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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of To Infidelity and Back, by Henry F. Lutz
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+Title: To Infidelity and Back
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+Author: Henry F. Lutz
+
+Release Date: February, 2005 [EBook #7495]
+[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
+[This file was first posted on May 11, 2003]
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+Edition: 10
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+Language: English
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+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TO INFIDELITY AND BACK ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Charles Franks
+
+
+
+
+TO INFIDELITY AND BACK
+
+
+To Infidelity and Back
+
+A Truth-seeker's Religious Autobiography
+
+_How I Found Christ and His Church_
+
+By
+
+EVANGELIST HENRY F. LUTZ
+
+_Author of "Economic Redemption; or, Hard Times: the Cause and Cure"
+etc._
+
+"I will bring the blind by a way that they knew not; I will lead them
+in paths that they have not known: I will make darkness light before
+them, and crooked things straight. These things will I do unto them
+and not forsake them"--Isa. 42:16.
+
+"Slight tastes of philosophy may perchance move one to atheism, but
+fuller draughts lead back to religion"--Lord Bacon
+
+CINCINNATI, OHIO
+
+1911
+
+
+
+
+DEDICATION
+
+To the sacred memory of the pioneers of the great Restoration
+Movement of the nineteenth century, who forsook the religious
+associations of a lifetime and cheerfully endured poverty,
+persecution and every hardship in their endeavor to restore Christian
+union on the primitive gospel, and who held forth a beacon-light that
+helped me to find the truth in its simplicity as it is in Christ
+Jesus.
+
+
+
+My Soul Struggle in Symbolism
+
+Upon the fly-leaf of my Bible I find the following, which was written
+shortly after I emerged from the stormy sea of heartrending agony
+through which I passed in my conflict with sectarianism, rationalism,
+infidelity and doubt. It was not written for the public, but was
+simply an effort of my soul to express in a measure, through human
+symbols, the painful experiences through which it passed. It will
+seem extravagant language to those who have never had their souls
+lacerated by doubt and despair. But the sensitive souls who have
+endured similar experiences will understand, and it is with the hope
+of reaching and helping them that it is given to the public.
+
+"A TEN YEARS' JOURNEY
+
+From the childhood land of ignorant innocence to the kingdom of
+Christ: by way of deserts of negation; mountains of assumption;
+rivers of irony, sarcasm and conceit; bays of contention; gulfs of
+liberalism; and oceans of infidelity, doubt and confusion--swept by
+undercurrents of selfish passion, tempests of blind sentiment,
+maelstroms of fear and despair; covered with black clouds of
+prejudice and preconceived ideas, dense fogs of theological
+speculation, gigantic icebergs of indifference, monstrous sharks of
+procrastination, and ruinous rocks of materialism; through the strait
+of darkness and absurdity, over the sea of twilight and joy, into the
+haven of rest.
+
+"In the ship, religion; pole-star, faith in God; rudder, free will;
+compass, conscience; sextant, rationalism and experience; anchor,
+hope; guiding chart, creeds and opinions of men vs. the Word of God;
+pilot, Jesus Christ.
+
+"Motto: Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.
+
+"Prayer: O God! thou knowest the secret desire of my heart. Thou
+knowest how earnestly I have sought the truth. God forbid that my
+life should be a barren waste; that I should so use the powers that
+thou hast given me that the world shall not be better for my having
+lived in it. Lord, grant I may ever find the work that thou wouldst
+have me do. 'Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my
+thoughts, and see if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in
+the way everlasting. Amen."
+
+This, in substance, was my daily prayer for ten long, dreary years;
+for, while my intellect was in doubt and confusion, my heart
+continued to cling to God.
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION
+
+One of the clearest expounders of the Scriptures in my acquaintance
+is the author of this book, who honors me in asking that I write
+these few lines of introduction. His experience is full of interest.
+I have listened night after night with profit to his sermons, and he
+has dug his way in the most painstaking fashion out of the darkness
+of unfaith into the beauty and strength of faith in the Lord Jesus
+Christ.
+
+There is no institution like the church of God, for it is founded
+upon the divine Sonship of Jesus, and his Holy Spirit has given to it
+divine life, so that Isaiah's prophecy lights up the pathway of
+victory, when it is said: "He will not fail nor be discouraged, till
+he have set justice in the earth, and the isles shall wait for his
+law." Its right to advance has been disputed, and, at times in its
+long history, it appears to have stood timidly doubting its power and
+right to soul conquest, but this has only been apparent, for every
+century has brought with it a greater courage, so that in this day
+believers in Jesus are speaking in the language of every nation on
+the earth, and hosts of these are as ready to lay down their lives
+for their faith in Jesus as did Stephen and James and Paul and that
+host of martyrs whose willing sacrifices gave strength and solidarity
+to the early church.
+
+The ordinances have naturally suffered at the hands of every
+invasion, and, in consequence, some of the most devout have not been
+able to find the path to the ordinances as practiced in the apostolic
+days, but the skies are brightening, and, without questioning for a
+moment the sincerity and devotion of those who think otherwise, the
+Scriptures are being read to-day with more freedom than at any other
+period in the history of the church, and its ordinances are gradually
+coming to light in the public mind. God has been patient with us and
+we must be patient with those who do not think as we do. One of the
+most important problems now facing us, however, is that all believers
+shall find a common way for entrance into the church. When that has
+been done, a long step will have been taken towards world-wide
+evangelization.
+
+The fields are already white unto harvest. This is the day of
+opportunity. Christ is waiting on us. If the time was short, like a
+furled sail, in Paul's day, how much shorter is it in our day! The
+gospel has been sent to all nations, and God is sending men from all
+nations to America to hear the gospel, so that the lines are crossing
+and recrossing each other and are so many prophecies of the
+fulfillment of the commission of Jesus, when he said: "All authority
+hath been given unto me in heaven and on earth. Go ye therefore, and
+make disciples of all nations, baptizing them into the name of the
+Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit; teaching them to
+observe all things whatsoever I commanded you; and lo, I am with you
+always, even unto the end of the world."
+
+Deciding for Christ and being baptized into him is only a small part
+of the work that is to be done. Then begins their training into real
+discipleship, when they are to produce the fruit of the Spirit, which
+is "love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness,
+faithfulness, meekness, self-control."
+
+This book is a contribution to that end, and may those who read its
+pages be brought to yield their best to the glory of Him who is our
+all.
+
+Baltimore, Md. Peter Ainslie.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+This book contains my religious experience in a forty years' sojourn
+on earth. If any doubt the propriety and value of relating one's
+religious experience, I would refer them to the case of Paul, who
+used this method on a number of occasions. However, we should be
+careful not to make an improper use of this method and preach our
+experiences in place of the gospel. Paul says: "We preach not
+ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for
+Jesus' sake" (2 Cor. 4:5). We should refer to our experiences simply
+to help deliver people from human error and center their attention on
+the gospel of Christ, which alone is the power of God unto salvation.
+
+I do not take any great credit to myself for my experiences recorded
+in this book, realizing that they were largely the result of my
+inherited proclivities and religious environment. It must be admitted
+that the great mass of mankind are what they are in religion,
+politics, etc., by heredity and environment. This is powerfully
+impressed upon us by the ministers who give their experience in "Why
+I Am What I Am." Even the fact that it is natural for me to seek to
+know what is right for myself, I attribute more largely to my natural
+hereditary mental bent, than to any particular merit of my own. I
+trust this book will help us all to realize the danger of drifting
+with traditionary religion, and thus defeating the revealed truth of
+Jesus Christ, and the need of searching the truth for ourselves that
+thus we may be used of God to advance his kingdom of unity and truth.
+Christian civilization would make much more rapid strides if we all
+would struggle to find the truth instead of acquiring our ideas
+through the colored glasses of prejudice and ignorance.
+
+My ancestry on mother's side were German Reformed and on father's
+side Lutheran. While a boy I lived for three years with Mennonites
+and attended their church. I attended a Moravian Sunday-school, was
+taught by a Presbyterian Sunday-school teacher, educated at a
+Unitarian theological school, graduated from a Christian college and
+a Congregational theological seminary, and took postgraduate work at
+a United Presbyterian university. I was born and raised in
+southeastern Pennsylvania, which may be called "The Cradle of
+Religious Liberty" in America. For while the colonies to the north
+and south persecuted people on account of their religious opinions,
+Penn opened his settlement to all the religiously persecuted in
+America and Europe. As a result Pennsylvania became a great sectarian
+stronghold. To-day some twenty denominations have either their
+national headquarters or leading national center in southeastern
+Pennsylvania. The reader can readily see how my contact with this
+Babel of sectarianism affected my religious life and experience.
+
+There are some things that seem too sacred to drag before the public.
+For years I said very little in my public ministry about my
+experience with doubt. While, as city evangelist of Greater
+Pittsburg, I was assisting a minister in a revival, he learned
+incidentally of my experience with infidelity; and as there were a
+number of skeptics in the community, he urged me to preach on the
+subject. The message seemed to do much good to the large audience
+that heard it. Since then it has been repeated a number of times, and
+the largest auditoriums have not been able to hold the people who
+were eager to hear it. This demonstrates that the message supplies a
+great need, and has encouraged me to prepare this book for the
+public. The Christian Temple in Baltimore was packed with people, and
+on account of the jam the doors were ordered closed by the policeman
+in charge half an hour before time for the service. At Portsmouth,
+Va., twenty-five hundred were crowded into a skating-rink, and many
+failed to get admittance. At Halifax, Can., hundreds were turned
+away. But this has been the experience wherever the sermon has been
+thoroughly advertised. To illustrate this, I quote from the
+Harrisonburg (Va.) papers of Jan. 9, 1911, where the sermon was
+delivered the night before in Assembly Hall, the largest auditorium
+in the city. About sixteen hundred people were jammed in the hall and
+many crowded out. It was the largest audience that ever assembled in
+that city for a religious service.
+
+"Evangelist Lutz says that on every occasion on which he has
+delivered his address on 'My Conversion from Infidelity,' no matter
+how large the hall may have been, people have turned away for lack of
+room. Last night's attendance at Assembly Hall maintained the record.
+Presumably the hall has never been more closely packed. Seats, stage,
+box, aisles, windows, doorways, were filled, and many found place in
+the flies of the theater. A number couldn't find places anywhere and
+went away. Mr. Lutz is a fine example of evangelist. He has a
+magnetic personality and a strong, oratorical way of talking, fluent
+in speech and filled with figurative language and the phrases of his
+profession."--_Harrisonburg Daily Times._
+
+"Evangelist H. F. Lutz spoke last night at Assembly Hall on 'The
+Story of My Conversion from Infidelity.' The audience showed close
+attention and earnestness. Many were turned away because of the
+crowded condition of the hall. Many people from the near-town
+sections came to attend the service."--_Harrisonburg Daily News._
+
+I trust that my bitter experience with rationalism, infidelity and
+doubt will help to reveal their true nature and thus keep many young
+men from these dangerous rocks, and will help to deliver many others
+from this terrible bondage. May the Father graciously bless my humble
+efforts to win souls to Christ and to help bring about Christian
+union on the primitive gospel in order to the Christian conquest of
+the whole world.    Henry F. Lutz.
+
+Millersville, Pa., March 28, 1911.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+Dedication
+Soul's Struggle in Symbolism
+Introduction by Peter Ainslie
+Author's Preface
+
+
+PART I.--TO INFIDELITY AND BACK.
+
+Chapter I.--To Infidelity and Back
+Chapter II.--Parting Message to Unitarian School
+Chapter III.--Functions and Limitations of the Mind
+Chapter IV.--Looking Through Colored Glasses
+
+
+PART II.--FROM SECTARIANISM TO PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY.
+
+Chapter I.--Scriptural Baptism
+Chapter II.--The New Testament Church
+Chapter III.--The Church Since the Apostles
+Chapter IV.--Our Neglected Fields
+
+
+
+
+
+
+PART I.
+
+TO INFIDELITY AND BACK
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+To INFIDELITY AND BACK.
+
+
+_To Christ by Way of Rationalism, Unitarianism and Infidelity._
+
+I inherited on the one hand a strong religious nature, and on the
+other a tendency to be independent in thought and to question
+everything before adopting it as a part of my belief. Ever since I
+can remember I was a praying boy, and early in life there came to me
+the desire to devote myself to the ministry of the gospel.
+
+Among my earliest religious impressions were those received by having
+the story of the Patriarchs and Jesus read to me in German by a
+saintly old Mennonite for whom I worked on the farm for a year. Among
+the first things that aroused my reason in religion was the
+declaration of my Sunday-school teacher that before we are born we
+are predestined by God either to go to heaven or to hell, and that
+anything we might do would not alter our eternal destiny. This
+declaration came like a thunderbolt into my religious life, and
+stirred up a violent agitation from which it took me ten years to
+fully deliver myself. I was now about fourteen years old, and already
+had a desire to measure everything in the crucible of logic or cause
+and effect, and to accept nothing which did not come within the range
+of my reason. Looking at things from the standpoint of cause and
+effect, I was naturally caught in the meshes of fatalism, and this
+aggravated the religious agitation above referred to.
+
+At this time in my life there arose many religious questions, and the
+answers I received from religious teachers tended to drive me away
+from the church rather than to it. I feel to-day that if my case had
+been clearly understood and the nature and the limits of the finite
+mind had been patiently pointed out to me, in its relation to faith
+and revelation, I could have been saved years of agony on the sea of
+rationalism. But my questions were not answered and my honest doubts
+were rebuked, so that I was naturally driven out of sympathy with the
+church and Bible, since I judged that my doubts could not be
+satisfied because religion itself is unreasonable.
+
+Through the kindness of Christian people the way opened to prepare
+myself for the ministry. But by this time many religious doubts and
+perplexities were in the way, and I decided that I would a thousand
+times rather be an honest doubter out of the church and ministry than
+a hypocrite in it. Thus my fond hope of entering the ministry had to
+be given up, and instead I determined to use the teaching profession
+as a stepping-stone to law, and law as a means of serving humanity.
+
+I was very fond of study, and read scores of books on all kinds of
+subjects. Emerson was my favorite, and I procured and read his
+complete works. Gibbon and Macaulay were eagerly read as revealing
+some of the religious life of the world. Ingersoll, with many others,
+got his turn. But the book that produced the greatest effect on my
+life at this time was Fleetwood's "Life of Christ," with a short
+history of the different religious bodies of the world attached.
+Through my reading and observations I became greatly perplexed over
+the religious divisions of the world. I discovered that thousands of
+people had died as martyrs for all kinds of religions and sects, and
+that each claimed to have the truth and to teach the right way to
+heaven. I concluded that since they teach such contradictory
+doctrines they cannot possibly all be right, although they might all
+be wrong. I formed a desire to make a thorough study of all the
+different religious bodies of the world, to find out where the truth
+is, if there is any in religion. My first information along this line
+was obtained in the above-named history of the religious bodies of
+the world. Being of a rationalistic turn of mind, I was naturally
+very favorably impressed with Unitarianism and its teaching. I sent
+for a number of their works and read them with great interest. I
+learned many things that have been a benediction to my life ever
+since, but you will see later on how far it satisfied my
+rationalistic proclivities. I learned to my delight that I could
+enter a Unitarian theological school to prepare for the ministry
+without first joining a church or signing a creed. For a person in my
+state of mind nothing better could have presented itself. I
+determined to go there and make a thorough study of the Bible and all
+the different religious bodies, and to fearlessly follow the truth
+wherever it might lead me.
+
+The time came and I entered the school. And a fine school it was from
+an intellectual standpoint and for the purpose of investigation. I
+have been a student at six educational institutions since I left the
+high school, but this was far ahead of the others for the development
+of the logical and philosophical faculties. Here there was absolutely
+no restraint to thought; and all kinds of systems and ideas were
+represented, from philosophical anarchy to socialism and from
+mysticism to materialism. The moral and spiritual earnestness I
+expected to find among the Unitarians I did not find, especially
+among the younger and more radical ones. Its effect, on the whole,
+was to relax rather than intensify the moral fiber. Their ideals
+seemed so grand and noble that I thought those possessed with them
+could scarcely find time to eat and sleep in their zeal to put them
+into practise; but I discovered that they not only had plenty of time
+to eat and sleep, but also for dancing, card-playing, theater-going,
+etc. Many of the young men studying for the ministry often spent a
+large part of the night in card-playing, and the Sunday-school room
+served also as a dancing-floor. Unitarians pride themselves upon the
+high standard of morality among their people and upon the few
+prisoners you find among their members, but this is due to the
+character of the people they reach rather than to the restraining
+influence of their teaching
+
+My reading had given me a wrong impression as to the teaching of
+Unitarianism. Like many others, I was fascinated and enticed by the
+writings of conservative Unitarians, whose contention is largely
+against the bad theology of human creeds; but the present-day
+teaching of the vanguard of Unitarianism is an entirely different
+thing. It rejects all the miraculous in the Bible, and, in many
+cases, even denies the existence of a personal God. All the students
+were required to conduct chapel prayers in turn. Those who did not
+believe in a personal God explained that they were pronouncing an
+apostrophe to the great impersonal and unknowable force working in
+the universe. I had read Channing, Clark, Hale, Emerson, and other
+conservative Unitarians, and found much food for my soul, but I
+discovered that these were considered old "fogies" and back numbers
+by most of the students in attendance.
+
+But I must tell you of my evolution along the line of rationalism. My
+rationalistic proclivities were given a free rein. And as a child,
+when left to run away, will soon stop and return to its mother, so
+this freedom was the natural cure for my intellectual delusion. To
+the statement of the creeds, "The Father is God, and the Son is God,
+and the Holy Ghost is God; and yet there are not three Gods, but one
+God," my rationalism replied, that is logically inconceivable,
+therefore I became a Unitarian. No sooner was I happy in this faith
+than a Universalist addressed me and said, "If you want to be
+rational, you must give up your belief in eternal punishment, for God
+could not give eternal punishment for a finite sin." As a
+rationalist, what could I do but yield, and so I became a
+universalist Unitarian. I felt I had at last found the truth, but my
+peace was short; for a student accused me of being irrational,
+"because," said he, "an omnipotent, loving God would give an
+infinitely large amount of good and an infinitely small amount of
+evil; but an infinitely small amount of evil is not perceptible, evil
+is perceptible, therefore there is no such God." This was an awful
+pill and gave a terrible shock to my religious sensibilities, but as
+rationalism was my guide, I had to follow on or stand accused as a
+superstitious coward.
+
+Again rationalism declared, through my teachers, that all the
+supernatural must be eliminated from the Bible as mythical and
+unreliable, and so I was robbed of my Christ, my God and my Bible.
+Misguided by rationalism, I thought it my conscientious duty to
+accept, step by step, the dictates of destructive criticism until the
+Bible was only inspired to me in religion as Kant in philosophy,
+Milton in poetry, and Beethoven in music. But when I came to the end
+of the matter I discovered that my conscience, which had urged me
+along, was gone also. For I was gravely taught that conscience is
+merely a creature of experience and education, and that it is right
+to lie or do anything else so long as you do it out of love.
+Doubtless you have all heard of the farmer and his wife at the
+World's Fair who went to see the "Exit." There was nothing in it, and
+of course they had to pay to get in again. This was my bitter
+experience with rationalism. I thought I was following a great light,
+but I discovered there was nothing in it, that I was following an
+_ignis fatuus_. Rationalism has indeed proven the "Exit" to
+multitudes, from the peace, joy and moral security that accompany
+faith in evangelical Christianity into the desert of doubt, darkness
+and despair.
+
+But not even here did I find a staying-place. For rationalism, in its
+bold confidence, led me on and on until it brought me to materialism
+and absurdity. In going too far, it revealed its true nature and
+character, and thus led me to see its fallacy and enabled me to get
+free from its bondage. From atheism it led me to fatalism, and
+declared that there is no free will and consequently people are not
+to blame for their sins and shortcomings. If we "shall reap as we
+sow," it declared that we cannot give anything to anybody and
+therefore philanthropy is a delusion.
+
+But I taught rationalism in guile one day by which it thoroughly
+exhibited the absurdity of its teaching. Its continual song was, "You
+dare not believe what you cannot conceive to be true." So it declared
+one day, in its bold folly, that an object cannot move in the space
+in which it is, nor in the space in which it is not; therefore you
+cannot conceive of an object moving; therefore you cannot move to
+walk, eat or live. So the conclusion to which my rationalistic guide
+finally led me was that I must sit down and die or be irrational.
+Well, this was too much for me. I refused to die, and concluded that
+rationalism is not a safe guide, and commenced to investigate as to
+where the difficulty lay.
+
+But before I tell you how I discovered the false tricks of
+rationalism, let me say that all these things into which rationalism
+led me were against my strong religious nature, and gave me continual
+and excruciating pain. I never for a day ceased to pray to God for
+help; for while my intellect was held in doubt through the bondage of
+rationalism, my heart held on to God, and thus I was in a mighty
+conflict. In my despair I cried unto God, and when he had
+accomplished his purpose concerning me, he set me free. Blessed be
+his name! Surely "he bringeth the blind by a way that they knew not,
+and leads them into paths that they have not known. He makes darkness
+light before them, and crooked things straight, and does not utterly
+forsake the honest in heart."
+
+Most people have come to their religious and political position by
+heredity and are held there by inertia. If you can set a person free
+from this hereditary inertia, you can convert him to almost anything
+at will; for it is but few who are sufficiently informed on any
+subject to defend it against an expert, and none are thus qualified
+on all subjects. So when I entered this school, free from all
+hereditary ideas, determined to accept every position that I could
+not refute in argument, you can imagine my experience. At first I was
+converted from one thing to another by the different students and
+professors until I was about all the "arians," "isms," and "ists"
+ever heard of, together with a number of other things for which they
+have no names as yet.
+
+But how did I discover the fallacy of rationalism? and how was I
+delivered from its mighty clutches by which it had dragged me from
+one pitfall to another so ruthlessly? My deliverance came from a
+source where you would perhaps least expect it. It was through the
+study of John Stuart Mill's "System of Logic." In it I learned "that
+inconceivability is not a criterion of impossibility," as rationalism
+claims. On the other hand, that we know things to be true that are
+just as inconceivable as that there can be two mountains without a
+valley between.
+
+Let me introduce a few of these contradictions or inconceivabilities.
+Before you can reach your mouth with your hand, you must go over half
+the distance, then half of the rest, then half of the rest, and so on
+_ad infinitum._ But you cannot make the infinite number of divisions,
+and therefore you cannot reach your lips. Again, you cannot conceive
+of extension of space or time without a limit, nor can you conceive
+of a limit to space or time. Here conceivability contradicts itself.
+Furthermore, you cannot conceive of existence without a cause, nor of
+a cause without existence. To the statement of the believer that, "as
+the wonderful mechanism of the watch presumes a designer, so the
+infinitely more wonderful mechanism of the universe presumes God, the
+infinite designer," Ingersoll replied that this is simply to jump
+over the difficulty by an infinite assumption. Ingersoll, on the
+other hand, claimed that the material universe has always existed;
+apparently unaware that he thus was guilty of the same fallacy of
+which he accused others, by _assuming_ infinite existence without a
+cause. The difference is that the believer's assumption gives us a
+personal God, a kind, loving heavenly Father who provides for the
+eternal bliss and welfare of his children, while Ingersoll's
+assumption gives death and darkness and despair.
+
+An object thrown from one point to another is always at some point,
+therefore it has no time to move from one point to another. And yet
+we know that it does move, even though we cannot conceive how it can
+do so. Again, suppose that the hour-hand of your clock is at eleven
+and the minute-hand at twelve. Now, you cannot conceive how the
+minute-hand can overtake the hour-hand, although you know by
+observation that it does overtake it. For by the time the minute-hand
+gets to eleven, the hour-hand has passed on to twelve, and by the
+time the minute-hand has reached twelve, the hour-hand has passed
+beyond it. Every time the minute-hand comes to where the hour-hand
+now is, the hour-hand has passed beyond. The distance becomes less
+and less, but theoretically, or in conceivability, the one can never
+overtake the other.
+
+Through this line of reasoning I learned, clearly and once for all,
+that _inconceivability is not a proof of impossibility;_ but, on the
+other hand, that we know many things to be true that are not
+conceivable to the finite mind, and therefore we must follow truth
+learned by experience and observation, irrespective of rationalism.
+In this way the mighty fetters of rationalism that held me in bondage
+were cut and I was set free to search for the truth as it is in Jesus
+Christ. I learned the limitations of the finite intellect and the
+truth of God's word when he says: "For my thoughts are not your
+thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the
+heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your
+ways and my thoughts than your thoughts." "Hath not God made foolish
+the wisdom of this world? For after that in the wisdom of God the
+world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of
+preaching to save them that believe."
+
+After the empirical school of philosophy had taught me that we must
+follow inductions based on experience and observation rather than
+rationalism or conceivability, I began to value Paul's admonition,
+"Prove all things, hold fast to that which is good." If inductive
+philosophers have often been opposed to religion and the Bible, it is
+because they have not carried their inductions far enough to cover
+the entire world of facts. It is admitted by all historians and
+observers that prayer and faith and religious convictions have been
+among the mightiest forces at work in the world, and any system of
+reasoning that does not take these facts into consideration is
+neither philosophical nor scientific.
+
+To illustrate what is meant by saying that we must follow experience
+rather than conceivability, let us suppose that you are suffering
+from a malignant disease and you hear of a medicine that has cured
+this disease whenever it has been tried, and you know of nothing else
+that will cure it. Would it not be foolish for you to refuse to use
+the medicine because you cannot conceive how it produces the cure? It
+might be discovered later that it was not the medicine, but your
+belief in its curative qualities, that produced the result. But this
+would not affect your common-sense duty in the matter. If certain
+desirable results follow the doing of a certain thing, we are bound
+to do that thing until we know how to get the good results without
+doing it.
+
+This reveals the folly and inhumanity of the conduct of some infidels
+towards religious people. When I was minister of a church in Ohio, I
+was visited by a noted infidel. After he went on in a tirade against
+preachers and Christians, I asked him if he was not an unhappy man.
+At first he denied it; but I called his attention to some of his
+utterances, and he soon admitted that he was a very unhappy man. But
+he said he was unhappy because he knew too much, and claimed that
+Christians were so happy because they were ignorant and deluded. He
+claimed to be a great lover of humanity, and although, according to
+his profession, he had no God or conscience or judgment to require it
+of him, he spent his time in spreading the knowledge and wisdom which
+made people unhappy by destroying that which he admitted gave people
+great joy and peace and happiness. Suppose a man should come to town
+who is as lean as a skeleton and is slowly dying because he is not
+getting enough nourishment out of the food he eats, and should begin
+to lecture well-nourished and healthy people for eating the food they
+are eating. Would we not put him down as a fool? Well, if he would
+add the claim that we are well fed because we are ignorant and
+deluded, while he is suffering and dying because he knows too much on
+the food question, he would be on a par with many of our infidelic
+friends.
+
+It is said that Beecher and Ingersoll were both present at a banquet
+in New York City. Ingersoll brought a railing accusation against
+Christianity. Everybody expected Beecher to reply, but he held his
+peace until later in the evening, when it became his turn to speak.
+When Beecher arose he said: "When I came to this hall to-night I saw
+an old, crippled woman wending her way across the crowded street on
+crutches. When she had reached about midway, a burly ruffian came
+along and knocked the crutches out from under her, and she fell
+splash into the mud." Turning to Ingersoll, he said, "What do you
+think of that, Colonel?" "The villain!" replied Ingersoll. Beecher,
+pointing to Ingersoll, said: "Thou art the man! Suffering, heart-
+broken, dying humanity is wending its way through this world of
+sorrow and turmoil on the crutches of Christianity. You, sir, come
+along and knock them out from under them, but offer nothing in their
+place." It was a crushing blow to Ingersoll and his gospel of
+despair.
+
+We do not understand how spirit and matter can be inter-related, and
+we can not conceive that our willing it can move our arm; but this
+does not deter us from moving, because we know through experience
+that we can move. We do not understand the philosophy of digestion,
+and we cannot conceive how bread and butter can have any relation to
+thought and life; but we know by experience that they do, and we go
+on eating and living. We cannot conceive how the same grass produces
+lamb, pork and beef; but we keep on raising stock just the same,
+because we are guided by facts learned by experience and observation
+rather than by conceivability. We do reach our mouth, the minute-hand
+does overtake the hour-hand, objects do move in space, etc.,
+rationalism and inconceivability to the contrary notwithstanding.
+
+Man is a religious being, and we know by experience that religion
+gives him joy and brings him good. If we had no revealed religion,
+science and duty would compel us to develop a religious system out of
+our religious experiences. This is what has actually been done by the
+different peoples of the earth who know not the revelation of God in
+the Bible. The secret of the hold that even a false religion has upon
+people is the fact that it does them good and gives them happiness by
+exercising the pious emotions of their being, even though it may
+bring them harm in other ways. Even a religion based on human
+experience is better than none; for it is better to feed the
+religious nature on husks than to starve it out altogether. To this
+agree the words of Paul when he says that God "made of one blood all
+nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth... that they
+should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find
+him." But while man, unaided by direct revelation, can grope in the
+dark and feel after God, and can invent systems of religion based on
+experience that are better than none, any man that accepts facts and
+testimony will soon discover that God has not thus left us in the
+dark oil religious matters, but has "appointed a day in which he will
+judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he has ordained,
+whereof he has given assurance unto all men, in that he has raised
+him from the dead."
+
+It is said that a lawyer and a noted preacher, who was a lecturer,
+happened to meet at a hotel breakfast-table. The lawyer suspected
+that his companion was a preacher, and, as he was an infidel, he
+thought he had a good opportunity to give a thrust at the Bible.
+
+"Excuse me," said the lawyer, "I take it from your appearance that
+you are a preacher."
+
+"Yes, sir," said the preacher.
+
+"Well, now," said the lawyer, "don't you find a great many
+contradictions and difficulties you cannot understand in the Bible?"
+
+"Yes, sir," replied the preacher.
+
+"How, then," said the lawyer, "can you continue to believe in it?"
+
+"Why," said the preacher, "do you see what I am doing with the bones
+of this fish? I lay them aside and enjoy the good of the fish. So
+with the Bible. I lay aside the things I cannot understand, and feast
+upon the rich spiritual food it contains, willing to wait until all
+mysteries shall be removed hereafter."
+
+If the finite mind could understand everything contained in the
+Bible, it would become worthless as a revelation, for the finite mind
+could produce it. But since it reveals the infinite mind, we must
+expect it to contain things that the finite mind cannot understand.
+We can understand the evidence that it is from God and for our good,
+and it is reasonable that we should accept its great truths by faith,
+although we may not now be able to see how all the truths it reveals
+are consistent with each other. "Let us hear the conclusion of the
+whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the
+whole duty of man."
+
+As has often been said, no one can do better than to live the pure,
+clean, benevolent life that Jesus inculcated and incarnated. If you
+imitate him in goodness and good deeds, you are pursuing the best
+possible course, even if the Bible is not true. If, on the other
+hand, the Bible is true, and you do not live for Christ, you are
+doomed for ever and ever.
