrequently persons who had not heard a Gospel sermon for years, make twenty miles with their children ready to obey the Gospel. Others who have bitterly opposed the teaching listen with apparent interest. Without excitement, there has been a generally prevailing interest on the subject of Christianity, and the preaching of the Gospel was never attended with more success in Tennessee than during the last two years. Nor do I believe the Churches were ever in a healthier condition in Alabama.
There is a most fearful want of preachers of the Word—men who are devoting themselves to the spread of the Christian religion. What is the cause of this?
It must be that, in a truly healthy state of the church, when all the members are fully alive to the work of the Lord, this dearth of laborers cannot exist. Where the parents, and the churches, the mother of us all, are raising their children with the proper spirit, all other conditions will be met. She is not the mother who raises children and verily them to attend to business exclusively, but her husband’s talent. The unfulfilled duty of every child drawn to the Lord when taught by its mother, will be “to ask the Lord about my father’s mission.” The highest ambition of every young son of the Lord will be to do the Father’s work. He who enters the Church, and still finds himself more ambitious for the honor and emoluments of this world than for the kingdom of Heaven, is unworthy to be called a child of God.
In other words, the young man who has had his heart set on being a lawyer, a doctor, a merchant, or any other lucrative calling, rather than to be a humble, faithful, self-denying minister of God to a lost and ruined world, has utterly failed to drink into the spirit of the one true religion or to properly appreciate its high rewards. We frequently hear it said that because the church does not sustain its evangelists as it should, many young men of talent are deterred.
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From entering upon this Heavenly service. We have no disposition to excuse or palliate the criminal and disgraceful failure upon the part of the Church to uphold the hands of its ministering servants, but we do state it as our earnest conviction, that the young man or the old man that falls to preach and turns to other callings from considerations of this character ought not to preach, and ought not to deceive himself with a profession of the Christian religion. “Whosoever he be of you, who forsakes not all he hath, he cannot be my disciple.”
The true and just application of the Christian religion requires its servants to be anxious to spread it among the perishing of earth at every cost. And no man is fitted to preach the Gospel, in the true spirit of the Gospel, until he, like Paul, feels that “a dispensation is committed to me; yet, woe is me if I preach not the Gospel.” When he feels as Paul felt, he will act as Paul acted, will preach the Gospel in affliction and bonds if need be, will rejoice at every remembrance of him by the Churches to aid him in the preaching of the Gospel, and when this aid fails to come, will work with his own hands night and day, to enable him to preach. He will do this without murmuring and complaining, rejoicing that he is permitted to bear the tidings of great joy to the ruined world. Until the sons and daughters of the Church thus learn to regard its service as the highest honor and chief joy of life, the cause of our Redeemer will linger out a poor, sickly existence in the world, commanding neither the respect of good men, until the coming of the Son of God, who will take from us the Word of life, and give it to others who will be faithful, and we will be cast into outer darkness.
D. L.
THE CONGREGATION AT FRANKLIN
There is not a congregation of brethren and sisters known to us in the state, that has more persistently stood true to its duty under adverse circumstances than the above named of disciples. Many of those who should have been teachers and examples to the flock, have become unworthy members of one kind and another, forsaken them. But a few have remained. The little devoted brethren determined, like others do as they may, we will serve the Lord. The Lord has blessed them. Under the labors of Brother Jesse Sewell, in the early fall, there were twenty-six additions to the Church. Later in the season, there were seven other additions at one meeting, and at other times several others.
We fear the church, especially the young members, will miss the example and kindly, gentle warnings and admonitions of Brother Craig, who has removed from their midst. But if the brethren will be true, God will raise up others to carry the work forward. Brother Elisha Sewell, of the Owen’s Station congregation, labors a portion of his time with the brethren at Franklin.
D. L.
THE GOSPEL ADVOCATE
D
During the past fall we spent several weeks with the brethren in Maury, Marshall, Lincoln, Bedford and Johnson Counties. In many locations we found the brethren had been greatly discouraged by the war and strife of the past four years, and had ceased to meet together to encourage each other in the Lord. But we rejoiced to see that they, with the prospect of returning peace, were disposed to return to the observance of their duties.
