THE GOSPEL ADVOCATE

T. Fanning and W. Lipscomb, Editors
VOL. VII.
NASHVILLE, NOVEMBER, 1861.
NO. 11.

WHO IS THE MAN OF SIN?

Answered by B. Eastman, Sempionius, Texas
(Continued from page 816.)

He has instituted dispensations, indulgences, and professes to absolve from all sins, transgressions and excesses how enormous soever. He has established persecutions, which began as soon as the corrupt alliance of the Catholic Church with the State. The Invincible Armada and Inquisition were established and set on foot to crush out Christianity. Rivers of the blood of saints and martyrs have been made to flow like water in these dreadful persecutions. It is said by historians that not less than fifty-eight millions of Protestants have, at different times, been the victims of the persecutions of the Papists and put to death for their religious opinions.

Well, therefore, might the inspired penman say, that at mystic Babylon’s destruction was found in her the blood of prophets, of saints, and of all that was slain upon the earth. (Rev. 18, 24.) We do not like men to mention these painful scenes, and were it not in the nature of the subject, surely would not. But we will not dwell.

It might be asked, when did she arise? She could not arise until the apostacy or defection in the Church took place.

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place, which was then secretly and inwardly working in the false teachers who then infested the Church.

2d. Nor while the restraining Roman power was in existence. For Paul says, “and now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time.” “Only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way.” (2 Thess. 2:6, 8)

3d. She could not arise until the Dragon gave his power unto the Beast and the Harlot was fully seated upon her and the three kingdoms were humbled or plucked up. Baronius says; “In 499 Clovis, the king of the Franks, with his nobles and people, embraced the Catholic faith, and nationalized the Church by restoring to it the property which had been wrested from it, conferring on it large possessions, and fixing to propagate its faith. Theodmir, king of the Suvi, established and legalized the Roman hierarchy in 569. Recand, king of Spain, abandoned Arianism in 589, and legalized the Roman priesthood. The Heruli, Ostrogoths and Lombards, embraced and legalized the Roman Church about the year 591. Ethelbert, of England, of the Anglo-Saxon race, legalized the Roman priesthood in 605, and enriched the Church with many estates.”

On the conversion of the Anglo-Saxon and Lombards to the Roman Catholic faith, all the conquering German tribes were Catholic and arrogated to themselves executive, legislative and judicial authority. My history and chronology says that Pope Boniface III was made supreme head of the Church by the Emperor Phocil in 601. Some others fix his at between 605 and 606.

The next question might be asked: How long was she to continue? Times, as well as events, are symbolized in prophetic writings. The Prophets very often call years days, of which we have many examples.

“I have appointed thee each day for a year.” (Ezekiel 4:6)

“After the number of the days in which ye reached the land even forty days, (each day for a year,) shall ye bear your iniquities even forty years.” (See also, Gen. 29:27; Dan. 9:24)

Time is one annual revolution of the earth; times two such revolutions and the dividing, or half a time, is half a year. Numbering by months or moons is appropriate to the works of darkness; because the moon is the governess of night: numbering by the course of the sun, is appropriate to the works of righteousness, and this is in correspondence with the use of these symbols in the Apocalypse. The continuance of the Beast, and the profaning of the holy city by the Gentiles, are reckoned by months; but the prophecy of the Witness by days, and times, times, and half a time; three solar years and a…

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“half.” The product of forty-two thirties, forty-two Jewish months, is 1260. One day being given for a year is 1260 years. This notable number of time being seven times given in the prophetic writings, in reference to the woman and beast, plainly demonstrate these visions to be descriptive of the state of things in the same period, and not in successive ones. Due as the time is nearly or quite up, we must look for her speedy destruction.

Before we enter upon this, we have other matters which more immediately concern us. We have, however, so far, been showing that this, primarily, was spoken of Catholicism, but does it include what is called Protestantism? Let us follow the pen of inspiration a little further. John speaks of a beast or power arising which was to continue twelve hundred and sixty years. He speaks of the “Temple of God,” (the church) and the altar, and them that worship therein. “And the Holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months.” He speaks of “the woman fled into the wilderness where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there, a thousand two hundred and three score days.”

In contrast of this, John speaks of the “street of the great city which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt where our Lord was crucified;” and the tenth part of the city fell; “and the witness was trodden without the city, and blood came out of the wine-press even to the horses’ bridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs”—two hundred miles. “And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell: and great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath: and every island fled away and the mountains were not found.”

He speaks of the beast; “and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months;” “And power was given over all kindreds, and tongues and nations.” “And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him whose names were not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain, from the foundation of the world.” “And upon her forehead was a name written, Mystery, Babylon the great, the mother of harlots, and abominations of the earth.”

From these prophetic passages we gather several important items:

The church, woman, or city of God, comprises all the saints, whether Catholic, Greek, or Protestant.
In contrast, the city, woman, beast, harlot, Babylon, etc., included all the opposers and persecutors of Christianity.
As it speaks of the street, tenth of the city, cities of the nations, Babylon, etc., so it includes all the territory and persons outside of the church of Christ, irrespective of countries, languages, tongues and…

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People

4th. As it speaks of the great city collectively, so it speaks of the cities of nations, national and sectional churches.

5th. Three classes are spoken of:

All his saints which are in Christ’s Church.
It speaks of some, though belonging to him, but are in the wrong place and the improper mark is upon them. They are in Babylon, and if they do not come out, as true proclamation has been made, will be destroyed.
The other class who are opposers and persecutors of Christianity, are included here, and will, assuredly, be overthrown and destroyed in the great earthquake or battle against the word of God and his enemy.

6th. She is declared to be “the mother of harlots.” Other churches must have illicit commerce with the nations of the earth, and thus, come under the same epithet. Those churches are brought to view by John, and the great city was divided into three parts and the cities of the nations fell. The great city here named is understood to be the Roman ecclesiastical hierarchy.

If the great city be a symbol city, the law of construction requires the cities of the nations to be understood symbolically. To understand them in any other sense would violate the primary law of symbolization. They are all seen in vision, and must, therefore, be thus understood. If the great city denotes the great national church, the cities of the nations are, as we have said, national and corporate churches. Again, she carries an opprobrious burden—a harlot mother. This mother is declared to be “that great city that reigneth over the earth.”

What does that mother symbolize? A mother church. What church claims to be the mother church? The Roman Catholic. If she be a mother, by what power were her children begotten? For the term mother is relative, and implies husband and offspring. If she were a virtuous mother, God would be that husband; but, being called a harlot, we must look for some other power to be the father of her children. Must not that father be a civil power?

Let us for a moment or two look into civil or political bodies. These institutions are divided into three classes:

National;
Social;
Religious.

Nations are civil bodies, and are included in the horns of the wild beast. These are by birth, members of the fourth Gentile family—and in this country, a branch of the Anglo-Saxon horn.

2nd. Social institutions by profession are not called national or religious. Such are the moral reform societies. Are these institutions political bodies? By nature they are not such. As voluntary associations, they are made the adopted members only of the political family. The act of adoption in their charter or incorporated power, which comes from a political body.

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Tions are created bodies corporate and politic and have conferred upon them all the rights and privileges of a political family, and have the authority to wield that arm in its defense.

All religious institutions, like moral, which are incorporated are political bodies and by that act, become members of the great political family, symbolized by the beast.

No incorporated church has a right to change its name. The creator of a body is the father of it. That body which was then created, did not before exist, and by this act of adoption, are made members of the great political family. The head of his family requires an unconditional obedience from all his children, reserving the right to change or destroy at pleasure, and to call out to defend their charter.

If the reader admits that banks, railroads, and insurance companies are established by law, our conclusions relative to chartered churches cannot be avoided. From the closest computation we have concluded that more than eight-tenths of all the religious congregations or churches in the United States have a corporate existence and are, therefore, legal church establishments.