+
+Having been delivered from the bondage of rationalism, I found my way
+back to Christ with comparative ease. If experience and facts are our
+ultimate guides, then we must trust the testimony of history. With
+the help of the _Bi-Millennial Telescope on the opposite page_, and
+limitless similar testimony, we can trace the existence of the Bible
+clear to the days of the Apostles. None ever had better means of
+knowing the facts they bore witness to than the Apostles, and none
+ever gave stronger proof that they sincerely told the truth as they
+knew it. The Gospels being genuine and reliable, the life and words
+and miracles of Jesus they narrate, give sufficient proof of the
+divinity of Christ to satisfy every reasonable demand of the
+intellect. This is especially true concerning the resurrection of
+Christ, on which the proof of Christianity hinges. "He showed himself
+alive after his passion by many infallible proofs." And if he arose
+from the dead, he was demonstrated by it to be the Son of God. And if
+he is the Son of God, then the Bible is the Word of God, for he has
+endorsed it all. Thus there were restored to me Christ, God and his
+Word of truth. The thing that robbed me of these was rationalism, but
+it had been proven false and therefore was ruled out of court.
+
+Unitarians used to tell me that Christ was the Son of God, but we all
+are sons of God. I now saw that Christ was _the_ Son of God in the
+special and peculiar sense in which he claimed, or he was a fool.
+When he was on trial he was asked upon oath whether he was the Son of
+God or not, and he answered "Yes" when it cost his life to do so. If
+he meant that he was the son of God in the same sense in which we
+are, all he would have had to do was to explain and he could have
+saved his life.
+
+The proof that Christianity is from God as revealed in its effect
+upon the life of individuals, communities and nations, is so apparent
+and has been pointed out so often that I will give it but a passing
+notice. "If any man willeth to do his will, he shall know of the
+teaching, whether it is of God, or whether I speak from myself," was
+Christ's challenge, and millions have verified it in their own
+religious experience. Nearly all the voluntary educational and
+philanthropic institutions of the world are supported by Christian
+people, and the nations of the earth are prosperous, enlightened and
+influential in the exact proportion as their people are intelligent
+and consecrated followers of the lowly Nazarene.
+
+It was thus that I found my way back to Christ as my Lord and
+Saviour, and I never before fully appreciated the words of Jesus,
+"Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give
+you rest." The truth dawned upon me gradually, but with irresistible
+force. How often have we been perplexed and in doubt on some great
+question of truth or duty until finally the solution came to us as if
+by magic. Through what the psychologists call subconscious
+cerebration our mind has been working at the great problem even when
+our conscious attention was given to other matters. I have had a
+number of such experiences before and since, and, had I not examined
+them critically, I might easily have been led to believe they were
+direct revelations from heaven.
+
+For many months the great question had been occupying my mind by day
+and by night. Finally the solution came as clear as a revelation from
+God. It wakened me in the still of the night and ravished my soul
+with peace and joy unspeakable. I arose and took a walk into the
+country to a mountain spring and back. I shall never forget that
+night, and the ecstatic joy it brought to me. My religious nature had
+been outraged so long that when it was set free it returned to its
+Lord with a violent bound. The fittest words I could find to express
+my feelings are in the 103d Psalm: "Bless the Lord, O my soul; and
+all that is within me, bless his holy name."
+
+The question as to what church I should join, or what religious body
+I should affiliate with, now confronted me and demanded solution. As
+I already intimated, I was perplexed, and partly led to doubt and
+confusion by the many different religious bodies, all claiming to be
+right. One of my objects in entering this school was to make a
+thorough study of the different religious bodies and their doctrines.
+One incident that helped me in the solution of this problem was an
+occurrence in our New Testament Greek class. The professor declared
+that all Greek scholars of note are agreed that the proper meaning of
+the word "baptism" in the New Testament is _to immerse_. As I was
+raised in a pedobaptist church, this declaration was a great surprise
+to me, but I looked up the authorities and found that the professor
+had stated the facts correctly.
+
+We had a class that made a study of the character, government and
+teaching of the different religious bodies. In this study I was
+especially impressed with the polity and teaching of the people
+designated as "Disciples of Christ," or "Christians." I procured
+their literature and made a thorough study of their position. I
+naturally found myself in harmony with their teaching. I had myself
+come to see the folly of enforcing upon all believers the speculative
+theology of the creeds, and the weakness and waste that result from a
+divided church. My experience revealed to me the relative value of
+human wisdom and God's wisdom as found in his Book. The thought of
+preaching Christ rather than theology, and of restoring the apostolic
+church in its teachings, ordinances and practices, came to me as a
+godsend in my condition of mind. I was, however, very slow to act in
+this matter, as I had been deceived before and it was my desire not
+to make a mistake again. After a year's consideration and
+considerable correspondence with one of their preachers, I finally
+united with the Christian Church at New Castle, Pa. I have been
+preaching the plea for Christian union on the primitive gospel ever
+since, and the longer I preach it the more I see its beauty and
+power.
+
+Having been delivered, through the goodness of God, from this
+blinding cloud of rationalism, let us take a backward look at it and
+its chief product--Unitarianism--and let us see what lesson God would
+teach us through it. Unitarianism, as a church movement, started near
+the beginning of the last century. It enlisted many of the best
+hearts, brains and purses of this country. It had Harvard University
+back of it. It numbered among its followers most of the great poets,
+historians and prose writers of our country. It has flooded the
+country with free literature, and has furnished to thousands of
+ministers its standard works without money and without price. No
+movement ever seemed to have such mighty agencies back of it to
+insure its rapid spread. And yet, after a century of effort, what do
+we see as the result? Only a few hundred churches, most of which are
+numerically weak and enlist only a certain class of people.
+
+My conviction of the depressing, devitalizing and disintegrating
+effect of Unitarianism has been intensified through my recent
+experience in evangelistic work in New England. The rationalistic
+liberalism of Unitarianism has largely permeated New England
+Protestantism. It was not an accident that it was in New England,
+where, to a large body of clergymen, a speaker declared, with
+applause, that "Protestantism is decaying and will soon be displaced
+by a new form of Catholicism." Here Protestantism is indeed decaying
+through its contact with Unitarian teaching, and is already largely
+displaced by old Catholicism and new Christian Science and other
+antichristian delusions. Nowhere else did I ever see Protestant
+churches so saturated with worldly pleasures and so indifferent about
+the salvation of souls. It was here I had the humiliating experience
+of sitting in a union Thanksgiving service where the preacher called
+the Pilgrim Fathers _religious fanatics_, and spoke of words writers
+of the Pentateuch put into the mouth of Moses to give them influence
+with the people. Yet I never saw a sign of disapproval in the
+audience or heard a word of criticism. It is true he was a
+Universalist preacher, but that makes it all the worse. To think that
+Protestantism has so degenerated in a New England city that a
+preacher who does not believe in the divinity of Christ nor in the
+inspiration of the Bible should be appointed to represent it on such
+an occasion. It is enough to make the Pilgrim Fathers turn in their
+graves and groan for pain. Had present-day Protestantism of New
+England a fraction of the moral and spiritual earnestness that the
+Pilgrim Fathers possessed, it might have been spared the abject
+humility of sprawling in weakness before the same vaunting religious
+intolerance of Catholicism that through cruel and bloody persecution
+drove the Pilgrim Fathers to "the bleak New England shore" for safety
+and religious liberty.
+
+When a prominent Catholic recently aped the Protestant clergymen by
+declaring that Protestantism is decaying, the preacher at Tremont
+Temple called it a "damnable lie." This is a hopeful sign, and
+indicates that the sick man is not dead yet. It shows that at least
+some think it is not true, or wish it not true; and if enough
+ get a strong desire that it shall not be true, it will not be true.
+When we renounce rationalism and its products it will not be true.
+
+At a meeting of one of the leading ministerial associations of New
+England, at which the writer was present, the speaker of the day
+declared that the church has been claiming too much for itself. The
+contents of the speech indicated that he had reference to its claim
+of supernatural power to transform the sinner. He also said he had
+given up the effort to reconcile the first chapters of the Bible with
+science. The significance is in the fact that some Protestants
+acquiesce in such teaching, and that they are in harmony with the
+doctrines of Unitarianism.
+
+Although its advocates must admit that Unitarianism is a monumental
+failure in organizing churches, it is their boast that it has
+powerfully affected other religious bodies. This fact we admit; but
+as the effect is devitalizing, disorganizing and ultimately
+demoralizing, we consider the result the crowning shame rather than
+the crowning glory of Unitarianism.
+
+That the liberal theology resulting from rationalism and championed
+in this country by Unitarianism is merely negative and destructive,
+is evidenced on every hand. Dr. Pearson, in the _Missionary Review_,
+has recently pointed out its fatal effects in the mission fields, and
+still more recently it has been compelled to confess its own defeat
+in Germany, where it originated and where it has found its chief
+support. The evidence of this is found in the _Literary Digest_ of
+Feb. 25, 1911, where we find the following:
+
+ That "liberal" theology has made an almost utter failure in Germany
+is asserted by one of its leading spokesmen in a liberal religious
+organ. It consists too much of mere negation, he thinks, and has no
+strong faith in anything. The masses have rejected it, and the
+educated have accepted it only in small numbers. Practically it is a
+failure, and he demands a reconstruction along new lines, with new
+ideals and new methods. This courageous liberal is Rev. Dr.
+Rittelmeyer, of Nuremberg, and he writes in the _Christliche Welt_
+(Tubingen). Here are the main points of his argument:
+
+"Let us ask honestly what results modern theology has attained
+practically. As far as the great masses of workingmen are concerned,
+practically nothing has been gained. They either do not understand it
+or they distrust it. All the public discussions and popularization of
+modern critical views have not found any echo or sympathy among the
+ranks of the laboring people.
+
+"And how about the educated classes? It has long since been the boast
+and hobby of advanced theology that it, and it alone, will satisfy
+the religious longings of the educated man who has broken with the
+traditional dogma and doctrines of orthodox Christianity. But what
+are the actual facts in the case? It is a fact that there are a
+considerable number among the educated who thankfully confess that
+they can accept Christianity only in the form in which it is taught
+by the advanced theologian. But how exceedingly small this number is!
+A periodical like the _Christliche Welt_, the only paper of its kind,
+has not been able to secure more than five thousand subscribers,
+although its contributors are the most brilliant in the land of
+scholars and thinkers; while periodicals that are exponents of the
+older views are read by tens and even hundreds of thousands. There
+are whole classes of society among the educated who are antagonistic
+to liberal tendencies in religion. Among these are the officers in
+the army and the navy, practitioners of the technical arts and of
+engineering, and almost to a man the whole world of business. It is
+foolish to close our eyes to these facts."
+
+What is the matter? asks this writer. What is the weakness of liberal
+and advanced theological thought? These are some of the answers:
+
+"One trouble is that modern theology has entirely grown out of
+criticism. Its weakness is intellectualism; it is a negative
+movement. We can understand the cry of the orthodox, that advanced
+theology is eliminating one thing after the other from our religious
+thought, and then asks, What is left? True, we answer, God is left.
+But is it not the case that the modern God-Father faith is generally
+a very weak and attenuated faith in a Providence, and nothing more?
+And on this subject, too, we quarrel among ourselves, whether a God-
+Father troubles himself about little things only or about great
+things too, such as the forgiveness of sins. We do the same thing
+with Jesus. We speak of him as of a unique personality, as the
+highest revelation of the Father, and the like, but always connected
+with a certain skeptical undercurrent of thought; but we do not
+appreciate him in his deepest soul and in the great motives of his
+life. He is not for modern theology what he is for orthodoxy, the
+Saviour of the world and the Redeemer of mankind."
+
+ Quite naturally this open confession of a pronounced liberal
+attracts more than ordinary attention. The liberal papers, including
+the _Christliche Welt_ itself, pass it by without further comment,
+but the conservatives speak out boldly. Representative of the latter
+is the _Evangelische Lutherische Kirchenzeitung_, of Leipzig, which
+says:
+
+ "The psychological and spiritual solution of Rittelmeyer's problem
+is not so hard to find. The soul of man can not live on negations. To
+stir the soul there must be positive principles and epoch-making
+historical facts, such as are offered by the Scriptural teachings of
+Christ and his words. There can be religious life only where there is
+faith in him who is the truth and the life. Liberal theology has
+failed because it has nothing to offer."
+
+
+Dr. Harnack, its great high priest, found it an unsatisfying portion,
+and, doubtless influenced by its failure, has resigned and turned his
+energies into other channels.
+
+Unitarianism appeals almost entirely to the head and but little to
+the heart. It supplies a kind of abnormal stimulant to the intellect,
+but usually freezes out the emotions. It is like the arctic regions,
+where they have six months of light, but no heat, and where
+consequently there is no growth of any kind. It is broad, but really
+superficial and shallow. It is like a piece of rubber stretched over
+a wide surface; it is wide, but it becomes very thin. Emerson seemed
+to recognize how shallow rationalism makes people when he declared
+that "a small consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds--little
+philosophers, little statesmen and little divines." The finite mind
+cannot see the consistency of the great and deep truths of life and
+God. To try to deal with these great questions with human logic is
+like manipulating a circle with a break in it. Each reasoner calls
+attention to the break in the circle of logic of others, but
+dexterously manipulates his own circle so as to hide its missing
+link.
+
+Rationalism is a delusion and a snare, and, when followed to its
+logical conclusion, leads to absurdity and death. Fortunately, most
+people who are tainted with this disease do not follow it to its
+legitimate conclusions. Through preconceived and inherited ideas and
+sentimental inertia, they are held to their moorings. But,
+unfortunately, their pupils are not always thus protected. Many
+preachers who are held in their place by religious habits and
+associations, give expression to rationalistic ideas that take
+lodgment in the minds of young men who are not surrounded with
+religious habits and associations to hold them; and who, following
+these rationalistic ideas to their logical conclusion, are led to
+doubt and confusion. I believe that hundreds of thinking young men
+have been led away from Christ and the church in this way, all
+because they and their teacher did not recognize the true character
+of rationalism and the proper functions and limitations of the finite
+intellect. Mansel gives a proper diagnosis of rationalism in the
+following words:
+
+ "The rationalist . . . assigns to some superior tribunal the right
+of determining what (in revelation) is essential to religion and what
+is not; he claims the privilege of accepting or rejecting any given
+revelation, wholly or in part, according as it does or does not
+satisfy the conditions of some higher criterion, to be supplied by
+human consciousness." Rationalism proceeds "by paring down supposed
+excrescences. Commencing with a preconceived theory of the purpose of
+a revelation, and of the form which it ought to assume, it proceeds
+to remove or reduce all that will not harmonize with this leading
+idea." "Rationalism tends to destroy revealed religion altogether, by
+obliterating the whole distinction between the human and the divine.
+If it retain any portion of revealed truth, as such, it does so, not
+in consequence, but in defiance, of its fundamental principle."
+
+But while many ministers are not much injured apparently by their
+rationalistic taint, many others are, and all are more or less.
+Eternity alone will reveal how much faith in God's Word, and
+therefore in God himself, has been weakened or destroyed by this
+dread mental disease. Look at the destructive ravages of
+rationalistic criticism of the Bible. The Unitarians have completed
+this work and have eliminated all the supernatural from the Divine
+Record. But it is the preachers in the evangelical churches who are
+following the Unitarians afar off in this matter, that are doing the
+most damage to the faith of Christ's followers. I have been there,
+and know how Unitarians look at this matter. They point to these
+evangelical preachers as an evidence that the entire religious world
+is rapidly coming to their position. On the other hand, they look at
+these preachers with pity and contempt because they do not follow the
+thing to its logical conclusion, and drop the Bible entirely as a
+supernatural revelation. And I believe the Unitarians are right in
+this. The same fundamental reasons that led the rationalistic critics
+in the evangelical churches to their present conclusions will
+inevitably and logically lead to the Unitarian conclusions, whenever
+preconceived ideas and inherited prejudices are sufficiently relaxed.
+When I first studied this question of destructive higher criticism so
+called (it is often _hire_ criticism) from the rationalistic
+standpoint and under rationalistic guides, its conclusions seemed the
+most reasonable thing on earth. I wondered that I had not seen it
+myself long before, and I looked with pity upon the deluded victims
+who did not see it. But after I was delivered from rationalism and my
+eyes were opened, I commenced to study the other side of the question
+and discovered where I was deceived.
+
+Let me give you a few samples of the reasoning of rationalistic
+criticism as exhibited by its strongest advocates. Where it says that
+Jesus walked upon the water, we were gravely informed that Jesus did
+not walk upon the water at all. It happened to be a foggy morning and
+the disciples were deceived; he was really walking on the shore.
+Where it says "one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side," we
+were informed that the Greek word here means primarily to prick as
+with a pin, to pave the way to belittle the wound of Jesus, despite
+the fact that the narrative adds, "straightway there came out blood
+and water." The purpose of this was to make way for the _theory_ that
+Christ did not die on the cross, but was simply in a lethargy, and
+when he came to in the tomb he pushed the stone away, and this so
+frightened the soldiers that they took to their heels, thinking it
+was a ghost, while Christ escaped to the mountains, where he lived
+secretly the rest of his life and finally died a natural death. All
+this without a scrap of historical basis, and despite the express
+declaration of the narrative that an expert, who was sent by Pilate
+to ascertain if he was dead, reported that he was. This is so
+contrary to the facts of the narrative, and the character of Jesus
+and his disciples, that it is harder to believe it than any miracle
+recorded in the Bible. Why these ridiculous and absurd conclusions,
+despite the historical facts? Simply because of the necessity to get
+rid of the supernatural at the mandates of rationalism. To preserve
+such puerilities, the manuscripts were kept in a fire-proof vault
+lest fire should destroy them. The claims of destructive criticism
+are so absurd and ridiculous, when looked at from a truly scientific
+standpoint, that I confine myself in this book to exposing the
+erroneous viewpoint of rationalism, believing that when that is done
+any one can easily see that there is nothing in it. Besides, its
+quibblings have been often and ably exposed by competent authors and
+their works are accessible to all. That any one who claims to believe
+the Bible should give his time to teaching innocent and uninformed
+children and adults the conclusions of rationalistic criticism seems
+almost too absurd to believe; and when it is done under the pretense
+of honoring the Bible, it is but another illustration of how our
+moral and intellectual vision can be warped and distorted when we
+look through the colored glasses of rationalism and bias.
+
+It is said that a minister kept telling his congregation that
+different parts of the Bible were myths, legends, etc., and not
+historical. One of his members cut out of her Bible every section he
+said was not true. When he made a pastoral call she showed him her
+mutilated Bible. Upon his remonstrance, she replied that he had said
+that these parts were not reliable, and so she did not want them as a
+part of her Bible. He was shocked at his own vandalism.
+
+I have shown that the same rationalistic objections that are brought
+against facts revealed in the Bible can be brought against facts
+revealed in nature. The only sensible thing to do is to recognize the
+limitations of our finite intellects and accept all well-
+authenticated facts, whether revealed in the Bible or in nature. We
+must learn that in the very nature of things our finite minds cannot
+fully grasp and comprehend the infinite. Therefore we have God's
+revelation in the Bible, which, though not the product of the human
+intellect, fully satisfies its every reasonable demand.
+
+We have also learned that man has by nature strong religious
+emotions, which, if exercised, give great joy and peace. Even
+unguided by revelation, they grope after God with the help of the
+finite intellect. These emotions are blind and were never intended to
+give us light. They are a source of great joy and power, but must be
+guided and filled by divine revelation to be properly exercised. The
+neglect of this fact has led to all kinds of mysticism and
+fanaticism. And while this is better and more helpful than cold
+rationalism, it is nevertheless an unsafe guide, and does more harm
+than good to humanity. Faithfulness compels me to say that, as
+rationalism, so mysticism has found its way into the evangelical
+churches and has done much to rob God's Word of its power and to
+divide Christ's followers into warring camps. The religion that does
+not thoroughly enlist, exercise and sanctify the human emotions is
+not worth having; but we are not to believe every spirit, but to try
+the spirits by the Word of God. Let us lay aside our "think-so's" and
+"feel-so's," and let us turn to the revelation that comes from above,
+that our intellects may be flooded with light and our emotions may be
+submerged in God's love, so that our entire being--body, mind and
+soul--may be filled, occupied and sanctified to the glory of Christ.
+
+With the Unitarian movement that started at the beginning of the last
+century, with so many human instrumentalities back of it, let us
+compare the Apostolic church which was started in the first third of
+the first century by a handful of poor, illiterate and despised
+Galileans. Although the wealth and culture and political power of the
+world were all against them, at the end of the century we are told
+that they numbered five hundred thousand.
+
+Again let us compare with Unitarianism, this modern movement for the
+restoration of primitive Christianity which started somewhat later
+than Unitarianism. Its reproach in the eyes of men--that it has no
+literature--is its glory in the eyes of God; for the Bible is its
+literature. Its work has been done chiefly among and through the
+common people. At the end of the century it numbered among its
+adherents more than a million and a quarter. While sectarian churches
+numerically much stronger report meager increases and even decreases,
+it reports an average of over forty thousand increase for the last
+several years.
+
+The experiences narrated in this chapter have made real to me the
+belief that God is in every act of our life. That through his loving
+care, "all things work together for good to them that love God." When
+I think of how, in his providence, he took me away from the community
+and religion of my early neighbors and brought me in a mysterious way
+to a religion and people I had never heard of, I am overwhelmed with
+the evidence of his hand in it.
+
+To the honest doubter I would say, take courage, my brother, the Lord
+will lead you, in his providence, to the way, the truth and the life.
+I can testify that he brings the spiritually blind by a way that they
+knew not and leads them in paths they have not known. He makes
+darkness light before them and crooked things straight, and will not
+forsake them if they continue to sincerely seek for light until he
+has accomplished his purpose concerning them and brought them to the
+feet of Jesus.
+
+To those out of Christ I will say, that I have tasted and seen that
+the Lord is good. After having tried both, I have found a hundred
+times more real pleasure in than out of Christ. And while I am yet
+tied to clay and suffer many things through the weakness of the
+flesh, so that I groan within myself and long to be entirely
+delivered from this bondage of death, yet I am filled with love,
+peace, joy and power through the earnest of the Spirit dwelling in
+me, and I serve Jesus patiently, waiting for the hope set before me,
+even the coming of our Saviour, when this corruptible, mortal body
+shall be changed into the likeness of the glorified body of Jesus,
+and I shall be with him and shall be like him. Oh, how this hope
+fills my being with love and joy unspeakable! Will you come and
+accept this salvation? In the Saviour's name, who died to purchase it
+for you, we bid you come. _Come while it is called to-day!_
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+MY PARTING MESSAGE TO THE UNITARIAN SCHOOL.
+
+
+During my third year at the Meadville Unitarian Theological School,
+after I became thoroughly convinced that the Unitarian position was
+untenable, and I had found my way back to Christ, it so happened that
+it was my turn to read a paper and to preach to the school, as the
+members of the higher classes preached before the school in turn. In
+these parting messages I frankly and sincerely presented my change of
+viewpoint, and argued against the Unitarian position as strongly as I
+could at the time. The school is open, on equal terms, to anybody
+wishing to study for the ministry, no matter what their views, or
+what religious body they belong to. Everybody is supposed to be
+perfectly free to hold and express his honest religious opinions. In
+the spirit of this generosity, I patiently listened to all the school
+could offer me in presenting what it believed to be the truth, and
+gratefully accepted every help it could give me in my search for the
+truth. I felt I was acting in entire harmony with the spirit of the
+founders of the institution when I used the knowledge and culture
+imparted to me in kindly contending for the truth as I saw it, even
+when it was against the truth as held by the teachers of the school.
+
+Most of my sermon on "The Proper Method of Inquiry in Religion" has
+been lost or mislaid. But I have the paper read before the school,
+and the last part of the sermon. I give these here because it shows
+how the matter looked to me at that time, and how I treated it in the
+presence of the keen, intellectual audience of students and
+professors.
+
+The professor of homiletics, who read and criticised all sermons
+before they were preached, rather took me to task for my bold attack
+upon Unitarianism, but he admitted to me that, although he had
+preached and taught it for more than a score of years, there were
+yearnings in his soul that it did not satisfy. The sermon was
+listened to with great respect and sympathy, especially by the more
+conservative students. About ten years later I received a letter from
+a young Unitarian minister in Massachusetts who referred to the
+sermon, and said he had never forgotten it, but was often reminded in
+his experience of how true it was, especially in what I said about
+the coldness and fruitlessness of Unitarianism.
+
+Although the matter in this paper and sermon is largely the same as
+that in the previous chapter, I present it because, as the line of
+thought is out of the ordinary and somewhat difficult to the general
+reader, its repetition in this conversational style will help to get
+a better grasp of the deadly delusions of rationalism. Truth usually
+has to be repeated in various ways before it gets a thorough hold
+upon the average mind. Therefore "precept must be upon precept,
+precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little
+and there a little" (Isa. 28:10).
+
+_A Religious Discussion Between Mr. Liberal, Mr. Orthodox and Mr.
+Freethinker_.
+
+SCENE.--Ocean of Life. STEAMBOAT.--Experience.
+
+[The three above-named persons had made each other's acquaintance,
+and had engaged in discussions with each other on several occasions.
+They now seat themselves in a group on deck and enter upon the
+following discussion.]
+
+_Mr. Liberal_--The great objection to your religion, Mr. Orthodox, is
+that it violates reason and conscience. To be more specific, let us
+consider a few instances. There is your doctrine of eternal
+punishment, in which you ascribe fiendish qualities to our dear
+heavenly Father such as the most savage human being could not be
+capable of. Then, take your doctrine of the Trinity, around which
+most of your dogmas cluster, and we see at once that it violates the
+simplest postulates of reason. I know that you will answer that these
+are all mysteries which are to be accepted on faith. But it is
+perfectly clear that there is no mystery about it. It is as clear as
+daylight that three cannot be one. You talk about mysteries which we
+must accept by faith, but all such talk is nonsense and ignores our
+sacred reason. The idea of getting over all difficulties by declaring
+them mysteries, and exhorting your opponents to leap over them by the
+exercise of faith, is truly, as some one has said, "a touchstone for
+whole classes of explanations based on no evidence." You orthodox
+people are the cause of all the infidelity that is afloat in the
+land. People come in contact with your irrational and ridiculous
+claims, and, taking them as religion itself, they throw overboard the
+whole business, the good with the bad. What we need is a pure and
+simple religion that will satisfy man's reason and conscience as well
+as his heart. And we do not have to go far for such a religion, for
+we find it in the liberal faith which it is my privilege to
+represent. Let us compare our grand, simple and rational beliefs with
+your irrational, absurd and mysterious products of the Dark Ages, and
+see what a contrast there is between them. Instead of your "Son is
+God, Father is God, Holy Spirit is God; yet there are not three Gods,
+but only one," we have the simple faith in one heavenly Father--all-
+powerful, all-wise and all-good. No mystery about it. It would be
+absurd to suppose that such a God could punish his children to
+eternity, or that He would require the suffering of the innocent to
+enable him to forgive the guilty. Then, of course, we reject all the
+absurd dogmas clustering around your conception of the Trinity. The
+simple belief in the Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man is
+enough for us. Instead of your endless punishment, we have the
+reasonable belief that the Father punishes simply to bring us good,
+so that our joy may be greater. This is all perfectly simple, and can
+be understood by the uneducated man as well as by the philosopher.
+
+_Mr. Orthodox_--It is an easy thing to make charges; and, as they are
+usually made in sweeping terms, it frequently requires hours of time
+and much explanation to answer the charges made in a few minutes,
+even when the charges are false. I shall endeavor to defend myself,
+but must beg you to give me sufficient time to make myself
+understood. In the first place, I claim, as you say, that you cannot
+understand all the mysteries about religious doctrines. They must, to
+a large extent, be accepted by faith. And I claim that it is more
+reasonable to accept them by faith than to reject them on the ground
+that you cannot understand them. This may seem ridiculous to you, but
+wait until I explain myself further. Take eternal punishment. You say
+that man is a free agent, and that through his free agency he is able
+to bring evil and punishment upon himself. You say that God has so
+ordained because it is best for man that he should be left free, even
+though he becomes liable to suffer because of it, as it will be for
+his final good. In other words, you claim that God does punish his
+children for their own good. It seems perfectly just to you that God
+should punish a person because he is a free agent, but when we say
+that man can bring eternal punishment upon himself through his free
+agency, then you think it ridiculous, although the principle is
+exactly the same and the only difference is that of degree. But I see
+that I must be more general in my statements or I will not get far.
+You bring a host of other charges against us, either directly or by
+implication. You say that yours is a pure and simple religion that
+can be understood by uneducated people as well as by philosophers.
+Here we get at the very heart of the difference between us. It is
+true that your doctrines are _very simple,_ but that is their chief
+demerit. _They_ are simple, but the facts that they attempt to deal
+with are very complex. To declare that religious problems are simple
+is to go counter to the expressed opinions of the great thinkers of
+all ages. Such questions as evil, good, life, immortality, free will,
+God, and a host of others, are decidedly complex.
+
+They are largely inscrutable and have always been considered so. And
+yet all the complex realities of life and death which have defied the
+theologians and philosophers of all ages, you now tell us are very
+simple, and you carry the simple solution around with you only too
+glad to give it free to everybody. Why is it that all of the
+thousands of worried and distressed souls don't come flocking to you?
+Why is it that the philosophers and thinkers don't come rushing in
+from all directions, to get from you the truths they have so long
+sought after? Why is it that the uneducated masses do not come to you
+and accept your simple doctrines which they can so easily understand?
+I know that you are ready with a charge of ignorance, prejudice,
+self-interest, etc., but I claim that as a rule your charges do not
+charge. You, believing in an all-wise, all-good and all-powerful God,
+who is Truth itself, must believe in the triumph of truth; and here I
+agree with you. I believe that just as soon as truth is brought in
+contact with error the latter will have to vanish just as sure as the
+darkness vanishes when a light is brought into a room. Error may
+apparently linger because of peculiar circumstances which we are
+ignorant of, but as soon as truth has a fair chance of coming
+directly in contact with error, the victory is won. I claim,
+therefore, that the reason that your explanations are not accepted,
+is because they do not explain. Your doctrines offer protection to a
+small part of the man, but leave all the rest exposed to the cold and
+inclement weather. The uneducated do not accept your doctrines
+because they belie their own experiences.
