THE GOSPEL ADVOCATE
Editors: T. Fanning, D. Lipscomb
Vol. VIII
Nashville, March 6, 1866
Number 10
CHURCH OF CHRIST AND WORLD-POWERS, NO. 6
We have found that God’s government, as established among the Jews as its subjects, was separated from all the institutions of man—that they were taught to rely upon God’s appointments in every emergency of life—that a failure to rely upon his appointments by seeking aid through their own inventions or through alliance with other human institutions, was always regarded by God as an indication of lack of faith in Him, and a matter of rebellion against His authority.
We find that for four thousand years He has been teaching His servants the impossibility of forming alliances with, and participating in the institutions of man, and at the same time retaining His favor. They are finally rejected, cast out, a dispersed and scattered nation, on account of their persistent determination to participate in these institutions. For near two thousand years they have been a scattered, exiled, wandering, despised and persecuted people, and stand today a living monument attesting to every nation under the sun, “How great a folly and crime it is for God’s people to intermingle with or participate in the institutions of human mould—to touch, taste, handle those things which are for the destruction of those who use them.” (Col. II, 22, Jacobson’s Translation.)
He has taught the lesson of complete and perfect separation from the world kingdoms; He has taught them this for the benefit of the Church of Christ. He has assigned them a position of complete separation from all human institutions, which position they are to retain upon peril of their rejection and destruction as God’s people. Into the position from which they were broken, the believers in Christ were grafted. The believers in Christ, or the Church of God, stand then entirely separated from the world-powers by the direction and work of God. Daniel says, “it was to break in pieces and consume all these earthly kingdoms.” I repeat then, if there were not a single word in the New Testament indicating they were sepa…
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rate, without specific authority of precept or example, for the subjects of the one participating in the affairs of the other, the mutual harmony results distinct, allowing an interpretation in the affairs of one by means and actions of the other.
Is there an example for connecting them?
To the law and the testimony we appeal. Christ, the king, the representative of that church on earth, is not at the moment of his birth by a decree from the civil government under which he was born, for his registration. The other recognizes him as the founder and head of the kingdom which shall break in pieces and consume all these; he is then his enemy. He is preserved by his Father from destruction.
He commences his mission openly as the Son of God. Is recognized by the Father as “My Beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.” In the commencement of his public ministry his fidelity to his Father must be tested. He comes into the world to engage in a stupendous work. He must endure excruciating temptations; he will be faithful to his Father who sent him. Test him at the beginning. He is tried, as never before was tried. He is tried at every point by the wicked one. In that temptation the devil taketh him up into a high mountain and showeth him all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them, and saith unto him, “All these things will I give thee if thou wilt fall down and worship me.” (Matt. iv. 8, 9; cf. Luke iv. 5, Peter 1:5). The devil taking him up into a high mountain showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time; and the devil said unto him, “All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them; for that is delivered unto me, and to whomsoever I will, I give it. If thou wilt fall down and worship me, all shall be thine.”
We are seeking to locate the true position of the kingdoms of the earth—the kingdoms of the earth. The devil says, “They are mine. I will give them thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.”
“But,” says one, “the devil is a liar and the truth is not in him. He would not a foot of soil.” Yea, but a liar, can the liar tell the truth, and shall I be accredited when corroborated by one so truthful as the Son of God? Does the Son of God contemplate this predicament? Let us examine for a moment. The Divine historian says he was tempted. Paul says, “He hath suffered, being tempted.” (Heb. ii. 18). Now in order for it being a temptation, it must have been a veritable offer of something to the Son of God, which he very intently desired, yet could not take upon the terms offered. In other words, it must have been an offer of the object he possessed, mentally desired, by one having the right or power to bestow it.