We spent a week in July with the brethren at Cedar Creek, Maury County. There were seven or eight additions by confession and baptism. The brethren appeared encouraged and strengthened, and determined that the future should take care of its own affairs as far as they would be Christians. We went from Cedar Creek to Coal Hill, in Marshall County. The church had well nigh been destroyed by the influence of false teachers in years past. If we remember right, there were nineteen confessions and baptisms at this point. At both these points we had with us our Brother T. W. Brents. At the latter place we also met with our amiable and esteemed brother, Wade Darnell, who is now one of the oldest public laborers in the kingdom of our Master in Middle Tennessee. It was our privilege to rejoice with him in the consecration of his last and youngest child to the Savior, as well as others of his household.
We went from this point to Cane Creek, in Lincoln County, a congregation that has been blessed with a large increase about one year being under the labors of brethren Brents and Darnell. We preached here four or five days. There were four or five additions at this point; we were compelled to leave a promising prospect here on account of physical inability to continue longer. We spent a few days with the church at Elam, in Franklin County. There were three confessions and baptisms at this point. We learned that at a subsequent meeting held by brother Jesse Howell, there were eight or ten other additions. In our travels and labors through these counties our chief aim was to inspire the brethren and sisters with more earnestness than devotion. We felt that our labors in the Lord were not in vain.
D. L.
RELIGIOUS NEWS
We spent a portion of Lord’s day last, with the brethren worshipping at Union, Sumner County, Tennessee. We regretted that the inclement weather prevented our meeting with a larger number of the brethren, sisters and citizens of the vicinity. We were glad to learn the church was in a healthy state. There have been a number of additions recently. Our youthful brother Hallman informed us that for a number of Lord’s days past, individuals on each day had come frequently to him at his house and demanded baptism on his confession of their faith in Christ. This certainly indicates a healthy state of religious feeling, and should inspire the brethren with zeal in the Lord’s work.
THE GOSPEL ADVOCATE
In the days of the Apostle Paul, when the Jewish nation had been impoverished by war, and want and famine followed in its track, the Saints residing in the section of country that was not desolated, determined to find relief to their brethren, who were in need in Judea, which they also did by the hands of Paul and Barnabas. These Christians who thus aided their Jewish brethren, lived in a section of country that was politically opposed to the Jewish nation. They lived in the Gentile portion of the Roman Empire, whose rule the Jews were endeavoring to throw off. They sent the aid not by those who were offensive politically, to the Jewish nation, but by those who, while they eschewed all political associations with any party or government, cherished the strongest feelings of personal and family sympathy with, and attachment to the Jewish people.
We have in the South brethren impoverished, and suffering for the necessities of life, whose misfortune it was to share the general desolation of the country in which they lived. We have brethren North of us who have grown rich by the very circumstances that impoverished our brethren South. Is there not enough of the same spirit of the primitive Christians left to cause them to emulate the example above cited?
But whoso hath this world’s goods, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him? — 1st John, ii. 17. It should especially be esteemed a privilege to supply the spiritual wants of this destitute people. But in doing this, the truly Christian heart will act with the spirit exhibited in the above example. The gift will be accompanied with circumstances calculated to gain the feelings of the fallen section. Spiritual food to be received must ever come through family hands, from loving hearts.
Then to fully, worse than folly, it is criminal, to send those to the Southern people, whom they regard as their enemies. It is contrary to the divine example.
But we have ordered good and true, tried men scattered over the South, who in all the excitements and strifes have stood firmly to their posts, doing their duty, who when poverty and distress came, faced and shared them with their brethren. They are still standing to their posts, laboring with their own hands to feed and clothe themselves and families, and yet they preach as much as able to their fellow men the Word of Life. We could mention a score of them who thus are acting the true Christian part.
Now it is certainly a solemn obligation of Christians, to send to the relief of these brethren, and enable them to devote their whole time to the preaching of the Gospel. What say our brethren of Kentucky? Our missionary brethren? What say you of brethren Elley and Mannell? The true missionary spirit knows no state lines or geographical divisions. The Advocate seeks an opportunity to cooperate with you in true missionary work.