+
+_Mr. Freethinker_--I hope you will pardon me for interrupting you,
+Mr. Orthodox. You are getting too hot. I think it will be better for
+you to cool off before you continue, and in the meantime I will have
+my say. That is the greatest objection I have to you religionists--
+you are all fanatics. You get an idea into your head, and then think
+that the continuance of the world depends upon you thrusting it into
+everybody's face. Of course you are willing to suffer for your
+doctrines, and even to die for them if need be, but that is the way
+with all fanatics. Your foolish notions give occasion for amusement
+to cool-headed free thinkers, who see perfectly well that they are
+all the result of self-delusion. I believe in keeping perfectly cool;
+in always keeping the head as high above the heart as it is in the
+body. I don't believe in attacking a man from behind while he is
+engaged by another in front, but, during the time Mr. Orthodox is
+cooling off, I wish to show you, Mr. Liberal, wherein I differ from
+you. Your great appeal is to reason, and I agree with you entirely
+on that point; but I don't arrive at your conclusions. You have been
+fixing your eyes on the monstrous outrage of reason in your brother's
+position so steadfastly, and yours is so much more in accordance
+with reason, that it is not surprising that you should have failed to
+see the irrationality of your own position. Furthermore, you have
+had a great deal of inherited prejudice to overcome, and a man cannot
+be expected to get rid of all those at once, especially when they have
+reference to the heart or feelings. You say that your God is all-good,
+all-wise and all-powerful. The inevitable, logical conclusion from
+that is that such a God would give his children an infinitely small
+amount of evil and an infinitely large amount of good. But such is
+not the case; therefore, to keep that jewel of rationalism which is
+so dear to you, you must give up your belief in such a God. Just
+wait a minute! I know that you are ready to give a lot of quibbling
+that will satisfy some people who follow their prejudices and inherited
+feelings, but I defy the whole world of logicians to show that such a
+conclusion is less logical than the claim that there can be three in
+one. You say that it is in the nature of things that God must give us
+evil that we may enjoy good the more afterwards. But if you clear
+yourself from all prejudice, you will see that this is the old method
+of the ostrich of putting its head under the sand and imagining that its
+entire body is protected. Nay, even worse than that, you don't even
+protect your head. Any man that gives clear sweep to his reason will
+see that if God must comply with certain conditions, then he is not
+all-powerful If he is all-powerful, he can give us all good without
+any evil, and if he is all-good it would logically follow that he
+will do so. Then, again, while affirming that man is a free agent,
+you at the same time claim that every effect must have a cause, or
+that something cannot come out of nothing. Now, the reconciliation of
+these two facts has ever defied the reason of mankind. And those that
+have adopted the belief in free will have confessed that reason did
+not lead them to that conclusion, but experience. On the other hand,
+the logical conclusion is inevitable that man cannot be free. I know
+that people have endeavored to satisfy themselves to the contrary,
+and I know that some have really succeeded in deceiving themselves so
+far as to believe that they could logically hold to it; but I declare
+that they have never succeeded in convincing any unprejudiced mind,
+and I defy any logician to prove that the conclusion of free will as
+consistent with eternal causation, is less absurd than that two and
+two make five.
+
+Again, you preach that what a man sows, that also shall he reap. If
+that is true, then no person can really give him anything; therefore
+philanthropy is a delusion. Now, then, Mr. Liberal, you want to be
+reasonable and drop the false position to which your inherited
+prejudices have held you, and adopt my views, which are thoroughly
+simple and entirely consistent and logical. Belief in God is the
+product of superstition, and belief in free will is a self-delusion.
+I know that you will appeal to intuition in this case, but that is
+only a scapegoat for deluded and illogical minds to hide behind. You
+see that my conclusion is not only simple and logical, but it is
+really more beautiful than your complex affair, and you will see it
+as such after you succeed in overcoming your inherited prejudices.
+There is no God. The universe is governed by blind law; at least,
+that is all we know about it. We are evolved from the lowest forms of
+organic life. What about conscience? Well, that is a matter of
+education. Of course we should follow it, because it is a safer guide
+than our present judgment, since it represents the judgment of all
+our ancestors. Utility is our only standard of right and wrong in
+morals, and we follow utility because we are not free and are
+therefore compelled to do so.
+
+_Mr. Orthodox_--If you are through, Mr. Freethinker, I will now
+continue. But I must consider myself your opponent as well as Mr.
+Liberal's. In the first place, I must admit that you are thoroughly
+consistent with yourself as far as you go. But, my dear fellow, where
+does your consistency lead you to? You claim to be a freethinker, and
+yet you conclude that you are an entire slave and even think as you
+do because you cannot help it.
+
+I stated at the beginning of my reply to Mr. Liberal that many
+religious facts must be accepted without thoroughly understanding
+them, and claimed that it is reasonable to so accept them. I will now
+endeavor to explain myself more fully. It seems to me that if
+anything has been proven, it is that our logical reason is not always
+a safe guide. For example, we cannot conceive of an end to
+divisibility of space; and therefore we cannot conceive how we can
+reach a given point. Now, practice gives the lie to this conclusion,
+and if some rationalist should follow his reason here, he would
+conclude that he can never get a piece of food into his mouth; or, in
+other words, the logical conclusion would lead to starvation. I know
+that some will deny this as a logical conclusion to get out of the
+difficulty. But I could never see it as otherwise than logical, and I
+have a goodly list of thinkers who have reached the same conclusion
+before me. Again, it is admitted by all thinkers of all ages that our
+reason tells us that there cannot be existence without beginning, or,
+on the other hand, there can be no beginning of existence without
+something existing before to cause its existence.
+
+The conclusion is that inconceivability is not an infallible proof of
+the absence of a fact, and that we must follow our experience even if
+it conflicts with our reason. This is what we claim to do in
+religion. Whether experience is the sole source of knowledge is a
+question we need not discuss here. It is certainly the only safe
+method in most things. For example, I wish to know what will cure a
+certain disease. Suppose that I find a medicine that has cured every
+case in which it has been administered. Would it not be irrational
+for me to refuse to use that medicine because I cannot conceive how
+it effects the cure? Of course it might be possible that the medicine
+did not effect the cure; that it was the belief in its curative power
+that produced the effect. Cases have frequently occurred where a
+thing was for a long time believed to be the cause, while future
+investigation proved that it was some other attendant circumstance
+that was the real cause. But if our experience is that a given
+medicine cures a certain disease invariably, and that no other known
+medicine will cure it, we would be foolish not to use that medicine.
+The same is true in religion. If we wish to accomplish certain
+results and we have found a way in which those desirable results
+can be brought about, and know of no other way to bring them
+about; it would be irrational not to adopt that way, or follow out
+the requirements of that theory. I told you, Mr. Liberal, that your
+theory or doctrine was too simple. This is still more true of our
+friend, Mr. Freethinker. You claim to hold very broad, liberal and
+enlightened views. But although they are broad, they are not deep
+enough. They are stretched out over the surface merely, and thus hide
+from your view the great ocean of reality below. Yes, you have an
+abundance of light, but not enough heat. In the polar regions they
+have six months of light in one stretch, but no one would think of
+starting a garden there, as there is not enough heat. To the cold
+reason of some bachelor it is perfectly clear and indisputable that
+the young lover is a deluded fool and should follow his reason by
+never marrying. But I fondly believe that young lover sees the true
+worth of one human soul, and gives us an idea of the worth we shall
+see in all souls when we shall cease to see through a glass darkly.
+As the bachelor does not touch the reality in his case, so I believe
+that our friend, Mr. Freethinker, does not touch the great ocean of
+reality in religion. We are convinced by experience that man is free,
+and that nevertheless eternal causation does exist. We believe these
+to be two co-ordinate truths and we are willing to wait until we can
+solve the mystery; but in the meantime we wish to make use of the
+practical belief in both truths. People are convinced that there is a
+God who deals out exact justice; yet they are also convinced from
+experience that there is a God who is love who forgives the penitent
+sinner. That one God can possess both of these qualities seems as
+impossible as that three Gods can be in one God. And yet people are
+convinced that no other theory will explain their complex
+experiences, and that living according to no other theory will enable
+them to get the desirable results that they know from experience that
+they do get. They may be mistaken; but it will be time enough to
+consider that when some one has a theory that will account better for
+all their various experiences. Well, you see my point and I shall
+apply it no further. You see it is simply the principle that the
+empirical school of philosophy claims to employ, but which many of
+them employ only in the physical realm and fail to carry into the
+spiritual or religious realm. They must admit that religious
+convictions are and have been among the strongest, if not the
+strongest, motive powers in the world's history. And thus their
+philosophy of life leaves out the greatest pleasures and mightiest
+incentives to action found in life.
+
+But Mr. Liberal and his friends would tell us that this all refers to
+theology. That doctrines are of no account. That what we want is
+works. Exactly, but don't you see that if after the afore-said
+experience you should not form the theory that the given medicine
+cures the given disease and act in accordance with the theory, the
+result would probably be death instead of health and life? The
+question is, is it true to experience? Does it accomplish what it
+purposes to accomplish better than any other theory, and can that
+result be accomplished only by following the said theory? According
+to many authorities, most if not all of our physical actions are
+performed according to a theory based on induction as to facts in the
+physical world. Thus we arrive at the conclusion that food nourishes
+our body because it has always been found to do so. In the same way
+many people have, through experience and facts, come to believe in
+God who guides them and nourishes them spiritually.
+
+If now we judge by fruits rather than by doctrines, or rather judge
+our doctrines by their fruits, I claim that the orthodox doctrine is
+superior to yours, Mr. Liberal. In the first place, you admit that
+the lower ignorant classes you cannot reach, and you are greatly
+surprised that they do not eagerly accept your _simple_ doctrines. It
+is not the whole, but the sick, that need a physician. A religion
+that cannot help those that need the greatest spiritual help cannot
+be the religion of Christ. But let us suppose that an intelligent
+foreigner who does not understand our language nor know our doctrines
+should attend our respective churches and see the result produced--
+the pleasure taken in coming and receiving our spiritual medicine.
+And making allowance for all other differences, should observe which
+helps most to make life worth living, and which makes the most and
+best changes in the character of its adherents. He would have no
+trouble to discover that orthodoxy ministers more to the needy soul
+than your simple faith.
+
+You, Mr. Liberal, talk about making infidels of people and drawing
+them away from the church, but I believe it would have been fortunate
+for you if you had not mentioned this subject; because you, according
+to the confession of your own men, have driven more people from the
+churches than any religious body having a similar numerical strength.
+You tell people to use their reason, and after you have drawn them
+out of the orthodox churches by that bait, they see that they must go
+further than your position to satisfy what you call reason, and they
+find large numbers among you ready to lead them to that logical
+conclusion. It seems that the advocates of your liberal faith have
+always believed that they were on the verge of accomplishing great
+victories by drawing the multitudes to them; but as with the victim
+of tuberculosis, who imagines he is getting better all the
+ time, it is always expectancy and never realization. If it is
+prejudice that prevents the spread of your belief, then it ought to
+grow most in New England, where it has largely worn away prejudice.
+But the facts seem to be that there it is growing the least
+comparatively; while out West, where it is a novelty and meeting with
+opposition, it is making the most progress. A person is almost
+tempted to conclude that if it were not for the opposition of some
+mistaken people, who do not realize your real error, your progress
+would come to an end at once.
+
+I believe, Mr. Liberal, that Mr. Freethinker has the best of you
+because he vanquished you according to your own method of inquiry.
+But you are more nearly right according to the true method of
+inquiry. You see it is the proper method of inquiry that I am
+contending for. A person with the wrong method of inquiry in his head
+will only be repulsed by poking dogmas at him and nothing can be done
+with him until he has discovered the fallacy by following his method
+to absurdity, its natural conclusion. After that he may be induced to
+follow the empirical method of inquiry with a demonstration that
+experience and well-authenticated testimony are to be followed rather
+than rationalism.
+
+What follows is the last part of the sermon on "The Proper Method of
+Religious Inquiry." Text: "Prove all things; hold fast that which is
+good."
+
+It is not only important that we should appeal to our own experience
+in trying to discover what is true in religion, but we should also
+take into consideration the experiences of others. If a man, who is
+partially color blind, should base a science of color on his own
+experience, it would necessarily be partial or incomplete. So if a
+class of men, with certain peculiar traits, should build up a system
+of theology on their religious experiences, it would necessarily be
+partial and not adequate for universal application. Suppose, for
+example, that a number of persons with large reasoning powers, cold
+temperaments, and very little religious feeling, should build up a
+religious system on their experiences. Is it not perfectly clear that
+it would be partial and narrow? It would make no allowance at all for
+people of strong religious experiences. While it might be of some use
+to these few people, it would never help the great bulk of humanity
+who need the help of religion the most. To say that a religion is not
+for the common people is to admit that it is narrow and not true to
+universal human nature. Certainly it is not Christian, for the common
+people heard Jesus gladly; and they ever will hear gladly any one who
+preaches a religion that is true to their own religious experiences.
+
+In trying to discover what is true in religion, we should also
+carefully examine the religious experiences of all ages, as recorded
+in their religious writings. I shall here quote from an authority on
+this point, because I think it of much value, and because it is not
+probable that the writer was influenced by prejudice and preconceived
+ideas. I shall quote from John Stuart Mill's "System of Logic," page
+477: "There is a perpetual oscillation in spiritual truths, and in
+spiritual doctrines of any significance, even when not truths. Their
+meaning is almost always in a process either of being lost or of
+being recovered. Whoever has attended to the history of the more
+serious convictions of mankind--of the opinion by which the general
+conduct of their lives is, or as they conceive ought to be, more
+especially regulated--is aware that even when recognizing verbally
+the same doctrines, they attach to them at different periods a
+greater or less quantity, and even a different kind of meaning. The
+words in their original acceptation connoted, and the propositions
+expressed, a complication of outward facts and inward feelings, to
+different portions of which the general mind is more particularly
+alive in different generations of mankind. To common minds, only that
+portion of the meaning is in each generation suggested, of which that
+generation possesses the counterpart in its habitual experience. But
+the words and propositions lie ready to suggest to any mind duly
+prepared to receive the remainder of the meaning. Such individual
+minds are almost always to be found; and the lost meaning, revived by
+them, again by degrees works its way into the general mind.
+
+"The arrival of this salutary reaction may, however, be materially
+retarded by the shallow conceptions and incautious proceedings of
+mere logicians. ... These logicians think more of having a clear,
+than of having a comprehensive, meaning; and although they perceive
+that every age is adding to the truth which it has received from its
+predecessors, they fail to see that a counter process of losing,
+truths already possessed, is also constantly going on, and requiring
+the most sedulous attention to counteract it."
+
+But, as a matter of fact, people have, as a rule, followed their
+experiences in everything, despite the sneers and ridicules of the
+would-be wise. People have planted their vegetables during the
+increase of the moon despite all ridicule and laughter. And in due
+time the wise men came to their position, declaring that the sunlight
+reflected by the moon helps the growth of vegetation. People in all
+ages have believed in faith cure under one form or another to the
+utter amazement of the intelligent physicians who made fun of them
+and pitied their ignorance. But now, through the facts discovered by
+hypnotism and other means, the scientists are coming around and
+admitting that the old women were right, that the people really did
+get help from faith cure.
+
+In religion, too, people have followed their experience, despite the
+sneers, ridicule and protests of wise men. And, on the whole, I have
+no doubt that they are better off than if they had listened to the
+persons who showed them that their beliefs, from a rationalistic
+standpoint, are false; and at the same time offered them beliefs that
+were about as ridiculous from a logical standpoint, and which left
+out all the power and good of their own system of belief.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+THE FUNCTIONS AND LIMITATIONS OF THE MIND.
+
+
+The objections made to faith are by no means an effect of knowledge,
+but proceed rather from ignorance of what knowledge is.--_Bishop
+Berkley._
+
+No difficulty emerges in theology which has not previously emerged in
+philosophy.--_Sir Wm. Hamilton._
+
+The human mind inevitably and by virtue of its essential constitution
+finds itself involved in self-contradictions whenever it ventures on
+certain courses of speculation.--_Mansel._
+
+In the last two chapters I presented the reasons that led me to
+infidelity and back to Christ, as they appeared to me while in the
+thick of the conflict and soon after. In this and following chapters
+I wish to present the matter in the light that has come to me on the
+subject up to the present date.
+
+As will be noticed in the previous chapters, the external causes that
+drove me to infidelity were the theology of creeds, sectarianism and
+the apparent difficulties in the Bible and in religion. But the real
+underlying cause was rationalism, or a failure to recognize the
+proper functions and limitations of the finite intellect. In later
+chapters, I shall show how I overcame the difficulties about creeds
+and speculative theology and how I solved the problem of sectarianism
+by turning to Christian union on the primitive gospel. In this
+chapter I wish to speak more definitely of rationalism or the
+subjective cause of my infidelity. For, after all, the whole matter
+resolves itself into a question of psychology, or science of the
+mind. What is the profit of reading numerous books on the subject,
+_pro_ and _con_, so long as we are reading the books through colored
+glasses that deceive our vision and lead us to apply false tests as
+to what the truth in the matter is?
+
+There must be some matters that require our prayerful and serious
+consideration, when we observe how the most talented, scholarly,
+devout and honest of all ages have been divided into warring camps on
+questions of religion, politics, medicine and science. Certainly
+truth is not divided; and there must be some mysterious, deceptive
+mental pitfalls that have caused this Babel of confusion. When we
+count the cost of this warring conflict of the choicest spirits of
+the earth in waste, failure, suffering, bloodshed and death, and
+contemplate the gain in prosperity, progress, happiness and conquest
+over ignorance and evil, that would have resulted had all the good
+been enabled to see alike, and thus unite on the truth, we cannot
+fail to be impressed with the fact that this is one of the greatest,
+if not the greatest, theme that has ever engaged the attention of
+mortal man. Well may we ask with Pilate, "What is truth?" Or perhaps
+the more important question, "How can we discover what is truth?"
+What is there in the nature of the mind that side-tracks the wisest
+and best in their effort to know the truth? Why was Paul, the
+conscientious, intellectual giant, so deceived that he "verily
+thought he was doing God service" while destroying the best and
+holiest thing that had ever come to earth? Why did Cotton Mather and
+other saintly, scholarly Christians martyr innocent saints as
+witches? Why did devout patriots of the North and South slaughter
+each other in cold blood? Why were the scientific theses written at
+Harvard during forty years, all found out of date by Edward Everett
+Hale? Why are the intelligent and consecrated hosts of Christ wasting
+three-fourths of their men and money through sectarian divisions? Why
+are the intelligent, patriotic citizens of America divided into two
+camps on free silver and other issues when the truth and their
+interest are one, and by a united effort they could carry every
+election for truth and righteousness? Common sense asks, Why? The
+interests of humanity ask, Why? Love and compassion ask, _Why?_ I
+believe we must find the answer chiefly in the failure to understand
+clearly the nature and functions of the mind.
+
+The Nature of Conscience.
+
+Turn, for example, to conscience. What is its nature? Is it a safe
+guide? Does it always tell us what is right? Why has conscience
+fought on both sides of every great historical conflict? Surely we
+should stay this awful, pitiable and destructive conflict of the
+conscientious; at least, long enough to examine most earnestly into
+the cause of this strange and disastrous puzzle. If conscience is not
+a safe guide, then woe betide us; for it is the only moral guide we
+have, or, at least, the only avenue through which human and divine
+truth can guide us. For it is the moral nature itself.
+
+The eye without light cannot see, but if we are lost in a forest, the
+eye becomes helpless as a guide, even if there is light. Yet the eye
+is a safe guide, and in bodily movements it is essentially the only
+guide we have. We thus learn that to exercise their function the eyes
+must have light and knowledge of the localities in which they are to
+act as a guide. What the eyes are in guiding our bodily movements,
+that the conscience is in guiding our moral actions. But as the eyes
+without light and knowledge are helpless as a guide, so conscience
+without love and truth is a blind monster. There is conscience and
+_conscience_. And as long as we use the term ambiguously and fail to
+discriminate between conscience proper and the term as used in the
+looser, larger sense, we will have nothing but confusion. Conscience
+proper is simply the impulse of the soul that urges us to do right as
+we see the right. We do not deny that it also embodies the basic
+element in the soul that enables us to discover what is right; but
+our conviction as to what is right is dependent upon knowledge
+acquired through other faculties. When we speak of conscience in the
+loose and general sense, we refer to both of these elements. In this
+sense conscience is the product of a number of faculties working
+together. Thus when we talk about following conscience, we mean
+following the voice of our moral nature, or the convictions of the
+highest and best aspirations in our soul. Conscience should always be
+followed as a guide in both its proper and larger sense; but as an
+impulse to do what we believe to be right, it is infallible, while as
+a guide to knowledge of what is right, it is fallible and liable to
+lead us into all kinds of folly and error.
+
+While, therefore, we should always follow our conscience, or our
+highest conviction of what is right, we should assiduously probe our
+conscience day by day to seek for errors in the part that is
+dependent upon information. In other words, a truly conscientious
+person not only scrupulously does what he believes to be right; but
+he also constantly strives to get all the truth, that his conscience
+may be enlightened more and more. To follow our conscience,
+therefore, in searching for and obeying the truth, is our highest
+duty to God, and it is the _sine qua non_ of acceptance with him.
+This is the "love of the truth" (2 Thess. 2:10), "the good and honest
+heart" (Luke 8:15), through which the gospel becomes fruitful. To
+refuse to follow our conscience, or highest light of duty, as
+revealed in the Bible or from any other source, is treason toward God
+in whose image we were morally created; and such persons forfeit
+heaven, no matter how faultless their outward acts may be. With God
+it is a matter of the inner motive, as the entire Bible reveals. The
+man who lives a respectable life outwardly, but fails to meet his
+inner moral obligations, is not a good moral man, but a hypocrite.
+Therefore no man can ever be saved without morality in the full and
+true sense of the word. Conscience, then, enlightened by truth, is
+the voice of God to the soul. The Proverb says, "The spirit of man is
+the lamp of the Lord, searching all the inward parts" (Prov. 20:27),
+while in Rom. 2:14-16 we read: "For when Gentiles that have not the
+law do by nature the things of the law, these, not having the law,
+are the law unto themselves; in that they show the work of the law
+written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness therewith,
+and their thoughts one with another accusing or else excusing them;
+in the day when God shall judge the secrets of men, according to my
+gospel, by Jesus Christ."
+
+God wants us to follow our present conviction of duty until by
+investigation we discover a better one. Thus God guides the
+individual in his conduct through his conscience enlightened by the
+Holy Spirit (Rom. 9:1). But this guidance is only for the individual.
+It has a fallible element in it that needs to be improved by constant
+and vigilant readjustment as the individual increases his knowledge
+and sharpens his conscience by exercise (Rom. 12:2). Alas! how much
+mischief has come from neglect of these facts. How many have tried to
+thrust the leadings of their conscience on others, in and out of
+creeds. Again, how many good people have become self-righteous and
+despised those who differed from them because they mistook matters of
+opinion and expediency as matters of conscience, through failing to
+recognize the fallible, variable element in their conscience. How
+foolish we act if we do not keep in mind these distinctions. The
+infidel who claimed that he was unhappy because he knew too much, and
+that Christians are happy because they are deluded, and then
+promulgated his misery-producing doctrine for conscience' sake, is an
+illustration of the absurdity into which a sensitive but perverted
+conscience will lead a person. But yesterday I met a very
+conscientious young man who left the ministry because he could not
+agree, with members of the church he was serving, on matters of
+expediency. On my table lies a letter recently received from a young
+man who graduated for the ministry last spring, but through doubts,
+similar to those I formerly experienced, left the ministry for
+conscience' sake. This unhappiness of doubters and this testimony of
+their consciences, even while they hold opinions that logically rob
+conscience of any authority, should cause every one to think; and is
+strong evidence that skepticism is unnatural and fundamentally wrong.
+I followed rationalism into infidelity for conscience' sake. I gave
+up belief in the miraculous and supernatural in the Bible _for
+conscience' sake_. But after the rationalists had driven me to this
+bitter end, through my sensitive conscience, I was gravely informed
+that conscience was a mere creature of education and therefore should
+only be followed conditionally.
+
+I discovered sufficient truth in this claim to open my eyes to the
+fact that I had been deceived and had followed the fallible part of
+my conscience, which is a creature of education, as though it were
+infallible and the voice of God.
+
+It will be noticed that eternal life depends on the infallible
+element of conscience, while stupendous, yet only mundane, interests
+depend upon its fallible element. This is a mystery that perplexes a
+great many people. Is ignorance an excuse? Does it not matter what
+you believe, just so you are honest? The highest and best thing
+anybody can ever do, is to follow his conscience, or the voice of his
+highest moral and spiritual nature. This the teaching of Scripture
+from Genesis to Revelation. To teach that God would damn a soul for
+doing this is destructive of all moral distinctions, and is as
+abominable as the old doctrine that God elects certain people and
+damns others irrespective of their thoughts and conduct. Ignorance is
+an excuse if it is _innocent ignorance_. What about those who are
+willfully ignorant? or those who have a seared conscience? They are
+not following their conscience at all. Conscience insists that we
+make every possible effort to get the truth. By a seared conscience
+we mean a person who does not follow his conscience at all, and he
+knows it.
+
+We know that ignorant innocence is an excuse in the sight of God, but
+we do not know who is innocently ignorant. The former fact is
+revealed to us in the Bible, but the latter is known only to God.
+Therefore in these matters we should "judge nothing before the time,
+until the Lord come, who will bring to light the hidden things of
+darkness, and make manifest the counsels of the heart; and then shall
+each man have his praise from God" (I Cor. 4:5).
+
+Nothing has ever been revealed more clearly in the Bible than that
+innocent ignorance is an excuse in the sight of God. The cities of
+refuge and the entire ceremonial law were based upon this fact.
+Christ said, "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do"
+(Luke 23:34). James says, "To him that knoweth to do good, and doeth
+it not, to him it is sin" (Jas. 4:17). In Acts 17:30 we read, "The
+times of ignorance therefore God overlooked." In the second chapter
+of Romans Paul makes it clear that each person shall be judged by the
+light that comes to him, whether in or out of the law or of the
+gospel. Heathen people, who never heard the gospel, will not be
+condemned for rejecting the gospel, but for rejecting the light that
+came to them through their conscience and through other sources. "For
+this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men
+loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil"
+(John 3:19). But we will be condemned if we do not do all in our
+power to bring the gospel to the heathen.
+
+We need not worry about the pious, conscientious peoples scattered
+among the sectarian churches; but we need to worry lest we do not do
+all in our power to make it impossible for them to remain pious and
+conscientious while upholding sectarianism. It is our duty to help
+them to understand the Word; and if, after they understand it, they
+refuse to obey it, they are under condemnation. But we cannot and
+dare not decide whether they understand it or not. It is ours to
+preach the Word, and it will judge them in that Great Day.
+
+The ground or mainspring of conscience is love--love of the well-
+being or welfare of all sentient beings, or of all beings capable of
+enjoying happiness. Our conscience goads us to do what love demands
+as our duty. He who, through want of discrimination, ignores the love
+element in conscience, becomes a cruel misanthrope, and is misguided
+by a perverted conscience. May the Lord help us to clear up our minds
+on this subject of conscience so that this divine light may lead us
+onward and upward towards perfection in holiness; and that this eye
+of the moral nature may not be deprived of love and knowledge and
+thus flounder around like a blind giant spreading misery and
+suffering everywhere.
+
+The Feelings or Emotions.
+
+Psychology divides the mind into intellect, sensibilities and will.
+This is doubtless a valuable classification in a general way. But the
+classification is very general and indefinite. Indeed, school
+psychology has confined itself almost entirely to a consideration of
+the _general operations_ of the mind and has given us very little
+light on the classification of the mental faculties. The limited
+attempts at classification have varied considerably according to the
+subjective make-up of the author, as the classifications were based
+on introspection.
+
+While the deductive, axiomatic or intuitive, scholastic or
+introspective methods of inquiry prevailed in the intellectual world,
+systems of philosophy, psychology and theology were built up
+according to the peculiar subjective nature of their author, and held
+the field until some other strong mind projected its views of the
+subject and thus rivaled or supplanted the other systems. It was the
+modern inductive or empirical method of investigation, introduced by
+Bacon, Locke, Mill and others, that has put knowledge on a real
+scientific basis and has led to the marvelous scientific and material
+progress of recent times. I believe the time is not far distant when
+the old medieval, introspective psychology of the schools will be
+displaced by a more scientific system. All that is of value in the
+old system will be retained, but the most valuable psychological
+knowledge will come from the new system. That this need is generally
+recognized by those who have given the matter most attention, is
+evidenced by the words of that prince of modern psychologists,
+Professor James, when he says, "At present psychology is in the
+condition of physics before Galileo and the laws of motion or of
+chemistry before Lavoisier." I believe that phrenology has blazed the
+way for this new psychology. It was violently attacked by the old-
+school psychologists because it taught that the brain is the
+instrument of the mind, that the mind has a plurality of faculties
+and that various brain functions can be localized. Every one
+conversant with the present literature on physiology and psychology
+will see that phrenologists have conquered, and that their basic
+principles are now accepted by all. It is now simply a matter of the
+application of these principles by further investigation. The
+psychologists have made some progress in brain localization through
+various mechanical and more or less abnormal methods of
+investigation. When they come to a more sensible and natural method
+of inquiry by observing the concomitance between various brain
+developments and various mental traits, I feel sure that they will
+have to admit that the phrenologists are essentially right in their
+brain localizations, just as they have already admitted that they are
+right in their basic principles.
+
+That the tide is already turning is manifest from the following
+quotations.
+
+Alfred Russell Wallace, one of the greatest of scientists, in his
+book, "The Wonderful Century," says: "I begin with the subject of
+phrenology, a science of whose substantial truth and vast importance
+I have no more doubt than I have of the value and importance of any
+of the great intellectual advances already recorded.
+
+"In the coming century, phrenology will assuredly attain general
+acceptance. It will prove itself to be the true science of mind. Its
+practical use in education, in self-discipline, in the reformatory
+treatment of criminals, and in the remedial treatment of the insane,
+will give it one of the highest places in the hierarchy of sciences;
+and its persistent neglect and obloquy during the last sixty years,
+will be referred to as an example of the almost incredible narrowness
+and prejudice which prevailed among men of science at the very time
+they were making such splendid advances in other fields of thought
+and action."
+
+Benard Hollander, M.D., F.R.C.S., L.R.C.P., in his late book on
+"Functions of the Brain," says: "What Gall knew at the close of the
+eighteenth century is only just dawning upon the scientists of the
+present day. The history of Gall and his doctrine is given in these
+pages, and will be quite a revelation to the reader. No subject has
+ever been so thoroughly misrepresented, even by learned men of
+acknowledged authority." In his "Scientific Phrenology," Dr.
+Hollander says: "In this volume I have laid stress on the strictly
+phrenological method of observing special parts of the brain,
+distinct lobes and convolutions, and comparing their size to
+development of the rest of the brain--which, if applied in
+conjunction with the study of the mental characteristics of our
+fellow-beings, would enable us to make observations by the million.
+This method, which was considered unscientific, and hence shunned,
+for a long time, has found favor with scientists, since the author's
+first papers on scientific phrenology were published in 1886, and was
+for the first time advocated publicly last year by Dr. Cunningham,
+professor of anatomy in Dublin University, in his presidential
+address to the Anthropological Section of the British Association at
+their meeting in Glasgow. Dr. Cunningham was upheld by Sir Wm.