Now Jesus Christ knew the possession of these kingdoms. It could but be temptation to an individual for me to offer him a title to a tract of land which he knew I did not have the shadow of a right to, or the power to obtain that right. Then in order to the offer’s being a temp…
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Tation to the Son of God, He must have thought the devil had the power to give what he proposed to bestow. Then if the Son of God was tempted by the devil, all the kingdoms of this world were the devil’s kingdoms. Indeed, what was the object of the mission of the Son of God into this world, but to rescue this world from the dominion of the wicked one and bring it back to its primal allegiance to his Father? If it were not under the dominion of the wicked one, it could not be rescued from his power. Whatever rule or authority was exercised over the earth was manifested through these kingdoms. Hence Jesus Christ’s mission, sorrows, suffering, and death, were all meaningless unless the kingdoms of this world be the kingdoms of the wicked one. But let us revert to their origin. Whence did they originate? Not among the people of God, but among those in rebellion against Him. Who is the prime mover in all rebellion against God? The wicked one. There are but two sources of power in the universe, God and his great enemy. Every kingdom that does not originate from God, must receive its power and authority from the wicked one. These earthly kingdoms then originated in the rebellion of the human family against God, and must cease when that rebellion ceases. The little stone broke in pieces the image, and it filled the whole earth, so this place was found for these governments when the world was brought back to allegiance to God. The devil claimed them as his when Christ established his claim. Let us look a moment at the point of this temptation. Jesus Christ came into this work to strive and wrestle with the devil for the dominion of this world, to rescue it from the power of the devil. He came as the agent of his Father. He came to conquer this world, destroy all dominion and principality, he came to “put down all rule and all authority and power.” When this is accomplished, he will deliver up the kingdom to the Father, and himself be subject unto the Father, 1st Cor. xv. 21, 28. Or in other words he had come to fight for the dominion of the world, when he had gained that dominion, he was to occupy the second position in the rule and authority of the church he had conquered. He knew that the conquest would cost him suffering, sorrow, maltreatment, indignities, excruciating tortures, the very anticipation of which made him draw back with the intensity, “Id the cup pass from me,” and brought great drops of blood from his soul of anguish; he knew, too, the strife for the conquest of the world must bring him down to the humiliation of death, the degradation of the grave. The devil, with his subtlety, proposed at the very threshold of his mission, “All this will I give thee to be a subordinate in this kingdom under your Father, after all your sufferings and sorrows. Now worship me, or recognize me as real instead of God, and I will deliver them all into your hand with all their glory, without a struggle, a sorrow, a pang upon your part.” There was the point of the temptation, to let him rule the earth through the devil’s kingdoms, without suffering.
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Without death, without the grave, instead of through God’s, with all these,
His purpose then is not to destroy the devil’s power in his kingdom, and
himself reign therein, but it is to destroy those kingdoms of the
wicked one, and in their stead establish God’s kingdom. How came the
kingdom or dominion of the devil? “They were delivered
into my hand,” says the wicked one. What says the Divine
record? As we have shown in a former number, God made man ruler over the whole
material creation. He “set it’s hand.” He had the authority from God to use
and control it as he desired. God having once delegated authority to
man, never resumed it to himself! Hence man, in refusing to obey God,
has transferred his allegiance to the devil, rebelled
against God, and transformed his allegiance to the devil. Thus the head and rightful ruler
of the world, and the transfer of the kingdom of the world, transferred,
with blamelessness, the rule of the world from God to God’s great enemy.
The entire world, animate and inanimate, sympathizes in this change.
The spirit of savage venom and brutal strife in the animate kingdom,
and the brutes, and the minerals, bespeak the reign
of the wicked one.
They never had their growth in the kingdom of
God, in which His will prevailed and His spirit animated. We have a
strong persuasion, too, that when the world becomes the kingdom of God
and of his Son, the briar, and thorns, and there will no longer grow, the
venomous brute and the poisonous
serpent will lose their devilish
nature, and the wolf shall dwell with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the
kid, the calf, and the young lion, and the fatling together, and a little
child shall lead them. “The sucking child shall play on the hole of the
asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice’s den.”
—Isaiah xi. 6, 8.
The prevalence of this feeling or venom and spite in the
earth, and the tendency of earth to grow
the thistle, briar and thorn
indicates clearly that the ruler is the wicked one;
he is the source of the power, the prince of the world. Jesus Christ came
to this world to rescue the world from the dominion of the wicked one,
and bring it back to its allegiance to his Father. How will he effect this?
By infusing his spirit and introducing his subjects into the kingdoms of
the world? Or by destroying the kingdoms of the wicked one and establishing in their stead a kingdom of his own? Man
has no power to rule himself, alone or in part; he must come from God or
the devil.
