But what evidence have you that repentance is the second item? It is the second item, because we have shown that faith is the first, which shows that repentance can not be the first; and because Peter—Acts ii. 3, and iii. 19,—addressing people who believed, but had not repented or done anything else, commanded them to repent. He makes it the second item. It is the second item, because a man can not repent till he believes in the Lord, before whom he must repent, and who convinces him of sin, for, “by the law is the knowledge of sin,” which shows that it must follow after faith; and because there is no other item in all the records of conversions required, that he can acceptably comply with, till he does repent. An impenitent person can not pray, confess, be baptized, or do anything acceptable to God. The person, therefore, who is a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, can not get over repentance, or do any thing else acceptable to God till he repents. His faith will do no good so long as he continues in impenitence. For his impenitence, if he persists in it, he must perish. In the order of God, it is the second step, and unless taken, will eternally stand between him and the third step. No advance can ever be made till he repents. “Except ye repent, ye shall perish.” It is true, that Ananias did not command Saul to repent; but it was not because it was omitted in his case, for no man ever entered the Kingdom of God without repentance; but he was not commanded to repent, for the good reason he had repented before Ananias came to him. We are not to expect any historian, in giving records of conversions, and so many instances, to mention all the items in each case.
[WHAT IS CAMPBELLISM?]
THIS has been a puzzling question. It is hard to find out precisely what it is. Not a man yet, of all who have been engaged in fighting this monster, has defined it, explained it, or told what it is. It has been called a dangerous heresy, and so many hideous warnings have been given against it, that the hair would almost stand upon a man’s head to hear about it, and yet no one has told what it is. The reason no one has defined Campbellism, is, simply, that there is no such thing in existence, except in the imaginations of some misguided doctors. As near as any man can now come, at what they mean by Campbellism, it is Christianity itself, unmixed, unadulterated, and without any other name. This is evident, for, when they hear a man preach, who preaches nothing but Christianity, nothing but Christ, simply aiming to convert men to him, and induce them to receive him as their only Leader, they call it Campbellism. It is nothing but a nick-name they have given the gospel, to keep men from hearing it. In the same way, they call the preacher a Campbellite, who will preach nothing but the gospel, nothing but Christianity, to raise prejudice against him and prevent people from hearing him. In precisely the same spirit, here comes Rev. N. L. Rice, of heresy-hunting memory, in a tract of forty pages against Campbellism, which the reader may think as he pleases about, but which is as much against the religion of Christ, and those trying to receive it, practice it, and maintain it, and it alone, as was in the power of Dr. Rice to make it, without, in so many words, saying so. No man in this country, at this time, can preach simply the gospel of Christ in the name of the Lord, under any other name, and maintain the law of God, as the only rule of faith, without being called a Campbellite, and branded with preaching Campbellism.
[YOUNG PREACHERS MUST BE PRACTICAL.]
THE young man who would become a preacher, while he is receiving knowledge, or obtaining the theory, must ply himself to the work, making a practical use of what he learns. A man may study for years and acquire an immense amount of knowledge, but having no practical use of it, he is as helpless as an infant. In precisely this predicament are thousands who have gone through the manufacturing process of making preachers, without any practical use of all they have learned. Indeed, many of them have learned nothing of consequence, of one of the most important chapters in a real preacher’s learning, viz: “The ways of the world.” The knowledge of the Bible—general “book-learning,” is all right. It is indispensable. But to know man, is equally important. Man must be studied to be known. We must converse with him face to face. We must know the world by actual contact with it. We must know the church by actual observation. We must know the obstructions in the way of truth and righteousness by actual contact with them, with actual and personal efforts to remove them.
Not only so, but the people must know the preacher—see him, hear him, and have personal interviews with him. His work can not be done by proxy. He must go himself and put his own hands to the work. He must be with them and give them a personal example of deportment and religious conversation, read the Bible to them, pray with them in their families, give thanks at their tables, go with them to the place of worship, preach to them and persuade sinners to repent. A man who does not do this, is really no preacher of Christ, and will accomplish nothing for his name.