+Turner, professor of anatomy at Edinburgh University and president of
+the General Medical Council, who, like Sir Sam. Wilks, the expresident
+of the College of Physicians, and the late Sir James Paget,
+besides others with whom I have not come in contact, have always kept
+an open mind on this subject. In Germany, Dr. Landois, professor of
+physiology at Griefswalt, has been long urging a reinvestigation of
+Gall's doctrines; Dr. R. Sommer, professor of clinical psychiatry at
+Griessen, recommends it, not dogmatically, but as a working
+hypothesis; and the Swiss professor of physiology, Dr. Von Bunge, in
+his text-book just published, acts as pioneer in devoting two
+chapters to a rehabilitation of Gall; Dr. Mobius, of Leipsic, has
+published several books on the same subject, and, quite lately, the
+renowned professor of psychiatry in the University of Vienna, Dr. R.
+Von Krafft-Ebing, has joined in the defense of this great discovery."
+
+Beecher said that if he were in the pulpit without his knowledge of
+phrenology, he would feel like a mariner at sea without a compass;
+and he declared: "All my life long I have been in the habit of using
+phrenology as that which solves the practical phenomena of life. I
+regard it far more useful, practical and sensible than any other
+system of mental philosophy which has yet been evolved."
+
+Horace Mann said: "I declare myself a hundred times more indebted to
+phrenology than to all the metaphysical works that I ever read. . . .
+I look upon phrenology as the guide to philosophy and the handmaid of
+Christianity. Whoever disseminates true phrenology is a public
+benefactor."
+
+Joseph Cook declared: "Choosing a foreman or clerk, guiding the
+education of children, settling my judgment of men in public or
+private life, estimating a wife or husband, and their fitness for
+each other, or endeavoring to understand myself and to select the
+right occupation, there is no advice of which I so often feel the
+need as that of a thoroughly able, scientific, experienced and
+Christian phrenologist."
+
+Oliver Wendell Holmes changed his views on phrenology in his maturer
+years and said: "We owe phrenology a great debt. It has melted the
+world's conscience in its crucible and cast it in a new mould, with
+features less like those of Moloch and more like those of humanity."
+
+Andrew Carnegie said: "Not to know phrenology is sure to keep you
+standing on the 'Bridge of Sighs' all your life."
+
+I think the superiority of the phrenological classification of the
+mental powers to that of other systems of psychology will be apparent
+from the following:
+
+Phrenological Analysis of Mental Faculties.
+
+I. Domestic Propensities (Family Affections).
+
+ 1. Amativeness--Love between the sexes.
+ 2. Conjugality--Matrimony, love of one.
+ 3. Parental Love--Regard for offspring, pets, etc.
+ 4. Friendship, sociability.
+ 5. Inhabitiveness--Love of home.
+ 6. Continuity--One thing at a time.
+
+II. Selfish Propensities (Lookout for "No. 1").
+
+   1. Vitativeness--Love of life.
+   2. Combativeness--Resistance, defense.
+   3. Destructiveness--Executiveness, force.
+   4. Alimentiveness--Appetite, hunger.
+   5. Acquisitiveness--Accumulation.
+   6. Secretiveness--Policy, management.
+   7. Bibativeness--Fondness for liquids.
+
+III. Selfish Sentiments (Promote Self-interests).
+
+   1. Cautiousness--Prudence, provision.
+   2. Approbativeness--Ambition, display.
+   3. Self-esteem--Self-respect, dignity.
+   4. Firmness--Decision, perseverance.
+
+IV. Moral Sentiments (Religion and Morality).
+
+   1. Conscientiousness--Justice, equity.
+   2. Hope--Expectation, enterprise.
+   3. Spirituality--Intuition, faith, credulity.
+   4. Veneration--Devotion, respect.
+   5. Benevolence--Kindness, goodness.
+
+V. Semi-intellectual Sentiments (Self-perfecting Group).
+
+   1. Constructiveness--Mechanical ingenuity.
+   2. Ideality--Refinement, taste, purity.
+   3. Sublimity--Love of grandeur, infinitude.
+   4. Imitation--Copying, patterning.
+   5. Mirthfulness--Jocoseness, wit, fun.
+   6. Human Nature--Perception of motives.
+   7. Agreeableness--Pleasantness, suavity.
+
+VI. Intellectual Faculties.
+
+   1. Perceptive Faculties (Perceive physical qualities).
+
+    (1) Individuality--Observation, desire to see.
+    (2) Form--Recollection of shape.
+    (3) Size--Measuring by the eye.
+    (4) Weight--Balancing, climbing.
+    (5) Color--Judgment of colors.
+    (6) Order--Method, system, arrangement.
+    (7) Calculation--Mental arithmetic.
+    (8) Locality--Recollection of places.
+
+   2. Semi-perceptive or Literary Faculties.
+
+    (1) Eventuality--Memory of facts.
+    (2) Time--Cognizance of duration.
+    (3) Tune--Sense of harmony and melody.
+    (4) Language--Expression of ideas.
+
+   3. Reasoning or Reflective Faculties.
+
+    (1) Causality--Applying causes to effects.
+    (2) Comparison--Inductive reasoning.
+
+NOTE.--These definitions are taken from "The Self-instructor," Fowler
+& Wells Co., New York, the leading phrenological publishing-house.
+
+I have received more help for my practical work in the ministry from
+phrenology than from any other half-dozen studies, except the Bible.
+Even if its physical basis could not be substantiated, its analysis
+of the mental faculties is far better and more helpful than that of
+any other system of psychology. While it places the intellectual,
+moral and spiritual faculties at the top as supreme, it is just as
+vitally interested in the care of the body, education, discipline,
+self-culture, choice of occupation, matrimonial adaptation, heredity
+and all the practical affairs of life. How could a person be more
+healthy, happy and successful than by normally and harmoniously
+developing all his faculties as phrenology points them out to him?
+
+Phrenology teaches that the mind has certain elementary, selective
+instincts, or propensities and sentiments, that attract to them the
+mental food germane to their function just as the various cells of
+the body select from the blood the elements required. I say that
+these instincts have selective power, but they are subject to
+perversion, and dependent upon the guidance of judgment and
+knowledge, just as conscience does. Take, for example, the appetite
+for different kinds of food, the faculty of music, judgment of color,
+beauty, etc.; and you will see at once that they have selective
+power, but that this power can become perverted, and thus lead to
+great difference of opinion. Notice that while these faculties are
+not infallible guides, and need the earnest help of other faculties
+to be the most useful to us, no one can deny that they point toward
+truth on these subjects, and are our proper and only guides along
+these lines.
+
+Some of the faculties of the mind inspire the specialized affections;
+as, love for wife, children, home, friends, etc., which are at the
+very foundation of our Christian civilization. These special
+affections have their proper claims upon us, and in so far as they
+are neglected we become unhappy; but when they exert more than their
+proper influence, they warp our judgment and more or less unbalance
+our character. How many people are blinded to truth because of
+selfish love for their children, or their home, or their party, or
+their church.
+
+There are some things that the feelings cannot do. For example, they
+cannot give us information about facts outside of the mind. The
+faculty of love cannot reveal to a young man the existence of a young
+lady; but when he gets acquainted with her through what he sees and
+hears, he can feel that he loves her; and after learning that she is
+willing to become his, he can and will feel happy because of the
+fact. The world is full of folly, division and fanaticism because
+people look to their feelings or impressions for things that they
+cannot furnish. Thus people have claimed immediate knowledge of God,
+of pardon, of the will of God, of their perfection and security,
+etc., through their feelings. It is true that God created all nations
+"that they should seek God, if haply they might feel [Professor Green
+says the Greek word here means 'to feel or grope for or after, as
+persons in the dark'] after him and find him" (Acts 17:27). When we
+see the condition of the heathen nations to whom the revelation of
+the Bible has not come, we must admit that they are indeed "groping
+or feeling in the dark after God," as their superstitions and
+idolatries abundantly testify.
+
+Of course people feel good whenever they follow their conscience, or
+best conviction of duty; but the feeling of conscience cannot tell
+them of the gospel of Christ, and of the pardon it makes possible to
+them. Just as people who trust their "reason," or their "think so's,"
+as the voice of God, naturally reject the Bible as a revelation from
+God, so those that trust their "feel so's" will naturally have no use
+for the Bible in conversion, sanctification or as an evidence of
+pardon. It is easy to become so self-confident about our feelings, or
+impressions, as to believe them to be axiomatic truths or direct
+revelations from God. This has been one of the most fruitful sources
+of strife and divisions in religion, and the handicap that for
+centuries held the world in medieval darkness. The false prophets of
+the Old Testament were very religious men. That is, they had strong
+hereditary religious faculties. But these strong religious feelings,
+perverted, led them to trusting the imaginations and impressions of
+their hearts as the will of God instead of following his will as
+revealed in the Bible (Jer. 23:16, 17, 28, 30-32).
+
+Conscience is a safe guide; but it is not an infallible guide, and it
+is our duty to perfect it day by day by seeking more truth and
+obeying it. Our instincts or feelings are safe guides within certain
+limitations; but they are not perfect guides, and it is our duty to
+strengthen, guide and restrain them with the knowledge and help that
+other faculties can supply.
+
+The Intellect.
+
+Let us now see what light we can get concerning the intellect. What
+are its functions and limitations? Is it safe as a guide? According
+to the phrenological classification, the intellectual faculties are
+divided into three classes; viz.: the perceptive, literary and
+reasoning faculties. The perceptive faculties bring us into
+relationship with the external world, and through them we learn about
+the color, size, form, weight, etc., of material objects. If the
+phrenologists are right, then neither those who claim that the mind
+is like a blank sheet and knows nothing but what it gets from
+without, nor those who ascribe almost everything to innate, intuitive
+ideas, are wholly correct. As usual, the truth lies midway between
+the two extremes. The mind has innate, intuitive powers of
+perception, selection and discrimination without which material
+objects, events and thoughts could make no more impression upon us
+than upon a fence-rail. But these innate powers are subject to
+improvement by heredity and culture and their dictates must be
+carefully watched and corrected by other faculties, as they are
+fallible and most of them subject to perversion and delusion. As the
+conscience and sentiments although not infallible, are our only
+guides in their sphere; so our perceptive faculties are good and
+safe, but not perfect, guides. These perceptive faculties, in a
+measure, help and correct each other's impressions; and through
+optical illusions, expectant attention, dreams, etc., we learn that
+their dictates must be carefully watched and verified. The latest
+voice of science is that all the sensation produced by physical
+stimulants can also be produced by the imagination; so that people
+can feel cold, heat, pain, etc., when there is no physical cause for
+them. These things should not make us skeptical about our perceptive
+powers, but rather cautiously critical.
+
+If we turn to the reasoning faculties we find that they have been the
+cause of most contention and misunderstanding. On the one hand have
+been the extreme intuitionalists, or deductive theorizers, who for
+centuries limited philosophical thought almost entirely to fruitless,
+abstract, deductive reasoning based upon premises that had no real
+foundation in facts. As John Stuart Mill pointed out, the mind may
+become so accustomed to conceiving of a thing as true that it seems
+like an axiomatic truth, although facts discovered later may show
+that it was an error. Thus the time was before modern discoveries,
+when people could not conceive of persons living under the earth
+walking with their heads down, or of objects attracted towards each
+other without some material object to connect them and thus draw them
+together.
+
+Other extremists have looked upon the mind as a blank sheet, or have
+become so skeptical of its intuitive impressions that they mistrust
+its guidance almost entirely, especially in religious matters;
+although, strange to say, they inconsistently seem to trust it all
+the more in material things.
+
+It cannot be denied that our "think so's," "feel so's," impressions,
+prejudices and inherited or preconceived ideas may seem as infallible
+to us as any so-called axiomatic or intuitive truths. This delusion
+of the mind has led to multitudes of errors and has held people in
+bondage to ignorance and superstition in all centuries and in all
+countries. It has ever been the greatest hindrance to progress.
+Closely allied to this and reinforcing it is the inertia of the mind,
+through which it naturally continues to run in the grooves in which
+it has been running. After awhile the grooves or ruts become so deep
+and smooth that it seems next to impossible to turn out of them
+without breaking something or upsetting the mental team. We see on
+every hand how hard it is to get away from the ideas we have
+inherited or in which we have lived a long time. When truth, like a
+vine-dresser, has attempted to trim off these unnecessary and
+injurious accretions, it has always raised the hue and cry that the
+foundations of truth were being destroyed.
+
+When Mansel, in his Bampton lectures of 1858, showed that the finite
+intellect is inadequate and helpless in trying to grasp the truth
+where _infinity_ of any kind is involved, the cry was raised that he
+robbed reason of its glory and authority, tore away the very
+foundation of religion and of all truth, and opened the way to all
+kinds of skepticism. But the very purpose of that marvelous piece of
+reasoning was to lead people to the truth as revealed in the Bible
+and to keep them from setting it aside or robbing it of its power
+because it transcends their finite intellects. Good but misled
+people, in all ages, have set aside or limited God's Word by their
+"think so's" or "feel so's," which were mistakingly taken as an
+infallible test of truth. Just as man by feeling knew not God (Acts
+17:27), so man by wisdom knew not God; and it pleased God by the
+foolishness of a revealed gospel to save such as accept it by faith
+(I Cor. 1:21). President Schurman voices the highest conclusion of
+philosophy when he says that the farthest reason can go is to assert
+that _God is necessary as a working theory_. To this we can add
+conceptions of God revealed in our moral nature (Rom. 1:19, 20). But
+what a lifeless skeleton this is compared to the revelation of God in
+Jesus Christ our Saviour.
+
+Bacon, Locke, Mill and others have joined in the battle to destroy a
+false trust in subjective impressions without subjecting them to a
+fearless test of observed facts as revealed in experience,
+observation and testimony. This is not intellectual skepticism that
+destroys all the authority of reason and leaves us to imbecility.
+Just as the conscience, sentiments and perceptive faculties are our
+safe, proper and necessary guides, although not infallible, so our
+logical reason is our safe and necessary guide to truth, although
+helpless to grasp and understand infinite truths and likely to
+deceive us unless we carefully test its impressions or conceptions by
+experience and facts. Reason is the eye of the intellect as
+conscience is of the moral nature. But as the eye is helpless as a
+guide without light, and the conscience without love, so reason is
+helpless and worthless as a guide without facts. There is no conflict
+between theory and practise if the theory takes into consideration
+all the facts. For example, if from the fact that a horse can trot a
+mile in three minutes on the race-track, one should conclude that he
+can trot from one city to another five miles away in fifteen minutes,
+the theory would be false, because it did not take into consideration
+the condition of the road and the fact that a horse cannot keep up
+the same speed for a long distance. Whatever impressions or
+conceptions of the mind may be self-evident or axiomatic truths, it
+is certain that our highest conception of truth must be taken as our
+only and necessary guide; but, knowing the variable part of our
+judgment, and knowing how very likely we are to be mistaken in our
+"think so's" and "feel so's," we should ever be on the alert to
+verify or rectify our convictions by the help of experience and
+facts. The question as to how much of our intellectual power is
+intuitive and innate, or how much is acquired and dependent upon
+truth learned by induction, is not so important after all. For the
+powers of the mind which enable it to learn truths through induction
+from facts observed and experienced come from God just as much as the
+powers that enable us to see truth intuitively.
+
+If we take the consensus of all the mental faculties, we have the
+wonderful human intelligence created but little lower than the angels
+and crowned with glory and honor (Ps. 8:5). Created in the very image
+of God himself (Gen. 1:27), man is an intelligence with the threefold
+guidance of intellect, conscience and sentiments which give him
+abundant light for his daily walk in the fear of the Lord. But even
+our so-called "consciousness," including all these powers, is
+fallible and subject to deception, perversion and delusion and
+therefore it needs the help of the truth revealed in the Bible and
+the help of all the truth we can learn from life and science to
+enable us to fulfill our highest destiny and to continue to progress
+Godward and heavenward.
+
+Let us remember that love is the arch that unites and supports all
+the mental faculties and all the operations of the mind. On it hang
+all the law and prophets, and the gospel as well. Let us rejoice and
+glory in our wonderful heritage of intelligence, but, knowing the
+limitations of our finite minds, let us walk humbly before God and
+our fellow-men.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+LOOKING THROUGH COLORED GLASSES.
+
+
+Differences of Opinion; the Cause and Cure. What Should Be Our
+Attitude Toward Those Who Differ from Us?
+
+The above headings will give you some idea of the matter I wish to
+bring before you in this chapter. From the previous chapters you will
+learn that it was through years of bitter experience that I was
+prepared to write this chapter. I write it in love and humility and
+pray that it may be blessed in warning many of pitfalls in searching
+for truth and may lead to more charity in dealing with those who
+differ from us.
+
+I have spoken of the sad and lamentable differences of opinion among
+the best people on earth during all times and on all subjects. What
+was said in the previous chapter about the fallible, variable voices
+of the different parts of the mind blazes the way for a more detailed
+study of these factors in leading people to error and therefore into
+divisions. Learning of these weaknesses of the mind, that so easily
+lead to a perversion of truth, one might hastily conclude that there
+is no norm of truth and therefore that people cannot see alike.
+Indeed, the differences of opinion in religion and other matters are
+often condoned by the assertion that "people cannot see alike." Is
+this true, and, if so, how far?
+
+Over against the statement that people cannot see things alike, I put
+the indisputable statement that they cannot possibly see things
+_unlike_ if they see them at all. Every person on earth sees red as
+red, unless, indeed, he is color blind, and then he does not see it
+at all, in the proper sense of the word. Two and two make four to
+every mind in the universe. Given the same premises, every logical
+mind will come to the same conclusion and cannot possibly come to any
+other conclusion. The whole law and order of the universe is based
+upon this fact, and without it no science or order would be possible.
+
+We will discover that the differences of opinion among men are not to
+be ascribed to the intellect so much as to the will and
+sensibilities. We wish to refer now to a chief cause of division of
+opinion, and the only one that involves blame; viz.: the human will.
+Multitudes of people are divided who see things alike and are of the
+same opinion so far as the intellect is concerned, but the trouble
+lies in the will power. They deliberately do that which they know is
+not right, for selfish reasons. If this were the only cause of
+division, our problem would be an easy one. For then the only proper
+attitude of the righteous towards those who differ from them, would
+be that of unqualified opposition. Indeed, we are always tempted to
+act on this basis by trusting in ourselves that we are right, and
+treating those who differ from us as wrong and guilty and as
+deserving nothing but our condemnation. If guilt were the only cause
+of division, we would have but two political parties, the one
+containing all the righteous and the other all the wicked. From a
+religious standpoint there would be but two classes; viz., saints and
+sinners. But the problem before us is not such an easy one. The
+causes that lead to differences of opinion are numerous and complex.
+It is not an easy matter to get at the truth, although we might think
+at first thought that it is. Every one seems to be surrounded by an
+atmosphere that reflects, refracts, bends, twists, distorts and
+colors the rays of truth as they come to him.
+
+Neither age, talent, experience, education, piety nor honesty make a
+man error-proof; as may be readily discovered even by a child. For
+the people around us who possess these qualities are divided among
+all the different religious and political parties. And when people
+are divided into different parties, that teach contradictory
+doctrines, they cannot possibly all be right, although they may all
+be wrong.
+
+Inquiring more particularly into the causes of division of opinion,
+aside from guilt, we shall discover the following to be among them:
+finite, limited faculties, limited and false ideas, obtained through
+heredity and ignorance, preconceived ideas and prejudices.
+
+In the search for truth, as in almost everything else, there are two
+extremes, both of which should be avoided. On the one hand are those
+who are too ready to accept new ideas without proper examination.
+They are "tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of
+doctrine." At the other extreme stand the narrow, self-righteous
+bigots who absolutely refuse to even examine the claim of any truth
+they do not already possess. They know it all without finding it out.
+It matters not whether you speak of politics, religion or anything
+else, they know all about it without investigation. They never read
+any but their own party papers and books and never hear any but their
+own speakers and preachers.
+
+It is said that a father and son got into a religious discussion. The
+father was an infidel and the son tried to convert him to
+Christianity. They argued and argued until midnight. Finally the
+father said, "Son, there is no use talking, you can't convert me if
+you argue all night; I am established." The next morning they went
+for a load of wood, and as they left the woods the horse got balky
+and wouldn't move an inch. "What is the matter with this horse,
+anyway?" asked the father. "Why," replied the son, "he is
+established." The Bible says, "Be ye not as the horse or as the mule,
+which have no understanding." It is bad enough for a mule to get
+balky, but what a pity that man, created in the image of God, should
+become balky and refuse to learn the truths that make for his peace
+and progress and for the enlargement of the kingdom of heaven.
+
+An Arabic proverb says: "Mankind are four. He who knows not and knows
+not he knows not; he is a fool, shun him. He who knows not and knows
+that he knows not; he is simple, teach him. He who knows and knows
+not that he knows; he is asleep, wake him. And he who knows and knows
+that he knows; he is wise, follow him." The trouble is to know who
+"knows not and knows not that he knows not," and who "knows and knows
+that he knows." For they both speak with absolute assurance that they
+are right.
+
+Illustrations of how blissfully ignorant of truth we can be are found
+in the facts that Capt. John Smith sailed up the James River to reach
+India and that the Indians planted gunpowder.
+
+It is said that on Lookout Mountain there is a building with windows
+so constructed that if you look out through the one you see a
+snowstorm; through another, you see it raining; while through a
+third, the sun is shining. Thus it is that we look at truth through
+the colored glasses of prejudice and selfish interests, and see what
+is not.
+
+Probably you have heard about the two Irishmen who get into a fist-
+fight over a soap sign. One insisted that it read "Ivory Soap," and
+the other, "It Floats." They saw it from a different angle, and that
+often accounts for differences of opinion.
+
+How expectant attention can deceive us was illustrated a few years
+ago when Crystal Palace, London, was on fire. A large throng of
+people were in distress because they saw a favorite monkey burning on
+the roof. The monkey was later found safe in an adjoining building.
+It was an old coat that the imagination of the crowd had transformed
+into a monkey. Thus it is that people see ghosts, and almost anything
+they are looking for, through a vivid imagination.
+
+In multitudes of cases people are divided because they use words in a
+different sense, or misunderstand their significance. Years ago, when
+I was keeping my father's books, there used to come into the office a
+bright young man who had more natural ability than education. We were
+both fond of discussion, and often had informal debates. One day we
+debated on "Woman suffrage." I opened up on the subject and as I
+proceeded my opponent got restless to reply. When he took the floor
+he exploded something as follows: "I am opposed to 'Woman Suf-fer-
+age' with every drop of vitality within my skin. I will use hand,
+tongue and purse against 'Woman Suf-fer-age.' In short, I am so
+bitterly opposed to 'Woman Suf-fer-age' for the all-sufficing reason
+that I don't want women to suffer." I said, "Amen!" and we were
+agreed for once. You smile, and yet three-fourths of our differences
+would vanish if we patiently conferred together long enough to
+understand each other clearly.
+
+The courts recognize that the best of people are blinded when their
+own interests are involved, and reject jurymen on this basis. Who
+expects parents to be perfectly impartial in their judgment when
+their own children are involved?
+
+The difference of opinion on the slavery question was largely a
+matter of geographical location, and 90 per cent, of us belong to the
+political or religious party to which our parents belonged or to the
+one to which our associations or environment drew us. Had we been
+born in the Catholic Church most of us would be good, faithful
+Catholics, as all history demonstrates, and as our own lives in other
+directions abundantly prove. In a series of articles entitled "Why I
+Am What I Am," one of the most noted preachers in this country
+candidly admits that his church relationship is a mere matter of
+birth. This truth is not very congenial to our boasted independence
+of thought and investigation, but it is the truth nevertheless. The
+power of the above-named fetters to hold us in bondage to error is
+illustrated in all history, sacred and secular. It took Peter about
+ten years after Pentecost, with special miraculous manifestations, to
+see that Gentiles were _creatures_ as well as Jews, and that
+therefore he was commissioned to preach to them also. Paul, the
+pious, earnest and conscientious, "verily thought he was doing God
+service" in persecuting the Saviour who had been pointed out as the
+Christ by many infallible proofs. The Jews crucified the Lord of
+glory largely through ignorance, due to their being blinded by their
+traditions, or inherited religious ideas, and therefore Jesus prayed
+on the cross, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do."
+Luther was mighty in throwing off his inherited ideas, and yet he
+retained so many of them that any church that would to-day practise
+and teach just as Luther did, would be considered very near to the
+Roman Catholic Church. Cotton Mather, one of the most enlightened men
+that ever lived, believed in witches and hung them, and many of the
+pious and enlightened people of New England shared this belief with
+him. Good, pious neighbors will give testimony in court, as to what
+they saw and heard, of the most contradictory character. In nine
+cases out of ten, we find in the Bible just what we bring to it; and
+thus the most pious and best educated see the most contradictory
+doctrines in the same passages of Scripture and fight for them with
+the greatest tenacity, all in the name of conscience. And the saddest
+thing about it all is that all these people show by their consecrated
+lives that they love God and are sincerely trying to serve him. In
+politics, we see the same pitiable state of affairs. In 1896 about
+one-half of our good Christian men voted for the free coinage of
+silver to save their country, and the other half voted for a gold
+standard for the same reason. It does not require any argument to
+prove that at least half of these voters were so blinded by ignorance
+and party bias that they did not see the truth, and possibly all of
+them were. What a great pity that the good Christian people should be
+thus divided through party bias and prejudice and go to slaughtering
+each other, like the enemies of Israel; so that they simply
+neutralize each other's influence and power, while the enemy of right
+runs off with the victory and spoil. It is this mixture of the good
+with the bad in two political parties that enables evil to hold its
+own; while if all the good were united, through the truth, into one
+political party, arrayed against all the bad in another political
+party, they could carry this country for Jesus Christ at every
+election.
+
+Having considered the causes that lead to differences of opinion,
+how, in the light of these facts, should we treat those who differ
+from us?
+
+In the first place, we should deal with them in humility. When we see
+how the great and good men of all history have been hindered from
+seeing the plainest and simplest truths by their inherited and
+preconceived ideas, it should take the conceit out of us and make us
+very fearful lest we are suffering with the same dread disease. For
+it is to be noted that hardly any one who suffers from this malady is
+aware of it. Cromwell's words to Parliament will bear a universal
+application, when he said, "I beseech you, by the bowels of the Lord,
+that you conceive it possible that you may be mistaken." Not only is
+it possible, but it is probable, that we are mistaken in a great many
+of our ideas. Therefore we should approach others in an humble,
+teachable spirit. Let us not imagine that we know it all, and treat
+those who differ from us with self-righteous scorn and contempt.
+
+And that leads me to say that we should treat those who differ from
+us, with love, respect and sympathy. I believe that more reformers
+have been crippled in their efforts by failing in this than in any
+other way. We are likely to attribute all our failures to the sin and
+bad character of others, when the fault often lies in ourselves. God
+gives a vision of some great truth or needed reform; as, for example,
+the prohibition of the liquor traffic, or the union of God's people
+on the primitive gospel. The message is sweet to us, and so we go on
+our way with great joy, feeling sure that we will soon convert
+everybody to our righteous cause. But, alas! we soon discover that
+people will not convert very fast. Our argument seems to us more
+clear and infallible every time we repeat it, and yet the people fail
+to come to our position. And so we are likely to lose faith in the
+people, and come to the conclusion that it is nothing but sin and
+guilt that causes them to reject our message. The next step is to
+forget our own weaknesses, trust in ourselves that we are right, and
+treat with hate and contempt those who differ from us. Treating our
+opponents with hate and scorn, we lose both our humility and
+Christian character, and develop into the most hideous and ungodly
+characters on earth, self-righteous Pharisees. And so it happens that
+we reformers often need reformation worse than those whom we seek to
+reform. But you say, did not Jesus and the Apostles severely denounce
+sinners? Yes, but they always first made sure that they were sinners.
+Jesus could read men's hearts and, therefore, made no mistake, while
+Paul always reasoned with his opponents out of the Scriptures in love
+and humility, and only condemned them after clear and positive
+evidence that the fault was in their motive. Paul says, in writing to
+Timothy, "the servant of the Lord must not strive; but must be gentle
+unto all men, apt to teach, patient; in meekness instructing those
+that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance
+to the acknowledging of the truth." And, where he exhorts to
+"reprove" and "rebuke," it is with "all longsuffering." James says,
+"The wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God" We are never
+commanded to despise, hate or denounce any man; but, on the other
+hand, we are to love every one, even our enemies.
+
+We are all human, and when it is as clear as daylight to us that we
+have the truth and argument on our side, it is a great temptation to
+cut to pieces and roast our opponents. But is it Christ-like to do
+it? Do we forget how long it took us to come to the position that now
+seems so clear to us? Some one has said that, in dealing with
+children, "we should remember that they are left-handed," and this is
+certainly true of people in their relation to truth. The slowness
+with which people take up new ideas is a merit as well as a fault. We
+could have no stability and progress anywhere if it were not for this
+inertia in convictions. "The Athenians and strangers sojourning there
+spent their time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear some
+new thing," and if we would all be occupied in that way, not much
+would be accomplished in the world. If we would become disciples of
+every propagandist whose arguments we cannot answer on the spur of
+the moment, there would be nothing but change and confusion.
+Realizing the difficulties in the way of finding truth, and observing
+how even the wisest and best have been deceived and ensnared in
+error, naturally ought to make people conservative in accepting new
+ideas, and the same reasons should make us patient with those who
+differ from us. They usually need our patient and sympathetic
+instruction more than our contempt, hatred and denunciation.
+
+All this being true, we should never forget, however, that it is our
+sacred duty to treat those who differ from us, _in truth_. There are
+two attitudes that are very easy to take. The one is to treat our
+differences with childish sentimentalism, saying, "Peace, peace,"
+when there is or ought not to be any peace. The other is to hate and
+abuse those who differ from us, and to treat their opinions as
+beneath our contempt. But the difficult thing to do is to tell the
+whole truth, as we see it, and to do it in love and humility. We are
+under obligation to tell the truth boldly whatever the outcome may
+be. To those who threaten us and command us not to tell the truth, we
+must reply in the language of Peter and John: "Whether it be right in
+the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye.
+For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard."
+When people cry, "Peace, peace," at the expense of truth and right,
+and want us to speak "smooth things" instead of God's Word, we must
+take warning from God's words to Ezekiel, which apply to every
+preacher of truth, "When I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely
+die; and thou givest him not warning, nor speakest to warn the wicked
+from his wicked way, to save his life: the same wicked man shall die
+in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand." Paul
+went into the Jewish synagogues repeatedly to lead them into the full
+truth, although he raised strife and contention in so doing, and even
+suffered violence at their hands. Unfortunately, a large per cent. of
+Christians have formed a conspiracy of silence on matters in which
+they differ. We have so little of the Spirit of Christ that we cannot
+even talk over our differences without getting angry and exhibiting
+the fruits of the flesh. And so we say, "We will agree to disagree,"
+and we continue to nourish, pet and worship our differences as if
+they were gods. This puts a mighty padlock on the growth into the
+unity of the faith and knowledge and judgment which Christ and the
+Apostles enjoined upon us. We need to get the New Testament
+conception of the hideousness and sinfulness of all divisions among
+God's people. And while we recognize the fact that there will always
+be differences of opinion as long as we are ignorant and sinful and
+weak, nevertheless it is our Christian duty to use our utmost effort
+to diminish and remove these differences. There always will be sin in
+this world but we dare not be satisfied with it or abide in it; but,
+on the other hand, we must fight it with all the power we possess.