Every institution then of earth, intended to control man, not
founded of God, must look back through man, the agent to the wicked
one, the prince of the world, as the source from which it sprang. Can
God then rule in and constitute the kingdoms that have his enemy and his rival
for its founder? Does not his character and his dignity require that he
should destroy the works and institutions established under the leading—
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tion of the widowed one, and establish a kingdom of his own, in and through which he will rule the world? “In the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed; and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever.” Dan. ii. 44.
“Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule, and all authority, and power. For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet.” 1 Cor. xv. 24, 25. Every institution that exercises “authority, might, or power” over man, is a rival of Christ who claims sole authority, and must be “put down.” “He raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come: and hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to (form) the church.” Eph. i. 20, 21, 22. It is only through the church he is to be head of all things. “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness (or wicked spirits) in high places.” Eph. vi. 12.
D. L.
THE SPIRITUAL LIFE
We presume no subject connected with Christian religion is so frequently discussed, yet so little understood by the people generally, as the question of spiritual life. It seems that whether we consider a spiritual character or any thing connected with spirit, it is the matter of discussion, and yet the subject is so little understood that we are often the dupes of many vague, mysterious, and unscriptural dogmas that may be uttered with a show of plausibility. While there is in the minds of the people no notion on this subject that is distinct and well-defined, and worthy of rational creatures, no subject is presented in the scriptures of truth with greater simplicity and directness. It is only because we grow up from childhood with impressions that every thing spiritual is of such an ambiguous, incomprehensible, mysterious nature that we have it so muddled and unsatisfactory, and we fail so completely to appreciate the pure and simple nature of spirituality presented in the word of God.
Another very serious hindrance is that we see so little of that high and holy character that marks the spirituality of the Bible, that it is difficult, indeed, to regard anything which is exhibited in lives, or the professions of people of God, as spiritual worth. The actual and the ideal are so widely different that we can hardly realize that they are after the one type. Men set…
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In actual life so little that at all approaches the measure of the Gospel, that they are disposed to look for the true spiritual excellence elsewhere than in the daily conduct of the followers of our Lord. Hence we hear much talk of striving after higher life—longing for more spirituality—a sighing and mourning and gasping after some dreamy, illusive phantom of a disembodied imagination, and many, in these latter times of spiritual favor, have professed to attain the goal of pure spiritual existence on this earth.
We stop here to discuss the worth of their pretensions. That all men should earnestly strive for a higher life—to become more godly and spiritual in every element of their character, is the sincere desire of every Christian heart. But there is an idea of spiritual life which is abhorrent to God, debasing to man, and unallowable to groveling in every part. It is the idea of a spiritual life not under the guidance of knowledge or any authoritative rule of conduct, but which is a matter of mere impulse, blind passion and feeling.
Wherever found, whether in yearly excitements of the “revival” that, like the summer-storms, sweep over the land, or in grossly developed Mormonism, spiritual rappers, seers, jugglers, necromancers, conjurers of every trance, it is all fleshly degrading and sinful. It is just as sinful in us, my brethren, by a big hullabaloo of death-bed excitement, to “put through” (putting through the experience, I mean) the thing, as it is to leave them to become a stain and blot upon the character of the church, as it is in others to call the same class to the moment’s latch, and then by groaning and sweating, and a real effort of thirty work to bring their feelings to the pitch that they think they “have religion.” The whole proceeding is a disgrace to humanity and dishonoring to God. The spiritual life of the Gospel is something that differs from all this.
The spirituality of Divine origin is pure, simple and perfect in its character. It has its illumination in the knowledge of the commandments of God. A man, ignorant of the revelations of God’s word, ignorant of the pure and holy lessons of heavenly wisdom therein taught, is no more fit for spiritual life than the brutal degraded savage of earth. Paul Chap. IV, 17, expressly declares ignorance the cause of the alienation of the Gentiles from God, and makes it the characteristic of their old, wicked, sensual life. The idea of spirituality, genuinely, holiness, and sort of Christian work, apart from the knowledge of God’s revealed will, is the veriest nonsense, and makes a mockery of all that God in His wisdom has made known for the enlightenment of man. The only idea of spiritual life honoring to God and elevating to man is that under the direction of knowledge, simple, authoritative teaching.