The pleasures of sin are transient; the reward of virtue is sure and lasting.
THE GOSPEL ADVOCATE
Page 47
The whole plan of a Preacher’s putting himself up to the highest bidder, shifting about from place to place, for the sake of a little higher salary is at once a degradation to Christianity, demoralizing to the man and the worst of policies for his support. It makes merchandise of the Christian religion, supplying the preaching of the Gospel to the rich because they are rich, leaving the poor destitute because they are poor. This system keeps the preacher ever in an unsettled and unappreciated state of mind, which disqualifies him for usefulness. Makes him in all his preaching over-anxious to please, which destroys his independence and true self-respect. Makes it impossible to give those sound economical habits of industry to his family which is equally necessary for their comfort, usefulness and morality, and constantly impoverishes him, for in frequent moving and shifting about, more is lost in any family or ordinary industrial economy than the best of salaries can compensate for.
Then, our advice to every Preacher who has a family would be, settle yourself in a community that you and your family can associate with, without fawning to and appealing to the cushions of the rich, or on the other hand, winking at and participating in the crimes of the degraded—be industrious and teach your family industry and economy. Be independent, be a man, be true to the teachings of the Bible, preach earnestly, not for favor or money, but for souls. When the brethren aid you, be thankful and preach the Gospel; when they neglect you, work, and toil and present the Gospel. Don’t grumble or complain. Don’t seek the rich and honorable to preach to, but preach to the poor, the neglected, the degraded, and if you live poor, you will have the respect of the good and true, your own self-approval, and better than all, the approval of your Father in Heaven. You will be one of the world’s true heroes and wear the crown of victors.
D. L.
Our sincere thanks are due to the publishers of the Millennial Harbinger, for the apparent desire to place our prospectus in their columns without charge. This is what has been done by no other paper, so far as it has come to our notice, amongst the many journals profoundly devoted to the cause of the Bible alone. Thanks to you, Brethren Pendleton and Loos. Your kindness inspires us with high confidence that Christian regard still exists and will continue.
EDITORS
The Church and community in and around Macon, Georgia, enjoy the labors of Brother W. H. Goodloe. The brethren here seem to be doing well – have had a number of accessions during the past few months, as also the Churches in the vicinity. Will Brother Goodloe report labors for the ADVOCATE?
The Church at Lewisburg, in Marshall County, under the superintendency of Brother John Hooten and Wm. Arthur, is in a healthy condition. There were twelve confessed the Savior the fourth week in October last.
D. L.
THE GOSPEL ADVOCATE
NOTICE
A number of individuals sent $1, each, as subscriptions to the Monthly ADVOCATE in the beginning of the year 1866. The military movements prevented the issue of any number of the paper that year. The money was received by T. Fanning. A list of the money so received has been kept, and all of those who claim paid will be allowed a credit of $1 on the present year’s subscription. The paper will not be sent to any of those subscribers unless ordered. There have been too many changes since then.
T. FANNING & D. LIPSCOMB.
Sister A. E. Whitesides writes from Franklin, KY, Jan. 31st, “Two of our young brethren, Carter and Bailey, have been preaching since Tuesday night. We have had four additions to our little congregation.”
PROSPECTUS OF VOLUME VIII OF THE GOSPEL ADVOCATE
The undersigned propose resuming the publication of “The Gospel Advocate,” as a Weekly Journal, January 1st, 1866.
Our 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 an investigation of every subject connected with the Church or Christ, which we may consider of practical interest. The Kingdom of God as 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 man depend; its origin, organization, history, labor and mission; its relation to worldly powers, civil, military and religious, and her final triumphs, will occupy much of our attention. The education of the world for 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:
- $2.50 for Single Subscribers.
- $2.25 for Five Subscribers.
- $20.00 for Ten Subscribers, invariably in advance.
We would be pleased to have the cooperation of the Brethren generally, and the Preachers of the Word 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 draft.
Direct all communications for the Advocate to:
T. FANNING, D. LIPSCOMB, Editors & Publishers, Gospel Advocate, Nashville, Tenn.