+The same is true with divisions and differences of opinion.
+
+We must, however, not overlook the important differences between
+matters of faith and of opinion. Matters of faith are directly
+revealed in the Bible, and upon these all Christians can and must
+agree as soon as they get a fair look at them. While matters of
+opinion, which are not directly revealed in the Bible, but are
+inferred from things revealed, are important, they are not all
+important, like matters of faith. But the more we overcome the
+hindrances to finding truth, of which we have spoken, the more we
+will be of the same mind and judgment in all things. For truth is not
+divided, and we will all see it alike in so far as we see clearly. As
+a rule, we can readily unite on the most important truths, and
+therefore on those we need to unite on for our present duty. While,
+if, through lack of faith, we turn away from the clear duty to seek
+one that is easier, and requires less sacrifice, we usually become
+hopelessly divided and thus fail in our effort.
+
+In conclusion, having a clear conception of the baneful and ruinous
+effect of differences of opinion, and being aware of the powerful
+causes which hinder us from getting at the truth and thus divide us,
+let us strive day and night, in prayer and labor, to get the truth
+ourselves and to lead others into the truth. For in and through the
+truth, we shall, with "one mind" and "one soul," go conquering and to
+conquer, in the name of King Jesus, for the enlargement of his
+kingdom of love, peace and joy.
+
+
+
+
+PART II.
+
+HOW I FOUND CHRIST'S CHURCH
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+SCRIPTURAL BAPTISM.
+
+
+One of the chief things that led me to identify myself with the
+people working for Christian union, was my experience with regard to
+baptism. Indeed, I am more and more convinced that baptism is the
+main key to the question of Christian union. We can differ on
+questions of theoretical theology and still work together in harmony
+in practical Christian activities. But if we differ on the question
+of baptism, we cannot take the first step in preaching the gospel and
+in leading souls to Christ, in the New Testament way, without getting
+into conflict. The only way that union meetings of different
+denominations have been at all possible, has been by ignoring the
+plain teaching and practice of the Apostles on the question of
+baptism. We never can have Christian union in the authority of
+Christ, which is the only union which will satisfy his prayer and
+demand, until we agree on the two simple ordinances which are the
+forms in which the gospel embodies itself to bless our souls. And,
+fortunately, these are the easiest things to unite on. When free from
+prejudice, there is no question on which Christians can more easily
+agree than that of baptism, as the testimony of the scholars and
+churches that follow in this chapter abundantly demonstrate. The
+consummation of Christian union will have to patiently wait until
+inherited and acquired prejudices become sufficiently allayed so that
+all Christians can look at the question of baptism dispassionately.
+Then it will be discovered that we all agree on this question and the
+main barrier to Christian union will be removed. In our weakness we
+want to procure Christian union without giving up our sectarian ideas
+that have been superadded to the New Testament teaching, and that
+have caused our division. And so we try to compromise by "agreeing to
+disagree" or by ignoring the teachings of the New Testament. But such
+efforts must be futile and disappointing. We can never unite on the
+gospel until we agree in the gospel teaching. We can never unite in
+obeying the Master until we unite in our opinions as to what the
+Master has commanded us to do. But, thank God, the field is rapidly
+ripening for this agreement and consequent union.
+
+As is usually the case, I received my early ideas on baptism by
+heredity and environment, so far as I had any ideas on the subject.
+The religious people with whom I was associated in my early life
+taught and practiced sprinkling and infant baptism, and, of course, I
+assumed that they must be right in the matter. Although I read the
+Bible through several times, I did not see its teaching on this
+subject, as I was not particularly interested in it. For reasons
+explained in previous chapters--that we look through colored glasses
+--multitudes of people daily read their Bible who never see what is in
+it; but imagine, as a matter of course, that it teaches what they
+bring to it through hereditary and preconceived ideas.
+
+As already stated, I was first led to think on this subject while I
+studied New Testament Greek under President Cary, of the Meadville
+Theological School. When we came to the word _baptizoo_, Dr. Cary
+told the class that all Greek scholars of note agree that the meaning
+of the word in the mouth of Jesus was _to immerse_. This statement
+was a great surprise to me, and I decided to discover for myself
+whether this was the fact or not. This was the beginning of my
+investigation of the subject of baptism. I found that Dr. Cary was
+correct in his statement. What influenced me greatly was the fact
+that the German rationalists, who are recognized as among the best
+scholars of the world, and who are perfectly impartial on this
+subject, as they do not care what the Bible teaches about baptism,
+all say that baptism is immersion, without ever hinting at a
+possibility for difference of opinion. I investigated the matter for
+several years, as I found opportunity, until there was not the shadow
+of a doubt left in my mind that immersion is New Testament baptism.
+
+While a student at Oberlin Theological Seminary, I found that all the
+authorities they used in New Testament Greek, taught immersion, while
+their churches practise sprinkling. In studying Hebrews in the Greek,
+we used Dr. Westcott's commentary. When we came to Heb. 10:22,
+"having our bodies washed with pure water," Dr. Westcott said this
+referred to the "laver of regeneration" or the primitive practice of
+immersion. When we studied Romans in Greek, we used Dr. Sanday's
+International Critical Commentary. The professor told us it was the
+very best and probably would be for years to come. When we came to
+Rom. 6:4, "buried with him through baptism," Dr. Sanday never raised
+a doubt about the meaning, but in eloquent words spoke about the
+beautiful representation of burial and resurrection with Christ in
+baptism. This astonished me very much, as Drs. Westcott and Sanday
+were noted Episcopalian scholars, and the Episcopal churches practise
+sprinkling. We used Dr. Thayer's New Testament Greek lexicon, which
+the professor informed us was the very best in the English language.
+This lexicon defined _baptizoo_ as meaning _to dip_, and never hinted
+that sprinkling or pouring might he its meaning. As I said above, I
+found Dr. Cary correct in claiming that all Greek scholars of note
+agree that the meaning of the word in the mouth of Jesus was _to
+immerse_, and I have never been able to get hold of a single New
+Testament lexicon that defines _baptizoo_ as ever meaning to sprinkle
+or pour.
+
+The following chart and facts will help us to get at the truth about
+the meaning of the Greek word _baptizoo_ without quoting from a long
+list of lexicons:
+
+[Illustration: A STUDY IN MEANING OF WORDS.]
+
+You notice in the chart that we have three separate and distinct
+words in the Greek for immersion, sprinkling and pouring; and these
+words have their primary or proper, secondary or tropical meanings,
+all of which must be differentiated. The primary or proper meaning
+has reference to specific acts, the secondary meaning refers to
+things done by means of these specific acts, while the tropical or
+metaphorical meaning departs from the specific meaning of the words
+and therefore cannot have reference to the specific outward acts
+indicated by the words. For this reason it is a law of language,
+recognized by all scholars, that you must give a word its primary or
+proper meaning when it is employed in commanding an outward act,
+unless the context demands another meaning.
+
+Notice the English words _shoot_, _hang_ and _poison_. These express
+specific outward acts; and, then, in their secondary meaning, they
+mean to kill, but always to kill in the way indicated by the primary
+meaning of the word. A man can be hung, shot or poisoned without
+being killed; but if it is reported that he was hung, shot or
+poisoned, we would all understand that he was killed. However, you
+cannot conceive of words so changing their meaning, that when it is
+said a man was hung, it means that he was shot, or when it is said he
+was poisoned, it means he was hung. No more is it conceivable that
+when the Greek word _baptizoo_ (to immerse) was used, it meant to
+cleanse by sprinkling (_rantizoo_), or when the word _rantizoo_ (to
+sprinkle) was used, it meant to cleanse by immersing (_baptizoo_).
+These words refer primarily to separate and distinct outward acts. It
+is true they may meet in their secondary meaning in the idea _to
+cleanse_; but they always refer to cleansing in the way indicated by
+the primary meaning of the word used. When they travel so far from
+their primary or proper meaning, which has reference to specific
+outward acts, that their meaning is said to be tropical or
+metaphorical, they lose their specific idea and have no longer any
+reference to the specific acts denoted by the words.
+
+It is true that words can and do often change or enlarge their
+meaning. But this is always to supply a need created by the lack of a
+proper word to express an associated idea. Now, both the specific and
+general ideas with reference to the application of water are so
+copiously supplied with words in the Greek, that they preclude the
+necessity of changing the meaning of a word like _baptizoo_ to supply
+such a need. We have _louoo_, to wash or bathe the body; _niptoo_, to
+wash a part of the body, as the hands, feet, face, etc.; _plunoo_, to
+wash clothes; _brechoo_, to wet, to rain; _katharizoo_, to cleanse;
+_ekcheoo_, to pour; _rantizoo_, to sprinkle; _baptizoo_, to immerse,
+etc.
+
+Thus we have a threefold guard to keep _baptizoo_ to its primary or
+proper meaning of _to dip_ or _immerse_. First, an abundance of Greek
+words to express every general and specific idea about the
+application of water, except that of immersion; second, the fact that
+a tropical meaning of a word cannot refer to the specific outward act
+indicated by the word; and third, the law of interpretation which
+demands that a word be given its primary or proper meaning in
+commandments, or plain narrative, unless the context expressly
+demands a different meaning.
+
+The above definitions of the word _baptizoo_ are taken from Dr.
+Thayer's "New Testament Greek Lexicon." In reply to letters inquiring
+about Dr. Thayer's "New Testament Greek Lexicon," the following
+answers-were received. It is the "best" (Professor Hodge, of
+Princeton); it is the "very best" (Dr. Alexander, of Vanderbilt
+University); "nothing can compare with it" (Dr Hersman, president of
+the Southwestern Presbyterian University). This opinion is
+practically made unanimous from the fact that Dr. Thayer's Lexicon is
+used at all of the leading schools in the country.
+
+A request for an authoritative lexicon that gives "sprinkle" or
+"pour" as a meaning of _baptizoo_, elicited the following answers:
+"There is no such lexicon" (Professor Humphreys, of the University of
+Virginia, and Professor D'ooge, of Colby University); "I know of
+none" (Professor Flagg, of Cornell); "I do not know of any"
+(Professor Tyler, of Amherst). "_Baptizoo_ means _to immerse_. All
+lexicographers and critics of any note are agreed in this."--_Dr.
+Moses Stuart._
+
+Thus we learn, through the testimony of experts, without consulting
+all the numerous Greek lexicons, that they define the word _baptizoo_
+as meaning _to immerse_ and that none of them say it means _to
+sprinkle_ or _to pour_.
+
+The great mass of Christians know nothing about the Greek experts who
+make the lexicons, but are much better acquainted with and influenced
+by the great church leaders and church standards. Therefore we
+present the following quotations:
+
+_Scholars and Churches Admit that Christ Taught Immersion._
+
+NOTE.--These quotations are taken from a tract of mine on baptism.
+
+I. _Council of Toledo_, 633 (Catholic): "We observe a single
+immersion in baptism."
+
+2. _Council of Cologne_, 1280 (Catholic): "That he who baptizes when
+he immerses the candidate in water," etc.
+
+3. _Martini_ (Roman Catholic): "In all of the pontificals and rituals
+I have seen (except that of Madeleine de Beulieu), and I have seen
+many, ancient as well as more recent, immersion is prescribed."
+
+4. _Dollinger_ (Roman Catholic): "Baptism was administered by an
+entire immersion in water." (Chu. History, vol. 2, p. 294.) "A mere
+pouring or sprinkling was never thought of." (First Age of Chu., p.
+318.) "Baptism by immersion continued to be the prevailing practice
+of the church as late as the fourteenth century." (Hist. Ch., vol. 2,
+p. 295.)
+
+5. _Ritual of Greek Catholic Church_: "The priest immerses him,
+saying the servant of God is immersed, in the name of the Father,"
+etc.
+
+6. _Russian Catechism_ (Greek Catholic): "This they hold to be a
+point necessary, that no part of the child be undipped in water,"
+etc.
+
+7. _Alex. De Stourdza_ (native Greek): "The verb baptize, _immergo_,
+has, in fact, but one sole acceptation. It signifies, literally and
+always, to plunge. Baptism and immersion are, therefore, identical,
+and to say baptism is by aspersion is as if one should say, immersion
+by aspersion, or any other absurdity of the same nature." (Con. sur
+LaDoc. et L'Esprit, p. 87.)
+
+8. _Dr. Kyriasko_, of University of Athens, Greece: "The verb baptize
+in the Greek language never has the meaning of to pour or to
+sprinkle, but invariably that of to dip." (Letter to C. G. Jones,
+Lynchburg, Va.)
+
+9. _Syrian Ritual_ (Nestorians): "The priest immerses him in water,
+saying such a one is baptized in the name of the Father," etc.
+
+10. _Martin Luther_: "Baptism is a Greek word. In Latin it can be
+translated immersion, as when we plunge something into water, that it
+may be completely covered with water; they ought to have been
+completely immersed." (The Sacrament of Baptism.)
+
+11. _Lutheran Catechism_, p. 216: "In what did this act (baptism)
+consist?" Answer: "The one to be baptized was first immersed in
+water, signifying death, and then he was drawn out again and was
+dressed with a new dress, as if he now were a different new being."
+
+12. _John Calvin_ (Presbyterian): "The word baptize signifies to
+immerse, and it is certain that the rite of immersion was observed by
+the ancient church." (Inst. Book 4, c. 15.)
+
+13. _Richard Baxter_ (Presbyterian): "It is commonly confessed by us
+to the Anabaptists, as our commentators declare, that in the
+Apostles' time the baptized were dipped over head in the water."
+(Dis. Right to Sac., p. 70.)
+
+14. _Dr. W. D. Powell_, while in Athens, Greece, wrote: "I found that
+all churches in Greece--the Presbyterian included--are compelled to
+immerse candidates for baptism, for, as one of the professors
+remarked, 'the commonest day laborer understands nothing else for
+_baptizoo_ but immersion.'"
+
+15. _Zwingle_ (Reformed): "When ye were immersed into the water of
+baptism, ye wrere engrafted into the death of Christ." (Com. Rom.
+6:3.)
+
+16. _John Wesley_ (Methodist): "We are buried with him, alluding to
+the ancient manner of baptizing by immersion." (Notes on N. T., Rom.
+6:4.) "Baptized according to the custom of the first church and the
+rule of the Church of England, by immersion." (Journal, vol. I, p.
+20.) In Savannah, Ga., Sept., 1737, Wesley was found guilty of
+breaking the laws of the realm, among other things "by refusing to
+baptize Mr. Parker's child otherwise than by dipping." (Jour., vol.
+I, pp. 42, 43.)
+
+17. _The Methodist Discipline_ of 1846, and the old Discipline
+compiled by Wesley himself, assert that "Jesus was baptized in the
+river of Jordan, and that the sixth of Romans means simply a burial
+in water."
+
+18. _Adam Clark_ (Methodist): "As they received baptism as an emblem
+of death, in voluntarily going under the water, so they received it
+as an emblem of the resurrection into eternal life, in coming up out
+of the water." (Com., vol. 4, N. T.)
+
+19. _Prayer Book_ (Church of England): "The priest shall dip him in
+the water, discreetly and warily."
+
+20. _Conybeare and Howson_ (Episcopalians): "It is needless to add
+that baptism was administered by immersion, the convert being plunged
+beneath the surface of the water to represent his death to the life
+of sin, then raised from this momentary burial to represent his
+resurrection to the life of righteousness. It must be a subject of
+regret that the general discontinuance of this original form of
+baptism has rendered obscure to popular apprehension some very
+important passages of Scripture." (Life of St. Paul.)
+
+26. _Prof. L. L. Paine_ (Congregational): "It may be honestly asked
+by some, Was immersion the primitive form of baptism? As to the
+question of fact, the testimony is ample and decisive. It is a point
+on which ancient, medieval and modern historians alike, Catholic and
+Protestant, Lutheran and Calvinist, have no controversy. No historian
+who cares for his reputation would dare to deny it, and no historian
+who is worthy of the name would wish to."
+
+27. _Dr. George Campbell_ (Presbyterian): "I have heard a disputant
+of this stamp, in defiance of etymology and use, maintain that the
+word rendered in the N. T. baptize means more properly to sprinkle
+than to plunge. One who argues in this manner never fails, with
+persons of knowledge, to betray the cause he would defend; and though
+in respect to the vulgar, bold assertions generally succeed as well
+as arguments, sometimes better, yet a candid mind will disdain to
+take the help of a falsehood even in support of the truth." (Lect. on
+Pul. El. Lect, 10, pp. 294, 295.)
+
+28. _Philip Schaff_ (Un. Theo. Sem.): "The baptism of Christ in the
+river Jordan, and the illustrations of baptism used in the N. T., are
+all in favor of immersion rather than sprinkling, as is freely
+admitted by the best exegetes, Catholic and Protestant, English and
+German. Nothing can be gained by an unnatural exegesis." (Teaching of
+Apostles, pp. 55,56.)
+
+29. _Paul_: "We are buried with him by baptism into death; that like
+as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father,
+even so we also should walk in newness of life." (Rom. 6:4.)
+
+30. _Peter_ says our bodies are washed in baptism, (1 Pet. I:23.)
+
+31. _Mark_: "Jesus--was baptized in [Marg., Greek, _into_] the
+Jordan" (Mark 1:9, A. R. V.). He could not have been baptized _into
+the water_ without being immersed.
+
+_Churches Have Changed Immersion to Sprinkling_.
+
+1. The first record of sprinkling for baptism is that of Novatian, A.
+D. 250. It was thought he was dying and, as he could not be immersed,
+they sprinkled water on him. Thus originated what was called _clinic_
+or _death-bed_ baptism. Its introduction was vigorously opposed for
+centuries and clinics were not admitted to sacred orders, many
+doubting their baptism.
+
+2. _Pope Stephen III_. In 754 the monks of Cressy asked Stephen III.:
+"Is it lawful, in case of necessity, occasioned by sickness, to
+baptize an infant by pouring water on its head from a cup or the
+hands?" The Pope replied: "Such a baptism, performed in such a case
+of necessity, shall be accounted valid." Basnage says:" This was
+accounted the first law against immersion."
+
+3. _The Council of Ravenna_, 1311, decreed: "Baptism is to be
+administered by trine aspersion or immersion." This was the first
+authority for sprinkling except in case of sickness.
+
+4. _Cardinal Gibbons_ (R. Catholic): "Since the twelfth century the
+practice of baptizing by affusion has prevailed in the Catholic
+Church, as this manner is attended with less inconvenience than
+baptism by immersion." (Faith of Our Fathers, p. 275.)
+
+5. _Bishop of Bossuet_ (R. Catholic): "The case (communion under one
+kind) was much the same as that of baptism by immersion, as clearly
+grounded on Scripture as communion under both kinds could be, and
+which, nevertheless, had been changed into infusion, with as much
+ease and as little contradiction as communion under one kind was
+established, so that the same reason stood for retaining one as the
+other. It is a fact most certainly avowed in the Reformation,
+although some will cavil at it, that baptism was instituted by
+immersing the whole body in water. This fact, I say, is unanimously
+acknowledged by all the divines of the Reformation: by Luther, by
+Melancthon, by Calvin, by Casaubon, by Grotius, by all the rest."
+(Varia. Protest., vol. 2, p. 370.)
+
+6. _Archbishop Kenrick_ (R. Catholic): "The change of discipline
+which has taken place as to baptism should not surprise us, for,
+although the church is but the dispenser of the sacraments which her
+Divine Spouse instituted, she rightfully exercises a discretionary
+power as to the manner of their adminstration. Immersion was well
+suited to the Eastern nations, whose habits and climate prepared them
+for it, and was, therefore, practiced in the commencement, whenever
+necessity did not prevent it. Cases, which at first were exceptional,
+gradually multiplied, so that, at length, the ordinary mode of
+baptism was by affusion. The church wisely sanctioned that which,
+although less solemn, is equally effectual. The power of binding and
+loosing, which she received from Christ, warrants this exercise of
+governing wisdom. It is not for the individuals to question a right
+which has been at all times claimed and exercised by those to whom
+the dispensation of the mysteries is divinely intrusted." (Kenrick on
+Bap., p. 174.)
+
+7. _Haydock, Endorsed by Pope Pius IX_.: "The church, which cannot
+change the least article of faith, is not so tied up in matters of
+discipline and ceremony. Not only the Catholic Church, but also the
+pretended reformed churches, have altered the primitive custom in
+giving the sacrament of baptism and now allow of baptisms by
+sprinkling and pouring water upon the person baptized."(Notes on
+Douay Bible, Matt. 3:16.)
+
+8. _Lutheran Catechism_, p. 208: "What is baptism?" Answer: "To dip
+under water." "Do we still baptize in that way?" Answer: "No; because
+of the rough climate, the subject now is only sprinkled."
+
+9. _John Calvin_ (Presbyterian): "Wherefore the church did grant
+liberty to herself, since the beginning, to change the rites
+somewhat, excepting the substance. It is of no consequence at all
+whether the person that is baptized is totally immersed, or whether
+he is merely sprinkled by an affusion of water. This should be a
+matter of choice to the churches in different regions."
+
+10. _Westminster Assembly_ (Presbyterian), 1643: "In the Assembly of
+Divines, held at Westminster in 1643, it was keenly debated whether
+immersion or sprinkling should be adopted; 25 voted for sprinkling,
+and 24 for immersion; and even that small majority was obtained at
+the earnest request of Dr. Lightfoot, who had acquired great
+influence in that assembly." (Edinburgh Ency., vol. 3, p. 236.)
+
+11. _Dr. Wall_ (Episcopalian): "One would have thought that the cold
+countries should have been the first that should have changed the
+custom from dipping to affusion. But by history it appears that the
+cold climates held the custom of dipping as long as any; for England,
+which is one of the coldest, was one of the latest that admitted this
+alteration of the ordinary way. . . . The offices or liturgies for
+public baptism in the Church of England did all along, so far as I
+can learn, enjoin dipping, without any mention of pouring or
+sprinkling. The Prayer Book, printed in 1549, adds: 'And if the child
+be weak, it shall suffice to pour water upon it'"(Wall's Hist. Inft.
+Bap., vol. 3, pp. 575,579.)
+
+12. _Dean Stanley_ (Episcopalian): In speaking of immersion, he says:
+"The cold climate of Russia has not been found an obstacle to its
+continuance throughout that vast empire. Even in the Church of
+England it is still observed in theory. The Rubric in the public
+baptism for infants enjoins that, unless for special causes, they are
+to be dipped, not sprinkled."(Institutes, pp. 18,19.) The Church of
+England has changed to sprinkling, but its creed teaches immersion.
+
+13. _Sir John Floyer_: "I have now given what testimony I could find
+in our English authors, to prove the practice of immersion from the
+time the Britons and Saxons were baptized, till King James' days,
+when the people grew peevish with all ancient ceremonies, and through
+the love of novelty and the niceness of parents, and the pretense of
+modesty, they laid aside immersion." (History of Cold Bathing, p.
+61.)
+
+14. _Bishop A. C. Coxe, editor of Ante-Nicene Fathers_
+(Episcopalian): "The word (_baptizo_) means to dip. In the Church of
+England dipping is even now the primary rule. But it is not the
+ordinary custom. It survived far down into Queen Elizabeth's time,
+but seems to have died out early in the seventeenth century. I ought
+to add that in France (unreformed) the custom of dipping became
+obsolete long before it was disused in England. But for this bad
+example, my own opinion is, that dipping would still prevail among
+Anglicans. I wish that all Christians would restore the primitive
+practice." (In a letter to J. T. Christian.)
+
+Thus we have the testimony of all the scholars in all the churches,
+who are recognized as Greek experts outside of their own party, that
+the New Testament teaches immersion and that it has been changed to
+sprinkling and pouring by human authority. We do not believe that
+this change was made with a bad motive. It was evidently done in
+sincerity and in the honest belief that it was the right thing to do.
+We must accept the honest testimony of these scholarly experts that
+the New Testament teaches immersion, but we certainly believe they
+were mistaken in taking the liberty to change Christ's command. If we
+take such liberties, all of the commandments of Christ will soon be
+set aside and confusion will be worse confounded. Indeed, it is this
+very liberty of substituting what men thought best for the things
+revealed in the New Testament, that has caused our present sectarian
+divisions by adding human names, creeds, customs, etc., to the
+primitive gospel.
+
+_Scriptures to Show It is Wrong to Change Christ's Commands_.
+
+"They have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the
+everlasting covenant" (Isa. 24:5).
+
+"Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the
+commandments of men. For laying aside the commandments of God, ye
+hold the tradition of men. Ye reject the commandment of God that ye
+may keep your own tradition. Making the word of God of none effect
+through your tradition, which ye have delivered; and many such like
+things ye do" (Mark 7:7-9, 13).
+
+"Though it be but a man's covenant, yet if it be confirmed, no man
+disannulleth, or addeth thereto" (Gal. 3: 15).
+
+"Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the
+fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and
+stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry" (I Sam. 15:22,23).
+
+"He that turneth away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer
+shall be abomination" (Prov. 28:9).
+
+"Whosoever heareth these sayings of mine and doeth them, I will liken
+him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock. And every one
+that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be
+likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand; and
+the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat
+upon that house; and it fell; and great was the fall of it" (Matt.
+7:24, 26,27).
+
+"If ye love me, keep my commandments. He that hath my commandments
+and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me. If a man love me, he will
+keep my words. Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you"
+(John 14: 15,21,23; 15:14). "Why call ye me Lord, Lord, and do not
+the things which I say" (Luke 6:46).
+
+"And all the people that heard him, and the publicans, justified God,
+being baptized with the baptism of John. But the Pharisees and
+lawyers rejected the counsel of God against themselves, being not
+baptized of him" (Luke 7:29,30.)
+
+"And hereby do we know that we know him, if we keep his commandments.
+He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a
+liar, and the truth is not in him" (I John 2: 3,4).
+
+But, after all, the very best way for ordinary people to learn the
+meaning of baptism, is to go to the English Bible. Although human
+authority and prejudice have hindered the translators from
+translating the Greek word, and thus telling us what it means in
+English, the contexts and sidelights on the subject make its meaning
+so plain that all can readily see it if divested of prejudice and
+preconceived ideas.
+
+By reading the introduction to the English Revised Bible, you will
+learn that the translators of the Authorized Version were forbidden
+to translate the word. Other translators have followed their example;
+so that it is neither translated to _sprinkle, to pour_ nor _to immerse_
+in our standard English Bibles. The Greek word _baptisma_ has simply
+had the last letter dropped and been carried over into English bodily.
+But the word has been translated in numerous editions in various
+languages, and whenever it has been translated, it was always by
+the word _immerse_ or an equivalent term. No scholar, in any language,
+has ever had the temerity to translate it _to sprinkle_ or _to pour_.
+Even our English translators translate it when it is not used as an
+ecclesiastical term. And when they translate it, they say it means _to
+dip_. In 2 Kings 5:14, we read of Naaman, "He went down and _dipped_
+[_baptizato_] himself seven times in Jordan." We may not have a
+sufficient knowledge of Greek to determine what Jesus meant when he
+commanded us to be baptized. But the Apostles certainly understood
+him; and if we can find out what they did when they baptized, and we
+do the same thing, then we know we are right, and have done what
+Christ commanded.
+
+Let us turn to the Sacred Record and see what they did when they
+baptized.
+
+We read: "And there went out unto him all the country of Judaea, and
+all they of Jerusalem, and they were baptized of him _in the river
+Jordan_, confessing their sins. . . . And it came to pass in those
+days, that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee, and was baptized of
+John _in_ [Greek _into_, marg. of A. R. V.] _the Jordan_. And
+straightway _coming up out of the water_, he saw the heavens opened,
+and the Spirit like a dove descending upon him" (Mark 1:5,9,10).
+"John was baptizing in AEnon near to Salim, _because there was much
+water there_" (John 3:23). "And they _both went down into the water_,
+both Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him. And when _they came
+up out of the water_ . . . he went on his way rejoicing" (Acts
+8:38,39). "We are _buried_ with him _by baptism_," "_planted_ in the
+likeness of his death," "and _raised_ in the likeness of his
+resurrection" (Rom. 6:4,5). "Having our hearts sprinkled from an evil
+conscience and _our bodies washed_ with pure water" (Heb. 10:22).
+"Except a man be _born of the water_ and of the Spirit he cannot
+enter the kingdom of heaven" (John 3:5). The italics are mine.
+
+The following chart summarizes our study of baptism in the English
+Bible:
+
+         BAPTISM IN THE ENGLISH BIBLE
+
+ THE BIBLE AND IMMERSION    SPRINKLING AND POURING
+         REQUIRE:                   REQUIRE:
+
+1. Water. Acts 8:36; 10:47        1. Water
+
+2. Much water. John 3:23          2. Little water
+
+3. Going to water. Mark 1:9       3. Bringing water
+
+4. Going into water. Acts 8:38    4. Staying out of water
+
+5. Putting into water. Mark 1:9   5. Putting water on
+          (Margin of A. R. V)
+
+6. Form of burial. Col. 2:12      6. No form of burial
+
+7. Form of planting. Rom 6:5      7. No form of planting
+
+8. Form of birth. John 3:5        8. No form of birth
+
+9. Form of resurrection.          9. No form of resurrection
+          Rom. 6:4
+
+10. Form of doctrine. Rom. 6:17   10. No form of doctrine
+
+11. Bodies washed. Heb. 10:22     11. Head wet
+
+12. Coming up out of the water.   12. No getting out
+          Mark 1:10
+
+We thus learn that in being baptized they _went to water_, to _much
+water_, went _into the water_, were _put into the water_, were
+_buried in the water, planted in the water, born out of the water,
+raised out of the water_, had their _bodies washed_ and _came up out
+of the water_. If we do these things, we are Scripturally baptized
+and have been immersed.
+
+The following passages are the only places where sprinkling and
+pouring are found in the New Testament:
+
+_Sprinkling and Pouring in the New Testament_.
+
+ 1. Heb. 9:13.--Blood.
+ 2. Heb. 9:19.--Blood.
+ 3. Heb. 9:21.--Blood.
+ 4. Heb. 10:22.--Hearts.
+ 5. Heb. 11:28.--Blood.
+ 6. Heb. 12:24.--Blood.
+ 7. 1 Pet. 1:2.--Blood.
+ 8. Matt. 26:7,12.--Ointment.
+ 9. John 2:15.--Money.
+ 10. Acts 10:45.--Spirit.
+ 11. John 13:5.--Water.
+ 12. Luke 10:34.--Oil and Wine.
+ 13. Rev. 14:10.--Wrath.
+
+You will notice that none of these Scriptures refer to baptism and
+that none of the Scriptures that do refer to baptism hint at
+sprinkling or pouring as the action. Sprinkling and pouring for
+baptism must come from some other source. We have already learned
+whence they came.