All is enjoyed through the use of means. It is just as sensible and rational to think of physical life being possessed and enjoyed without the…
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The use of food and the proper care and training of the body, as to expect spiritual life independent of all means. Without nourishment our bodies waste with hunger—without care they become loathsome with filth and disease. Much less then are we to expect spiritual life, health and vigor without the proper means being employed. The food and the exercise are just as essential in this case as in the other, and unless faithfully and assiduously used, we have no right to expect anything short of spiritual death and health.
And having given us the food in the fullest abundance in His word in all the services of prayer, praise, thanks-giving and commemoration connected with His church on earth. Herein is found the amplest supply of the richest nourishment for every spiritual want—the Heavenly Bread to satisfy the hunger and thirst of every longing soul—the living Bread which is given for the life of the world. Let us, if we would indeed have spirituality, take continual nourishment from this bountiful provision of Heaven. Let us strive no longer to fill our souls with the vacuities of earthly wisdom while the food of Heaven is offered to us in such profusion.
But all God alone cannot give health to the natural body, so it alone cannot give spirituality. The Apostle James says, “Be ye doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.” Hence not only others’ food, but likewise the labor to be performed—the work, and toil, and struggling which alone can make us strong, active, and vigorous in our spiritual health. The pampered, gouty, luxury-loving debauchee of the flesh, with his varied aches and complaints, has as much enjoyment in his physical life, as has the man of spiritual life, notwithstanding all his knowledge of God and the requirements of Heaven, yet never calls into exercise his spiritual powers—never labors to perform or any work that concerns either his time, or an exercise of his heart, or an act of his life.
The true and only scriptural basis of spirituality consists in the performance of our own duties, or practical exercises, not simply such as Heaven has ordained and prescribed. When we thus speedily work, we mean not what is usually recognized as the labor of the human, or civil, prayer, thanksgivings, the assembling of Saints, and the duties of worship in the congregation of the Disciples. These are all of vital importance, and you cannot neglect them without serious spiritual danger; wasting the great source of spiritual strength; and to neglect them is to invite the great source of spiritual strength; wasting decay and death must be the inevitable result.
There are other duties which the religion of Christ requires, that properly constitute Christian work. The Apostle James says, “Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father, is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction.”
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… and to keep him distinguished from the world.” Our Master himself has said to those that shall be accounted worthy to stand on his right hand, the word of appointment shall be, “Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: for I was hungry, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.” (Matt. 25:34-36). Here then is presented to me, by the Great Teacher himself, the true work of Heaven—the only work that has power to break down and subdue the selfishness of the human heart—which, if faithfully performed, will transform the travails, burdens, and sorrows of the world into an angel of mercy and comfort to the distressed, sorrowing, and afflicted of the earth.
The life of our own blessed Lord is the great example offered for our imitation. No creature of human humanity dwelt so lowly as to be beyond his visit. No creature of human type was so much degraded as to be absolutely beyond the reach of his sympathy, and his nearest and most intimate associates, during his sojourn among men. Were not the lowly and poor of this earth? If we are his followers, we must be like him—we must possess the spirit which was in him—we must, as he did, and with ready hands and cheerful hearts, minister to the wants of the poor and suffering of earth. Here we find the only spiritual life that is set forth in the word of God, the life that stands out in bold contrast to the works of the flesh. Its fruits are clearly made known, and we call by no possible name it may make its entrance. True spirituality is not to be found in any boastful claim of special qualification—not in any particular manifestation of favor—not in any inexplicable emotions of the heart, or any strange and unaccountable feeling which men are wont to regard as witnesses of the approval of God, but it is to be found, realized, and enjoyed in the faithful, diligent discharge of the religious duties ordained of Heaven. It is to be attained not by separating ourselves from the contact of the world, and leading lives of monastic seclusion, not in any vain longings and triflings after some miraculous “higher spirituality,” but in the active, earnest endeavor to perform, faithfully, every duty which the religion of Christ, true to the fallen and wretched condition of suffering humanity, requires at our hands. It is to be found, realized, and enjoyed in all the fullness of its blessings—peace, comfort, and joy to the soul in the consecration of our lives with the powers and means which we possess, to the service of our Master. We may waste our days in endless and fruitless speculations about the manner of our coming into possession of the spirit, and how it dwells in us and exerts its influence over our lives, and still never become spiritual beings. It is enough to know that when we have done…
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Faithfully all that God has required of us, that He is not unfaithful on His part, but will give us most abundantly of all spiritual communion, comfort and joy. But without using His means and doing what He has required, all effort of our own will be vain mockery in His sight. He has promised us no favor, comfort or blessing in following our own ways, but the fullness of all spiritual presence and consolation in obeying Him.