It is in this way they receive the seal, mark, or engraving of the beast, and therefore, can neither buy nor sell without the aid of their common seal or mark. Charters are civil privileges of difference and offence. They arm societies with a power not granted them by the word of God—the power of a carnal sword, as every Christian is, by profession, a citizen of another government purely celestial in its origin, having the son of God as its supreme head.

It was never designed that the religious society, to which he has united his destiny, should become a member of another government, Gentile and earthly.

I will, perhaps, readily be admitted, that the national churches of the Eastern continent are political bodies, begotten by nations which are members of the same family, and that the Episcopalian Church of England, the Presbyterian Church of Scotland, the Southern Church of Prussia, and the other established Protestant Churches on the continent of Europe, are national cities.

But are not the remaining Protestant Churches to be regarded national? John says, “and the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell.” This implies that there would be national establishments widespread over the earth.

The charters declare them to be political bodies subject to a withdrawal of said power from all abuse of the special rights, the same as any national incorporation.

All chartered churches are, therefore, national cities. As such, they exercise legislative and judicial powers. These charters recognize in the…

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and bodied, executive, legislative and judicial authority; or, in other words, the right to make, judge of, and execute laws. They have granted them, (under human sanction alone,) the right to make creeds, judge men by those creeds, and to excommunicate for certain violations of the aforementioned creeds.

Does the Roman Catholic Church claim any higher power? Their general councils assumed the right to lord it over a man’s faith; and do not the general councils of the Protestant Churches exercise the same high prerogative? The Roman hierarchy declare no Scripture of any private interpretation; that is, that no man might see anything in the word of God not first seen and taught by them. And do not the Protestant hierarchy the same? Have not many of the Protestant Churches assumed, also, the keys of the kingdom of Heaven—by virtue whereof they have power, respectively, to retain and remit sins—to shut the kingdom against the impenitent, both by the word and censures?

The xx, nart. of a large body of Protestants says, “The Church hath power to decree rights or ceremonies; and authority in controversies of faith.” Again, X:2: “Every particular or national church both authority to ordain, change, and abolish ceremonies; or rites of the church.” “It is not necessary that traditions and ceremonies be in all places one, or utterly alike.” “Whosoever, through his private judgment, purposely and willingly doth openly break the traditions and ceremonies of the church—ought to be rebuked openly, (that others may fear to do the like.)” If this does not show that they are interpreters of the main sin, there is no meaning in language.

Comment is unnecessary. The thing speaks for itself. But should you not yet be satisfied with this, we will trace up a few to their origin. It is an easy matter to show, that not one church, or as they please to call themselves “branches of the church,” in the whole vocabulary of Catholic, Greek, English, Gallican, national or seminary, either in origin, organization, name, officers, government, or discipline, is Scriptural. Neither is their doctrine and teaching according to Apostolic practice.

Still further, not one ordinance is observed, kept, or administered, in reference to object, time or place for which it should be. This may seem truly startling, and a bold assertion without the probability of proof. But if any one of the thousand, heralded, orthodox, hierarchical scribes will undertake, by no fair, manly and Christian course, to prove by the Christian’s law-book, the New Testament, that they are right in these, or any one of these things, I stand pledged to show to the contrary notwithstanding.

By comparing the type and anti-type, we can very easily determine and show a Christian Church.

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and then we can determine its name, its overseers, and ministers, and how it should be disciplined. We can then show what doctrine should be preached, and how it should be taught to those who are without and within. We can then attend to the ordinances; and show what they are, how, where, when, and by whom they are to be observed. They will cover nearly the whole ground. But the brevity of our piece forbids, at present, our attending to but one or two items.

The Catholic and Greek following after the Heathen, and in fact incorporated most of their forms by birth, incorporated most of the practices and forms of the Romans; and the other national sectarian churches by adoption and charter, have incorporated and adopted the forms, officers, ceremonies, traditions, articles, councils, creeds, liturgies, and homilies of the other national churches. The great reformer Luther himself, and the body of Lutherans which follow his name and principles, engrafted many Papistical errors on the church. They adopted the Augsburg confession which met in 1530, and formed articles which are the acknowledged standard of faith and manners. In every country where Lutheranism is established, the supreme head of the State is at the same time the supreme visible ruler of the church.

Among the American Lutherans there are three judicatories, viz:

The vestry of the congregation.
The district or special committee.
The general synod.

The ministerium is composed of ministers only, and regulates the internal or spiritual affairs. The Lutherans in all countries have liturgies, which are essentially the same in all the articles of religion. Luther himself advocated human impotence, irresistible grace, absolute predestination to life; but his followers now generally hold to a conditional, instead of a gratuitous election unto life. As a body, they are Trinitarians.

With respect to the Lord’s supper, they believe in what is called transubstantiation, holding that the real body and blood of Jesus are united in a mysterious manner, though the consecration, with the bread and wine. They practice confirmation, confession, and absolution. This shows what a wonderful reform was produced, and how far they are now removed from the old mother of harlots. They reformed not to the Bible, but from Catholicism, and this has been the case with Calvin, Wesley, and the two or three hundred other sects. They have split, divided, and subdivided on points to no purpose. None of them have adopted the Bible alone. None of them have reformed to Apostolic organization, overseers, and worship. All their reforms are from one another, and they…

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may reform, ad infinitum, and never adopt Heaven’s order. As Paul says, “Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.” No wonder they never could arrive at the truth! First call a council, make a creed and articles of confession, and chain themselves to them, make a liturgy and bind their subjects, irresistibly, to follow and worship according to it.

Preach and preach they may, and send out missionaries to preach, and make parties to their party organizations one after another. A Baptist party to make Baptists—Presbyterians to tear down a Baptist party and build up its own—a Methodist party to tear down a Presbyterian and build up its own. So the matter has been going for hundreds of years and would go on for hundreds of years to come, if the great head of the Church does not destroy their leaders by earthquakes or revolutions, sinking of islands, moving of mountains and falling down of cities.

Priestly power, once engrafted, embraced and legalized, is not easily moved. It is as the prophet says, like a nail in a sure place. People regarding their holy religion sacred, (though ever so false in theory and practice;) cling to it with an iron tenacity. It is the last they will surrender.

But we must now look to another great reformer, Calvin, and the body that he has given birth to. The Presbyterian, and many other bodies of the Calvinistic school, derive their doctrines from this reformer, who reformed from some of the abuses of Catholicism to equally many more of Protestantism. This is the way reforms have been going on.

The Synod of Dort embraced and established his theological principles in 1618, about forty years after his decease. Though Calvinism is generally confined to those principles, independent of his system of church polity. Those denominated from him, have been distinguished into high, (hyper or ultra,) strict and moderate Calvinists. One of the most offensive points of Calvin’s system, is the doctrine of absolute predestination, and its counterpart, reprobation: He acknowledged a real, though spiritual presence of Christ in the Lord’s supper.

The government of those who embrace Calvinism, is mostly, by Synods and Presbyteries. Thus establishing another species of hierarchy equally as anti-scriptural as the Lutherans. This Synod surmounted by State authority gave forth their articles of faith. Like the Augsburg which was convened by the Emperor, Charles V, and drew up the famous confession which all its adherents must believe and subscribe to.

Like their “Old Mother,” they must have a political head which gives forth their articles, their liturgies, and their government. It seems they must have a political father in order to receive the mark of the beast. Like

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The rebel Jews, they must have an earthly king to go before them, to give laws and direct them in their public worship. And it cannot be denied that all who adopt these creeds, articles, and confessions, are a politico-religious body. The conclusion seems to be inevitable. We have only time to notice one more head of a numerous party. If our limits had permitted, we would have traveled through all the ramifications of Protestant dissenters, and shown their origin, their offices, their peculiarities and departures from the word of God, thus making our proposition true that among this mighty host, not one can be found that has a Scriptural organization.