+
+Some people will argue against immersion for hours, and when they are
+driven into their last trenches, and about to be caught, they try to
+escape by saying, "Baptism doesn't amount to anything at any rate,
+it's a mere form. The great thing is Holy Spirit baptism."
+
+To begin with, Holy Spirit baptism is not baptism at all, strictly
+speaking. It is only figurative baptism. It is not always called
+baptism. It is called _an anointing_ (Luke 4: 18), _a drinking_ (1
+Cor. 12: 13), _an enduing_ (Luke 24:49), a _filling_ (Acts 2:4), and
+a _sealing_ (Eph. 1 : 13). No person can be literally sprinkled or
+poured with the Holy Spirit, or immersed into Him, as the Holy Spirit
+is a person. The figurative meaning of baptism is to overwhelm, and
+to be baptized with the Holy Spirit is to be submerged or overwhelmed
+in His power, or to come completely under His control. Holy Spirit
+baptism is not a command to obey, but a promise to enjoy. It can only
+be administered by Christ himself (John 1:33). Therefore, whenever in
+the New Testament baptism is commanded for preachers to administer or
+sinners to obey, it can never refer to Holy Spirit baptism, but must
+always refer to water baptism.
+
+In the light of New Testament teaching and practise, it is marvelous
+that any one who claims to follow its guidance, can make light of
+baptism. "Baptism a mere form?" Then, why did Christ walk eighty
+miles to be baptized of John, and insist that it was necessary for
+him to be baptized "to fulfil all righteousness"? (Matt. 3: 13-17).
+"Baptism a mere form?" Then, why, in giving his commission to all
+gospel workers, did Christ say, "Go ye therefore, and make disciples
+of all nations, baptizing them"? (Matt. 28: 19). Those who neglect to
+baptize their converts have certainly not wholly obeyed their Lord.
+"Baptism a mere form?" Then, why did Jesus say, "Go ye into all the
+world and preach the gospel to the whole creation. He that believeth
+and is baptized shall be saved"? (Mark 16:15, 16). Not only is every
+preacher commanded to baptize every convert, but every convert is
+also commanded to be baptized; and baptism is made one of the
+conditions of salvation with every proper gospel subject. "Baptism a
+mere form?" Then, why did Jesus say to Nicodemus, "Verily, verily, I
+say unto thee, Except one be born of water and of the Spirit, he
+cannot inherit the kingdom of God"? (John 3:5). All church standards
+refer this to baptism. "Baptism a mere form?" Then, why did Peter, on
+Pentecost, when he used "the keys of the kingdom," revealed Christ's
+will and testament for sinners, and thus proclaimed the conditions of
+salvation, or of forgiveness, to all whom the Lord should call
+through the gospel, say to penitent seekers, "Repent ye, and be
+baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ unto the
+remission of your sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy
+Spirit"? (Acts 2:38). And why is it said, "They then that received
+his word were baptized"? (Acts 2:41). Will not the same follow to-day
+if people will receive the Word of God without any subtractions?
+"Baptism a mere form?" Then, why is it said of the Samaritans that
+"when they believed Philip preaching good tidings concerning the
+kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both
+men and women"? (Acts 8: 12). Will not the same follow to-day when
+people believe the whole gospel? "Baptism a mere form?" Then, why is
+it said of the eunuch that when Philip "preached unto him Jesus," he
+said, "Behold, here is water; what does hinder me to be baptized?"?
+And why did he not go "on his way rejoicing" before he "came up out
+of the water"? (Acts 8:35,39). If our converts do not ask for
+baptism, and we send them away as finished products without going
+down into the water with them, are we preaching and practising the
+same gospel as did the primitive evangelists under the guidance of
+the Holy Spirit? "Baptism a mere form?" Then, why did not even Christ
+himself speak peace to the soul of Saul, but sent him to Damascus and
+directed Ananias to tell him what he must do, who said to him, "And
+now why tarriest thou? arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy
+sins, calling on the name of the Lord"? (Acts 9: 6, 7; 22: 16). Does
+not the Lord send his servants to-day with the same message to those
+who put off their obedience to him in baptism? "Baptism a mere form?"
+Then, why was there a special miraculous demonstration to avoid
+objections to the baptism of the household of Cornelius, the first
+Gentile converts; and why did Peter command them to be baptized with
+water, after they had received the baptism of the Holy Spirit? (Acts
+10:44-48). Does not this show that Holy Spirit baptism was not to
+displace water baptism? "Baptism a mere form?" Then, why was Lydia
+baptized as soon as she gave "heed unto the things which were spoken
+by Paul"? (Acts 16: 14, 15). If properly instructed, will not all
+people be baptized as soon as they are willing to give heed unto the
+word of the Lord? "Baptism a mere form?" Then, why, when the
+Philippian jailor was told by Paul and Silas what he "must do to be
+saved," was he baptized "immediately," "the same hour of the night"?
+(Acts 16: 29-33). Will not the same gospel, if preached in the same
+way, have the same effect to-day? "Baptism a mere form?" Then, why is
+it said that "many of the Corinthians hearing believed, and were
+baptized"? (Acts 18:8). Will not those who hear and believe in
+sincerity to-day also be baptized? "Baptism a mere form?" Then, why
+is it said by the Holy Spirit that Priscilla and Aquila expounded
+unto Apollos "the way of God more accurately," after "he was mighty
+in the scriptures" and "had been instructed in the way of the Lord,"
+and "taught accurately the things of Jesus, knowing only the baptism
+of John"? (Acts 18:24-26). If the Lord was then concerned to have
+preachers set right on water baptism, even when their gospel
+knowledge was accurate in every other particular, does he not have a
+similar concern now? and if our hearts are in perfect accord with
+his, will his concern not be our concern? "Baptism a mere form?"
+Then, why was it Paul's first concern, when he came to Ephesus, to
+set the brethren right on water baptism, even though they were called
+"disciples," and had already been baptized (immersed) once? (Acts 19:
+1-7). This shows that baptism is not a mere outward act, but is
+important because of its relation to the Lord Jesus, an obedient
+heart, and to the Holy Spirit. If the Lord, through the Apostle,
+directed these disciples to be baptized a second time, when they
+found they were not Scripturally baptized, are not these his
+directions for to-day also? and should not his preachers show people
+the truth if they have not been Scripturally baptized, and, if
+possible, induce them to obey the Scriptural baptism, even when they
+thought they had been Scripturally baptized?
+
+It is true that Paul said to the Corinthians, "I thank God that I
+baptized none of you, save Crispus and Gaius; _lest any man should
+say that ye were baptized into my name._ And I baptized also the
+household of Stephanas: besides, I know not whether I baptized any
+other. For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel"
+(1 Cor. 1: 14-17). In the words I have placed in italics, we are told
+why he was glad he baptized only a few of them. It was lest they
+should be his partisans, as they were divided on human leaders. We
+certainly dare not so interpret the words, "for Christ sent me not to
+baptize, but to preach the gospel," as to contradict the commission
+of Christ and all the numerous clear Scriptures we have just quoted.
+He evidently meant that he himself did not do the baptizing, but had
+others do that part of the work, while he gave his time and strength
+to the preaching of the gospel. The same was true of Jesus himself,
+as we learn from John 4:1, 2: "When therefore the Lord knew that the
+Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more
+disciples than John (although Jesus himself baptized not, but his
+disciples)." He baptized them and he didn't baptize them. That is, he
+commanded them to be baptized and had his disciples perform the act.
+So evidently with Paul. If he meant that his converts were not to be
+baptized, then he would certainly not have baptized any of them.
+
+That Paul was zealous in seeing that all his converts were baptized,
+is apparent from the cases already quoted, especially the baptism of
+the Ephesians. For when he discovered that their baptism was not
+Scriptural, he, first of all, insisted that they be baptized again.
+It is further apparent from his teaching in his Epistles. In 1 Cor.
+12:13 we read, "For in one Spirit were we all baptized into one body
+... and were all made to drink of one Spirit." In Gal. 3:26, 27, we
+read, "For ye are all sons of God, through faith in Christ Jesus. For
+as many of you as were baptized into Christ did put on Christ." In
+Rom. 6:3, 4, we read, "Or are ye ignorant that all we who were
+baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were
+buried therefore with him through baptism into death: that like as
+Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so
+we also might walk in newness of life." In Col. 2: 12, we have
+similar language, "having been buried with him in baptism, wherein ye
+were also raised with him through faith in the working of God, who
+also raised him from the dead." In Heb. 10:22, it is said, "Having
+our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience: and having our body
+washed with pure water." After reading these Scriptures, no one can
+doubt that Paul had all his converts baptized, and believed in
+baptism just as strongly as Christ and Peter.
+
+That Peter had the same opinion about baptism near the end of his
+life, as at Pentecost, is evident from his words in I Pet. 3:21:
+"Which also after a true likeness doth now save you, even baptism,
+not the putting away the filth of the flesh, but the interrogation of
+a good conscience toward God, through the resurrection of Jesus
+Christ."
+
+That to refuse to be baptized after knowing that Christ has commanded
+it is to disobey him and to rebel against his authority, is clear
+from the words of the Holy Spirit recorded in Luke 7: 29, 30: "And
+all the people when they heard, and the publicans, justified God,
+being baptized with the baptism of John. But the Pharisees and
+lawyers rejected for themselves the counsel of God, being not
+baptized of him."
+
+And yet, despite all these Scriptures, many pious saints are so
+blinded by their prejudices and traditions, that instead of
+encouraging and exhorting people to obey this command to be baptized,
+that is given to test the soul's complete surrender to Christ, and is
+called the "obedience of faith" or of the gospel, they encourage
+people to live in disobedience to Christ by affirming that baptism is
+"a mere form" or "non-essential." If subordinates in an army or
+earthly kingdom act thus and use their influence to induce others to
+disobey the orders of those over them, they are punished for treason.
+Any army that is thoroughly united in the authority of its commander
+and cheerfully and promptly obeys his orders, is usually successful;
+while the largest and best army on earth would be doomed to defeat
+the moment its officers and men would disobey orders and each do as
+he pleases, or as he thinks best. The reason Christ's, army on earth
+to-day is weak and constantly defeated and retreating is because his
+orders are disregarded and the "think so's" and traditions of men are
+followed instead. Implicit obedience to the few simple commands of
+Christ would at once unite all his followers into one invincible army
+that would enable the world to believe and know that he is the Christ
+of God (John 17:20, 23).
+
+If anything is clear, it is that Christianity is a personal matter.
+That each individual must meet and accept for himself the claims of
+Christ. No one can be saved by proxy. No one can go to heaven because
+of the faith, obedience or prayers of a parent, wife, husband, sister
+or brother. This being true, as Christ has commanded every creature
+to be baptized (Mark 15: 15, 16; Acts 2: 38, etc.), it is evident
+that infant baptism is not valid. The parents cannot obey for the
+child, however good their intentions. The child, when it reaches the
+age of accountability, must face the commandments of Christ for
+itself, and either deliberately obey or disobey and reject him. If
+infants remained infants, they would do no harm in the church, even
+if they could do no good. But they will grow into accountability and
+then the church is full of unconverted people.
+
+May we prayerfully do all in our power to hasten the day when all of
+Christ's followers will forsake the traditions, in which men have
+changed Christ's teaching on baptism, and will gloriously reunite in
+his will on this command which is so clearly revealed in the New
+Testament.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+THE NEW TESTAMENT CHURCH.
+
+
+"See that thou make all things according to the pattern that was
+showed thee."--Heb. 8: 5.
+
+Introduction. My early ideas of the church, its doctrines, and of the
+teachings of Christ as revealed in the New Testament, were rather
+general and vague. As is usual, it was chiefly a matter of hereditary
+traditions. After I found my way back to Christ and to belief in the
+Word of God, the question naturally arose, which church shall I join,
+if any? Sectarian divisions had a hand in driving me into infidelity
+and confusion, and I was now compelled to investigate more closely
+this strange puzzle. As I have already intimated, what I learned at
+Meadville about baptism and the teachings of the various religious
+bodies, had directed my attention to the people generally known as
+"Disciples of Christ" or "Christians," who are working for Christian
+union through the restoration of the primitive church. I will now
+give the result of my study of the model church as revealed in the
+New Testament.
+
+NOTE.--Most of this and the following chapter are taken from my
+booklet on "The Church of Christ: What It Is, and Why It Exists."
+
+THE CHURCH OF CHRIST.
+
+The primary meaning of the word _church_ is a local body of
+Christians organized for work and worship (Acts 14:27). From this its
+meaning enlarged so as to apply to the members of all the churches
+(Eph. 3:10), and finally to all the saints in heaven and on earth
+(Heb. 12:23).
+
+_Of Christ_ expresses the church's relationship to Christ. It is
+Christ's church. He bought it (Eph. 5:25), built it (Matt. 16:18),
+and is its foundation (1 Cor. 3:11). It is his body (Rom. 12:5), of
+which he is head (Col. 1:18) and which is so identified with him that
+it is called Christ (1 Cor. 12:12); it is his kingdom over which he
+is king (Matt. 16:19); it is a fold of which he is the shepherd (John
+10:16); he is a vine of which the members are branches (John 15:5);
+it is his house (Heb. 3:6); it is his dearly beloved wife (Eph. 5:25;
+2 Cor. 11:2). Christ so loves the church and identifies himself with
+it because of the sweet, loving, spiritual fellowship there is
+between himself and it; and because it is his visible representative
+here on earth, and the instrument through which the Holy Spirit's
+work in the conversion of the world and the sanctification of
+believers, is carried on.
+
+Other names given to the church are "church of God" (I Cor. 1:2),
+"churches of God" (I Thess. 2:14), "churches of saints" (I Cor. 14:
+33), "temple of God and of the Holy Spirit" (I Cor. 3:16), and "the
+pillar and ground of the truth" (I Tim. 3:15). All these names are
+Scriptural and proper when used in the proper way.
+
+Church-members.
+
+The members of the church or churches of Christ are called
+"Christians" (Acts 11:26; I Pet. 4:14, 16), "disciples" (Acts 9:1),
+"saints" (Rom. 1:7), "brethren" (I Cor. 15:6), "members" (Rom. 12:5),
+etc., all of which names are right when used to express the proper
+idea or relationship.
+
+The Greek word for church is _ekkleesia_ and comes from _ekkaleoo_,
+which means _to call out_ or _summon forth_; and members of the
+church are the ones who have been called of God (2 Tim. 1:9) through
+the gospel (2 Thess. 2:14) from a life of sin to a life of holy
+service (Acts 26:16-18). Church-members or Christians are said to be
+"saved," "elected," "washed," "sanctified," "redeemed," "recreated,"
+"regenerated," "translated," "espoused," "converted," "reconciled,"
+"adopted," "quickened," "resurrected," etc. This gives us an idea of
+the radical change that must take place before a person can become a
+true church-member. It will be noticed that the change expressed by
+these terms is twofold. The one is subjective, and the other
+objective. The one is a change of heart or character, and the other
+is a change of state or relationship to God. The heart is changed by
+the Holy Spirit (John 3:5), through the preached gospel (1 Pet.
+1:23), which leads to faith (Rom. 10:17; Acts 15:9) and repentance
+(Acts 2:38); while the attitude toward God is changed by confession
+(Rom. 10:9), obedience in baptism (Acts 2:38) and by God's pardon to
+the sinner (Acts 2:38). The necessity of this twofold change is
+manifest from Christ's teaching when he says, "Make disciples of all
+nations, baptizing them" (Matt. 28:19), "Preach the gospel to every
+creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved" (Mark
+16:16), and "Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he
+cannot enter into the kingdom of God" (John 3:5). Also by the
+teaching of the Apostles when they say, "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 Ghost" (Acts 2:38),
+"And now why tarriest thou? arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy
+sins, calling on the name of the Lord" (Acts 22:16), "Not by works of
+righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved
+us, by the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy
+Ghost" (Tit. 3: 5), "For ye are all the children of God by faith in
+Christ Jesus. For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ
+have put on Christ" (Gal. 3:26, 27), "For by one Spirit we are all
+baptized into one body...and have been all made to drink into one
+Spirit" (1 Cor. 12:13), "The like figure whereunto even baptism doth
+also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but
+the answer of a good conscience toward God), by the resurrection of
+Jesus Christ" (1 Pet. 3:21), "Know ye not, that so many of us as were
+baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we
+are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was
+raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also
+should walk in newness of life" (Rom. 6:3, 4).
+
+If it were God's purpose to simply save individuals, privately and
+without human agency, the subjective change of heart is all that
+would be necessary. But a home must be provided for the nurture of
+the new-born spiritual babes and a church organized to herald the
+gospel to every creature; therefore, a definite act of open committal
+or enlistment is required in baptism. When this becomes thoroughly
+understood, the emphasis the New Testament puts on baptism will be
+appreciated, and people will no longer avoid the passages that refer
+to it, or try to explain them away. Neither faith, repentance nor
+baptism have any saving virtue in themselves. They are important only
+because of their relation to Christ and the sinner. As Christ has
+made them conditions of salvation to those who have heard the gospel,
+they must either obey or be rejected because of a rebellious heart
+(Luke 7:29, 30).
+
+We learn that to be qualified for membership in Christ's church a
+person must know the Lord (Heb. 8:11), must believe in him (Acts
+8:37), must repent of his sins (Acts 2:38), must confess him as
+Christ (Rom. 10:9), and must obey him from the heart in baptism (Rom.
+6:17). All these are conscious, personal acts that must be performed
+by the person becoming a member. No one can become a member by
+purchase, fleshly birth, or the obedience of parents or other
+persons. It will also be noticed that according to the teaching of
+the New Testament the conditions of salvation and church membership
+are the same. The New Testament never speaks of persons as saved or
+Christians who are not members of the church of Christ where they
+live.
+
+Church Officers.
+
+On the divine side the church of Christ is a kingdom with a
+constitution and an absolute ruler. But the administration of this
+kingdom, as it comes in contact with the varying conditions that
+confront it in the world, is left to the local church with its
+officers. Officers are elected to increase the efficiency of the
+church in service (Acts 6:1-7). In Eph. 4:11, 12, we learn what the
+officers of the church of Christ are and why they are appointed. "And
+he gave some apostles; and some prophets; and some evangelists; and
+some pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints, for the
+work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ."
+Deacons were also appointed to serve tables and assist in other ways
+(Acts 6:1-7; Phil, 1:1). The Apostles were personally commissioned by
+Christ (John 20:21-23; Acts 26: 16), miraculously inspired to teach
+(1 Cor. 2:12, 13; 1 Pet. 1:12) and endowed to perform miracles (2
+Cor. 12: 12) and to confer miracle-working power on others (Acts
+8:17, 18). After the church was thoroughly established and the New
+Testament written the apostolic office with its miraculous
+accompaniments ceased (Heb. 2:3, 4; 1 Cor. 13:8). Prophets were
+appointed by miraculous endowment and ended with the same.
+Evangelists, elders and deacons are the permanent officers of the
+church of Christ. The special work of evangelists or preachers is to
+make disciples and to organize and strengthen churches. Elders, or
+bishops, or pastors are local church officers, a plurality of which
+was appointed in each church (Acts 14:23). Their function is
+concerned with the spiritual welfare of the church. The work of
+deacons has already been indicated. The qualifications of
+evangelists, elders or bishops and deacons are given in the epistles
+to Timothy and Titus. The church officers are selected by the members
+(Acts 6: 1-7), and important matters of discipline are decided by a
+majority vote of the church (2 Cor. 2:6, see Greek). The local church
+government then is administered by a majority vote of its members and
+by the officers authorized by such a majority. Outside of Christ and
+the Apostles the New Testament does not recognize any authority
+higher than that vested in the local churches. General ecclesiastical
+organizations and church dignitaries with high-sounding titles are
+human inventions that were added later. Where there is no organized
+church to act, individual Christians have authority to administer the
+affairs of the church or kingdom (Acts 8: 4; 9: 10-18; ii: 19-21).
+The only apostolic succession endorsed in the Bible is that which
+results from following the example of the Apostles in teaching and
+practice.
+
+A Christian's work in the local church is obligatory under Christ. In
+addition to the local church work, early Christians co-operated in
+work covering a large territory and scope; and formed a simple
+organization for this purpose (1 Cor. 16:3; 2 Cor. 8:18, 19, 23).
+This example shows that voluntary organization of individual
+Christians for general co-operative work is proper and Scriptural. Of
+this nature are missionary societies and benevolent associations
+which are formed to carry on general work, but have no ecclesiastical
+authority.
+
+_The Mission of the Church._
+
+The mission of the church is to perpetuate and perfect itself and to
+add to its membership, through evangelization, the entire world as
+far and as fast as possible. The fundamental means adopted to carry
+out this mission is the church service. Our word _church_ is not
+derived from the New Testament word used in speaking of the body of
+believers, and it has a tendency to hide the real idea of the New
+Testament. It primarily refers to a church building, then to the body
+of believers worshiping in the building, and finally to believers in
+general. The inspired writers use the word _ekkleesia_, which means a
+gathering of people called from their homes into some public place. A
+correct translation would be _"assembly"_ or _"congregation,"_ as it
+has reference primarily to a local body of Christians assembled for
+work and worship. If this primary idea were restored, it would make
+mightily for the strengthening of Christ's kingdom. We usually put
+the emphasis on the church _in general, universal_ and _invisible,_
+while the Holy Spirit puts the emphasis on the _local, visible_ and
+_tangible_ church. Our practical duties are connected almost entirely
+with the local church to which we belong and through which we chiefly
+help to build up the general and invisible church. The church is the
+assembled Christians first of all, and the first duty of Christians
+is to assemble (Heb. 10:25). For people to say that they belong to
+the church (assembly), who do not assemble or attend the church
+services, is an anomaly, strictly speaking.
+
+The purpose of the assembly or church services is revealed to us in
+Acts 2:42, where we have a record of the practice of the first church
+of Christ. We read, "And they continued stedfastly in the apostles'
+teaching and in fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in
+prayers." Here are four things mentioned as belonging to the service
+of the church. The first has reference to teaching the Word of God
+or, more especially, the teachings of Christ as revealed through his
+Apostles in the New Testament. The Apostles received their teaching
+through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit who revealed in the New
+Testament all things necessary for our guidance and edification (2
+Pet. 1:3; Jude 3). Christ gave his Apostles commandments before his
+ascension (Acts 1:2), which they were to teach to the church (Matt.
+28:20), and the church is exhorted to give heed to these commandments
+(2 Pet. 3:2). Not all the commandments that Christ gave while on
+earth are for the church, but only those he instructed the Apostles
+to teach after the descent of the Holy Spirit and the establishment
+of the church on Pentecost. Paul exhorts Timothy to commit unto
+faithful men, who are able to teach others, the things he had heard
+from him (2 Tim. 2:2), and further exhorts him, "Study to show
+thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed,
+rightly dividing the word of truth" (2 Tim. 2:15); "I charge thee
+therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the
+quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom; preach the word,
+be instant in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with
+all long-suffering and doctrine" (2 Tim. 4:1, 2). Alas! how often
+this last solemn charge of Paul goes unheeded. We preach in season
+and out of season, but do we preach the Word of God as we ought? The
+emphasis the New Testament puts on the Word of God can scarcely be
+overestimated. It is the incorruptible seed (1 Pet. 1:23) employed by
+the Holy Spirit to beget the Christian (Jas. 1:18; 1 Cor. 4:15); it
+is the sword of the Spirit (Eph. 6:17) by which he pierces the
+sinner's hard heart (Heb. 4:12) and brings conviction to his soul
+(John 16:8,9); it is the nourishment for the new-born spiritual babe
+(1 Pet. 2:2); it is the means used by the Spirit to strengthen,
+sanctify and build up the members of the church (1 Thess. 2:13; John
+17:17; Acts 20:32); it "is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for
+correction, for instruction in righteousness; that the man of God may
+be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works" (2 Tim.
+3:16,17). No other books were used in the early church as
+authoritative and all efforts to replace it or to supplement it with
+human creeds, catechisms or disciplines is an unwarranted effort to
+steady the ark of the Lord.
+
+The second item of the public services is _fellowship_. The original
+word here is _koinoonia_, which, according to Dr. Thayer, means
+"joint participation," "a benefaction jointly contributed, a
+collection." The word sometimes refers to joint participation in
+religious privileges and sometimes to joint collections or
+contributions made for gospel work. It seems to have the latter
+meaning here, as spiritual communion is embodied in the next item.
+That this was a feature of the public service is apparent from the
+words of Paul in I Cor. 16:2, "Upon the first day of the week let
+every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him." The
+Emphatic Diaglott translates thus, "Every first day of the week let
+each of you lay something by itself, depositing as he may be
+prospered." While Paul gives these directions in reference to a
+particular collection taken for the poor saints in Judea, it is
+evidently given because it embodies the divine wisdom as to the best
+way of raising church money. It teaches that _each_ church-member is
+to give _weekly, according to his ability_. When this precept is
+practiced and we restore the liberality of the primitive church (Acts
+2:44, 45; 4:32, 35), there will be no financial problem in the
+church.
+
+The third item in church worship, according to Acts 2: 42, is the
+"breaking of bread," or the Lord's Supper. This was the most
+important thing in the early church service. It was to commemorate
+the death of Christ and to point forward to his second coming (I Cor.
+11:26). Every Christian is under obligation to partake of the Lord's
+Supper (I Cor. 11:24), but each must examine himself before eating
+lest he eat condemnation to his soul (I Cor. 11:28, 29). The greatest
+thing in the Lord's Supper is a spiritual eating or communion (John
+6:32-58), and this is needed frequently. The primitive churches of
+Christ observed the Lord's Supper whenever they met for worship (I
+Cor. 11:20), and this we learn was every first day of the week. "Upon
+the first day of the week when the disciples came together to break
+bread" (Acts 20:7). The Greek article "tee" here indicates that it
+was on _every_ first day of the week that they met to break bread and
+this is confirmed by I Cor. 16:2. The early churches never met for
+worship on the seventh day of the week or on the Sabbath, but always
+on the first day of the week, or on the Lord's Day, in commemoration
+of Christ's resurrection from the dead. It was the practice at first
+to have a meal in connection with the Lord's Supper, but as this led
+to abuse it was abolished by Paul (1 Cor. 11:20-22, 34). The feet-
+washing which is commonly supposed to have taken place at the time
+Christ first broke bread with his disciples, was simply a custom in
+vogue in that country, which Christ used to teach a lesson on
+humility. We have no record that the Apostles ever washed feet as a
+church ordinance or desired others to do so. When Christ washed feet
+it was not at a public church meeting, but at a private feast.
+
+The fourth item in church worship, as mentioned in Acts 2:42, is
+"prayers." The primitive church believed profoundly in prayer. In
+fact, the entire New Testament is the record of a prolonged prayer-
+meeting. Paul, in writing to Timothy, says, "I exhort therefore that,
+first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions and giving of
+thanks be made for all men" (1 Tim. 2:1), and Christ admonishes his
+disciples to "watch and pray" (Matt. 26:41).
+
+Self-preservation is the first duty, upon which all our helpfulness
+to others depends. So it is with the church. Its first duty is to
+perpetuate and strengthen itself through the means of grace God has
+provided; but it will become sick and soon die, if it does not reach
+out in loving services to others. It is commissioned to "make
+disciples of all nations" (Matt. 28:18), but it cannot do this by
+merely proclaiming the gospel to all people. Paul preached the gospel
+in many lands, and a few missionaries could soon evangelize the
+entire world if this were all that is necessary. God spent thousands
+of years to prepare the soil for Paul's preaching and confirmed his
+message with miracles. We cannot evangelize the world by giving a few
+dollars to send a few missionaries to preach a few sermons. Most of
+the work of missionaries is educational and philanthropic, or, in
+other words, preparatory. It will require the best and united efforts
+of all Christians to entirely open the door of faith among the
+heathen. Christ says, "Let your light so shine before men that they
+may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven"
+(Matt. 5:16). Peter exhorts Christians, "Having your behavior seemly
+among the Gentiles, that, wherein they speak against you as evil-
+doers, they may by your good works which they behold, glorify God" (I
+Pet. 2: 12). The churches need the miracle of good works, through the
+power of the Holy Spirit, to confirm the message of our missionaries.
+The acts that emanate from so-called Christian nations and people do
+more to hinder than to help the missionaries. If Christians will, by
+the power of the Spirit, live the life of Christ in the home, in
+business, in politics and everywhere, the heathen will soon glorify
+God in Christ because of the good works which they behold. "Herein is
+my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit" (John 15:8).
+
+It is the mission of the church to bring heaven down to earth. If
+this is the high and holy calling of the church, is it a wonder that
+Christ so loved it as to give his life for it? The church is the
+"pillar and ground of the truth" or the material organization through
+which heaven is bearing its message of love to this sin-cursed world.
+Speaking of the church, Paul says, "If any man destroyeth the temple
+of God, him shall God destroy" (1 Cor. 3:17). All who attain unto the
+mind of Christ will love the church and give themselves for it.
+
+_The Unity of the Church._
+
+It was God's eternal purpose to unite all things in Christ (Eph. 1:9,
+10). Christ declared that he would establish but one fold (John 10:
+16); he prayed that all his followers might be perfectly united and
+put that union as a necessary condition for the conversion of the
+world (John 17:20-23); he died to unite all in one body (Eph. 2: 14-
+16), of which he is the head (Col. 1: 18).
+
+If we turn to the book of Acts, we discover that the Holy Spirit,
+through the Apostles, did establish but one church, and that it was
+thoroughly united in love, teaching and practice.
+
+If there ever was an excuse for different Christian denominations, it
+was for a Jewish Christian denomination and a Gentile Christian
+denomination; but the Holy Spirit did not establish such
+denominations and Paul put forth the effort of his life to prevent
+such a breach. Where in all history can you find twelve men more
+radically different mentally and temperamentally than the Apostles?
+Yet the Holy Spirit did not establish separate churches to cater to
+and further develop these temperamental eccentricities. All were
+united in one church so they could counterbalance and complement each
+other and thus perfect their own character and give greater symmetry
+to the church. "And when the day of Pentecost was fully come they
+were all with _one accord in one place_" (Acts 2:1). After three
+thousand were added unto them we read, "They continued daily with
+_one accord_ in the temple" (Acts 2: 46), while farther on we read,
+"And the multitude of them that believed were of _one heart_ and of
+_one soul_" (Acts 4: 32). From the Epistles of Paul we learn that
+there was but one church in each community. Christ's relation to the
+church makes it impossible for Christians to be loyal to him and at
+the same time divided. All must be perfectly united in allegiance to
+him as king, lie is the head of the body of which his followers are
+members. All the members of the body are perfectly united to each
+other and to the head; and, although the members may differ in
+function, they are all directed by the same commandments, motives and
+purposes. As soon as a tendency toward division became manifest it
+was severely rebuked and ascribed to the carnal nature. Paul, in
+writing to the Corinthians, says, "Now, I beseech you, brethren, by
+the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same things,
+and that there be no division among you; but that ye be perfectly
+joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment" ... "For
+ye are yet carnal; for whereas there is among you envying, and
+strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal and walk as men?" (I Cor. 1:
+10; 3:3).
