But, vast as this achievement may appear, when we are looking at it as a work of man, it diminishes, dwindles and sinks into utter insignificance and nothingness, when we lift our eyes above it, to “the everlasting hills,” the workmanship of Him who “weighs the hills in a balance, and handles the isles as a very little thing.” Also, how our hearts are filled with reverence and our spirits impressed with awe, when we lift our eyes above the hills, to the vast mountains, and think of the thousands of miles over which this mighty range extends, as well as others on our great universe! We are, at the same time, filled with awe and gratitude, that we have the blessed assurance that we are not overlooked, forgotten, and lost in the immensity of the innumerable works of the Creator! But, blessed be his glorious name, vast and innumerable as are his marvellous works, he has the time, the goodness and compassion to provide for the fowls of heaven, and the fish of the sea, as well as the beasts of the forests. Among all the variegated multitudes of the feathered tribes, not even a sparrow falls to the ground unobserved by Him; and, by the same Omniscient One, we are assured, by our adorable Redeemer, the hairs of our heads are all numbered. To the same amount, and for the same purpose, he says, “If an earthly parent knows how to give good things to children, how much more shall the Heavenly Father give his Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” How comforting to think that he has promised, saying, “I will never leave you nor forsake you, but will grant you grace and glory, and no good thing will I withhold from you?” How secure, too, we can feel, and how strengthening to reflect, when dashing through these fearful mountains, conscious that though in one moment an accident might occur by which our earthly career might be terminated, the everlasting arms are underneath; and though the earthly building may be destroyed, we have an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. To his Almighty hand we commit our all; in Him is our everlasting trust. To him be praises forever and ever.
[REASON, PROVIDENCE, AND THE SPIRIT OF GOD, TEACH US TO OBEY GOD.]
SOME men are guided by reason, others by providences, and others by spiritual influences, separate from, or without the word of God. In regard to all this, it is not necessary to make much war upon them, provided their reason, providences, or influences, lead them to obey the gospel, which we know was preached with the Holy Spirit sent down from heaven. But, it is a sad comment on their reason, providences, or spiritual influences, when it leads them to disobey the teachings of the Spirit of God in the Bible. Right reason, true providences, or real spiritual influences, could not lead any in our day to disregard what the Spirit of God taught in the establishment of Christianity. In one short sentence: “The Spirit of God would not lead men to disobey what he has clearly required in the Bible.” No reason, providences, or spiritual influences, therefore, can be of the Spirit of God to lead men to disobey what the Spirit of God taught in the Bible, or required at the beginning. The Spirit of God required precisely the same of all persons, who sought the way into the Kingdom of God, in the days of the Apostles, that he does of all who seek the way now. The Holy Spirit has not changed. It is, then, a most arrogant and unfounded pretence, for any man who now attempts to set forth the way for sinners to come to God, to claim that he is led by the Holy Spirit, while he evades and refuses to set forth the plain and unequivocal requirements of the Holy Spirit, as set forth in the New Testament, or attempts to improve upon them. Nothing can be taken from those requirements, or added to them, without incurring the curse of Heaven. The Spirit of God, if he did lead men independent of his word, could not lead them to incur this awful curse; he, therefore, manifestly, does not lead any man who will add any thing to, or take anything from, what he required when he spake through the apostles, of all whom he showed the way into the Kingdom of God. That which he required in one case, he required in all cases. If he required one man to believe, in order to become a disciple, he required all to believe. If he required one man to confess Christ, he required all to confess him. If he required one man to repent, he required all to repent. If he required one man to “be baptized in the name of Christ, for the remission of sins,” he required all to do the same. If he promised one man pardon and the importation of his Holy Spirit, upon his compliance with his requirements, he promised all who complied with the same, whether all the items mentioned in one case, are found in all, or not. No matter if faith is not mentioned in the case of the three thousand on Pentecost; it is not left out; they all believed; for, without faith, it is impossible to please God. They that come to God must believe. No matter if repentance is not mentioned in Saul’s conversion. Acts xxii. 16, he repented, for God requires all men, everywhere, to repent. The same is true of all the items.
