I
r
ZION’S LANDMARKS.
175
have foiiud a place in which they can
begin to have a little ease .of con-
dcnice. I will plp.se as I sec iny letter
will he too long. Please excuse rny
scattering remarks, as I have writ
ten this in a himy’;'much more’could
be said upon the subject. Examine
it, and jf worth anything you can do
as you think l)est.
JAMES CARNEY.
South Lowell, N. C.
Aug. 23d, 1871
iJcxiT brother Carney:—Yours in
the Landmakks • wa.s received sev
eral days since. I have often
thought of not only you, but all the
dear bretliren with whom, I met,
while in your section last Fall. I
sometimes wonder how it \yas,, that
entire strangers in the flesh, could
in such a short time' completely
entwine themselves around my heart
and feel so dear to me. Man,
brother Carney, is made up. of
strange contradictions
Man, na
turally, is a strange being any way,
a mystery to himself unfathomable.
Yet tliere is a power which can
spiritually reveal him to himself,
and show him his own deformity.—-
Man naturally.is. very, fond of relig
ion; consequently we see almost the
whole world -worshiping something,
and I doubt not but that the fol
lowers of every sect think they are
doing their Qod's service. 'We
take the Bible as the word of our
(foil and there we find that man's
condition is describe.l as dead in
trespasses and sin.s, conceived in sin,
brought forth in iniquity, incompe
tent to think a good thought, or
|Kirform a good deed, because led
captive by the devil at his will; but
who of the many thousands who
read the Bible, and see these things
in print, feel the wordfi stamped as
truth by the spirit of God upon
heir liearts and can say, by the evi
dence of the spirit, that the Bible is
the word of the living God, and
that Christ is indeed the Saviour of
sintiers .not the 'righteous. This
word teaches us that there are* but
'i wo spirits in-tho world, the sjtirit
of truth and the^ spirit of erroj', arid
that all men. areunder the; teachings,
of one or the other ■ of these, Sp'irits.
d''hon it becomes eve*ry wise inan
making any-pretentions to religion,
to try these s])irits by the wordi and
see by which he is led. There are
many sects of religionists in the world
who differ widely in their faith, and
} cannot conceive how they all
can be right or how. the spirit of
God can teach the Old School Bap
tists, they are right and teach others
that they are wrong; something lias
taught me tliat what the word des-.
crilies as the most miserabhy de-
])i aved and wretchedly helpless con
dition of man, in liis lost estafe is
mine naturally; .1 had read th^ m
the Bible often, nntil it hecam^ as
a familiar tale and believed it in, a
veay because the Bible said so, a\ul
was rather disposed to think it sui
ted some others better, than it did
me,, but when I was brought to see
and feel that the -worst was mine,
that every curse was pronounced
against myself, that I . was the man
condemned, that I was the one in
the horrible pit, and that my very
efforts to extricate myself, only sunk
me deeper into the mire of despair.
It was then that I was weary and
heavy ladened, hungry, tliirsty,
naked, stripped of my own righte
ousness, and made willing as I trust
to fly to the outstretched arms of
Christ, my city of refuge. No^y in
tlie first place, vrho gave me this
light to see myself so' difterently
from what I saw riiyself before, and
so alarmed me as to make me fly to
the law of woi’ks for safety, there to
find that I had no power to per
form them, and if I had, there was
that miserable load of sin in which
I was conceived and brought fortli
against which I could not possibly
have anjdhing to ])lead. Here it was
that I could realize the fact that
tiie word was truth, and that I was
indeed powerless to think a good
thought even. Why hocause I
could here see that the whole foun
tain was fouled and conteminated
in Adam’s fail, and I as one of his
s'ced was just as much so as he was.
It was here that I could see that if
Adam was a free agent, I was not
for I was the servant of sin, led cap
tive by tiie devil at his will. Now
man is no free agent unless of the
devil,^ by -yirtue, of doing .liia bidding
willingly, and Ibis I believe is so.
that we have all
for we are told
sinned.
