SH
:o
ZION’S LANDMARKS
Then they say their church is
burtit. We read that wood, hay
»nd stubble shall be burnt, and we
suppose that some the churches
built by Missionaries or man could
not endure much fire; they mean
that their meeting house is burnt.^—
These same people can write in Lat
in, and ridicule us for our ignorance
of English, yet they often call wood,
brick and mortar their churches.—
Thus committing a fiital verbal blun
der, unless such things are their
churches. W^e think good comforta-
privilege of attending on. the
preaching of the G-ospel with my
brethren and nisters ia the church
meetings. I therefore place a very
high estimation on the perusal of
your paper.
1 am with sincere regard your
brother in tribulation.
JACOB FUDGE.
ble meeting houses very convenient
places for people to meet in, and re
gret that this house was burnt. Uor
have wo any idea at all that a single
rriraltive Baptist encouraged or en
dorses any such a tlung as they are here
charged with, hut, on the contiaTy,
our people heartily condemn all such
We are not surprised that
“Amicus” should withhold his name,
for perhaps even he is ashamed to
lot his true name appear in public^
although he would like to fa.steu
this stinking feproach on our whole
“sect,” which already is everywhere
•poken against.
Will the Biblical Becordcr make
Bome exiubition of his friendship by
publishing this condemnation ot
house burning and slander.
f. f. ppi-p.
_ - Editor.
All Conununications and ^"tac^ap'rons
must be directed to Dwtok Zxo^ s LA^o■
mauks, Wilson, N. C.
WIL80N, N. 0., ; : JANUARY la, 18/3.
Remarks on Rom; xi; 12 16.
Montezuma, Macon, Co., )
April 8th, 1872. j
Dear Brother Gold:—I have
concluded to write you a few lines,
making the request if your time and
business will admit, that yon would
give us your views on the 12 lo
and 16 verses of the xi chapter
Paul’s Epistle to the Eomans. I
have often permsed that and given it
Borae study, hut still continue to he
ju the dark in regard to the Apos
tie’s laying so much stress upon the
rejecting of the Jews as though it
bad opened the way for the adoption
of the gentiles into the church o
Christ.
I h^po you will excuse me and not
think me inquisitive relative to the
many mysterious points in the Bible.
\& my old age, and under many af-
fiiatioDS, 1 am deprived of the high
This chapter is profoundly myste
rious and full of wonders as Paul
expresses near its conclnsion:;” O
the depth of the riches, both of the
wisdom and knowledge of God; how
unsearchable are his judgments, and
his wmys past finding out.”
The question is perhaps asked,
why could not salvation have come
to the Gentiles through the belief of
the Jew's?
Why should it he necessary for
them to become enemies of the gos
pel for the sake of the Gentiles, that
is, in order that the gospel -should
come to the Gentiles.^ Nature
would say that the more the Jews
jelieved the more that would en
courage the Gentiles to believe.—
The teaching is very plain here that
the fall of the Jews secures the gos
pel to the Gentiles, the riches of the
world comes through their fall; the
casting av/ay of the Jews is the re
conciling of the world; tlie natural
branches (tlie Jews) were broken otf
that the wild olive tree (the Gen-
iles) might be graffed in; all which
is certainly contrary to nature and
a mystery.
Let us illustrate: It is impossible
for a carnal mind to see how, by the
fall of Adem, salvation is come to
the lost in him or that God makes
the wrath of man to praise him and
restrains the remainder of Vvrath.—
Human reasoning would argue and
hold that the more man improves
his^ condition the surer is he of sal
vation, and if he could attain to per
fection. which of course lie can as it
is required of him, for man, say
they is required to, do nothing
which he is unable fo do, he would
be saved. But there wavs a time
when man was upright and right
eous in the eye of the law, hut
when he fell, by his transgression,
from that estate the law did not fall
in its demands^—it relaxed no hold—
to suit his fallen condition, but it
still demands the same perfect obe
dience. Man is utterly unable to
keep it, and now grace comes and
provides a sure way of salvation to
and for man in his lost estate, which
would not have come to Adam if he
had remaiHcd in obedience. Then
shall not we commit sin that grace
may abound.^ We could not do so
for that purpose. God forbid If
v^e were dead to sin how could we
live in it.
