THE antediluvians would not be warned by the preaching of Noah, and suspected nothing till the flood came, and swept them all away. The Jews in like manner would not be warned by our Lord and his apostles, and could not be aroused from their apathy and indifference till their devoted city was invested with armies. So shall it be at the coming of the Son of man. Great trials are upon those who intend to maintain truth and righteousness. May we be able to stand the coming conflict. The love of many is growing cold, and those weary of the restraints of Christ are coming to the surface. Let us not slumber, but watch and strengthen the things that remain and are ready to die. Let us hold fast and be faithful, lest the trying hour come on us unexpected. Let us sing, and sing with the spirit and the understanding: “Nearer, my God, to thee.” May we find grace to stand in the evil day, and having done all to stand.
[HOW THE CAUSE OF REFORMATION
WAS ADVANCED.]
WITH preachers from the farms, shops, stores, law offices, doctors’ offices, with a little learning, and many almost without it, we carried this cause forward, and in defiance of all opposition have triumphantly planted it in all directions in this and in many other countries. The power was not in the men but in the truth of God; the clear and unquestionable truth, that could be made plain and reliable to all men, and that, too, with very little learning or talent. The ground taken was invulnerable, manifestly right. The Bible is from God, divine, and admitted by all to be right, and there is not a reason in the world for not taking and going by it. We have struck down all human authorities, human names, and humanism of every sort, and restored to the people of this generation to a wonderful degree the divine, the supreme and absolute authority of the Bible, and are now commanding respect in a remarkable degree, not as a new denomination, but as the people of God, called out from the world and from Babylon, and planted upon the Rock of God.
The man that runs against this cause and opposes it is not simply running against men and opposing them, but against God, and must come to nothing. The cause is simply right, infallibly right, and nothing opposed to it is right. In this view we started in it, and have never had a doubt about its correctness and supreme authority over everything else in the name of religion. In our incipient movements every member was a preacher, if not publicly, privately, and every preacher was at work, as opportunity opened the way, in private, the social circle, the prayer-meeting, the established and regular meeting on the Lord’s day for the commemoration of the suffering of Jesus, anywhere and everywhere, as a sense of propriety dictated on all occasions. There were additions at almost every meeting, whether for prayer, or on the Lord’s day, and frequently when there were no meetings. All were missionaries, and missionaries all the time. Great numbers were almost daily added to the church, of both men and women. Indeed, many of the sectarian priests became obedient to the faith.
We had discipline in the church—order, and the members were looked after; not only the popular and rich, but the afflicted and the poor. All were enlisted in the work, and had time to give attention to it. The evangelists were self-sacrificing men, seeking the salvation of the people, and preached in private dwellings, school houses, in barns, mills, groves, anywhere and everywhere that a few people could be found, who would hear the word of the Lord. The people crowded out to hear, and, hearing, believed to the salvation of their souls. They were of one heart and of one soul. The Bible was their book. “Thus saith the Lord” was their watchword, and a man that would sneer at it would have been regarded as a skeptic. “It is written” would be heard in the preaching and conversations. “The chapter and verse” were demanded. It was not the novelty of the cause that gave it the victory, but the certainty that it was right—that it was from God and of supreme authority—that carried it to the hearts of the people. It was not unsupportable human schemes and devices that gave it power among the people, but the invulnerable nature of the cause itself. It was not the polish of classical and plausible men that carried it through the country, but the manifest authority of God in it.
Jesuits can only excel in being Jesuits; schemers can only excel in scheming; but “the excellency of the power” that pushed this cause through this country was not of Jesuits nor schemers, but of God; the preaching of the cross, the wisdom of God and the power of God. We knew nothing but Christ and him crucified, and went ahead with our plain and unvarnished story of Calvary. God was with us.