Now brother Carney, why is it
that there is such a vast diflerence
in the different sects, claiming
Christ as their Saviour ? I have
long since seen this wide difference
and have wondered why it was so
seeing that all claimed to follow tlie
same word, and l)elieve in the sanie
Clirist ])rofessedly and I very liber
ally have tried to believe that all
wei-e merely branches of the same
Church, and that Christ would own
and bless all at the last day; hut
here comes the word again .whicli
says there shall be some ther'e at
the very Judgment bar of God
claiming salvation through their
many wonderful works performed in
Christ name, and t'hat not all say
ing Lord, Lord, shall enter in which
torbids such a liberal conclusion on
the subject of who will he saved, and
it matters not what our wishes na
turally may be on the subject, we
must liear wliat God iu His word
says about it, and whatever that con
demns, we as the followers of the
meek and lowly Jesus shouJd con
demn also, following others as tliey
follow Christ. Then why is it that
some de])8iid on faith entirely, some
on works entirely, and some on both
faith anl works mixed up ? t will
tell you how I believe it is. Vv'hen
we look at tlie Ia\v of works (leiiv(;red
to Moses, we naturally lose sight
of our lost condition Spiritually and
think by the carnal performance, or
obedience to the mosaic la-y- we Avill
reap spiritual blessings. In other
words, I believe th^-e are two relig
ions taken from the Bible; for I
think I have helicA^ed in both, one
is a carnal religion, the other a
spiritual. The first or carnal is I
think the one most trusted in at the
present day and based upon the
works of the creature. There Avas
a moral laAv delivered to Moses, arid
the Jews Avhich promised them it
they obeyed they should inherit the
Land of Canaan, and if they diso
beyed they.should certainly be pun
ished and' the legitimate conse
quences of their misdeeds should
fall upon their heads. Those hiAvs
arc just as much in force now .as
then, if we a.s individuals or nations
obey the moral law. I helicA'^e Ave
will he blessed in our obedience,
our land will flow with milk and
iioiiey, we shall be prosperous and
have peace among ourselves, hut if
Ave disobey them vre must suffer the
consequences, and if we teach that
obedience to the moral laAv by the
cai ual mind is tlie spiritual religion
ot Clirist or in any AA’ay commends
maq to the favor of God it is a de
lusion an invention of man and Ave
have_ confusion, Avars, Wood shed,
divisions &c. Noav avc understand
that the spiritual religion of Christ
to he altogether different based
upon a new spii-itual birth, it is en
tirely a spii-itual operation Avrought
out entirely by the Holy Ghost, fra-
possible to be aided or forAvarded bv
any carnid effort or -even to be un
derstood by carnal or natural aaus-
dom,_and in this spiritual birth
man is not clianged back into his
last ptate in tli.e g.arden of' Eden
but is niade a joint heir A\dth Christ
Avhich is tar better than even that
AAdiich Avas lost., So Ave sec that tlie
child of God CA-en rejoice to knoAvhc
is a sinner, he has no cause to com
plain at God in anything because
AA'^nen God gives him the evidence of
the iiGAvbirth, hccriri then see that He
has done every thing else well, and
believes that all things shall work to
gether for good to* them that loAm
God to them Avho are the called ac
cording to hi§ purpose. It here
seems to me that there is hut one
gi-eat question Avhich should absorb
the chiistian’s mind namely to he
continually seeking after the evi
dences of this ncAv birth . and just
in^ proportion as these 'evidences
shine Avithm, must tlie cliristian be
in different to all the tlircatening
storm.s without Avliich can be hurled
upon him by men or devils'. It \\ms
tills evidence Avhich could enable the
old martyrs to mount the burning
piles rejoicing and meet the grim
monster (leatli Avillingly and I trust
it Avas this evidence that made me
Avilling to sever every cartldy tie
and a mid tlie jeers and frowns of
the Avorlfl to unite myself to your
despised old band Avhere I may hear
you lisp the name of Jesus in SAveet
accents, ascribing all glory to liis
name, and taking none to yourselves,
It is by experience like this that Ave
are enabled to trust God in the dark
as in the light. After A\n^ have thus
seen and felt our lost condition, our
utter helplessness, and inability to
do one .single thing to commend Vi'S
to God, and then feel from tho evi
dences of the spirit Avithin, enrrobera-
ted by the avoixI without, tlmt God
has done all things for us, that He
is the beginning and tlie end of our
sah-atiori; then it is that Ave have
no very exalted opinion of our abilitA"
or inclination to do gxAod. Tlien it
is that Ave can see and feel tliat ’to
obey, simply obey, is' better than
sacrifice, tliat G od dues not require
that mail should compass heaven and
earth to make one proselyte that af
ter he should make him he should be
two fold more the child of tlie deAul
than himself, uoav Ave liaA^e a clearer
Auew of the exaltation of God and our
OAvn depravity, and Ave can Avhile re
joicing in the evidence of being a
child of God, by reason of this ncAv
birth, very Av'ell afford tO be consid
ered fools, glorying in our oavu ig
norance and inability to hnd or see
anything commendable in Avorldlv
AAusdom, as Ave are sometimes ac
cused of being indifferent to the ex
cellences of Avorldly Avisdom, iu
learning Christ. But Ave contend
that there are tAvo \vays of learning
Christ one flistorically or by Avorld
ly Avisdom the other spiritually or
by the Holy Ghost. W.e can read
the Avord and learn that above 1800
years ago a man lived called Christ
Avlio performed many miracles &c.,
but no man can say that he Avasand
is the Lord saAm by the Holy Ghost.
Brother Caniey Ave are’ indeed
strange creatures ,q, mystery to.om-
selves, so great that nothing short of
the spirit can sluDv us to ourselves
ns Ave really are, dividing soul and
body, causing- the spirit to .lust
against the flesh and the flesli
against the sjflrit. This .spirit is- iu
the Avorld to-day Avaging a Avar in
the bosom of every child of God and
sealing God’s"elect and Avhen, tliis
work is accomplished time'* Avill be
no more, and Ave' need not give our
selves any uneasiness for fear any
shall be lost for '^‘He knoAvs them
that are his,” and ‘toot a hoof shall
he left” eA^ery cliild shall come flock
ing home to Zion.
Brother Carney, the abo\m are
•some of my I'Cflefitions upon reading
your;precious article, A’-ery imper
fectly committed to paper for your
inspection, and if you see anything
in tliem calculated to comfort any
one of the babes in Christ you are at
liberty to use it as a Avholc or any
part of it, as your better judgment
may dictate.
Yours &c.,
ISAAC G. CANNADY.