*
nuurnfirnrnimitlMigimmm
Zioirs LaiKliiMrks : Wilsoo, N. C.
often seek fights with their neighbors,
Init many of them were first to flinch
wlien real bravery became necessary,
anti thus it will be in the Cinirch,
should actual persecution again come.
Hailing is no proof of firmnes or
soundness.
A man in a Baptist pulpit once re
marked that he wanted nothing to
do with the Methodists, or IMbsion-
aries in this world, and should any of
them get to hcav'cn, he wanted a par
tition between him and them. About
twelve months after using that ex
pression, he went over to the Mis
sionaries a,nd has ever since been an
Inveterate enemy to the Baptists.
Christians do not love Armiman doc
trine, but they are willing to stay in
heaven with any one that God has
prepared for that blessed abode.
Paul was a defender of the gospel, but
he did all things in meekness.
“ And the servant of the Lord
must not strive ; but be gentle unto
all men, apt to teach, patient; in
meekness, instructing those that op
pose themselves; if God peradven
ture will give them repentance to the
acknowledging of the truth,” 2nd
Tim. 2: 24, 26.
'‘Now I Paul myself beseech you
by the meekness and gentleness of
Christ, who in presence am base
among vou,hut being absent am bold
toward you,” 2nd Cor. 10: 1.
“ Put on therefore as the elect of
God, holy and beloved, bowels of
mercies, kindness, humbleness of
mind, meekness, long-suffering,” Col.
3:12. “ TOjSpcak evil of no man,to be
no brayvlers, but gentle, showing ad
meekness uiW) all men,” Titus : 2.
Paul did not mean that Preachers
should surrender the doctrine of
Christ, but for them to contend for
it in meekness. The Angel of God
did not bring a rahng accusation
against the Devil himself, but simply
i^ovd rebuke thee,”
Jude 1 : 9.
Some Preachers ccm]ilain because
the Churches do not supply their
temporal needs,whereas they, perhaps,
do not feed the sheep with the bread
of life which came down from heav
en.
Sheep appreciate food more than
defence. Ministers should !iot ex
pect to spend the bulk of their time
in attending to their own secular af-
hiirs, and then be supported by the
Churches. Paul said to Timothy—
“ '1*111 I come, give attendance to
reading, to exhortation, to doctrine.
Neglect not the gift that is in thee,
'which was given thee by prophecy,
with the laying on of the hands of
The presbytery. Meditate upon these
things; give tliyself wholly to them;
that thy profiting may appear to all,”
1st Tint. 4:13, 14, 16.
The first duty rests upon Ministers
to preach—the second duty rests up
on the Churches to bestow of their
carnal tilings. “ If we have sown
unto von sjiiritual things, is it a
'»'rcat thing if we shall rca]t your car
nal things?” 1st Cor. 9 : 11.
I once knew a faithful Minister to
serve a Chnrcli about fifteen years
and receive :ibout eleven dollars for
the whole time, anti because he re-
bulced the deacon for his negligence,
the report was soon circulated that he
was *■ prcacliing for laoncy. - Such
Churches are ready enough to de
mand promptness of Preachers, and
require them to “ go to war at their
own charges”—a thing that they
tliemselves would be unwilling to
0 0.
“ And as ye ivould that men sbonld
do to you, do ye also to them like
wise,” Luke 6 : 31. “ For they bind
heavy burdens and grievous to be
borne, and lay them on men’s should
ers, but they themselves will not
move them with one of their fingers,”
Mat. 23 : 4. Covetousness is covet
ousness loherever it is found, and it
is just as crimina l in a member of the
Baptist Church as in a hireling
Preacher of some other denomination
—the former tries to increase his
.substance by withholding more than
is meet; the latter by exa,cting what
the Scriptures do not guarantee to
him.
AFnenever a member can feed upon
no other preaching than that which
advises him to keep his “purse-strings
tight,” he is covetous. Christians
o '
feed upon the e'ddcnces of their own
soul’s salvation, and not upon perish
able things wlucli pertain to this
world.