+
+The seven landmarks of Christian union are revealed by Paul in the
+first six verses of the fourth chapter of Ephesians: "I therefore,
+the prisoner in the Lord, beseech you to walk worthily of the calling
+wherewith you were called, with all lowliness and meekness, with
+longsuffering, forbearing one another in love; giving diligence to
+keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body,
+and one Spirit, even as also ye were called in one hope of your
+calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all,
+who is over all, and through all, and in all."
+
+As long as these seven unities--one body, one Spirit, one hope, one
+Lord, one faith, one baptism and one Father--are maintained, it will
+be impossible for a divided church to exist.
+
+On the other hand, divisions will speedily disappear as soon as these
+seven unities are restored.
+
+I add the following chart of the New Testament church, which will
+serve as a summary and as a guide in the further study of this
+important subject:
+
+[Illustration: THE CHURCH THAT JESUS ESTABLISHED]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+THE CHURCH SINCE THE APOSTLES.
+
+
+_The Apostasy of the Church._
+
+The apostolic unity of the church was maintained for about three
+hundred years. During this period the church endured the ten great,
+general persecutions directed against it by the world-ruling Roman
+Empire, which resulted in the martyrdom of almost all of the Apostles
+and multitudes of other Christians. Despite the opposition of the
+mightiest powers on earth, the church scored the most marvelous
+victories and was on a fair way to conquer the whole world for
+Christ. Satan, perceiving that his opposition to a united church
+under the leadership of Christ was fruitless, now tried to get within
+the church and to shear it of its power by confusing its counsels and
+dividing its forces. Christ said, "Every city or house divided
+against itself shall not stand" (Matt. 12:25), and Satan knew that if
+he could get Christians to exhaust their energies by contending with
+each other, their conquest of the world would be at an end. He filled
+the church with speculative philosophy, heathen idolatry and the
+worldly spirit in general. As always, he used the pride, vanity and
+ambition of individuals to accomplish his purpose. If fallible human
+leaders and their opinions could be put in the place of the
+infallible Christ and his teachings, the work would be done; because
+this would arouse the opposition of other ambitious human leaders and
+thus the church would be torn asunder and exhausted with internal
+strife and divisions. Alas that the church did not heed the earnest
+warning of Paul, "Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause
+divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have
+learned; and avoid them. For they that are such serve not our Lord
+Jesus Christ, but their own belly; and by good words and fair
+speeches deceive the hearts of the simple" (Rom. 16:17, 18). The
+selfishness of leaders and the lazy, careless indifference of the
+masses who blindly follow on, is what makes the creation and
+perpetuation of divisions among Christians possible. Perceiving that
+the division of the church would destroy its power, its leaders
+strove with might and main to preserve its unity. Had they exalted
+the Christ and used his Word, the sword of the Spirit, they would
+have succeeded. But they were ambitious and worked for a united
+church so they could use its power to exalt themselves and their
+opinions and crush those opposed to them. Human creeds, as standards
+of orthodoxy, were invented, and more stress was put on correct
+speculative opinions than on faith in Christ and Christ-like living.
+Persons who would not subscribe to the speculative opinions of man-
+made creeds were persecuted and anathematized. The church formed a
+league with worldly rulers and used the strong arm of the law to
+crush those who would not accept its human standards of orthodoxy.
+The Inquisition, with the dungeon, stocks, guillotine and other
+diabolical means of torture, was called into requisition. It is
+claimed that no less than fifty million human beings were martyred in
+this effort of the ecclesiastical hierarchy, calling itself the
+church, to maintain unity on a human creed. Although this effort at
+union was largely successful, it was not Christian union. Paul says
+that Christian union is where Christians are of the same mind and
+judgment and all speak the same things (1 Cor. 1:10), while this
+union was maintained by suppressing conscientious convictions and
+their utterance.
+
+_The Reformation of the Church._
+
+The effort at a forced union on a speculative human creed was never
+entirely successful. In the fastnesses of the mountains the
+Waldenses, Albigenses and others, maintained their religious freedom.
+The fire of religious liberty was smouldering, but not extinguished.
+It was covered with the black coals of ecclesiastical ignorance,
+brutality and tyranny; but by and by it worked its way to the light
+and illuminated the darkness of the age. The great Reformation burst
+forth into a mighty inextinguishable flame all over Europe, and,
+overleaping great barriers, it blazed forth in America. The
+ecclesiastical shackles were torn asunder and the people were set
+free. I speak of the ultimate outcome, for this end was only attained
+after centuries of effort. Hereditary religious ideas, prejudices and
+customs become petrified, and it is only with the most desperate and
+long-continued efforts that individuals and bodies of people can free
+themselves from them. Failing to recognize how they are blinded
+through hereditary bias, environment and limited ideas, people
+imagine they have attained unto the ultimate truth, and thus their
+growth in knowledge ceases and they become fossilized into a
+sectarian party. People imagine that they are free when they are
+delivered from religious and political tyrants that persecute and
+oppress them; but their greatest bondage, and the one that makes the
+others possible, is the hereditary and acquired prejudice, bias,
+bigotry and ignorance within themselves. The struggle of the
+Reformation was for religious freedom. This struggle was by no means
+always unselfish and consistent. Protestants as well as Roman
+Catholics used force to crush those that would not submit to their
+creeds. Both in Europe and in America men's bodies were tortured and
+destroyed with the hope of saving their souls and in the endeavor to
+maintain the unity of the church. Even where the church and the state
+were separated so that the church could not use the civil law to
+persecute its opponents, other means of coercion were used, such as
+boycotting, ostracism, excommunication and anathemas. The idea of the
+Roman Catholic Church is that you cannot trust the people to
+interpret the Bible for themselves; the Pope and the church must do
+it for them.
+
+The idea of Protestant sectarian creeds is largely the same. The
+members cannot be trusted to interpret the Bible for themselves, so
+the creed-makers have to do it for them. The difference is in degree
+and power of oppression rather than in kind. The entire idea is
+fundamentally wrong. Speculative theology cannot save any one and
+sectarian creeds are harder to understand than the Bible itself. The
+people need the living, loving, personal Christ, and not the dry
+husks of speculative theology. We want uniformity in matters of faith
+that are clearly revealed and in allegiance to Christ, but do not
+need it in speculative opinions based on inferences as to what the
+Bible teaches.
+
+Freedom is absolutely necessary to progress and civilization. But
+freedom may be turned into a curse as well as a blessing. Criminals
+want freedom to gratify the lusts of the flesh (Gal. 5:13). Those in
+bondage to their own carnal nature must be put under restraint by
+those governed by moral principles. Even Christians need to be guided
+and governed in spiritual matters, and have always felt this need.
+The trouble has been that mortal men have been accepted as
+authoritative spiritual guides, or have tried to control the
+religious convictions and practices of their fellow-men by force.
+Christ is the Christian's only safe and proper guide. As a final
+result of the Reformation the Christian people in America and parts
+of Europe were set free from religious tyranny and left to choose
+their spiritual guides. Although they professed that the Bible was
+their only authority, they accepted human leaders and their opinions
+as guides and permitted these to interpret the Bible for them. Thus
+the freedom of the Reformation was turned into the curse of division
+and sectarianism. Divided Protestantism is better than the religious
+tyranny of the Dark Ages; but it is bad, and will be replaced with
+the Christian union of the New Testament when loyalty to Christ and
+his Word is substituted for loyalty to human leaders and their
+opinions embodied in creeds. Christ said, "Every kingdom divided
+against itself is brought to desolation" (Matt. 12:25). The truth of
+this has been sadly demonstrated in our divided Christianity. In how
+many homes has sectarian division wrought havoc with its religious
+life! How many husbands and wives have been lost to active service
+for the Master because of the chilling effect of indifference or
+opposition through sectarian differences! How many children have
+become indifferent or disgusted with religion, because their parents
+differed in their religious convictions! Again, look at the effect of
+sectarian division in a community. Five church buildings and
+preachers where one could do the work, while the balance could be
+devoted to the evangelization of the heathen. But the financial loss
+is the least. Preachers are poorly supported and therefore poorly
+equipped for their work, and people are encouraged to join the
+churches on almost any conditions through rivalry and the need of
+support for so many churches. Sinners go unrebuked through fear that
+their financial support will be lost; and, if disciplined, they are
+often received with open arms into a rival church. When we look at
+the kingdom of Christ at large, we see how it has come to desolation
+because of divisions. Millions of dollars are wasted in rival
+churches, colleges, papers, preachers, books, etc.; while the heathen
+stand with amazed incredulity before the missionaries of a babel of
+denominations. Verily the reformed church needs reforming.
+
+_A Movement for Christian Union._
+
+Divided Protestantism reached its climax in America at the beginning
+of the last century. This land of freedom offered a congenial soil
+for its perfect development and unfolding. Thus were exhibited more
+fully than ever before the sin and folly of such divisions. The
+forces of Christ were largely wasted and defeated through sectarian
+strife, and there was the bitterest feeling even between different
+branches of the same denomination. Infidelity was rampant in the land
+and Christianity was at a low ebb. However, the love of the Master
+was strong in many hearts, and these longed and prayed for better
+things. As by divine inspiration, a great union movement sprang up
+simultaneously in different parts of the country. The outcome was
+what may be called the American Reformation, but is more properly
+called the Restoration movement. The burning desire of the promoters
+of this movement was a reunion of the divided followers of Christ.
+After a thorough and prayerful consideration of the subject, it was
+decided that the only possible basis of union is the Bible; and so
+the motto was adopted, "Where the Bible speaks we will speak, and
+where the Bible is silent we will be silent." It was decided to
+require a "thus saith the Lord" or an apostolic example for every
+item of teaching or practice. The reformers expected to bring about
+Christian union without leaving their respective denominations and
+forming a separate religious body. But an application of their motto
+in the study of the Bible led to results that they never dreamed of.
+They were compelled to give up their sectarian practices one by one,
+and soon found themselves forced out of the denominational bodies. It
+now became clear to them that the real cause of the origin and
+perpetuation of sectarian divisions was the human element, in
+teaching and practice, added to the church since the days of the
+Apostles; and that nothing but their removal and the restoration of
+the primitive church in name, creed and deed, could bring the
+Christian union of New Testament times. Learning that, aside from the
+Apostles, there was no ecclesiastical authority or organization in
+New Testament times, above the local church, they proceeded to
+organize local churches of Christ after the primitive model, and
+invited both saints and sinners to unite with them in this work and
+in protesting against the sin of sectarian divisions.
+
+_The Restoration of the New Testament Creed._
+
+In the evolution of the movement for Christian union, it was soon
+discovered that human creeds, as standards of church or ministerial
+fellowship, are divisive in their nature and prevent the reunion of
+God's people. All claim to get their creed from the Bible; but since
+creeds contradict each other in doctrine, they cannot all be right,
+although they may all be wrong. Human creeds are responsible for most
+of the heresy trials and have armed most of the infidelic attacks
+upon the church. The only way to permanently solve the creed problem
+is to restore the divine creed given by the Holy Spirit to the primitive
+church. This is the only true Apostles' Creed and the only one that
+will never need any revision. This is none other than the _divinity of
+Christ_, the central truth of revelation and of Christianity. Jesus said,
+in answer to Peter's confession, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the
+living God," "Upon this rock I will build my church" (Matt. 16: 16,
+18). John declared of his Gospel, "These are written, that ye might
+believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing
+ye might have life through his name" (John 20:31). Paul commanded,
+"Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved" (Acts 16:31),
+and said, "Other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which
+is Jesus Christ" (1 Cor. 3:11). This is what the Apostles preached
+everywhere, and required as a condition for baptism and church
+membership; and it is the only creed they ever required. The church
+is not founded upon a system of speculative theology that even the
+learned cannot understand, but upon the loving, divine personality
+of Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God. Get Jesus in the heart,
+and belief in his word and a Christ-like life will inevitably follow.
+This is the only creed that can reunite divided Christendom.
+Christians cannot unite on human leaders and their finite opinions,
+but they can all unite on Christ.
+
+_The Restoration of Bible Names._
+
+It was further discovered that human names for God's people were
+divisive in nature and a barrier to Christian union. There is nothing
+in a name until it becomes authoritatively attached to a person or
+thing, but after it becomes so attached, there is as much in the name
+as in the person or thing. Since the name Andrew Carnegie became
+attached to him, it is worth as much in money and influence as Mr.
+Carnegie himself is worth. Thus it is that there is salvation in the
+name of Christ. "For there is none other name under heaven given
+among men, whereby we must be saved" (Acts 4:12).
+
+The Bible names given to the church and to the followers of Christ,
+express true ideas and relationships; while the human names since
+added express false and unscriptural ideas and relationships. The
+church and its members should be named after Christ because they
+belong to him; for the same reason it is wrong to call them after any
+other person or thing.
+
+Paul writes, "Every one of you saith, I am of Paul; and I of Apollos;
+and I of Cephas; and I of Christ. Is Christ divided? was Paul
+crucified for you? or were you baptized in the name of Paul?" "For
+while one saith, I am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos; are ye
+not carnal?" (I Cor. 1:12, 13; 3:4). "I pray you," said Luther,
+"leave my name alone, and do not call yourselves Lutherans, but
+Christians. Who is Luther? My doctrine is not mine. I was not
+crucified for any one. Paul would not that any should call themselves
+of Paul, nor of Peter, but of Christ. How, then, does it fit me, a
+miserable bag of dust and ashes, to give my name to the children of
+Christ! Cease to cling to these party names and distinctions! Away
+with them all and let us call ourselves Christians, after him from
+whom our doctrine comes!" Those engaged in this restoration movement
+heed the admonitions of Paul and Luther and call themselves
+"Christians," or "disciples of Christ," while they call the churches,
+"churches of Christ" or "churches of God." They do not use these
+names in a sectarian, but in a Scriptural, sense. They do not claim
+to be the "only Christians," but aim to be "Christians only." We read
+in Acts II:26, "The disciples were called Christians first at
+Antioch." "If any man suffer as a Christian," says Peter, "let him
+not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in this name" (I Pet. 4: 16).
+Any name used to designate a part of the followers of Christ and to
+separate them from the rest, is wrong, because it expresses a wrong
+and unscriptural idea. "Would to God," said Wesley, "that all
+sectarian names were forgotten, and that we, as humble, loving
+disciples, might sit down at the Master's feet, read his holy word,
+imbibe his spirit, and transcribe his life into our own!" John says,
+"We shall see his face and his name shall be in our foreheads" (Rev.
+22:4).
+
+_The Ordinances Restored._
+
+In addition to the restoration of the New Testament creed and names,
+it was found that there can be no organic Christian union, after the
+primitive type, without a restoration of the ordinances as
+administered by the Apostles. Protestants all accept two ordinances,
+baptism and the Lord's Supper, but they differ greatly in the manner
+of observing them. Some have open and others close communion. Some
+observe the Lord's Supper monthly, others quarterly and still others
+annually. In looking for apostolic precepts and examples, it was
+found that the early Christians met on every first day of the week to
+break bread; and that each Christian was commanded by Christ to
+partake of the Lord's Supper, after examining himself to see that his
+heart was prepared for this spiritual feast. We have neither the
+authority to decide the frequency of the service, nor who shall
+partake of the Supper.
+
+The greatest hindrance to a practical working union of the followers
+of Christ is the babel of teaching and practice as to baptism. Some
+hold that the mere baptism of infants will save them, while others
+belittle baptism or ignore it altogether. Some baptize infants,
+others only adults. Some sprinkle, some pour, and others immerse for
+baptism. Some sprinkle, pour or immerse, just as the candidate wishes
+it. Does the New Testament teach this babel of confusion or has it
+come from human inventions and additions? It has already been pointed
+out that only those who had previously been born of the Spirit, or
+undergone a change of heart through faith and repentance, were
+baptized by the Apostles. We are told that Jesus never baptized any
+one (John 4:2), therefore he never baptized any infants. If we
+examine carefully the cases of household baptism recorded in the New
+Testament, we will find that in each case infants are necessarily
+excluded; as those baptized "heard" (Acts 10:33), "believed" (Acts
+16:34), "were comforted" (Acts 16:40), "addicted themselves to the
+ministry" (1 Cor. 16:16), etc. These acts all refer to people who had
+reached the age of intelligence and accountability and, therefore,
+cannot refer to infants. Infant baptism is based on two errors that
+crept into the church--the doctrines of infant damnation and
+baptismal regeneration. Infants are saved without baptism, for Jesus
+said "of such is the kingdom of heaven" (Matt. 19:14), and baptism is
+of value only because of its relation to Christ and the faith of the
+sinner (Mark 16:16). The greatest emphasis we can put on baptism is
+to say that Christ commanded it and made it a condition of salvation
+to those that hear the gospel and have the opportunity to obey it. To
+refuse to obey this or any other commandment of Christ, reveals a
+rebellious heart that cannot be saved.
+
+Of the action of baptism we speak in a previous chapter, therefore we
+need not treat of it here only to say that all churches agree that
+the immersion of a penitent believer in water is Scriptural baptism,
+and this is the only practice on which all can unite. Thousands of
+those that are contented to be Christians only have given up
+sprinkling and been immersed after studying the Bible on the subject.
+
+ _The Bible Restored._
+
+Christian union on the primitive gospel necessitates the restoration
+of the Bible to its proper place and authority. Sectarianism has
+largely displaced it with creeds and other human standards. Recently
+I read the following in an introduction to a catechism: "This
+catechism has well been called a Bible for the laity." When we
+remember how contradictory, and, therefore, erroneous, these human
+deductions as to Bible teaching are, we can see the need of putting
+them aside and restoring the Bible as the Christian's all-sufficient
+and only sufficient guide.
+
+The Bible has also been thrust aside and kept from the people by
+false theories of conversion and the consequent erroneous practices
+in evangelistic work. People have been taught that they are totally
+depraved and can do nothing towards their conversion, that faith is a
+direct gift of God, that the Holy Spirit converts sinners by
+immediate miraculous power, that the evidence of pardon is in dreams,
+visions or feelings, and that sinners have to wait until God by
+entreaties is reconciled to save them. All these theories are
+erroneous and logically set aside the entire gospel plan of
+salvation. The Holy Spirit, through the Apostles, used the truths of
+the Word or gospel to convict sinners, and taught penitents, out of
+the New Testament, on what conditions they could inherit the
+salvation Christ purchased on the cross. The sinners that wanted to
+be saved accepted this salvation by complying with Christ's
+conditions of pardon, and went on their way rejoicing, because they
+had the infallible Word of God for it that they were saved. In other
+words, the Apostles preached the gospel, and penitent sinners were
+immediately saved by believing it (Mark 16:16), repenting of their
+sins (Acts 2:38) and openly committing themselves to Christ in
+baptism (Acts 22:16).
+
+Finally, the Bible has become a meaningless riddle and uninteresting
+to most people because it is not rightly divided. It is assumed that
+all parts of the Bible are addressed to everybody. This is far from
+the truth. While we must recognize the unity and interdependence of
+the entire Bible and that each part teaches great spiritual truths
+for all, we must also remember that its different parts contain
+specific precepts addressed to different classes of people and only
+applicable to them. Thus the Mosaic law was for the Jews only, and
+was superseded by the gospel (Gal. 3:24, 25). Turning to the New
+Testament, we find that the four Gospels were written to make
+believers (John 20:31), the Acts of the Apostles, "Book of
+Conversions," to tell and show people how to be saved or become
+Christians (see chapters 2, 8, 16, etc.), while the rest of the New
+Testament is addressed to Christians or church-members as their rule
+of faith and practice. The churches in this Restoration movement aim
+to restore the Bible to its primitive place in producing penitents,
+guiding them unto salvation and in giving all instructions to the
+churches needed for their edification and guidance.
+
+_Restoration of the New Testament Church Government._
+
+We have learned that all sectarian divisions have resulted from
+exalting human leaders and their opinions. Ambitious ecclesiastics
+have exalted themselves with the help of misguided people; and,
+usurping authority, have lorded it over God's heritage. How wide the
+difference between the simplicity of the primitive gospel and the
+pompous ecclesiastical organizations and titles of modern times! It
+is self-evident that Christian union cannot be restored until this
+ecclesiastical machinery be put aside and the administration of
+Christ's kingdom be again entrusted to the local churches and their
+officers as in New Testament times.
+
+It will be noticed that this modern movement for Christian union does
+not seek to introduce new doctrines into the religious world. It
+seeks rather the restoration of the old Jerusalem gospel with its
+doctrines, ordinances and fruits. Its promoters thoroughly believe in
+all the truths accepted by evangelical bodies and simply strive to
+remove the sectarian growths that have fastened themselves to the old
+ship Zion during its course through the centuries. Among its favorite
+mottoes are these:
+
+   No Book but the Bible.
+   No Creed but the Christ.
+   No Plea but the Gospel.
+   No Name but the Divine.
+   In Christ--Unity.
+   In Opinions--Liberty.
+   In all Things--Charity.
+
+_Is One Church as Good as Another?_
+
+The mere hint that there might be something in the doctrines of
+different churches that is erroneous and needs to be dropped or
+modified, is usually met with a frown of disfavor, by the
+supersensitive sectarian world. The sectarian sore is grown over with
+the agreement to disagree, and woe unto the doctor that insists on
+probing the wound to effect a cure. The effort at probing is usually
+met with the declaration, "One church is just as good as another,
+they are all aiming for the same place." Let us try to discover what
+truth or error is wrapped up in this statement, and what are the
+religious conditions that inspire such declarations. In the first
+place, it shows a disposition to apologize for sectarian doctrines
+rather than to defend them. This is a hopeful sign. All the large
+denominations in America originated in European countries under the
+bitter religious controversies and cruel political strife that
+followed the Dark Ages. It was these stormy and abnormal conditions
+that gave birth to these sects and largely moulded their peculiar
+doctrines. One extreme begot another, and while each of these
+denominations emphasized some neglected religious truth, it
+emphasized it so strongly as to often twist it into an untruth or out
+of proper relationship to other truths. The people in free America
+are not interested in the polemical controversies that resulted from
+religious and political conditions in the old countries. Thus it has
+come to pass that scarcely any denomination seriously and
+persistently urges the ideas that gave it birth, and their creeds
+have to be revised continually to hold their preachers and church-
+members. The result is that the great mass of the members of the
+sectarian churches neither know nor care what the creeds of their
+churches teach. I say that this is a hopeful sign, but there is also
+a great danger involved in it. Learning that the doctrines of their
+own and other denominations are not of saving or vital importance,
+people are likely to jump to the conclusion that no religious
+doctrines are of vital importance, and so lose their interest in
+Christianity. No one can deny that thousands have reached this
+condition, and are either members of no church or merely nominal,
+indifferent members. Since all sectarian doctrines are of human
+origin and of no vital, saving importance, we can endorse the
+statement that, from a sectarian standpoint, one church is just as
+good as another.
+
+We will also grant, for the sake of the argument, that from the
+standpoint of piety, talent, learning and consecration, one church,
+on an average, is just as good as another. But does this go to the
+bottom of the subject? The doctor who, through ignorance of medical
+science, gives your child medicine that cripples it for life or kills
+it, may be just as good morally and intellectually as other doctors
+who know their business. His blunder of ignorance may not destroy his
+hope of heaven; but is that a reason why you would just as soon have
+him treat your child as another doctor? So sectaries who teach
+erroneous doctrines may be just as honest, consecrated and learned as
+those who teach the gospel truth; but does it make no difference to
+the cause of Christ and the salvation of souls, whether they teach
+sectarian vagaries that divide and desolate the church, or exalt the
+Christ and his Word so as to unite all his followers in the conquest
+of the world? But, you ask, how can good and learned people differ so
+in their beliefs? We may not understand how it is, but we know it is
+and ever has been so. Our minds are so constituted that we must see
+all truths alike, logically, mathematically and in every other way,
+if we see them at all. The trouble is that our vision is so warped
+through prejudice and limited ideas and information that we fail to
+see the simplest truths, and find in the Bible and elsewhere what we
+bring with us through heredity and environment. The Bible recognizes
+this truth. Jesus prayed, "Father, forgive them, for they know not
+what they do" (Luke 23:34). Paul says, "I obtained mercy, because I
+did it ignorantly in unbelief" (1 Tim. 1:13), and again, "The times
+of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men
+everywhere to repent" (Acts 17:30). It may seem paradoxical, but it
+is nevertheless true, that the greatest hindrance to the spread of
+the truth of God has come from pious, consecrated and God-fearing
+souls who were misled by their hereditary prejudices. The majority of
+those converted under the preaching of the Apostles, as recorded in
+the New Testament, were devout saints who needed to be delivered from
+their hereditary Jewish prejudices and enlisted in the re-alignment
+of religious forces for the conquest of the world for Christ and his
+kingdom. The Pentecostians were "devout men," the eunuch was a devout
+worshiper, Saul of Tarsus was a conscientious man, Cornelius was
+devout and a philanthropist. A large per cent of the Jews were honest
+and devout people, but were fighting against Christ because they were
+blinded by hereditary religious ideas. Peter, even after Pentecost,
+was subject to these influences, for it took ten years, with special
+miraculous manifestations, before he could see that Gentiles were
+creatures to whom the gospel was to be preached as well as to the
+Jews. While sectarian divisions are largely due to selfish and wicked
+men, most of them are due to devout Christians who are misled by
+inherited prejudices or simply drift with the tide.
+
+If these things are true, we should tremble lest we are upholding
+error and opposing the truth unintentionally through hereditary bias.
+We should make a prayerful and diligent search for the truth as it is
+in Christ Jesus. Although we have discovered that none of the
+sectarian doctrines are of vital importance, let us remember that it
+is different with "the faith [system of teaching] which was once for
+all delivered unto the saints" (Jude 3) by the Apostles and for which
+we are duty bound to "earnestly contend." Since so many devout and
+learned preachers are teaching so many contradictory doctrines, which
+cannot all be true, let us not accept their statements unchallenged,
+but let us test them (I John 4:1-6) by searching the Scriptures daily
+to see if these things are so (Acts 17:11). After that we are assured
+that we have found the truth ourselves, let us "be gentle unto all
+men, apt to teach, patient, in meekness instructing those that oppose
+themselves: if God peradventure will give them repentance to the
+acknowledging of the truth; and that they may recover themselves out
+of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will"
+(2 Tim. 2:24-26). In view of the fact that at least the great
+majority of the members of denominational churches must be in error,
+it should be a crowning glory to change one's religious affiliations
+through an investigation of the truth. The hope of the cause of
+Christ lies with those who, hearing the voice of God's truth in their
+conscience, are ready to obey it, even if it results in breaking the
+dearest human ties and leads to ostracism and persecution. Almost all
+the promoters of this union movement have themselves found their way
+out of sectarianism after heart-rending efforts to rid themselves
+from their hereditary prejudices and errors. They are simply
+entreating others to do what they themselves have done,
+ for the sake of Christ's cause, and help to establish local churches
+of Christ after the Apostolic model. That they have fundamentally
+reoccupied the primitive ground is admitted by all who have fairly
+investigated the subject. If they are yet in error on any points,
+they are in a position and ready to correct these as fast as they
+discover them through a further study of God's Word.
+
+ _The Church Triumphant._
+
+Christ declares that the evangelization of the world is dependent
+upon Christian union. Therefore, the ultimate triumph of his church
+necessitates the triumph of Christian union. We praise God for every
+movement that looks toward a closer union of Christians; but we are
+sure that nothing short of the removal of every vestige of
+denominationalism and the complete restoration of the one body or
+church of New Testament times will satisfy the demands of God's Word.
+A number of forces such as the Sunday-school, C.E., Y.M.C.A.,
+Evangelical Alliance and Church Federation are destroying the
+sectarian spirit and the field is getting ripe unto the harvest for
+the restoration of the unity of the early church with its converting
+power. The success of this movement for Christian union on the
+primitive gospel has been phenomenal. In eighty years its adherents
+have increased from ten thousand to about one and a third millions.
+The per cent of gain in membership, from 1890 to 1905, in the six
+American religious bodies that number a million each was as follows:
+Christians or disciples of Christ, 94 per cent.; Roman Catholics, 73
+per cent.; Lutherans, 51 per cent.; Methodists, 40 per cent.;
+Baptists, 38 per cent., and Presbyterians, 35 per cent. Barring out
+the Catholics and Lutherans, who get most of their gain by
+immigration, the Christians or churches of Christ show more than
+double the gain of the other three bodies. We glory in this growth
+only as the glory of Christ is involved in it. It is an earnest of
+what Christian union will do even through very imperfect instruments.
+What will the harvest be, when the prayer of Jesus is answered and
+all his followers are united in one "glorious church, holy and without
+blemish, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing" (Eph. 5:27),
+going forth to the evangelization of the world "fair as the moon, clear
+as the sun, terrible as an army with banners," "looking forth as the
+morning" (S. of Sol. 6: 10)! May the prayer of Jesus for the union of
+his followers be our prayer, and may we do all in our power to bring
+a speedy answer! Amen.
+
+The following is a splendid statement of the aim of the Restoration
+movement. I do not know its author:
+
+OUR AIM.
+
+1. The restoration of primitive Christianity and consequent union of
+all the followers of Christ in one body.
+
+2. To build a church of Christ, without a denominational name, creed
+or other barrier to Christian unity, whose terms of fellowship shall
+be as broad as the conditions of salvation and identical with them.
+
+3. To lead sinners to Christ in the clear light of the New Testament
+teaching and example.
+
+I have summarized the situation as I see it as follows:
+
+ARE THESE THINGS TRUE?
+
+SEARCH THE SCRIPTURES AND SEE. ACTS 17:11.
+
+1. Christ wants all of his followers to be united in one church as
+they were the first three centuries (John 17:20, 21; 1 Cor. 1:10-13;
+Eph. 4:1-6; Rom. 15:5-7).
+
+2. Sects and divisions among Christians are wasteful, carnal and
+sinful and result from exalting human leaders and their opinions
+above Christ and his opinions revealed through his Apostles (1 Cor.
+3:1-4; Rom. 16:17, 18; Gal. 5:20).
+
+3. As soon as we drop human names, creeds and customs and build
+churches after the divine model, by teaching and practising as the
+Apostles did, the unity of the primitive church will be restored
+(Heb. 8:5; 1 Cor. 11:16; Jude 3).
+
+4. Churches on an average are about the same in piety and
+consecration, but so long as they teach contradictory doctrines they
+cannot all be right, but may be wrong. _Therefore you should examine
+for yourself and be sure you are guided by God's Word rather than by
+inherited traditions which perpetuate sects_ (Mark 7:6-13).
+
+The following _guide to salvation,_ which I take from one of my
+circulars used in gospel work, has the merit of being taken entirely
+from the Word of God, except the word "warning" and the few words in
+parentheses. If it is in harmony with the context, and we sincerely
+believe it is, then it is an infallible guide, and those who follow
+it cannot be mistaken.