If we then, my brethren and sisters, earnestly desire to be in possession and enjoyment of the Spirit of God, let us concentrate our lives to spiritual labor—let us strive to attain to spirituality by doing spiritual work, not in any sort of shallow, numbing sense, but amidst the daily concerns and cares of life, fully realizing that spiritual work consists in the highest fulfillment in a life of earnest benevolence, kindness, gentleness, tender compassion, and doing good in its broadest and most active sense. Such a life of spiritual life is no dreamy, mystified, garbled thought for which men may waste their lives in gasping, and groaning, and longing, and yet never attain. But it is real, active, earnest in every feature. It comes home to our hearts and lives in the daily duties materialized of earth, and the more we strive to discharge its holy duties, the more we enjoy its priceless blessings, and realize that the true and only perfect example of spiritual life is that offered to the world in the character of the despised Galilean. Oh, that here on earth we might be more like Him, and even here be able to see Him as He is.
W. R.
THE SANCTITY OF THE LORD’S INSTITUTIONS
Under the Jewish dispensation—the earthly type of the spiritual kingdom—the law of God was engraven upon stones and placed within the Ark of the Covenant. That this law might be kept, pure and sacred from the defilement and corruption of human alterations, none but the high priest was permitted to touch the Ark that contained the law. In the wanderings and journeyings of the Jews toward the promised land, a family of the Levites was set apart to bear this Ark. Not so jealously was it guarded that they were commanded to carry it on poles placed upon their shoulders; but whosoever of this family at any time touched the Ark that contained the law should be smitten dead. (Numbers iv. 15).
These lessons were given not for them alone, or with sole reference to the law or commandments engraven upon stones. They were thus prepared, by these examples, for appreciating the higher sanctity and holy service of the law sealed by the precious blood of the Son of God. They are written for our instruction. “For if the word spoken by angels was steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of reward, how shall we escape, if we neglect so great a salvation, which at first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was com…
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Armed unto us by those that heard him, God also bearing witness, both with signs, and wonders and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost.” Heb. ii. 2. “See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven.” Heb. xii. 25.
But this latter law, given by the Lord Jesus, and confirmed by God with the Holy Spirit sent down from Heaven, was placed in the spiritual body of Jesus Christ as the Ark in which it was to be borne, and by which its purity was to be maintained. As he had threatened those who touched the old law with physical death, so he plainly tells us that whoever touches the spiritual law shall die the spiritual death. “For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book; and if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.” Rev. xxii. 18, 19.
Under the Jewish dispensation, on a certain occasion, the Ark of the Covenant was being removed to its proper position, on a cart drawn by oxen. The oxen stumbled, the Ark toppled, Uzzah stretched forth his hand to steady the Ark, and prevented its descent by falling to the earth. He touched the Ark with his hand, and was smitten dead on the spot.” 1st Chronicles xiii. 10. God was the guardian of his Ark, and needed not human hands to aid in its protection. His spiritual ark, with its typical service, is as much more sacred in his eyes than the earthly ark with its laws, as the blood of the Son of God is more precious in his sight than the blood of bulls and goats. And yet this spiritual Ark, from the weakness and shuffling of those who bear it, seems in many places to topple almost to a fall. Where, too, those who bear it, like Uzzah, stretch forth their puny hands, through some human device or other, to prop and save it, the disgrace of a fall.
My brethren, is there not danger that we, in devising our own human aids to prop up and assist “the pillar and support of the truth,” the sacred work of God’s eternal and spiritual covenant with man, will be solitarily with the paralysis of spiritual death?
