166
ZION’S LANDMARKS
dren of the bondwoman in their
means to get money to replenish the
treasury of their Moloch or imagi
nary God, to carry on their evangel
izing projects ; while their parents,
(their father likely a preacher,) be
long to and are engaged in carrying
on Agricultural, County or State
Fairs; and t^eir argument to justi
fy their course is, “ 0 my sons and
daughters must go into society, there
is no harm in it.” The wife and
daughter want to exhibit a bed quilt
or show’ how good a loaf of bread or
roll of butter they can make ; the
boys want to trot a colt, to show a
age of ten 1 felt my first keen con
victions for sin. At the age of twenty
I was brought to see “Je.sus Christ as
the end of the law for righteousness
to every one that believeth,” which
was but a short time before I was
baptized. But my troubles, trials
testimony of our Lord,” nor of His
despised afflicted ones, but ashamed
of myself for (I fear) intruding too
much upon the columns of the Land
marks, and for entering upon subjects
that should have been left to more
edifying and abler pens. I greatly
md temptations did not end when I i fear that I have created disgust and
was relieved of that ponderous load
of guilt and condemnation that bore
me down at the time. I, by an eye
of faith, beheld Jesus as a mediator
between me and an angry God, freely
fine pig or exhibit the fruit of their
ground, if not as Cain did, yet for a
purpose little better. Then to make
it take the better, if the father should
be a preacher, he is put ^on some
committee, commonly the most con
spicuous, such as domestic manufac
tures and the horticultural depart
ment. So anti-Christ gets him to
serve tables. All this time w’here is
his charge, (preach the word.) Dear
brother Bodenhamer, your paper is
small, and I must not write too much.
For t is time, adieu.
J. G. WILLIAMS.
Cotton Gin,
CouNT¥, Texas.
I
August 25, 1869. j
Brother Bodenhamer:—Your val
uable little paper occasionally comes
to my hand, through the kindness
justifying me from all things, from
v;hich I never could be by the law of
Moses. Ho, no. I say my troubles
did not end there, for my mind had
already been exercised on the subject
of preaching, which began to grow’
stronger. I will not attempt to tell
all my travels of mind on the subject.
Let it suffice to say that all my ef
forts to resist the impression have
been in vain, and that I have had
more comfort in trying in a weak w’ay
to preach than I ever had in striving
against it. If this scribble should
chance to catch the eye of any dear
brother who has an impression to
preach, pray or exhort, let the un
worthy wTiter say to such an one
confer not with flesh and blood, “for
if ye know these things happy are
ye if ye do them.” The rod is thtr^^tj-ong ar
only blessing we find out of the path
of duty. Brother Bodenhamer, I
am sorry to see that your paper has
so limited a circulation in Texas. It
cannot be because there are but few
of Brother Manning, w’ho takes it
for twelve months, often containing I Baptists here, for there are several
communications from brethren in
Georgia and Alabama with whom I
am acquainted either personally or
from character, which makes them
the more interesting to me. I read
one recently from Elder Johnson
Pate, the man w’hose hands upheld
me in baptism on the third Sunday
in October, 1865, near Fayetteville,
Ga., and more recently one from my
brother, Samuel C. Denton, who
came with me to this country, and
with whom I roved over several coun
ties of this State before I found any
of the peculiar people of God, the
Primitive Baptists. Ke returned to
Georgia., probably, to do a work as
signed him by Zion’s King, while I,
as I hope, was by the same hand kept
in this country to perform my des
tiny. If indeed the Lord has ever
took cognizance of me. He also has
appointed me a work here. At the
age of five years my mother taught
me some important lessons concern
ing God and His handiwork. At the
Associations in the State. Let me
state for the benefit of any preaching
brother desiring to come to Texas
that there is a church in Leon county,
eight miles northwest of Centreville,
ihat has had no pastoral supply for
three years, yet they seem to be in
quite a healthy state. May the Lord
send a pastor.
Yours to serve,
JAMES C. DENTON.
Mrs.
Sister:-
Lutherville, Ga., 1
September 17, 1869. /
M. M. Hassell — Beloved
•I have delayed responding
to your most excellent and highly
appreciated letter of April so long
that I feel due an apology—my name
has appeared so often in the Land
marks lately, that I am ashamed of
it. I had concluded to answer your
letter when a letter written to brother
Mitchell last winter unexpectedly ap
peared ; this caused another delay.