Since I have given myself wholly
10 tL^p Ministry, I have no reason to
complain of the treatment whicli I
have received from my brethren and
friends, and I desire to acknowledge
my appreciation of their kindness.
It is true, in some instances I have
seen a manifest spirit of covetousne.ss,
but wliile onelias fallcnshort, another
has, perhaps, been exceedingly kind,
and thus supplied my needs.
Some deae$HS seemAo- be umf^lnd-*
ful of the purpose'fur which they^
were made, and think that carrrying
aroinid the bread and wine constitute
their whole duty, whereas there were
no deacons upon earth, -wheu Christ
instituted the Supper. . Deacons were
made, affer his ascension, to attend
tojhe poor sain t.s. “Then the twelve
called the multitude of the di.sciples
unto them and said, li is not reason
that we should leave the word of
God, and serve tables. Wherefore
bretjireu, look ye out among you,
seven men of honest report, full of
the Holy Ghost and wisdom, whom
we may appoint over tliis business.—
But we will give ourselves continu
ally to prayer and to the ministry of
the word,” Acts 6 : 2, 3, 4. Deacons
are not required themselves to defray
the wliole expense, bat arc the officers
of the Church to collect and distrib
ute to the needs of the preachers, and
other poor members. Any member
wlio grumbles at deacons for doing
what the scriptures require of tliem,
is not worthy of the name of a Bap
tist. Sometimes preachers do injus
tice to the deacons, by omitting to tell
the Church their own duty, in refer
ence to the ministry, and excuse
themselves by saying, “ It is a tender
point.” God has not called men to
preach such things as are agreeable
to their feelings and to omit such as
are not. Arise, go unto Ninevah,
that great city, and preach unto it
tile preaching that I bid thee,” Jonah
3:2.
It requires hut little tirmnass to
coiiuemii the faults of our enemies,
but ;n'cnt soundness to condemn those
of our friends.
I love my brethren too well to
shun to declare the rvliole counsel to
them and I have too much confidence
in the hulk of them to believe that
they will reject the plain teaching of
the Scriptures. MTien a preacher
takes a scriptural position, occasion
ally some member will cry out
“ ^Missionary,” hut such men are not
the ones thaLlielp preachers. They
neither do themselves nor want oth
ers to do. Those who do most for
preachers grumble least. The
Primitive Bapti.sts are evidently the
Church of the Living God, but
doubtless at the time of the split,
three classes of persons remained with
us. One class was too fond of the
bottle, and because we opposed strene-
ous liquor laws, they took advantage
of our arguments and msed liberty as
an occasinii to the flesh. “ For,
brethren, ye have been called unto
liberty.: only use not liberty for an
occasion to the flesh, bnt by love
serve one another,” .Gal. 5: 13.'—■
“ But, take heed, lest by any means
this liberty of yours become a stum
bling block to them that are weak,”
1st Cor. 8 : 9.
There was another class who re
jected the institutions of men, simply
to dodge the expense; and not because
they were really at heart opposed to
such things. Whenever men become
Baptists, simply because they are too
stingy to be anything else, the Church
is as well off without them as with
them.
There was yet another class who
were as pure as the gold dollar, and
.tlmy rqmaing^d because they loved our
dm^trine of salvation by grac4. and
they opposed strenuous laws' and the
inventions of men because they be
lieved them to be unscriptural ami
therefore dishonoring to God. Doubt
less some of each are joining us now,
hilt it is to be hoped that there are
hut few of the first two classes.
1 have written this article, as I
trust, in the fear of God, for the good
of His people, and I hope and pray
that it may be read in the same spirit.
Yours in Christian love,
James S. Damerox.
Xear Maysfiei.d, Milam County, Texas.
April i2th, l875.