Let us be guarded.
D. L.
Christ and his religion were given as a refuge to shield us from the trials and sorrows and turmoils of the earth—to be a strong covert from the storms—just such a storm of strife as we have passed through.
Many professed Christians, in times of sorrow and trouble, ceased to go to Jesus, or at least on his terms in their weakness. They ceased to meet him in his appointments to receive his blessing. They thereby show their lack of faith in him.
D. L.
THE GOSPEL ADVOCATE
THE WORD OF GOD AND THE CHURCH OF GOD
It is a settled principle with those claiming to be distinctively “Christian,” that the word of God is perfect and complete, and indeed, tolerating no addition, diminutions or alterations by human hands. To make it plain, edifying, or to suit it to the whims of man. In this discussion on the great question, we have ever insisted that it was presumptuous for any man to touch, alter or amend the Word of God.
Now, my brethren, was not God’s Church “the pillar and ground of the truth,” the temple in which God through the Spirit dwells, “The body of Christ,” made by the same wise and powerful Being? Was it not made for the purpose of converting, saving and redeeming the world? Is not this church as perfectly adapted to the work for which it was made, as His word is for the world for which it was given?
Is it not as great a sacrilege to question its sufficiency for its work, as to question the sufficiency of the word? Is it not as great presumption in man to add to or subtract from, or in any way change the operations and workings of the Church of God, as to thus interfere with the word of God?
Wherein does the adding of a creed to facilitate the understanding and application of the teachings of the Scriptures differ from adding to a human organization to aid and facilitate its work? Why not amend our parental authority as well as another?
“Does thou think that authorities commit sacrilege?” Let us be careful lest in that we condemn others we condemn ourselves.
D. L.
PARENTAL AUTHORITY
In the general decline of respect for authority both human and Divine, which prevails to so alarming an extent at the present time, and threatens to involve in anarchy and confusion all the elements of social and political order, we may observe an almost total failure with parents to exercise authority in controlling their children.
Indeed this failure of the parent to exercise authority while the child is the one great cause of disrespect for all other authority. The parent stands to the child, in the years of the formation of its character and its habits, in the place of God and all other authority. If the child is not taught to respect the authority of the parent in these early years, or if it is allowed to follow the license of its own will, and to gratify, unchecked, its own desires and passions, that child will seldom, in after life, respect any law, human or Divine, will seldom be able to deny self; but will be the “slave of selfish passions and habits that will be inimical to good order in society, and subversive of the Divine law of God. In the human heart, as in the sin…
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Curse soil, thy briars, thistles and thorns grow of themselves and choke out the tender plants that are desirable to promote the well-being of man here and hereafter. The growth of these noxious weeds of the human heart must be checked and destroyed, that the tender plants of truth, justice, kindness and love may grow therein. The just exercise of parental authority alone can destroy these noxious weeds and repress the evil habits and passions of childhood. The constant, earnest watchfulness of parental love, the tender hand of parental affection alone can nurture their proper development and strength, the plants of virtue and holiness in the heart of the child. The parent that neglects to exercise that maturity and care, is the most cruel enemy to his or her child that it ever will meet with in life. You may persuade yourselves, fathers and mothers, that it is kindness, but the day will come when you and that child will be made to realize that it was all unmitigated, heartless cruelty.
But in order to properly exercise the authority and care, the child must be kept under the home influence of the parent. It should be an extraordinary circumstance that would place a child, ere its habits have been firmly fixed, for any period of time from under the influence of its parents. Too much of visiting, even in the neighborhood and among relations is often fatal to the influence of the parent. The morals of those the child visits may be good, yet the home restraints are released, but worse than all, the home influence is displaced and supplanted by other influences. Parents, if you wish to direct the life and destiny of your children, keep them under your own influence, and then cautiously and carefully, but firmly and constantly, assert and exercise your authority in controlling the child. Do this with gentleness and affection. You will thus nurture in the heart of your child a feeling of respect and love that will guide its feet safely and innocently through childhood, will clothe its youth with chastity, sobriety and honor, and will crown its manhood with integrity, uprightness and wisdom, give it worth and respectability through the unending home among the blessed in Heaven.