Wesley stated at the head of a numerous progeny. He was a member of the national church of England, ordained in the autumn of 1725 as an Episcopal Priest, and died a member of that church. Being dissatisfied, he was driven by the current of events; he was constantly introducing innovations. He had been preaching thirteen years, as he says, without faith, but on consulting Bamham, a Moravian, he replied, “Preach faith till you have it; and then, because you have it, you will preach faith.” Thus, in the flesh, began the body of Methodists.

Wesley formed societies and drew up certain rules by which they were to be governed, according to their own account, are the same as the church of England, as set forth in her liturgy, articles, and homilies. The government is strictly Episcopal. The general rules of government are the same in this country as those given by Mr. Wesley for the government of the Methodist societies in England. (See Discipline.) There are three orders of Ministers: Bishops, Elders, and Deacons, to which is added, circuit riders, exhorters, stewards, and class leaders. The chartered fund is very large and is divided among their Conferences.

Thus it appears that societies and churches derive their pedigree from national origin, and as if this is not sufficient to identify them with the wild Beast, throw themselves, by charter, under their protection. We have barely traced the lineal descent of three reformers, and shown their origin from the wild Beast and their numerous family or offspring, and surely, they have no higher claim than their politico-religious father, and it cannot be supposed that the stream will rise above its fountain. None of these federal heads laid down the New Testament and tried to reform to that, organize and appoint such overseers and ministrations as that prescribes, but such as their own prudence dictated.

Episcopal orders are a pernicious encroachment on the rights of men for which there is no authority in Scripture. Episcopacy is an usurpation upon the rights of the church, not congenial with the republican forms of…

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Government and Civil Institutions

Elder is, and always has been, a title of age, and not of office. Deacon, an office of finance, to minister to the temporalities of the church and provide for the poor. There are no such officers, or powers, as belong to these sectarian churches mentioned and defined in the Scriptures. No Diocesan Bishops, no Elder’s office, no Priests who officiate for others, no clergy to Lord it over God’s heritage, no laity inferior to a lordly domination.

This spiritual tyranny was assumed first by the Papal system ingrained by national churches, and was vastly spread by a tyrannical power-loving, power-spreading clergy. This priestcraft has chained and fettered to the car of partyism, the best and humblest of intellects, kept up, sustains and feeds a hungry swarm of aspirants, degrades, or drives from its precincts those who will not bow to its lordly assumptions; and to keep up this unholy domination, the hold mother of harbors invented the most artful device that human ingenuity could conceive, episcopal ordination and apostolic succession. This is the climax of all absurdity and anti-Christian power.

Inspired with the hope of a national paradise, national policy supremely claims their attention. Many of them are politically leaders and government officers, absorbed, as to mind and body, in dreams of earthly grandeur. Their diplomatic relationships, the treasury, the war and the navy departments, are the themes which are of human passion. The civil rulers inspire them with confidence in their protection; deluded, they rush onward—blind to the true source of confidence, they place their trust in an arm of flesh, which must turn to dust before the mighty power of Jehovah.

Gathering and Understanding Prophecy

We must also attend to gathering and fall. To understand this must make a remark or two preparatory to our progress. In the investigation of prophecy, my first thing is to collect, compose, and date every passage and event in prophecy. By this process, I can learn what is past, and what is future, and where we are in the chain of prophecy.

The first earthquake or revolution (Rev. 6, 12) we place under the Sixth seal, between 304 and 323. The second (Rev. 11, 13) occurred at the French revolution, between 1789 and 1816. Evidently, then, we past these two woes, and behold the third woe cometh quickly! The sixth vial is being completed, and the seventh angel about to sound, and the seventh vial to be poured out.

“And their voices, and thunders, and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great, and the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell and great Babylon…”

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Came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath, and every island fled away, and the mountains were not found.
Rev. 16:18-20.
Here is a revolution more universal than the world ever saw: It may have been begun in a branch or horn of the Anglo Saxon race; but every other branch or horn must inevitably be the seat of revolutions, commotions, and wars, until the cities of nations fall and a great Babylon is destroyed. It may take several years to accomplish this, as it did in the first and second cataclysm. But when completed, will wind up the old mother and her “adopted daughters.” But we must attend to the gathering forces.

John says, “and I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and of the mouth of the false prophet. For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty.”
Rev. 16:13, 14.

The propositions are as follows:

Those bodies symbolized by these unclean spirits will deluge the world, in the last days, with their doctrines.
These doctrines are anti-Christian.
These agents will work wonders.
These doctrines will gain by their deceptive influence, great associated power.
That associated power will engage in battle against every opposition.
Their grand enemy will be found to be “the Word of God and his army.”

An explanation of the terms and symbols in the quotation above is required. The term dragon when used as a symbol denotes a body of pagan rulers with a tyrannical chief as their leader. It was first applied to the Egyptian pagan officers, and next, to the Great Red Dragon of the Revelations, to symbolize a body of idolatrous rulers, whether within or beyond the bounds of the Roman Empire, who sustain the pagan worship. Beast denotes a usurping, tyrannical power; a succession of men exercising a lawless, arbitrary power, whether civil or ecclesiastical or both.

False Prophet, I conclude, symbolizes the Mahometan or Turkish empire. There have been many false prophets, but one, however, who is called the “false prophet.” Mahomet assumes the regal and sacerdotal offices, and the government which he originated may be fitly called prophetic. The governors of the world are now divided into three great classes. Three symbols are, therefore, requisite to represent them, in these days, where one only was required during the first three centuries of the Christian era. Satan’s grand army is then in three divisions under…

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three field mcw.sJutls. A mouth is the organ of speech. A national mouth is, therefore, that organ through the body of rulers speak. Unclean spirits demand close attention. They assemble the nations to the battle of that great day. Their nature and office will be considered. The meaning of the word here translated devil is the key term of the whole subject. The proper translation of that word is demon. The spirits belong here to three demons; they are emanations from those demons and are their property. The term demon is from the Greek word δαίμων, from daio, to know. Its original meaning was “knowing ones.” It was a term of honor. Aristotle and Thucydides are called demons. It was first applied to men of learning and distinction. This is its primary signification. The Greeks, supposing that the spirit of man, after its departure from the body, became acquainted with the unseen world, and thus the sphere of knowledge being greatly enlarged, they called that spirit daimon, knowing or wise. The term was applied, in a secondary sense, to the spirit of man. Thus Hesiod says, “The spirits of mortals became daemons, when separated from their earthly bodies, because they have a knowledge of the unseen world.”

Who then are the demons of the above passage? Knowing ones or learned men, whose agency is connected with civil governments. They symbolize the learned hierarchy of the political, religious, and social systems. The next term to be defined is spirit. “I saw three unclean spirits.” What agents do these spirits symbolize? They denote those agents and doctrines which emanate from this learned hierarchy. The word spirit is translated from the Greek pneuma, meaning breath, air, and would denote the breath while speaking. Hence it refers to doctrines spoken, or in any other way inculcated. The word of God, or the doctrine of the Bible, is called the pneuma-spirit of Christ’s mouth. (2 Thess. 2:8)

If the demons are the learned hierarchy, then the spirits would symbolize the doctrines of all persons with those agents, who propagate their views. The authors of the doctrines of any particular age are not generally the same with those who embrace and promulgate the sentiments. The originators and propagators are usually two classes, as much so as the demons and their spirits. The secondary class of the learned are the industrious and operative agents. The spirits are said to be unclean or wicked, which indicates the doctrines taught by these agents to be anti-Christian. They are like frogs, which plainly declare that the views circulated by these agents, together with the persons adhering to them and teaching them, would resemble that animal. The terms being defined we are now able to proceed with the points of re…

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Emblance, the Time of Their Appearance, and the Nature of Their Mission

1 John says, they were like frogs; there must then be a striking resemblance.

First Point:
The frog is esteemed harmless; no fear is entertained from them by the multitude; no danger is apprehended from those whom we consider wise. The members of each body—whether political or religious—anticipate no specific harm from the teachings of their own learned men. Their doctrines are generally esteemed pure and innocent. They are swallowed down without being questioned, suspected, or closely examined.