+
+"These men are the servants of the most high God which show unto us
+
+THE WAY OF SALVATION"
+
+(Acts 16:17).
+
+"WHAT MUST I DO TO BE SAVED?" (Acts 16:30; 2:37; 9:6).
+
+"_Believe_ (unbeliever) on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be
+saved" (Acts 16:31). (See also Acts 8: 12, 37; Mark 16:16; Rom. 10:9-
+11, 17; John 3:18; 20:31; 1 John 5:1.)
+
+WARNING.--"He that believeth not shall be damned" (Mark 16:16).
+
+"_Repent_ (believers) and be baptized for the remission of sins and
+ye shall receive _the gift of the Holy Ghost_" (Acts 2:38). (See also
+Acts 8:22; 26: 20; Luke 24:47; 2 Cor. 7:9, 10.)
+
+WARNING.--"Except ye repent, ye shall all perish" (Luke 13:5).
+
+"_Confess_ (penitent believer) with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and
+thou shalt be saved" (Rom. 10:9, 10). (See also Matt. 10:32; 16:16;
+26:63; 1 Tim. 6:13; 1 John 4:15.)
+
+WARNING.--"Whosoever shall deny me, him will I also deny" (Matt.
+10:33).
+
+"_Be baptized_ (confessor) and wash away thy sins" (Acts 22:16). (See
+also Acts 2:38; Mark 16:16; Gal. 3:26, 27; 1 Pet. 3:21.)
+
+WARNING.--"Rejected the counsel of God, being not baptized" (Luke
+7:30).
+
+_"Walk in newness of life"_ (those buried with Christ in baptism)
+(Rom. 6:4).
+
+WARNING.--"Walk not after the flesh," "For to be carnally minded is
+death" (Rom. 8:1, 6).
+
+"Then they that _gladly received_ his _word were baptized;_ and the
+_same day_ there were _added unto them_ (joined church) about three
+thousand souls. And they
+
+CONTINUED STEADFASTLY
+
+in the _apostles' doctrine_ (no human creed) and _fellowship _(weekly
+collections, 1 Cor. 16:1, 2), and in _breaking of bread_ (weekly
+communion, Acts 20:7), and in _prayers"_ (attending prayer-meetings,
+Acts 2:41, 42).
+
+"The disciples were
+
+CALLED CHRISTIANS" (Acts 11:26).
+
+"For while one saith, I am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos;
+_are ye not carnal?"_ (1 Cor. 3:4). "If ye are reproached for the
+_name_ of Christ, blessed are ye... if a man suffer as _a Christian_,
+let him glorify God in _this name"_ (1 Pet. 4:14-16, R.V.).
+
+"Now I beseech you, brethren, by the _name_ of our Lord Jesus Christ,
+that ye all _speak the same thing,_ and that there be
+
+NO DIVISIONS
+
+among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the _same
+mind_ and in the _same judgment._ Now this I say, that every one of
+you saith, I am of Paul; and I of Apollos; and I of Cephas; and I of
+Christ: _is Christ divided_ (I Cor. 12: 12)? _Was Paul crucified for
+you?_ or were ye baptized in (into) the name of Paul?" (I Cor. i: 10-
+13). "Therefore,
+
+GO ON UNTO PERFECTION" (Heb. 6:1).
+
+"_Grace_ and _peace_ be _multiplied_ unto you through the _knowledge_
+of God and of Jesus our Lord. According as his divine power _hath
+given unto us all things_ (in Bible) that pertain unto _life_ and
+_godliness,_ through the knowledge of him that hath called us to
+glory and virtue. Whereby are given unto us _exceeding great and
+precious promises;_ that by these ye might be partakers of the
+_divine nature_, having escaped the corruption that is in the world
+through lust. And beside this giving all diligence,
+
+ADD TO YOUR FAITH
+
+_virtue_ (courage); and to virtue, _knowledge;_ and to knowledge,
+_temperance_ (self-control); and to temperance, _patience;_ and to
+patience, _godliness;_ and to godliness, _brotherly kindness_ (love
+of brethren); and to brotherly kindness, _charity_ (love of
+_everybody_). For if _these things_ be in you, and _abound,_ they
+make you that ye shall _neither_ be _barren nor unfruitful_ in the
+_knowledge_ of our Lord Jesus Christ. But _he that lacketh these
+things_ is _blind,_ and cannot see afar off, and hath _forgotten_
+that he was purged from his old sins. _Wherefore,_ the rather,
+brethren, _give diligence_ to _make_ your calling and _election
+sure,_ for if ye do these things, ye shall never fail: For so an
+entrance shall be ministered unto you _abundantly_ into the
+everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ" (2 Pet.
+2:2-11).
+
+"GOOD WORKS."
+
+"For the _grace of God_ that bringeth _salvation_ hath appeared _to
+all men, teaching us_ that _denying ungodliness_ and _worldly lusts,_
+we should _live soberly, righteous_ and _godly_ in this present
+world; _looking for that blessed hope_ and the glorious appearing of
+the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ, who _gave himself for
+us,_ that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto
+himself a _peculiar people, zealous of good works_" (Tit. 2: 11-14).
+
+
+"WORKS OF THE FLESH
+
+are manifest, which are these: _Adultery, fornication, uncleanness,
+lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations,
+wrath, strife, seditions (parties), heresies (sects--R. V.), envying,
+murders, drunkenness, revellings,_ and _such like;_ of the which I
+tell you before, as I have told you in the past, that _they which do
+such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God._ But
+
+THE FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT
+
+is _love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
+meekness, temperance,_ against such there is _no law"_ (Gal. 5:19-
+22).
+
+"FINALLY,
+
+brethren, whatsoever things are _true,_ whatsoever things are
+_honest,_ whatsoever things are _just,_ whatsoever things are _pure,_
+whatsoever things are _lovely,_ whatsoever things are _of good
+report;_ if there be any _virtue,_ and if there be any _praise, think
+on these things"_ (Phil. 4:8).
+
+"Now
+
+unto him that is able to do _exceeding abundantly above all that we
+ask or think,_ according to _the power that worketh in us,_ unto him
+be glory _in the church by Jesus Christ_ throughout all ages, world
+without end. Amen" (Eph. 3:20, 21).
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+OUR NEGLECTED FIELDS.
+
+
+NOTE.--This chapter is an address that was delivered at the
+Centennial Convention of the movement for the restoration of
+primitive Christianity, held at Pittsburg, Pa., during October, 1909.
+It is here given because it deals with the same general subject as
+the rest of the book and shows why and how the reunion of the
+followers of Christ on the primitive gospel is the greatest issue
+before the Christian world to-day.
+
+Ask the brotherhood what "Our Neglected Fields" are, and the answer
+will come in a multitude of voices speaking from diverse viewpoints
+according to each speaker's knowledge, experience and field of
+operation. This is natural and proper. If your wife is not the best
+woman in the world, you are not much of a husband. If your country is
+not the best country on earth, you are not much of a patriot. Love
+for everybody and everything in general is a good thing in its way,
+but the specialized affections are of still greater importance in the
+world's progress heavenward. But while this babel of appeals in
+behalf of different places, classes and kinds of work is natural and
+proper, it does not solve the problem as to what are really our
+neglected fields and as to the relative amount of work and money we
+should give to the various calls.
+
+Standing on the banks of the Mississippi, it is impossible to
+determine the origin of the various color elements in the water; but
+if we go to the source, it is easy to discover that the red mud comes
+from the Arkansas, the black mud from the Missouri and the coal dust
+from the Ohio. So if we wish to discover the principles that will
+guide us in selecting fields of operation, we must go back to the
+fountain-head of the New Testament. If we are in the streets of a
+strange city, all is confusion as to the lay of the land; but if we
+climb to the hilltop in the rear of the city, we can readily get our
+bearings. So we must climb to the hilltop with Christ and the
+Apostles and from there get our bearings in our missionary
+operations. Let us then turn to the New Testament and see if we can
+discover where we should go first and the relative importance of the
+individual and society, the earthly and the heavenly, the temporal
+and eternal, the material and spiritual, and their relationship to
+each other.
+
+In looking for the scope of gospel work, we discover that the
+salvation of the individual and his attainment unto eternal life is
+the supreme aim in view. From the multitude of Scriptures that teach
+this we select the following: "For God so loved the world, that he
+gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should
+not perish, but have eternal life" (John 3:16). "Go ye into all the
+world, and preach the gospel to the whole creation. He that believeth
+and is baptized shall be saved" (Mark 16:15,16). "Who will render to
+every man according to his works: to them that by patience in well-
+doing seek for glory and honor and incorruption, eternal life" (Rom.
+2:7). The Scriptures are just as clear in placing the spiritual,
+eternal and heavenly infinitely above the material, temporal and
+earthly: "We look not at the things which are seen, but at the things
+which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal; but
+the things which are not seen are eternal" (2 Cor. 4:18). "Set your
+mind on the things which are above, not on the things which are upon
+the earth" (Col. 3:2). "Took joyfully the spoiling of your
+possessions, knowing that ye have for yourselves a better possession
+and an abiding one" (Heb. 10:34). "Lay not up for yourselves
+treasures upon the earth... but lay up for yourselves treasures in
+heaven... for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also"
+(Matt. 6:19-21). "For our citizenship is in heaven; whence also we
+wait for a Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: who shall fashion anew the
+body of our humiliation, that it may be conformed to the body of his
+glory" (Phil. 3:20, 21). At best a very small per cent of Christians
+can ever hope to attain unto wealth and worldly success; and to
+present these things as an incentive to godliness is but mockery, for
+"if we have only hoped in Christ in this life, we are of all men most
+pitiable" (1 Cor. 15:19). We are constantly tempted to be deceived by
+the delusion that wealth, health and worldly success necessarily
+bring happiness, while the opposite is as often true, as these things
+are not an end in themselves.
+
+While the Scriptures thus clearly teach that the supreme effort of
+Christianity is to prepare people for a glorious hereafter, good
+works in this life are demanded and are of vital importance. It is
+the nature of godliness to seek the well-being of others, in this
+life and the life to come, and no soul can remain saved without doing
+all in its power to minister unto others. "Ye tithe mint and anise
+and cummin and have left undone the weightier matters of the law,
+justice and mercy and faith: but these ye ought to have done, and not
+to have left the other undone" (Matt. 23:23). "Created in Christ
+Jesus for good works, which God afore prepared that we should walk in
+them" (Eph. 2:10). The promise of eternal life is to them who
+continue patiently in well-doing (Rom. 2:7). "Every branch in me that
+beareth not fruit, he taketh it away" (John 15:2). In all his works
+and words God seeks to reveal his love to men with the purpose of
+wooing them back to himself, and good works of love have an important
+place in winning souls to Christ. Thus Jesus did many works of mercy
+through which he made manifest his and the Father's love for sinners.
+"Even so let your light shine before men that they may see your good
+works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven" (Matt. 5:16).
+"Having your behavior seemly among the Gentiles, that wherein they
+speak against you as evil-doers, they may by your good works, which
+they behold, glorify God" (I Pet. 2:12). "That even if any obey not
+the word, they may without the word be gained by the behavior of
+their wives" (I Pet. 3:1). Emerson says, "What you are speaks so
+loud, I cannot hear what you say." This is, alas! too true of our
+Christianity. Unless our love for people is incarnated in the good
+works of our lives, sinners will lose faith in us and in our
+religion. This does not mean that the church is to forsake prayer and
+the Word of God to serve tables, or forsake its spiritual ministries
+and mainly turn its energies to ministering to the physical, social
+and intellectual man. Chiefly, the church, through its spiritual
+ministries, is to inspire its members and others to good works of
+love in their daily walk and conversation. As the anchor of the buoy
+or the ballast of the ship holds it upright, so the good works of
+Christians hold the spiritual salvation aloft to be seen of men, and
+commend it to a dying world.
+
+Having considered the scope of gospel work as revealed in the New
+Testament, let us next inquire where we shall go first. As we cannot
+go everywhere at once, where shall we begin, and where shall we go
+next? Is this left to chance, or is an order of procedure revealed in
+the New Testament? We believe that there is, and that it is of the
+greatest importance that this order should be followed. Christ gave
+the order of march in Acts 1:8, "Ye shall be my witnesses both in
+Jerusalem, and in all Judaea and Samaria, and unto the uttermost part
+of the earth." If we have any doubt as to the interpretation, the
+Apostles interpret it for us in their work under the guidance of the
+Holy Spirit. Other things being equal, they went to the nearest
+territory first. Again, we notice that the Apostles were especially
+led to the cities, the great centers of population. This enabled them
+to reach most people in a given time. Beginning at Jerusalem, their
+missionary journeys were determined by the location of the leading
+cities. Furthermore, we learn from the teaching and practice of
+Christ and the Apostles, that they went to the ripest fields first.
+Christ came to the Jews, the best prepared people on earth, to gather
+a nucleus for his coming kingdom and to scatter preparatory light for
+the gospel message. The Apostles commenced their gospel work at
+Jerusalem on Pentecost because the most devout and enlightened saints
+on earth were gathered there. For this reason the order was first the
+Jews and then the Gentiles (Acts 13:46, 47). Paul passed through
+Amphipolis and Apollonia and came to Thessalonica because a synagogue
+of the Jews was there (Acts 17:1). The Spirit forbade him to go to
+Asia and Bithynia and led him by Mysia into Macedonia because there
+were hearts there ready to receive the message (Acts 16:6-10). Christ
+commanded Paul to depart from Jerusalem because they would not
+receive his testimony there (Acts 22:17-21). Open doors were
+considered as guides by Paul in his missionary operations (I Cor.
+16:8; 2 Cor. 2:12, 13; Acts 14:27; Col. 4:3).
+
+Summing up, we find that the Apostles, in their effort to preach the
+gospel to every creature, were guided by nearness of territory,
+density of population and ripeness of field. That is, all things
+considered, they went along the line of least resistance. This is the
+way of mercy and common sense as well as of Scripture, as it is the
+quickest way to reach every creature. It enlarges the army of
+conquest as fast as possible and always meets the enemy at the point
+of least resistance.
+
+It will help us to understand the matter if we keep in mind that it
+was not only the purpose of Christ to save individuals here and
+there, but also to organize a salvation society or church through
+which to carry the gospel to the ends of the earth, provide a home
+for the new-born spiritual babes and to extend his reign on earth as
+far and as fast as possible.
+
+The matter will become still plainer if we consider another principle
+taught and practised by Christ and the Apostles; viz., the necessity
+an absolute union of the forces of God under Christ for the
+accomplishment of his work. Christ said, "Every kingdom divided
+against itself is brought to desolation: and every city or house
+divided against itself shall not stand," and he prayed for a perfect
+union among his followers in order that the world might believe in
+him (Matt. 12:25; John 17:20, 21). Paul says, "Whereas there is among
+you jealousy and strife, are ye not carnal? For when one saith, I am
+of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos; are ye not carnal?" (I Cor.
+3:3, 4). Again he says, "If ye bite and devour one another, take heed
+that ye be not consumed one of another" (Gal. 5:15). Divisions
+inevitably lead to weakness, waste and defeat. A small army united in
+the authority of a wise commander can defeat the largest army on
+earth if it be divided through every officer doing as he pleases or
+as he thinks best. Therefore Christ demanded absolute union in his
+authority, and the Apostles first of all worked for a union of Jews
+and Gentiles in one body or working force. If the purpose had only
+been to save individuals, the Jews might have been saved as Jews, but
+the object was to enlist the Jews with the Gentiles in God's new army
+of conquest. This new union under Christ, or re-alignment of
+religious forces, was so important that the salvation of both Jews
+and Gentiles was conditioned on their entering it, and, if necessary,
+all other unions and alliances had to be broken to maintain this. All
+race and class distinctions must succumb. "There can be neither Jew
+nor Greek, there can be neither bond nor free, there can be no male
+nor female; for ye are all one man in Christ Jesus" (Gal. 3:28). Not
+even family ties were permitted to interfere with this union in the
+authority of Christ. "He that loveth father or mother more than me,
+is not worthy of me; and he that loveth son or daughter more than me,
+is not worthy of me. For I came to set a man at variance with his
+father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law
+against her mother-in-law: and a man's foes shall be they of his own
+household" (Matt. 10:35-37). The subjection of wives to their
+husbands and of children to their parents is limited "in the Lord"
+(Col. 3: 18, 20).
+
+Summing up the New Testament principles that are to guide us in our
+gospel work, we may say that we are to go as a united force along the
+line of least resistance, making the eternal salvation of the
+individual our supreme aim.
+
+The Restoration movement became necessary because one of the
+fundamental principles of the gospel had been violated; viz.: that of
+Christian union. The success of this movement for Christian union on
+the primitive gospel has been phenomenal. In eighty years its
+adherents have increased from ten thousand to one and a third
+millions. But what are these among so many? The work has but fairly
+begun, and the field is just beginning to ripen for the larger
+harvest. Sectarianism is still present in all of its hideousness, but
+the people are beginning to see the desolation and sinfulness of
+divisions and are groping in the dark in various efforts at solution.
+However, a careful investigation will reveal the fact that the great
+drift towards denominational union is more due to a dying faith in
+sectarian doctrines than to a growing faith in the doctrines "once
+for all delivered to the saints." About a year ago it was declared in
+a large meeting of clergymen that "Protestantism is decaying and will
+be displaced by some sort of a new Catholicism." The statement was
+vigorously applauded. This simply means that sectarian Protestantism
+is decaying. It should be remembered that every large religious body
+in America, except that represented here to-day, originated in Europe
+under the shadow of Roman Catholicism and under political, social and
+religious conditions entirely different from those that now prevail
+in America. These sectarian systems brought to America have been
+thawed out by our free American religious atmosphere so that there is
+not a large sectarian body that would dare to promulgate seriously
+and persistently the basic principles that gave birth to it in
+Europe. The consequence is that sects are hastening to revise their
+creeds so as to get rid of their out-of-date features as gracefully
+as possible. One of the leading arguments for union with other
+denominations used at the recent Canadian General Assembly was that
+"it would give the church an opportunity to revise its creeds, and to
+remove the barnacles and cobwebs that had gathered around them." The
+leading speaker declared that "not a single minister present would
+dare to enforce his own interpretation of the Confession of Faith."
+The ministers hesitate to enforce these hereditary traditions, and
+the members neither know nor care what the creeds teach, and,
+therefore, we hear on every hand, "One church is just as good as
+another."
+
+We thank God for this relaxing of sectarianism and for the trend
+toward Christian union. But the movement involves a grave danger.
+Having lost faith in their distinctive sectarian doctrines, which
+they considered synonymous with New Testament teaching, many
+sectarian people are rapidly drifting into indifference, worldliness
+and unbelief. Forsaking human leaders and their doctrines, they are
+in danger of also forsaking the Apostles as religious leaders and
+their doctrines once for all delivered to the saints. Sectarianism is
+bad, but sectarian life and strife is better than a lifeless,
+conviction-less, graveyard, sentimental union that is the result of a
+dying faith. In a union revival in an Eastern city practically all
+the Protestant churches worked together for a month, and we could not
+count five definite committals to Christ. Any small sectarian church
+alone could have accomplished greater definite results. After
+reducing their doctrines so as to avoid all that would give offense
+to any, they become so thin that there is but little to contend for.
+
+The indifference to the doctrines of the creeds and the New Testament
+which is hastening the disintegration of sectarianism, is partly due
+to infidelity in the churches. Discerning critics cannot fail to see
+that much of the drift toward denominational union is due to the
+leadership of preachers who, through rationalism, have lost faith in
+the inspiration of the Bible and consequently in evangelical
+Christianity. As I was a student for three years at a Unitarian
+theological school and have gone through the process myself, I am
+able to speak on this subject as perhaps few of our brethren can.
+Misguided by rationalism, I thought it my conscientious duty to
+accept, step by step, the dictates of destructive criticism until the
+Bible was only inspired to me in religion as Kant in philosophy,
+Milton in poetry and Beethoven in music. But when I came to the end
+of the business I discovered that my conscience, that had urged me
+along, was gone also. For I was gravely taught that conscience is
+simply a creation of experience and education and that it is right to
+lie or do anything else so long as you do it out of love. Doubtless
+you have all heard of the farmer and his wife at the World's Fair,
+who went to see the "Exit." There was nothing in it and of course
+they had to pay to get in again. This was my bitter experience with
+rationalism. I thought I was following a great light, but I
+discovered there was nothing in it, that I was following an _ignis
+fatuus_. Rationalism has indeed proven the "Exit" to multitudes, from
+the peace, joy and moral security that accompany faith in evangelical
+Christianity into the desert of doubt, darkness and despair. To those
+preachers who, through rationalism, have lost faith in the
+inspiration of the Bible, doctrines are no longer a hindrance to
+union, for they have lost faith in all evangelical doctrines and
+therefore selfishness and utility draw them toward union.
+
+If this is the religious condition to-day, you can see that we are in
+danger of religious anarchy and spiritual death. We are told that the
+splendid civilizations of Greece and Rome were made possible through
+the moral integrity and manhood inspired by their heathen religious
+systems. When unbelief in these systems originated among the
+philosophers and through them permeated the mass of the people,
+morality and sincerity were displaced by policy, distrust and
+deception, which brought utter ruin to the social and civil fabric.
+How much greater must the calamity be if the faith, integrity and
+morality underlying our splendid Christian civilization should be
+destroyed by the antichristian doctrines already taught in the
+classroom at some of the leading schools. The only hope lies in a
+return to "the faith once for all delivered to the saints." I believe
+we have been raised up for this hour. Our past work and opportunities
+are but a drop in the bucket compared with our present opportunities
+for work. As never before, it behooves us to raise the banner of New
+Testament Christianity as a standard to rally and reorganize the
+divided, confused and retreating hosts of Christ. It is not a
+question of staying at Jerusalem until each individual is converted,
+but the question is whether we will ever go to the Jerusalem of
+teeming millions in our land who have never even heard the plea for
+Christian union on the primitive gospel. Just as the Apostles went to
+saints (pious Jews) and sinners and demanded upon pain of their
+eternal condemnation that they unite under King Jesus, so we must go
+to the saints of the sects and sinners of the world and insist that
+they unite under the non-sectarian banner of Christ, in order that
+the whole world may believe in him as God's Son. As in the days of
+the Apostles, so now we need a re-alignment of religious forces in
+order to conquer the world for Christ.
+
+Having learned the New Testament principles that should guide us in
+our missionary operations, and through these discovered our chief
+sphere of work in view of the present situation, let us turn to
+special missionary problems that constantly suggest themselves to us
+and consider our duty towards them and their relationship to the
+great mission that rests upon us as a distinctive people. I refer to
+the Indians, Mormons, Jews, immigrants, the lower and slum districts
+of our cities, the mountaineers of the Appalachian system, the
+millions of unevangelized negroes in the South, etc.
+
+Concerning these problems I wish to call your attention to the
+following considerations:
+
+First, these problems are largely educational, legal, social and
+philanthropic, and as such should be solved by the united effort of
+all the good citizens of the land. Keeping in mind the New Testament
+principles that are to guide us, we can readily see that Christians
+should do many things that the church was not ordained to do. The
+church, as a church, should not go into politics and business. On the
+other hand, the church, through its spiritual ministries, should
+inspire its members to enter business, politics, philanthropic
+associations, etc., in order, as far as possible, to incarnate
+Christian principles in their life in the world. We may differ as to
+the finer distinctions, but none of us would advocate a union of
+church and state or of church and business. As this is a nation in
+which Christians can control the laws, they can do much through good
+citizenship to solve these questions and bring these classes within
+the reach of the spiritual gospel. One of the great duties of the
+church in behalf of these people is, through their spiritual
+ministries, to constrain their members to make and enforce proper
+laws for their education, protection and improvement. Christianity is
+the religion of a book, and the first thing needful to bring these
+classes to an intelligent Christian faith is at least a common-school
+English education. Those of us who have lived in cities that are
+largely foreign know that the public schools are doing more to bring
+these classes within gospel reach than all other agencies combined.
+
+Second, I wish to throw out a warning against engendering or
+encouraging the class spirit which we find so severely condemned in
+the New Testament. In the New Testament we read nothing about
+churches for different classes or about different classes as separate
+missionary problems, but the effort is to reach all classes through
+the local churches along the line of least resistance. The best thing
+on earth for these various classes is that they might be brought into
+vital touch with the best Christian people in our local churches.
+Some have even gone so far as to claim that we cannot reach the slum
+element, but must leave that to the Salvation Army, etc. If that is
+true, so much the worse for our Christianity. A truly New Testament
+church is the incarnation of the wisdom and love of God for reaching
+any and all classes of people. The class spirit is the outgrowth of
+ignorance, prejudice and selfishness and is always sinful among
+Christians. Our experience with tuberculosis and with the modern
+complicated industrial and political systems, is thrusting upon us
+anew Christ's teaching about the brotherhood of man or the solidarity
+of the race. On the whole, it is true that the race suffers or
+rejoices, rises or falls, together. We condemn the segregation of
+foreign races in different sections of our large cities. But the
+segregation of the better, or at least more fortunate, classes, is
+just as bad and more disastrous to the welfare of the city. Social
+settlements and institutional churches are manifestations of the
+Christ spirit, but they are only proxies and excuses for the mass of
+Christians and but samples and crumbs in place of the square meal
+that a square deal would supply. What these institutions are doing in
+a comparatively unnatural and artificial way is simply a hint of what
+could and would be done if all church-members would practise the
+Christ spirit in all their daily walk and conversation. To give a few
+dollars to help pay a few mission workers to live Christ in the slum
+districts is all right, but is no adequate substitute for all
+Christians giving all their life to uplift and save their country and
+the whole world. The best institutional church is the one that
+through its spiritual ministries inspires its members to live Christ
+in politics, in business, in society, in the home and everywhere
+else. So far as possible, let us minimize and discourage the class
+spirit in every way, shape and form. It is marvelous what the true
+Christ spirit will do along this line. A church of Christ was
+recently organized at Romney, W. Va., with two-thirds of the members
+foreign born. With a few days' effort nineteen Italians recently
+joined the Christian Church at Uhrichsville, O. Similar results have
+followed faithful efforts in New York City and at many other places.
+If in love and faith we would make a serious effort to reach these
+classes through the local churches, we would do ten times more to
+reach and help them than by seeking to reach them as classes.
+
+In the third place, we must avoid the materializing tendency of the
+age in our gospel work. The constant tendency is to lose sight of the
+spiritual, invisible and eternal, to be blinded by the things of this
+world and to be conformed to them. In reading popular books on Home
+Missions we cannot but be grieved at the flings and thrusts at the
+old evangelism and the laudations of the new evangelism. For the
+context shows that the teaching is away from the spiritual and
+eternal salvation of the individual, which the New Testament makes
+the chief and ultimate thing, to the material and temporal things of
+this earth, which the New Testament makes a means to a higher end. To
+prove that the old evangelism is defunct, attention is called to the
+fact that seven thousand sectarian congregations did not have a
+single convert in an entire year. But can that be said of true New
+Testament evangelism? How prone we are to forget that only a
+comparatively few can attain unto worldly success according to the
+standard of public opinion and none so as to be satisfied with the
+effort. For the more we get the more we want in wealth and fame and
+pleasure, and none of these things in themselves bring happiness or
+well-being, which is the real thing the soul hungers for. Who can
+estimate the eternal good B. F. Mills did while he pointed
+individuals to the Lamb of God and thus filled their souls with new
+life, hope and courage to do and to dare for self and others because
+"of the joy that was set before them"? But in an evil day he became
+spiritually near-sighted and spoke about saving society rather than
+the individual, and now he is reputed to be a hotel-keeper,
+ministering to the material comforts of his fellow-men. Oh, what a
+fall was there! But only an example of multitudes who have become
+near-sighted and unfruitful through a so-called new evangelism that
+is not new. While giving good works their proper and important place,
+let us never forget that to save the individual soul for eternity
+through the gospel is the chief work of the church, and that it must
+ever subordinate the temporal and material to the spiritual and
+eternal.
+
+Furthermore, it is well to remember that our sectarian neighbors,
+having largely lost faith in what they once considered their
+distinctive mission, are naturally turning much of their energy to
+general educational, philanthropic and civilizing work. Under the
+circumstances it is natural and proper that they should give
+relatively more of their energies to this kind of work than we, as we
+have a distinctive mission that demands our chief effort.
+
+The classes enumerated above present indeed great missionary
+problems. We should keep in mind the entire field and never plan for
+anything short of reaching, as soon as possible, every creature with
+the gospel. But accepting the guidance of the Holy Spirit, revealed
+in the New Testament, we must go to the ends of the earth as a body
+united in Christ and his truth, along the line of least resistance,
+ever keeping in mind the spiritual and eternal salvation of the
+individual as the ultimate aim.
+
+These things being true, I still believe, as we have always taught,
+that the reunion of God's people on the primitive gospel is at
+present the overshadowing issue before us and that in working for its
+accomplishment we are doing the utmost in our power to solve all
+missionary problems. Christ can never conquer with a hopelessly
+divided army. Sectarianism ties up three-fourths of the men and money
+and kills three-fourths of the spiritual power that could otherwise
+be used to solve all missionary problems. Unite all saints in Christ
+and set free these forces, and within this generation the world will
+believe and know that Jesus is the Christ whom God sent into the
+world (John 17:20, 21, 23). I believe that God has providentially
+prepared both us and the field, and unless we perform the mission set
+before us he will raise up another people through whom to bring about
+Christian union on the primitive gospel, to our eternal shame, but to
+their eternal glory. Thus it seems that, pre-eminently, our neglected
+fields lie among the teeming millions of America, ripe unto the
+harvest for our plea, but who, through our negligence, have not even
+heard that there is such a plea.
+
+Grapes of Eshcol have been gathered from every corner of our land,
+proving that it is a land flowing with milk and honey for primitive
+Christianity. Look at the wonders done in Oklahoma. Go to Southern
+California and see the recent record. Go to the great Northwest, both
+in Canada and the United States, and see the ripeness of the field.
+If we turn to the southeast we gather just as large clusters of
+grapes in Florida and along the coast. See the marvels accomplished
+in Washington, our capital. Two churches offered to us because we are
+non-sectarian. Turn to Baltimore and see the marvelous growth. Two
+fields offered to us because we stand for Christian union. Look at
+the recent and abundant fruit in conservative Pennsylvania, or pass
+on to New York and see the wonders at East Orange and in Brooklyn
+among the Russians. Wherever we turn, the field is riper than ever
+and we must haste to garner it in or the abundant crop will perish.
+The heart of the country is already largely ours. Let us go forward
+with enlarged numbers and renewed vigor, knowing that the God of the
+harvest is with us and we are well able to possess the land. While
+greatly increasing all our other activities, let us push the Home
+Society to the front where it belongs according to every principle of
+Scripture, mercy, economy, efficiency and common sense. If we will
+renew among us the zeal and self-denial of the pioneers of this
+movement, we will soon gloriously triumph to His honor and praise.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of To Infidelity and Back, by Henry F. Lutz
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TO INFIDELITY AND BACK ***
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