‘Tie that hath an ear, let liim hear ivhat
the Spirit .saith unto the Churches. To bjni
that overcometli will I give to eat of the hid
den manna, and will give him a_white stone,
and in tlie Stone a new name written, which
no man knowetli .saving lie that recciveth it,”
Kev. 2: i7.
Elder F. D. Gold—Dear Sir :—
^^hOSSIBIA" it may be presuni])-
tuous for a poor, wretched,
sin-defiled, afflicted persecuted
W-;, and creature, such as I am,
to undertake to write to you, or for
the perusal of the children of God;
hut of such as I have give I unto
von, and if it is not to the honor of
God or the comfort of his people, cast
it aside, for that is best. Surely this
is a time in which it becomes ns all
to examine ourselves and see whetlier
we he in tlie faith or of the faith once
delivered to tue saints—and the cry
go up as of old, “ Help Loid, for the
godly mail c'easetli ; for the faithful
fail from among the children of
men,” P.s. 13: 1. My attention was
called a short time ago to a piece of
music—in a late publication for
Church and social music—entitled
“Heavenly Name.” The mu.^^ic
beautiful, and the word.s begin if I
noticed right—
“ What shall be ray heavenly name?”
1 was caused to reflect at the time,
and often since of the application ot
the text of Scripture as above (Lev,
2 : 17,) and I have been brought to
consider how entirely we are depend
ent upon the sovereignty and provi
dence of God, for all that we receive
and for all that we are, or ever will
be, notwith.standing all the prevailing
opinions, and self-righteousness, and
presiinqilion of man to the contrary.
It was the Lord that changed the
name of Abram. It was the Lord
that changed the names of Jacob and
of Saul • and it is He that changes
the name and nature of all that aro
taught to speak the true' shibbo
leth of the Son of Ilight-
eonsness. How those that are strong
do seek to mystify this change, and
talk about a multitude of laws, &c.,
while we that are weak can only com-
jirehend that It is simply by the im
puted righteousness of the Lord Jesu.s
Christ—to a poor, dead, lost and
ryined sinner of Adam’s posterity,
that he is made acceptable in the sight
of God the Father, and can approach
unto him. and be received—being
washed and purified from sin and all
its consequences, by the obedience and
sanctification of the Lord Jesus
Christ in his stead by the blood of
a crucifif'd Savior—by being clothexl
with the robe of the imputed right
eousness of Christ—without which no
one need expect to ever approach God
Qr sc'iyhis face in pea^^-^and i-s„ Bms, '•
a poor liumaii being. One of Adam’s
posterity is really and truly dead in
tre.spasses and .sins, (as the wliole of
his family are by nature,) tho’ he
don’t know nor believe it, till brought
by the Holy Spirit of God to see and
feel his real lost and undone condition ;
then he is turned about to seek a way
he has not known, is sick and seeks a
remedy for relief: and tho’ he may
take of tiic fills of his own self-right
eousness,and good deeds for a season,
he fimds that it is like all the rest of
his deed.s—only tends to death—and
he finds tliat lie must find a physician
suited to hi.s case, or he is gone iorev-
er. He casts himself about till he
finds all he has and is, is death and
opposition to a righteous God, and is
justly condemned. Then it pleases
God, through Jesus Christ, by the
Holy Spirit to give him grace in be
lieving on the Holy Son of God
as his only liope of .salvation from sin
and nncleanness—his only hope of
peace and acceptance in the sight of
a holy and just God, he receives it as an
inflint, a little child—and is convin '-
ed that it is by the will of God, and
not his—and learns hi,s first lesson in
the school that teaches that all thino's
to ■
are ruled and governed by the will of
God—he Is now changed and has a
new name given liim—he is killed
to the love a ml ■willing practice of
sin, and c;in live no longer therein :
has found that in lilmselfand of him
self it is impossible to plea.se God or
to ever appear before hizn in ])eace; has
received the righteou,sness of Jesim
Christ imputed to him as the onh/
hope of life, or peace, or eternal rest
beyond the grave. And it looks so