Second Point:
O, how expressive, when applied to the great mass of the learned hierarchy of the present age. The leading tendency of the multitudinous doctrines of the day is as little understood as the croaking of frogs. The varied sentiments of the times serve only to allure the thoughtless, while they distract the minds of the sober and reflecting. Confusion is the tumult of the present age. What sentiments have not their fluent defenders? Creeds and Parties and Croakers innumerable! Enter the arena of political, religious, or social life; hear the men of eloquence—their ever-active agents. Enter their halls of assembly—their temples of devotion; acquaint yourselves with the views of the learned and what discontented ideas are now propagated. Truly, the revealer John has revealed the mundane world as a frog-pond, where theories are woven out of the flyings of fiction.

Third Point:
They have no notes of alarm when true danger approaches. All are silent; so with learned teachers—no warning voice is heard from any against their own peculiar teaching.

Fourth Point:
The frogs come forth from the literal waters of Egypt and constituted one of the plagues of the Egyptians, so the doctrines come forth from the symbolic waters which are said to be “peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues”—tormenting and gathering the anti-religious world to Armageddon to the battle of the great day of God Almighty. They are now tormenting the multitudes without their suspicion of the source of their troubles. They entered into the houses of the Egyptians, reaching their parlors and chambers, filling their secret apartments. In this exists one of the strongest features of the analogy.

So with the doctrines of the wise. Their publications are everywhere. We allude to the impure or wicked doctrines of the age—those immoral or anti-Christian in their effects, those calculated to conduct the mind away from the teachings of the Bible. Volumes of romance enter the dwellings of all ranks—the high, the low, the rich, the poor, the learned and the unlearned. The center tables groan under their weight; the bed-chambers are crowded.

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with them, where, in secret, the impure doctrines, distilling from the flowing pages of the hosts of seductive authors, allure, entice, corrupt the rising generation. Suspecting no special harm they leave open the secret chambers of their affections to the seductive power, and the serpent has again coiled himself in the secret groves of Eden. A world of Romance has been brought into being, and a majority of the age have selected it for their habitation. The rays of divine truth may, at times, like shafts of lightning, flash upon that world, disclosing its horrid deformities; but only serves to blind the eyes of its inhabitants, and all again is gloom.

The Time of Their Appearance

These antichristian doctrines, or gathering agents, go forth at the commencement of the sixth vial and continue until the gathering of the mighty host for battle. These agents are universal and “go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world:” but as each has a centre or focus and special organs of communication we will notice some which have been operating for nearly a half century in the different governments of earth. Each spirit represents a class of agents.

In the United States politically, what question save that of the Higher law principle has the attention of the learned hierarchy for the last quarter of a century, and at least gathered the mighty hosts to the field of battle? What else but the creed made systems and human platforms of the day have divided the moral and religious world, and been the very bone and sinew of divisions; the heart-rending and soul-destroying portion of the fairest body of God’s people. For more than half a century these antichristian spirits have been desolating this beautiful portion of the green earth with their unhalled and deleterious doctrines.
In the Eastern Hemisphere, if we ask what has been the prominent and gathering agencies of this portion of the earth, we think the answer would be that ambitious and ever-towering principle of conquest and lordly titles of distinction which has reduced the greater part to serfs, plebeians, and feudals. Thus an underground current of opposition and gathering has been engendered by these lordly hierarchies, which ere long, may burst forth and shake every throne in the world.
Religious Aspect: If again we should turn to the religious aspect of things and see national churches with their learned leadership crushing out the liberty of the Gospel, we can easily see that we are on the verge of a mighty earthquake, which will shake every power and government of earth. We need not call in the magicians, the astrologers, the sorcerers, and the Chaldeans, to interpret the visions and to read the handwriting on Heaven’s “walls.” These wise men must retire—they have no…

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Time amidst the upheaving elements of political and religious strife and worldly ambition, to consult the great chart of empires, as delineated by Daniel and St. John—the chart is understood alone by the simple-hearted child of God. To the student of prophecy, these scenes and combinations have their meaning. With this chart before him, he has a distinct view of the entire field of battle. He can locate the extraordinary movements of the day and determine their relative positions before the gathering of the stormy elements. He can see the last great earthquake, convulsing the whole earth, dividing great Babylon into three parts, shaking down the cities of the nations, and sinking the islands and mountains, and the pouring forth of the great hail out of heaven, every stone about the weight of a talent.

We have described the going forth of the three unclean spirits, like frogs, and their success in mustering the armies to the battle, but we must enter the connection again, and show the extraordinary effects of the Son of God has made to prevent an entire consolidation of anti-Christian power. So pernicious is their influence on the world that three extraordinary messengers are commissioned to render abortive their agency. (See Rev. 14:6-9.)

“And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting Gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred and tongue and people, saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.”

This is the first messenger’s proclamation. Nearly all expositors agree that this messenger symbolizes a body of religious teachers. As to what body, they differ. Some suppose it refers to the Adventists.

But it will be admitted by all who understand God’s ways, that He would make the wisest possible selection.
That He would not choose a class ignorant of the “first principles of the Gospel” or the plan of salvation.
He would not choose messengers who would incorporate God’s people with political churches and leave them as worshippers of the wild beast and his image and receivers of his mark, since it was their proclamation to cry, “Fear God and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come.”

The Period of Its Flight

This messenger could not have received this special commission anterior to 1816. Five plagues had long before been poured out on the beast and on his votaries. The sixth was being poured out, and the three unclean spirits were in constant operation. The court has set in judgment on…

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The little horn, the everlasting Gospel has been sounded to all people, the “Millennial Harbinger,” “Gospel Advocate,” and many others are still on the wing.

The eighth verse—”and there followed another angel (or messenger,) saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.”

In the 18th chapter another item is introduced into the proclamation—”come out of her, my people, that ye be not partaken of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.” For many years past we have heard from the Evangelists of the “Disciples of Christ,” the proclamation, “Babylon is fallen, come out of her my people.” It is still the burden and theme of both voice and pen, “come out of her, my people.” But all the work is not accomplished by these two classes of agents.

The third messenger, verses 9-10:

“And the third angel followed them, saying, with a loud voice, if any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb: and the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.”

The kind messenger denotes a third body of proclaimers, as appears from what has already been said. More than a hundred publications have appeared on subjects connected with the corruptions and downfall of Babylon. Multitudes of agents have been employed to circulate these works and to lecture publicly on these subjects.

The proclamation has been extensively sounded; “Babylon is fallen, come out of her, my people.” Worship not the beast or his image, nor receive his mark or engraving, upon the penalty of “drinking the wine of the wrath of God;” “tormented with fire and brimstone,” and “the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever.”

They fly “in the midst of heaven” “with a loud voice,” and cry. The first two imply; the third utters the most severe denunciation in the sacred record. His movements, his voice and words, denote imminent danger. Haste, energy and severity, are most prominent. The danger is near; the angel is about to thrust in his sharp sickle and reap; for the harvest of the earth is ripe; the seventh angel is about to pour out his vial into the air (emblem of the rest of anti-Christian powers).

Some of God’s people are still unsheathed, they are in the wrong place, the improper mark is upon them, and they stand in proximity to the final.