The only preaching that ever yet has benefited man, is that which comes from the heart and reaches the heart. No man was ever yet saved by an abstraction. You might as well try to satisfy a hungry man by reading to him a treatise on Cookery, or cure a sick one by reciting in his hearing the prescription in medicine, as to attempt to benefit a sinful mortal by the dry speculations of theology. The religion of Christ comes home to our affections in the strongest power in the personal life of the lowly, sympathizing, tender-hearted son of Mary. Though he was equal with God, yet clothed with our flesh, he was ready to cheer and comfort and assist the humblest or the sinful and suffering of this earth.
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WORK
Some preachers we know of never can preach unless they have a good house, a large congregation, and everything exactly fitted to their ideas of what is desirable. Some young men never will commence preaching until just the condition of things that they desire presents themselves. Some must have just so much of an education, or they will do nothing.
Now, brethren, all these things are desirable, and to be attained as far as may be. But we’ve been observing a little in passing through life. Our observation teaches us that the man that never starts on the journey until every surrounding just suits, stays at home. The man that waits until he is just ready in every particular to marry, dies an old bachelor. The man that never moves until he gets everything to suit exactly, never works at all.
So it is in life. If we wait for all obstacles to be removed out of our way before we commence earnest life, we live miserable, longing drones in the busy hive of human beings. The part of true manhood is to work in spite of difficulties, to bravely face evil surroundings and surmount obstacles, that at every step of our path through life, we test our faith and courage. The man that can’t preach in a bad house, or no house at all, if need be, is not fit to preach in a comfortable one, and the man that has not faith and courage enough to preach without a scholastic education, will never be able to preach with one. The man that can’t preach to small congregations ought not to be allowed to preach to a large one.
Go to work, Christian, in just such circumstances as surround you, and work bravely and earnestly, and God will open to you better opportunities, new fields, and give you more talent as you prove yourself deserving, by the faithful use of what you have. But it is a fatal delusion to think that Providence will give you better opportunities when you fail to use, to His honor, those He has already entrusted to your keeping.
D. L.
E.F. Many Christians, poor in this world’s goods, deprive themselves of the privilege of giving to the Lord, because they are not able to give much. It is a kind of time-serving, purse-pleasing feeling. “I am ashamed to give unless I can give something worth giving.” Such a feeling would have prevented that two mites of the widow being thrown into the treasury, and the consequent blessing of the Lord. The Lord knows the ability, sees the amount given, sees the spirit, the motive, and approves the mite from the poor more than the treasure from the rich.
D. L.
The most ennobling thought of a man’s life is that he is responsible to a Being of infinite goodness, wisdom, and love.
THE GOSPEL ADVOCATE
INFIDELITY—HOW SHALL IT BE MET?
Not one-tenth portion of the most enlightened community on earth is educated to habits of exhaustive reasoning. The other nine-tenths graduate from the ranks of ordinary intelligence down to the elemental ignorance of responsibility. In the highest class of intellectual development, a greater proportion are infidels than of the more unrefined class. One-tenth part of the infidelity of the land is the outgrowth of false philosophy and teaching; the other nine-tenths spring from a failure to see Christians in their profession—an inability to see them conform to the teaching and example of their Master.
In such light, it is necessary to meet and disarm the philosophical infidelity in the land. Faith, firm and cultivating faith, coupled with humility and manifesting itself in self-denying labors to benefit the poor alone can overwhelm the other nine-tenths of the infidelity that is carrying souls down to hell. Therefore efforts are being made, means of money are being contributed to prepare men to overturn the despotism of infidelity.
What is doing, Christians, to meet the more common, and by far more popular forms of infidelity? Is the soul of the one clothed and fed of more value in your esteem than the souls of the nine poor and ignorant ones? It was not so with your Master.
Truly were passed by in his ministrations, it was the rich and the wise. He impersonated himself in the person of the poor, “Inasmuch as you have done it to one of the least of my brethren, you have done it to me.” Brethren, let us walk in the footsteps of the Lord.