I am not, however, “ ashamed of the
caused offense, rather than “provoked
to love and good works.” “Let not
them that wait on thee, 0 Lord, be
ashamed for ray sake, nor those that
seek thee be confounded, for ray
sake.”
I had penned the above and stopped
with an oppressed feeling, and from
finding no utterance, I took the Bible
and opened to and began to read the
25th Psalm. Oh how forcible and
how precious is the word of God when
exactly suited to our feelings and de
sires !•—“Unto thee 0 Lord do I lift
up my soul.” Surely none but a
child of God can utter this in sin
cerity ! nor can they which are at
ease in Zion, mountain top or ex
alted position ever heard it; but its
low, earnest wail 'goes up from the
valley of humility. They that are
up need no lifting ; but the low, help
less soul, burdened and oppressed,
feels so sensibly its need, and knows
so well that none other than the
m of God can help, that it
turns to Him in strong desires, and
would lift itself in strong supplica
tions. With this sense of need, and
with this cry comes.the expression—
extorted, indeed from the emergen
cy, but uttered in faith—“0 my God,
I trust in thee.” When is a soul so
ready to trust in God as when fully
humbled under a sense of its own
need and nothingness ?—when thus
feeling that none but God can help—
when thus desiring that none but God
should help ? And thus, looking
back over the past, and wfithin over
its terrible enemies, how tremblingly
bursts the cry “let me not be ashamed,
let not mine enemies triumph over
me.” And this prayer is uttered, or
felt, for all the members of the body,
expressive of a common care and
full knowledge of its own powers,,
and the entire insufficiency of an arm
of flesh, and oh how earnest, how
urgent bursts the cry “Lord what-
wilt thou have roe to do—.show me
thy way 0 Lord and teach me thy
paths, for thou art the God of my
salvation.” Upon the principle con
tained in the last assertion is baser!
all the above. A soul never is so-
humble as when it can say, unre-
servedly, “thou art the God of my
salvation.” naturally con
clude that a soul thus confident would
need no lifting to God or teaching
in His ivays and paths, but natural
conclusions err when tryi!)g to dis
cern a spiritual position. Let a poor
tremblinrr, fearful soul feel its lo’w
helpless condition, and it rejects nat
ural conclusion, and knows, as if it
wmre by spiritual instinct, that none
but God can help ; and this very
knowledge is cotemporary with th-’-
faith that attests “thou art the God
o\^ my salvation, cause mo to know’
the'-..-ay Avherein I should walk, for 1
lift up my soul unto thee : I flee te
thee to hide me—teach mo to do thy
will for thou art lny Grod.” Poor
trembling child of faith, be assured.
I in your heart that the God cf your
sahmtipn has given ymj tho^e_jieieix£ii.
because He intends to grant them
the very yearnings, gi'oanings and
longings going upivard to God from
the vale of oppression is of the Spirit
given and accepted of God. We mav
Well question desires not perceivablv
disconnected from the flesh: but when
desires arise and flow to God detached
from all created things, thev flow t=>
the very source that has implanted
and that has purposed in Christ to
grant them ; they a.re the breathings
of that eternal life given in Chri.-r,
cause, “Yea let none thatwait on thee
be ashamed” but those who “trans
gress without a cause.”
“ Show me thy ivays, 0 Lord,
teach me thy paths.” There never
was a heaven-born soul but desired
to a greater or less extent to know
and do the will of God ; they may
at first think to learn it by enquiry
from others or by reading the Scrip
tures ; but let such come at last to a
full sense of its nothingness, and a
before the world began. And is it
really so, that desires detached from
earth shall be granted ? that to be
hungry and thirsty for the bread and
w’ater of life is (after waiting) to bo
filled with “all the fullness'of God
shall the strong silent desires turn
ing from earth and daily arising to
God from this body of death, be sat
isfied ? Shall such a poor, unde
serving sinner ever “ awake in thy
likeness ?” I knotv not. But “on
thee do I wait all the day.” Wait
ing leans on faith, but it springs from
hope. To wait all the day require.s-
patience, and patience comes by trib
ulation. None can wait patiently all
the day but sueh as have been exer
cised by tribulations. Wars without
or conflicts incideat upon earthly
A-1
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