if the Jews had kept the law
committed unto them and continued
therein righteousness would have
been by the law, and Christ had
died in vain. When all had gone as
tray, each turning to his own way,
ihen the Lord laid on Jesus the ini
quity of us all. When Ave were without
strength, in due time, Christ died
tor the ungodly. And the wicked
ness of the Jews which contrived
the death of Christ, and the wdeked
JcAv.s who put him to death, are the
occasion of his being lifted up that
Gentiles (or all men) might bo
drawn to him. He dies without the
Jerusalem gate, that he may
save the Gentiles, and through this
bloody deed is the propitiation made
for the whsle world, while the Jew'-
ish establishment is utterly dissolv
ed,—tlieir genealogy lost, their
priesthood gone—their place and na
tion taken from them—no ‘ more
have tliev a national existence, hut
the exceedingly more gloiious king;!
dom of grace is risen over its ruins
reaching to those that had not been
the people of God: “where sin
abounded, grace doth much more
abound;” “where dragons lay there
reeds and rushes spring up.”
How could this Spiritual King
dom of Jesus arise without the
doAvnfall of the other? how could
the natural sun arise and allow tiic
stares to twinkle and the moon to
shine, and how could the moon and
stars he shut up and the sun not
shine, since_He who hath command
ed light to shine must be obeyed?
so how could the Jewish system he
abolished and a more glorious one
not he set up without God’s purpos
es being frustrated and his promises
made void? AVhile the law stands
over a nation or a sinner how could
they or he if guilty he otherwise
than shut up and condemned under
its penalties? but when that law is
magnified by the obedience of him
1
who enacted it, how shall not ■ his
righteousness be the end (eatistac-
tion) of that law, and will not the
downfall of that sinner who is under
it he celebrated by the coming forth
of the fruit ot obedience to tlie law
into the liberty of the gospel, or
will not the prisoners of hope be
commanded to show themselves?
But it is not the same eorrupt man
that is carnal and sold under sin that
is born of the Spirit, hut the neAv
man (Isaac) or the children of prom
ise are counted for the seed, and th«
downfall of the old Jewish, cor
rupt body of sin found in every
gentile, is tiie occasion of the preach
ing of the gospel to the new crea
ture. How could the glory of th«
resurrection of the dead be e.xhibited
without the downfall of the natural
body. The old body will not h«
raised, hut such a body as is pre
pared of the Lord, not vof the old
Jewish covenant hut a new covenant
bodv; hov/ever this does not go me to
pass Until the dissolution or dowit-
fall of the first one.
We have been using tliose illus
trations in order if possible to ex
press some of our views concerning
the subject under consideration.
Tlie JcAvs were going about fo cb-
tablish their own righteousness, Imt,
being ignorant of God’s righteous
ness they iiad become so blinded that
tlieir very table (the alter and Jcav-
ish wersliip) had become a snare,
and truth a stumbling stone unto
them, blindness in part had hap
pened unto them, their system is ta
ken away—what for ? .Through
tlieir fall salvation is come to th«
Gentiles to provoke them to jeal
ousy.
Now if the fall of them enrich
the world, what sliall the rise of
them he? The world would ear,
its impoverishment, No; The re
ceiving of them will he life from th«
dead—so much gained. Tlie roason-
imr, is cuntrarv to nature hut far
better, in grace; “For as ye gentiles,
in times past, have not believed yet
have now obtained mercy through
their unbelief.” Since the Jew*
would not believe, said the Apos
tles,” Ta>, we turn to the Gentiles,
and also in the end to provoke the
Jews to emulation. (Naomi should
bring hack something from Moab)
“Even so have these (Jews) also
now not believed, that through your
mercy they also may obtain mercy. ’
Here grace reigns, for the unbe
lief of the Jews is the o.ecasion of
the coming of mercy to the Geh-
tiles and this mercy to the Gentiles
shall abound so as to return with
prevailing mercy to the Jews.—
For if at present the Jews are ene
mies to the gospel in order that the
Gentiles might hear it, still they—
are beloved for the fathers’ sake*
(Abrham, Isaac and Jacob); “For
the gifts and callings of God are
without repentance.” When God
makes a gitt or calling in the new