D. L.
PARENTAL RESPONSIBILITY
Parents do you realize the responsibility that God has imposed upon you to bring up your children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord? Do you feel that the example you set before your children, and the impressions you make upon their hearts, to a very great extent, their salvation from eternal ruin depends? Do you appreciate fully that God has given to you the task, not only of training and qualifying them for the responsibilities of life here, but for eternity itself?
To “bring up a child in the nurture and admonition of the Lord,” is to teach it the precepts of the Lord, to habituate it to the practice of these precepts—to inspire its heart with a holy reverence for God, and with a love for His law and institutions. To “bring up a child in the nurture and admonition of the Lord,” is to teach and habituate it to honesty, truthfulness, kindness, and to practice it in all its dealings, in simplicity of dress, in habits of industry—to train it to be gentle, forbearing and forgiving—to teach and school it to God’s pleasure in denying self and being…
THE GOSPEL ADVOCATE
Teaching Reverence to God
It is to teach it reverence to God, respect for authority, humility, thankfulness, and earnest humble prayerfulness. To make these impressions lasting, they must be made in earliest infancy, and deeply impressed by constant, daily practice. There is certainly, too, in the results of such a course. “Train up a child in the way it should go, and it will not depart from it when old,” is a law of God, as certain and sure in its operations as any of the laws of Heaven. When we see professed Christian parents raising ungodly and wicked children, we know there has been some gross neglect, either of precept or example on the part of their parents in schooling their children for the service of the Lord.
D. L.
A TOUR THROUGH KENTUCKY
The writer spent the months of December and January in visiting the churches in Southern Kentucky, and he found a few congregations at work, but most of them were doing but little for the cause of Christ. At two or three places in towns they meet on the first day of the week, but not at a single place in the country. At Glasgow and Paducah the disciples seemed to be doing their duty. At Elizabethtown, the good sisters were engaged in preparing a “Christmas dinner” for the benefit of the church.
At Hopkinsville they were preparing what they called a “Christmas tree,” for the benefit of the “Sabbath School,” but I doubted the propriety of such a “tree” in the Lord’s nursery. I declined to witness the exhibition. How long will the disciples of Christ follow such unscriptural customs? “Be not conformed to the world.” At many places the brethren who were once the best members of the church are now holding positions of state. “Ye cannot serve two masters.” Of the two hundred preachers of Kentucky, and with the assistance of the missionary society, I managed to hear eight sermons during the two months, five of which were delivered by brethren from other States.
U. G. H.
Brother H. was certainly not in good health while visiting the churches in Kentucky. The picture is too darkly shaded. Surely we will have more favorable reports from Kentucky so soon as the winter shall pass away. There are many good and true men in that section of the State, from whom we expect to hear good news regarding the cause of our Master. In years past we knew them well, and we have no fear that they will forsake the colors of our King. Will not brethren Day, Mobley, Sewell, from down Owen, Bailey, James Hall, and scores of others in the Green River country, let us hear from them often?
T. F.
That soul alone can be said to possess true courage that dares at every condition of this life, by the single rule that to God alone it is accountable for its deeds.
THE GOSPEL ADVOCATE
SPECIAL NOTICE
All communications and remittances of names and money intended for the Gospel Advocate, or for David Lipscomb, should be directed to Nashville, Tenn. All letters and communications for Elder T. Fanning personally, will be directed to him at Franklin College. The sending of letters and communications for the Advocate to Franklin College frequently delays them several weeks. Will correspondents and subscribers please note this?
D. L.
PROSPECTUS OF VOLUME VII OF THE GOSPEL ADVOCATE
The undersigned proposes renewing the publication of “The Gospel Advocate,” as a weekly journal, January 1, 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 of Christ, which we 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 men depend.
We shall endeavor to present the various topics of the Christian religion in their true light, and to promote the cause of Christ in all its branches. 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 per single subscriber.
- $1.50 for five subscribers.
- $1.00 for ten subscribers.
All subscriptions should be made in advance.
We would be pleased to have the cooperation of the brethren generally, and the preachers of the Word especially, in extending the paper. In making remittances, send all sums of $10 and under, in registered letters by mail; all sums over $10, by express, or in checks or Post Office drafts.
Direct all communications for the Advocate to
T. FANNING, D. LIPSCOMB,
Editors & Publishers, Gospel Advocate,
Nashville, Tenn.