We, therefore, are the only people now known, who proceed upon the infallibly certain method of collecting, and arranging in proper order, all the items required by the Holy Spirit in the conversion of sinners; we mean the inductive mode of reasoning. We have no preference for any particular part of Scripture; it is all precious to us. We have no particular class of Scriptures, as Calvinists, Universalists, Unitarians, etc., but we take the whole Scripture; not to prove our doctrine, but as the perfect and complete system of doctrine itself. When we wish to examine any point of doctrine, we proceed upon the inductive plan, and take all the Bible contains as the mind of God upon that point. When we would ascertain what the Holy Spirit of God requires of sinners, in their conversion and admission into the Kingdom of God, we proceed through all the conversions of the New Testament, collect all the items, and ascertain their order, and insist that the Holy Spirit requires the same now; nothing more, nothing less. Let us, then, take a brief look through the New Testament, at all the conversions, and ascertain precisely what is required and what is promised.
We open at the following words of the Philippian Jailor: “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” Here is a Pagan whose attention is for the first time called to the subject. What reply does the apostle make to him? The answer is, “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house,”—Acts xvi. 30–31. Here is an important item in the form of requirement, and one, too, that can not be dispensed with, for the Holy Spirit says: “He that cometh to God must believe.” It is not only a requirement that he should, but a positive and unequivocal demand is that he must believe, and this indispensable demand of him that “cometh to God.” See Heb. xi. 6. But now for the order of this item. Is it a first, second, third, or fourth item? Is it the first item, for the apostle says, in the context, “Without faith it is impossible to please God.” It is in vain, then, to try to do any thing else to please him, so long as a man does not believe. It is the first item, because the apostle required it first of a man who had complied with no other item, in such a way as to lead him to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ the first thing he did. It is the first item, because “whatever is not of faith is sin.”—Rom. xiv. 23. It must, therefore, be the first item, because everything else proceeds from it and is done by it. The first item in the commission is Faith, and he that sets aside that item will be condemned, let him think and act as he may in regard to all other items. “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, and he that believeth not shall be dammed,” says the Lord. The first requirement, then, is to “believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,” and without complying with this requirement, or taking this step no person can ever take another. There is no reaching the second step without taking the first. Unless the first step is taken, it will eternally stand between any man and the second. This indispensable step was required of, and taken by all who came to God under the guidance of the Holy Spirit who spoke through the apostles to the people to lead them to God. Never did one, from the days of the apostles to the present time, get round, or by, this great requirement, and come to God. It is true, that when the Pentecostians and Saul inquired what they should do, they were not commanded to believe; but it was not that faith was dispensed with in their cases, or that the Lord had a different method of conversion for them, but for the good reason that they already believed, and their faith caused them to inquire what they should do.
Acts iii. 19, we find the following requirement laid down: “Repent ye, therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord.” This requirement was uttered to an assembly that had just witnessed one of the most manifest miracles of the apostles—one which the enemies mentioned shortly after, admitting that it was known to all who dwelt in Jerusalem and that they could not deny it, and at the close of a discourse which they had heard, and which had convinced them that the work was of God. The Holy Spirit, on this occasion, demanded of them to repent, reform, or amend their lives. This demand too, is as wide as the actual sinners among men. In the times of ignorance before the gospel, God did not hold men to a strict account for their sins, “but now he commands all men, everywhere, to repent, because he hath appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness,” Acts xvii. 30–31. Repentance, too, is indispensable. “Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.” Luke xiii. 3. What does the Lord mean by this word, “except”? John iii. 3, he says, “except a man be born again, he can not see the kingdom of God.” Two verses after this, he says, “except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he can not enter into the kingdom of God.” Here we have the same word, “except,” again. What does he mean by it? At verse seven, he explains as follows: “Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.” You must repent or perish, then, is the meaning of the words, “except ye repent, ye shall perish.” Repentance is then required of “all men, everywhere,” and is indispensable—must be.