DEAR EDITOR, — The spiritual overseer of one of the parishes of England recently asked me to speak from his reading desk, but my arrangements for that Lord’s Day had been made, and so he gave me a general invitation for a future time.
Some articles have also appeared in the British Weekly which I have read, and they have now come out in book form, and are called a “History of Brethren,” by the son of one who is known for his activities as a servant of Christ.
I should like to indicate from Scripture why one company is too large and the other too small to meet the requirements of apostolic language about the brotherhood.
The Established Church of this island teaches that this brotherhood is formed by baptism— “Wherein I was made a child of God” is the expression.
A few years ago, on the other side of the Channel, I was boxed up in a diligence with a Jesuit priest, whose teaching on this point was the same. “A very strange God,” I said to him, “must be the One you are acquainted with, if those who murdered the Archbishop of Paris and others were His children, for all of them were baptized.” God had attached His name as Father to the nation of the Jews, and yet when some of them claimed this relationship our Lord said to them, “Ye are of your father the devil, and the works of your father ye will do” (John 8:4444Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it. (John 8:44)).
I quite believe that all who live in the countries that speak of the year of our Lord are of the Christian and not of the Mohammedan or any other faith, and I believe that baptism unto the death of Christ separates unto Him the Jews and heathen who profess faith in Christ — but this only adds emphasis to the apostle’s words, “For ye are all the children (sons) of God by faith in Christ Jesus” (Gal. 3:2626For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. (Galatians 3:26)). When the Jews asked the Lord, “What must we do that we might work the works of God?” the reply was, “This is the work of God, that ye believe on Him whom He hath sent” (John 6:28, 2928Then said they unto him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God? 29Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent. (John 6:28‑29)). There is therefore a revelation to the soul by the Word of God and the Holy Spirit. The necessity for this revelation may have been concealed from the soul by the presumption of the Churches. They have changed a word which fell from our Lord’s lips to Nicodemus. He said: “Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit.” The Churches are in error when they say, Water means baptism; and further, therefore baptism is the instrument of new birth.
Against such teaching we have the witness and statements of three apostles: ―
Second, James. — “Of His own will begat He us with the word of truth” (ch. 1:18).
A saying of Moody’s in New York was scriptural: “If I thought that baptism and not the Word could reach your souls, I should not be preaching to you here, but I should be in the street, throwing buckets of water over those I thought needed a change of soul.”
With evidence such as that quoted from the apostles, and remembering “that no lie is of the truth,” surely no one would condone the Church’s error, nor be indifferent to the truth of God.
The apostle John gives as evidence that we have “passed from death unto life,” “because we love the brethren” (John 3:1414And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: (John 3:14)). This would be meaningless if all men were the brotherhood. Peter, too, says, “Honor all men. Love the brotherhood” (ch. 2:17).
But we must go to the only begotten Son of God to have this mystery explained. He says, “Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone; but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit” (John 12:2424Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. (John 12:24)).
“Life lay hid in folds of death.”
On the resurrection morn, from the lips of the Holy One who was not allowed to see corruption are heard the words, “Go to My brethren” (for the first time did He use this expression) “and say unto them, I ascend unto My Father and your Father; and to My God, and your God” (John 20:1717Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God. (John 20:17)). He becomes now the firstborn of many brethren. This is a new creation.
The history of these brethren God has caused to be written for our learning in the Acts, and it is wisdom for us to be satisfied with this, Some who would add to the story, especially after so great a division amongst the brethren as Catholic and Protestant, will find how apt was C. H. Spurgeon’s remark about such a history: “This history makes me think of one of those broad roads in America which as you travel west ends in a squirrel track.”
All of us, therefore, who are on “the Church’s one foundation” would desire for our water-baptized companions that the words of a Christian poet may express their heartfelt aspirations: —
“To know the Christ of God,
The everlasting Son;
To know what He on earth
For guilty man has done;
This is the first and last of all that’s true and wise,
The circle that includes all light beneath (above) the skies.
O God, unveil my heart, unseal my closed eyes,
Reveal Thy Christ to me.”
Again, in the prayer of Job, “That which I see not, teach Thou me” (ch. 34:32).
I would further admonish the would-be historians who are not satisfied with our Lord’s prophetic history to live as the “sons of God without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world; holding forth the word of life,” until the One who will sit on the throne of Jehovah in the place of His father David rewards in His kingdom those who serve Him in the time of His rejection.
And in the words of another poet: —
“Weary of all this wordy strife,
These notions, modes, and forms and names,
To Thee the Way, the Truth, the Life,
Whose love my simple heart inflames,
Divinely taught at length I fly,
With Thee and Thine to live and die.
Forth from the midst of Babel brought,
Parties and sects I cast behind;
Enlarge my heart and free my thought
Where’er the latent truth I find,
The latent truth, with joy to own,
And bow to Jesu’s name alone.
One with the little flock I rest,
The members sound who hold the head,
The chosen few with pardon blest,
And by the anointing Spirit led
Into the mind that was in Thee,
Into the depths of Deity.
My brethren, friends, and kinsmen these,
Who do my heavenly Father’s will,
Who aim at perfect holiness,
And all Thy counsels to fulfill,
Athirst to be whate’er Thou art,
And love their God with all their heart.
From these, howe’er in flesh disjoined,
Where’er dispersed o’er earth abroad;
Unfeigned, unbounded love I find,
As constant as the life of God;
Fountain of life from thence it sprang,
As pure, as even, and as strong.
Joined to the hidden Church unknown,
In this sure bond of perfectness;
Obscurely safe I dwell alone,
And glory in the uniting grace
To me, to each believer given,
To all “Thy saints on earth in heaven.”
“Therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew Him not.”
— Yours, &c., H. T.