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Will they heed the warning voice, “Come out of her, my people.”
We have plain inference that Babylon would exist sometime after her dejection, after her fall. Rev. 18:1-2 says, “I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lighted with his glory. And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and the cage of every unclean and hateful bird.” Some time has been allowed for God’s people to come out of her final destruction. It was so with Babylon, the type, the ancient capital of Chaldea. She fell, and afterwards was destroyed, and those who remained within her precincts were alike destroyed. So will it be with spiritual Babylon. Those who have been members of these politico-religious institutions, embraced in the ten horns, when they see how they have been deluded, debased, and corrupted by the old mother of harlots, will make her desolate and naked, and “shall eat her flesh and burn her with fire.” They have long agreed and given their kingdom unto the beast. They have long supported an apostate Christianity; but the messenger is still on the wing, crying, “Come out of her, my people.” The vials of God’s fiercest anger await her. The plagues of Egypt, Sodom, and Jerusalem are in store for the son of Perdition. The artillery of Heaven’s vengeance shall burst upon her in a moment when her full time is ripe, and as swift as the angel hurried the millstone into the sea, shall great Babylon be destroyed. The times are truly ominous. No reflecting mind can view the events now transpiring without a degree of solicitude. The knowing ones are in a quandary. The rich men of the earth have toiled hard for a pittance, to squander in the great battle of Armageddon. The politico-religious bodies are eager to support the power that gave them birth. The mighty ones are rapidly moulding the great hailstones, to dash them in pieces. The combined elements are rapidly moving to the great crisis.

And where are God’s children who have been sealed, and taken a public stand in defense of the Gospel of Christ alone? Are they trusting in the arm of human flesh? Are they, too, dreaming of an earthly Paradise? Are they so absorbed by the moving elements that they have forgotten their first love to God? Are they prepared to say, “For true and righteous are his judgments; for he hath judged the great whore, which did corrupt the earth with her fornication, and hath avenged the blood of his servants at her hand” and can they say, “Alleluia: for the Son of God omnipotent reigneth.”

Sempronius, Texas, Aug. 25, 1861.
B. EASTMAN.

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WHAT MUST I DO TO BE SAVED?

A SERMON, BY D. F. MANIER

Sir, What must I do to be saved? — Acts xvii, 30.

The question which we propound for your thoughtful consideration at this time, is, beyond all controversy, the most important one that has engaged the attention of the human mind, or enlisted the feelings of the human heart.

In it is involved the eternal destiny of Adam’s fallen and sinful race. On it hangs the tremendous issue of everlasting life or endless death. In its vast recess, it embraces all there is of peace for the present; all there is of hope for the future.

Yet, how little attention does it receive from the countless millions that live and die on the Lord’s earth.

How seldom, even in this land of Bibles, is it pondered o’er with that deep and earnest thought which its superlative importance so clearly demands!

How rarely, even under the most pungent preaching, is it heard bursting forth from the lips, as it wells up from the depths of a broken heart; as it was heard of old, in the city of Jerusalem, on the road to Damascus, and in the prison house of Philippi!

How often, amid the gospel privileges that surround us, do the comparatively insignificant questions, “What shall we eat or drink?” or “Wherewithal shall we be clothed?” engross our thoughts, and enlist our affections to the utter neglect of the infinitely more important one relative to our spiritual well-being both in time and eternity!

How frequently, even when standing on the very brink of the grave, do the trivial affairs of this vanishing life shut out from our vision the awful and unchanging realities of that unending life which is to come!

“What must I do to be saved?” This is the question of questions. This should be the all-absorbing theme to every one who has a mind to think, a heart to feel, and an immortal spirit to be saved or lost, and that forever.

It should linger around the mind calling forth all its powers, and dwell in the heart enlisting all its purer feelings, and heavenward aspirations, until it is answered in the full assurance of pardon, and a well-grounded hope of eternal life.

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How utterly unworthy our serious attention and ardent pursuit, are the fickle and transient concerns of this fleeting life, when contrasted with the undying interests that cluster in and around this thrilling question!

What must I do to be saved?

There is a world of meaning in this brief question.

On the one hand, it implies that man, the entire race, is lost; lost to peace, lost to happiness, lost to hope, and unless saved, lost forever. This is, by far, the most startling fact in the whole history of human calamities. That sin has corrupted the heart, perverted the mind, destroyed the happiness, and cut off the hopes of man; that it has alienated him from God, and interposed between him and Heaven, a barrier insurmountable and immovable by human wisdom and power, are facts demonstrated by all history and confirmed by all experience. Such is the woeful condition of Adam’s entire race without a solitary exception, as depicted in the Bible, developed in the world’s history, and implied in this question.

On the other hand, it implies that man lost, sinful, and condemned, may yet be saved; that the means of rescue have been devised and brought within his reach; that a divine plan has been revealed by which he may be redeemed from sin, adopted into God’s family on earth, and fitted for the society of God and Angels in the Heavenly Home above.

Again, this question implies that there is something for man himself to do, in order to his own salvation. If this is not true; if man really has nothing to do in the affair of his own salvation, then this question so earnestly propounded to the Apostles, and so promptly answered by them, is not only an improper question, but clearly makes a false impression. It is evident that the guilt-stricken souls who with so much anxiety propounded this question to the Apostles, believed most assuredly that there was something for them to do, without which they could not be saved; and it is to this point that the question has primary and direct reference.

And from the direct, positive, and unequivocal answer given in every case to the question, and enjoining something to be done, it is equally evident that the Apostles viewed this question in the same light. But here, once for all; let me call your attention to the important distinction between the procurement of salvation for man, and the personal enjoyment of salvation by man. In the procurement of salvation, man had nothing, absolutely nothing, to do. He was not consulted with regard to the plan by which he was…

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to be saved. Indeed, the whole plan of redemption was arranged before man was created. All that was necessary to make salvation possible to sinful and condemned man was devised by Divine wisdom, and in due time executed by Divine Power. But the procurement of salvation by God is one thing; and the actual personal enjoyment of salvation by man is quite another.

While the former is entirely of God; with the latter, man’s personal, voluntary action is inseparably connected. “The grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men.” But the actual enjoyment of this salvation, which is by the favor of God offered to all men, and brought within their reach, has been suspended by God on the personal, voluntary compliance of the sinner with the conditions of pardon.

Be it, then, distinctly understood; and never let it be forgotten, that it is to the actual, personal enjoyment of salvation by man, and not the arrangement of its provisions by God, that the question before us, in our humble judgment, directly relates. It is not what God has done or will do for me; it is not what the Lord Jesus Christ has done, or will for me; it is not what the Holy Spirit has done, or will do for me. These are all important, fundamental, vital questions. They are questions that must be understood and appreciated, felt and acknowledged by all who desire to be saved; but they are not the question which we are now considering.

The work of the Father, the work of the Son, and the work of the Holy Spirit, without all which there could have been no salvation, are all taken for granted, and the great question before us is, What must I do? I, the sinner! I, the lost; the ruined, the condemned one! What must I do to be saved? This, this is the question which, coming home to the mind, the heart, and the conscience of every accountable being, you aspiring men and women, as candidates for an eternity of bliss, or an eternity of woe, are called upon to consider with that deep and earnest attention which its transcendent interest urgently demands.

What must I do to be saved? But what is it to be saved? The word save is a word of comprehensive import. It literally means to deliver or preserve any person or thing from danger, injury, misfortune, or evil of any kind. A house may be saved from the devouring flames, and a ship from the raging waves. A man may be saved from poverty, from want, from disgrace, from disease, and from death. But it is concerning a salvation infinitely greater than any of these that we now speak.

Man is a sinner, and as such, he is not only “without God, and…

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without hope in this world, but he is also exposed to “everlasting destruction from the presence of God and the glory of His power,” in the world to come. To be saved in this world is to be freed from condemnation, adopted into God’s family and made heirs prospective of eternal life. To be saved in the world to come will be, to have our bodies redeemed from the bondage of death, and the corruption of the grave, made glorious, incorruptible, and immortal, with which our deathless spirits will be reunited to be forever blest in the saint’s eternal home.

The first great object set before us in the gospel, is the attainment of a present salvation which frees us from all past sins, fills our hearts with peace and joy, and cheers our spirits with the blissful hope of never-ending joys in the life to come.

The second great object set before us in the gospel, is the attainment of a future salvation, which is to be revealed in the last time, and which will put us in possession of “an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and unfading,” in the presence of God where “there is fullness of joy,” and at whose right hand “there are pleasures forevermore.” It is to the first of these objects, as preparatory to the second, that this question before us directly and primarily relates.

I have attempted to place this question before you in its proper light, to impress you with its superlative importance, and to briefly note the great truths implied in it.

I now ask you to seek with me the answer to this great question in which are involved all our spiritual interests in time, and in eternity. But whether shall we go for an answer in which we can repose the fullest confidence without a single misgiving of mind or heart; and which will be, beyond all doubt, correct, authoritative, and final? There can be but one reply to this question.

“The Oracles of God” are the only source of instruction in divine things. They alone “are … able to make us wise unto salvation.” On all questions relating to our spiritual interests, and obligations, they contain the most satisfactory information; for in them, God “hath given unto us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of Him who hath called us to glory and virtue.” It becomes us then on this, as on all other religious questions to speak only “as the oracles of God.”

What do they declare in this the greatest of all questions? It was to save men that the Messiah came into the world, taught, suffered and died; was buried, and rose again; ascended on high, and …

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was crowned Lord of all. It was to save men that the “gospel of Christ” was given to a world dead in trespasses and in sins. It was to open the eyes of men to their lost condition, make them feel their need of salvation, and teach them what to do to be saved, that the Apostles were commanded to “go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.” The present and eternal salvation of dying men and women was the design of all the labors and sufferings of Christ, the objects of all apostolic and evangelic labors, and the end of all “the Oracles of God.”

Then to the Commission given by Christ to His Apostles, and to the Inspired Record of their teachings let us go with an humble mind and penitent heart for an answer to this most thrilling of all questions.

1. The Commission

Our first appeal is to the Commission. The peerless rank and dignity of the One who gave it, the unique and solemn circumstances under which it was given, the supreme and universal authority by which it was given, the humble persons to whom it was given, and the magnitude and grandeur of the objects designed to be accomplished by it, all combine to invest this Commission with a superlative importance.

We will give both Matthew’s and Mark’s record.

“And Jesus came and spoke unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit; teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.”
— Matthew 28:18-20

“And he said unto them, Go into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth, and is baptized, shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.”
— Mark 16:15, 16

Here, then, we find a direct, positive, and unequivocal answer to our question in the very words of the Great Teacher Himself. “What must I do to be saved?” asks the sinner. “He that believes and is baptized shall be saved,” responds the Messiah with all authority in heaven and in earth.

Anxious enquirer, earnest seeker after salvation, are you willing to receive this answer as a final settlement of this momentous question? Are you willing to take the Savior at His word, to act upon it, and to confide in His promise for your salvation from sin and woe? These are questions which each and every one of you must decide for himself.

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I only beg you to bear in mind, that this is not my answer to the great question. It is not any man’s answer. It is not such an answer as human wisdom would have given; nor is human wisdom satisfied with it when given. But it is the answer of the Lord from Heaven; and this is enough for me. If any man is not pleased with it, his controversy is with the Messiah, and not with me. I shall not turn aside in order to defend or justify it. I shall not pause to answer objections, or to show why pardon should be offered on these conditions.

It is mine to proclaim the message of the Great King, to declare the terms on which He himself has offered pardon to the rebellious. It is yours as sinners to determine for himself, whether or not you will accept the pardon on the terms proposed. If you refuse to hear the message, if you reject the proffered mercy, do so at your own peril, and with the Lord himself must you, at the last, settle the question. We entreat you, then, before you decide, to weigh well another declaration of the Messiah: “He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words hath one that judgeth him; the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day.”

II.

In the discourse of the Apostle Peter on the day of Pentecost, which is recorded in the second chapter of the “Acts of the Apostles,” we find another answer to the question before us. On that occasion thousands were cut to the heart by the word of truth, and cried out to Peter and the rest of the Apostles, and said; “Men and brethren, what shall we do?” Then Peter said unto them; “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”

Now the question to be decided is this: Was Peter authorized to answer this question, and if so, did he answer it correctly? On looking into the history of the case, we find that Peter in common with the other Apostles had been commissioned by the Messiah to preach the Gospel to every creature; in which commission, as we have already seen, the Savior declares: “He that believes and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believes not shall be damned.”

And now for the first time he and the other Apostles were acting under this commission given only a few days before. Are we not justified in the conclusion that they understood the commission, and that they strictly followed the instructions of their exalted and glorified Teacher? In addition to this, Peter in common with the other Apostles had received the promised “gift of the Holy Spirit” which was to guide them into all the truth, bringing to their remembrance all things which the Messiah had…

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said to them, and to give them power to become witnesses of him “in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.” It was under the inspiration of this Holy Spirit of promise that Peter spoke on the day of Pentecost. Indeed it is but declared the words dictated by the Holy Spirit, for it is expressly said that they spake as the Spirit gave them utterance.

But further still: To Peter had been given the privilege of opening the Kingdom both to the Jews and the Gentiles with the assurance that whatsoever he bound on earth should be bound in Heaven, and whatsoever he loosed on earth should be loosed in Heaven. The true statement of the case, then, is this: The Apostle Peter, acting under the commission of the Lord Jesus Christ, speaking by direct inspiration of the Holy Spirit, possessing the keys of the Kingdom, having power to bind and loose on earth, what should be bound and loosed in Heaven, commands these heart-pierced enquirers to repent and be baptized in the name of Christ for the remission of sins.

After this statement, is it necessary that I should add anything more on this passage?

Shall I ask you, need I ask you, if you are willing to receive the remission of all your past sins on the terms enjoined in the Apostle Peter’s answer to the great question? Would it not be an insult to the Holy Spirit who gave utterance to these words to ask God to pardon us on any other conditions?

III.

In the record of Saul’s conversion we find a third answer to our question. The details of this conversion are found in the 9th, 22nd, and 26th chapters of Acts, all of which must be carefully studied in connection, in order to a full and correct understanding of this case of conversion. The prominent facts may be briefly stated. While on the way to Damascus with letters from the High Priest at Jerusalem authorizing him to arrest and bring to Jerusalem all whom he might find following the despised Nazarene, he was himself suddenly arrested by a light from heaven above the brightness of the sun, and falling to the earth he “heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?”

The terror-stricken persecutor enquires, “Who art thou, Lord?” The voice replies, “I am Jesus of Nazareth whom thou persecutest.” In an instant, all his enmity against Jesus of Nazareth is slain; all his unbelief vanishes; the appalling magnitude of his guilt in persecuting the Lord’s Anointed rises up before him, and with a believing mind, and penitent heart he now earnestly enquires, “Lord,

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What wilt thou have me to do? Strange as it may seem, the Lord did not directly answer this question. He simply directed the enquirer to the place where he could get the desired information.

“Arise,” said he, “and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do.”
Acts ix:6
“Arise, and go into Damascus, and there it shall be told thee of all things which are appointed for thee to do.”
Acts xxii:10

From this reply of the Savior, we may learn why He, himself, did not directly answer Saul’s question. In the first place, the great Plan of Redemption had already been fully revealed. All things necessary for men to do on their part in order to the enjoyment of pardon had been appointed long before this. The Apostles had been commissioned to “go into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.” The “Kingdom of Heaven” had been opened years before this at Jerusalem, and the conditions of pardon had then and there been fully and publicly made known to “Jews devout men out of every nation under Heaven.”

And as the “ministry of reconciliation” had been committed to the Apostles and other inspired teachers, the Savior, even when visibly and audibly present, would not, by answering the question, take out of their hands the work He, himself, had given them to do.

So one of these inspired teachers, then, must Saul go to, that he may learn what to do to be saved. This fact is worthy of some consideration at the present day. It is not by supernatural visions, or aerial whispers, that we are to learn the way of life; but from the recorded teaching of the Apostles and prophets of the Lord Jesus Christ.

It is evident then that the Lord did not descend from Heaven and confront Saul of Tarsus in order to tell him what he must do to be saved. This any of the Apostles, yea, any of the disciples could have done. But the Savior appeared to him for a purpose that could have been accomplished by no other means.

This leads us in the second place to ask your attention to the object for which the Lord appeared in glory to Saul of Tarsus after His ascension. This object is stated with great plainness by Christ himself.

“I have appeared unto thee for this purpose to make thee a minister and a witness both of these things which thou hast seen, and of those things in the which I will appear unto thee; delivering thee from the people, and from the Gentiles, unto whom I now send thee; to open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive the forgiveness of sins, and an inheritance among them that are sanctified by faith that is in me.”

It was, then, to make Saul…

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of Tarsus a minister and a witness that Christ appeared to him. This could have been done by no other means. Any disciple could have told him what he must do to be saved, but only the Lord from Heaven could make him an Apostle. The special work of the Apostles was to testify to the resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. And that they might be able to do this, it was absolutely necessary that they should see Him after his resurrection, for a witness can testify to that only which he has himself seen and heard. Hence the Messiah left his seat at the right hand of the Majesty on high, and appeared to Saul of Tarsus, that Saul might both see and hear Him, and thus be enabled to testify to his resurrection. But Saul was a sinner, and in need of salvation, as all sinners are, and it was to this point that his question was directed.

Although Christ had appeared to him to make him an Apostle, yet he must be saved in the same way as all other sinners under the Reign of Favor, are and must be saved. And as “all things appointed” for all sinners “to do,” had been made known by Inspiration to chosen teachers whose duty and privilege it was to declare the same to “all nations for the obedience of faith,” it was from one of these teachers and not from Christ that Saul must receive an answer to his earnest question. Hence the direction, “Arise, and go into the City, and it shall be told thee what thou must do.”

Let us follow him thither, and hear the answer to his question. After three days, Ananias, by the direction of the Savior, presents himself before the penitent enquirer, announces the purpose of his visit, declares the purpose of the Lord’s appearance to him on the way, and concludes with this pointed exhortation:

“And now why tarriest thou? arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord.”

In this exhortation, we find the answer to Saul’s question. If it is not found there, it cannot be found at all. Christ declared to Saul that in the city of Damascus, he should be told what he must do, and the teacher whom Christ sent to instruct him tells him to arise, and be baptized, and wash away his sins, calling on the name of the Lord. If he told him to do anything else, the Holy Spirit failed to place it on record.

I shall not pause here to answer objections, or to notice the reasoning of those who attempt to evade the force of this commandment. The facts of the case I have fairly and fully stated, and I shall not attempt to explain them away. The question is, “Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?” The answer is,

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“Arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord.” This is a part of the teaching of the Spirit on the subject of salvation, and having brought before your mind the facts of the case, I leave you to dispose of them as you think proper. To the Lord your Master, you stand or fall, and to Him you must give an account for your treatment of His word.

IV. The Record of the Philippian Jailor’s Conversion

The record of the Philippian Jailor’s conversion furnishes a fourth answer to the great question. Paul and Silas had been thrust into prison, and confined in the stocks for preaching the gospel of Christ. But God remembers His servants, and at midnight all earthquake shook the prison, the power of God unbars the doors, and loosens the hands of the prisoners.

The jailor awakens; and supposing that the prisoners had fled, draws his sword, and is about to fall upon it, when the voice of Paul arrests his hand and assures him of the safety of all his prisoners. “Then he called for a light,” and sprang in, and came trembling, and fell down at the feet of Paul and Silas, and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” And they said, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.”

The answer is as plain and pointed as the question was direct and earnest. As this is the answer which almost all Protestants under all circumstances give to the great question, we will not now spend time upon it further than to remark, that we cordially accept it, believe it with all our heart, and to just such a person as the Philippian Jailor was, we would give precisely the same answer, and enforce it by speaking unto him the word of the Lord as did Paul and Silas.

TO THE DISCIPLES OF JESUS CHRIST SCATTERED THROUGHOUT THE CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, GREETING.

Dear Brethren: Many of the churches of Jesus Christ, and brethren of Middle Tennessee being assembled together with the church at Leiper’s Fork, Williamson county, Tenn., for the purpose of consulting with reference to the good of our Master’s cause, the growth and well-being of the Church of Christ—of matters pertaining to their own growth in grace and in the knowledge of the truth and the salvation of the world, deem it good, through our committee, to address to you, in these times of deep distress, words of hope and encouragement.

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and to seek of you sympathy and co-operation in the great work of maintaining our own faith pure and of carrying forward the work of converting the world. We are in the midst of difficulties that perplex, temptations that have a tendency to draw us away from Christ, and dangers that are constantly diverting our attention from the duties and obligations that the Divine Father has imposed upon us.

Brethren, the difficulties by which we are surrounded—the temptations which beset us on every hand—the trials we are called upon to endure—the realization of the uncertainty of all human affairs should but lead us closer to the bosom of the Savior. When we, in the darkness and confusion that surround us, feel our own incompetency to walk aright, or to discern the leadings of Providence, we should humble ourselves at the feet of Jesus and learn wisdom and guidance from him. When we are weak and are subjected to sore trials, and we know not where deliverance and safety may be found—when dark, angry clouds hang upon our horizon, and gloomy, threatening dangers hedge the pathway of life—we should humble ourselves in the dust of humility before our God—that He may lift us up—may bless and protect us—that He may make us Kings and Priests at his right hand forever. We should strive to realize that the sure strength of the Israel of God is the Omnipotent arm of Jehovah.

Brethren, it is always a high Christian privilege to be permitted to counsel, exhort, admonish and encourage each other. An hundredfold should it be esteemed such in these times of discord, division and strife, to be permitted, as members of the one undivided and indivisible church of the living God, brethren and sisters of the same family, one household of faith, to commune together, counsel and exhort each other. When we are feeling so sensibly the weakness and instability of human governments—the inadequacy of earthly kingdoms to secure permanent good and enduring happiness here—to the denial of earth-tired, soul-sick, worn and scar-seamed with the unceasing strife and ever varying conflicts of life, it is sweet to be enabled to look with hope to the rest that remaineth to the people of God, and to be settled to point our fellow-men to an ark of safety that can securely ride the sea of fire, then rest on Zion’s Hill to a “kingdom which cannot be moved;” “that shall never be destroyed;” “to a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God;” “to a church against which the gates of hell shall not prevail.”

Brethren, we have seen a government, which we all once delighted to honor, corrupted, perverted, broken and destroyed; a people once

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United and prosperous, now engaged in fratricidal strife; churches divided and riven; families severed; fathers armed in deadly hostility against son and son against father; our country desolated; our substance wasted; our soil drinking up the precious blood of our friends and brethren; a brother’s hand imbrued in a brother’s blood. And all these divisions and strifes and bloody animosities have come upon us as the direct result of a perverted and prostituted religious sentiment, a disrespect for the authority of God, of law, human and Divine.

To cure these evils, the source of them must be corrected; the fountain whence flow the turbid waters of strife and death must be purified. The religious sentiment of our people must be cast in Heaven’s Divine mould ere permanent peace can smile upon our blood-stained land.

From a failure upon the part of the people of our once favored land to recognize the authority of God to subject their feelings, thoughts and lives to his law as their guide on the one hand, and from having given themselves up to a false guide, a higher-law, a monitor within, an inner consciousness of right, they have blended with their sectional prejudices and party strifes the fervor and zeal of religion, and the sad conflict in which our people are now engaged is threatening soon to assume the dark and dire hues of war waged by the fierce fury of religious fanaticism.

Let the darkest and bloodiest page in the book of time tell what this means.

A proper sense then of moral and religious obligation and duty, a respect for the institutions and government of God, constitute the only sure and solid basis of permanence and stability to society or government.

The first duty then that we owe to God is to recognize his authority, and to induce others to acknowledge his right to rule over them. Our duty to our fellow-man is to point him to this as the true and only source of all good to man. Our highest and holiest obligations to the government under which we live, now but in its infancy, that it may run prosperously the race of empire, that it may be stable and enduring, that it may guarantee to us and to its subjects peace and security, is to give to it as a substratum, upon which to rest its foundations, integrity and virtue, inspired by a solemn sense of responsibility to God.

Without this, brethren, the present difficulties settled we will soon be again in confusion. God has indelibly written, both in his controversies with the nations of the earth, and by his Spirit in his holy word of truth, that “the nation and kingdom that will not serve him shall perish.” Then our duties to God, to ourselves, to our associates, to our country, to the world of mankind at large, unite in ap…

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pealing to us in one long and loud tone, “exalt the name of Jesus the Christ, assert fully his right to rule the world, spread His kingdom, lengthen its cords, and strengthen its stakes—be humble, be vigilant, be earnest, be prayerful, be instant in season and out of season, that God may bless us as his people, and make us instrumental in blessing the world.

Brethren, the work of properly leavening our countrymen with the pure principles of Divine truth has been committed to us. Will ye prove recalcitrant to the trust, or will we, like the Apostle in olden time, feel that a dispensation is committed to us; yea, woe is me if I preach not the gospel. In order to the successful performance of this work of saving ourselves and benefiting our country and the world, unity of purpose and concert of action is essential.

Instruments are wanting which must be supplied. We are now cut off from the publication houses which have supplied us with Hymn books, means of intercourse in the papers published, and even the Word of life, the Bible itself. We are cut off from the schools, to the upbuilding of which our brethren of the South have so liberally contributed. Our access to them in the future will ever be dependent upon the uncertain and ever precarious relationships of rival political governments. Our ability to carry forward the work of God must not depend upon the ever doubtful rivalries and jealousies of the kingdoms of this world.

We must then, brethren, in no principle of rivalry or animosity toward our brethren elsewhere, but as a necessity growing out of our condition, prepare within ourselves to supply the ever-increasing demand for Hymn books for private, social, and congregational worship. We have but one periodical, a small sized monthly, for presenting the claims of the Christian religion to the public, and for general communication and intercourse among the brethren in the whole Southern Confederacy. It is entirely inadequate to meet the wants of the brotherhood and the public.

We have no schools offering sufficient advantages in which, under the influence of the Christian religion, to educate our children and the children of our friends. No Christian parent or guardian appreciating the duties he or she owes to the child or ward will or can consent to the education of a child under unpropitious or doubtful religious influences.

Will we then, brethren, be deprived of these instrumentalities for good? The school, the newspaper, the soul-inspiring song. In order then that our wants, and the wants of the public may be fully and adequately supplied, it behooves us to meet together to consult.

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With each other, that we may act in harmony and concert. We, therefore, in behalf of the churches and brethren here assembled together would kindly invite the churches and members throughout the Southern Confederacy, by delegates, to meet us in the town of Franklin, Williamson county, Tenn., on Tuesday before the first Lord’s day in May, 1862, that we consult together, that we may encourage and strengthen each other, and that we may act in harmony and concert in carrying forward the work of redeeming a world from sin and death.

E. G. SEWELL,
W. A. RODGERS,
DAVID LIPSCOMB,
Committee.

MINISTERS OF PEACE IN THE WORLD’S CONFLICTS

From our earliest acquaintance with the Sacred Oracles, we have entertained not a doubt that the Church of God is an institution not only differing widely from the civil, ecclesiastical and so termed moral organizations of the world, but that it is independent of them all, and destined finally by its superior excellence, to triumph over all the powers of earth.

Hence, we have not believed that Christians, and especially ministers of the word, are responsible for “worldly powers,” or that they could interfere with them without serious detriment in their relations to God. We had hoped that the Messengers of mercy and peace would devote themselves still to their Heavenly calling, but in this, we have been sadly disappointed.

To be sure, we could have no objection whatever to preachers laboring in either Southern or Northern army as the angels of the churches, in their heavenly missions to the frail, the sick, wounded and dying. This is the sphere of our operations, and the civilized world will never cease to approve of the labor. But, as intimated, we are pained to learn that a few preachers in the South and many in the North, have stepped from their humble profession into one entirely conformable to the world. Authentic evidence has reached us that Elder D.P. Henderson, of Louisville, Dr. L. L. Pinkerton, of Harrodsburg College, and quite a number of others in Kentucky and further North, during the Missionary Meeting at Cincinnati, in October, passed strong resolutions, approving most…

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heartily of the wholesale murder of the people South who do not choose to be governed by a sectional party North. Even a Senior in the church of Hopkinsville, Ky., has voted in the legislature not only men and money to subdue his brethren in Kentucky, by the bayonet, but to hang all who doubt the right of foreigners to rule over our people whether willing or not.

We mention these startling facts, not for the purpose of discussing their morality, or the merits of any political question, but merely to make a few enquiries.

Can these men, who so vociferously rejoiced, in their declamation, at the hundreds if not thousands of professed servants of the Prince of Peace, enlisting North to cut the throats of their Southern brethren, when the storm shall have blown over, associate with men for whose blood they are now thirsting? Can such men have the Heaven-daring affrontery to stand before intelligent people in the future to urge the claims of Him who rules by love?

Should we ever meet them in the flesh, can we fraternize with them as brethren? How can the servants of the Lord of this section ever strike hands with the men who now seek their life’s blood? We do not know how this matter appears to others, but without thorough repentance, and abundant works demonstrating it; we cannot see how we can ever regard preachers who enforce political opinions by the sword, in any other light than monsters in intention, if not in very deed. How can Christian men of the South do otherwise?

We may not understand the true spirit of Christianity, or we may be deranged, but if we have studied the Bible to any advantage and we are not mad, the world’s conflicts work out many important results. They prove that the Lord God omnipotent reigneth; they serve as fiery purifiers, separating the dross from the pure metal; they fully expose false professions, and last, but not least, they aid the disciples of the Meek and Lowly One to exhibit a love for truth and righteousness, to which all others are strangers.

T. F.

Plato said, “That only sure prospect of deliverance from the evils of life, will be, the Divine providence shall so order in, that the legal power, invested in the prince who has the sentiments of a philosopher shall render virtue triumphant over vice.”

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WHO IS THE MAN OF SIN?

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People

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Government and Civil Institutions

Gathering and Understanding Prophecy

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Emblance, the Time of Their Appearance, and the Nature of Their Mission

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The Time of Their Appearance

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The Period of Its Flight

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WHAT MUST I DO TO BE SAVED?

A SERMON, BY D. F. MANIER

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What must I do to be saved?

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1. The Commission

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II.

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III.

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IV. The Record of the Philippian Jailor’s Conversion

TO THE DISCIPLES OF JESUS CHRIST SCATTERED THROUGHOUT THE CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, GREETING.

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MINISTERS OF PEACE IN THE WORLD’S CONFLICTS

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