The Gospel Day; Or, the Light of Christianity

by Charles Ebert Orr

To-day the teachers in Babylon and their subjects are in darkness concerning church organization. The election of officers and their framing of laws, and the location of the ministers by the annual conference are all human authority, and belong to the apostasy. The Holy Spirit is the sole organizer in the church of the Bible. There are a few texts in which the Holy Spirit is spoken of as working in conjunction with man, or using man as an agency. This is very limited. Conferences claim to work in conjunction with the Holy Spirit, but we have no such instances in the Scripture. One minister told me he trusted the Holy Spirit to direct conference to give him the proper appointment. This is popish—man not able to be directed by the Holy Spirit himself, but has a mediator.

Our space will prevent our telling of the adding of tradition to the Scripture, and of the rejection of much of the Word of God. Catholicism and Protestantism largely deny the doctrine of holiness. Some of the Protestant teachers teach holiness to a degree, but very few, or none of them, teach true Bible holiness. By far the large majority of sectarians reject the doctrine of Christian perfection, heart purity, or [pg 442] freedom from sin. Is it any wonder they are a great object of darkness when they are living in and can not be free from the very element of darkness? There is no light in them. The vast majority of the beast worshipers reject the doctrine of divine healing. As plainly as it is recorded in the Bible, they in the darkness comprehend it not. The whole of the sectarian world denies the unity of God's people as taught by the Savior, and as experienced by the church in the morning light. Nearly the whole of mystery Babylon and her harlot daughters reject the sacred ordinance of feet-washing. Some of them deny all the ordinances, and the others have misused and misapplied them so as to make them without meaning. But few sects that practise the lifting up of holy hands, and the greeting with a holy kiss.

The humble ordinances of feet-washing and greeting with a holy kiss are very repugnant to the generality of proud-hearted sectarians. They look upon these ordinances as being degrading to morality. They call it an “act which public decency abhors.” Here they are mistaken: it is not public decency that abhors it; it is a proud heart. A holy kiss is not indecent, whether it be public or private.

Proud, sensual hearts have very depraved ideas of what is true decency. We will here give an authentic newspaper account of a scene which all the pure in heart consider a public indecency, moral degrading, Christian disgracing and soul damning.

“Buffalo, Feb. 4—A lively row is in progress at Burns, a little town about twenty miles from Buffalo, growing out of a new money-making scheme, introduced at a church social held there in the Lutheran church parlors. The church is heavily in debt, and the ladies advertised a social in the church to raise money to pay the preacher and buy some coal. The men of the congregation had all been seen and informed that the women had a big surprise for them.

“Across one end of the room was a curtain. For an hour the guests chatted after the old-fashioned church social style. Then the curtain was suddenly withdrawn. There in a row stood six of the prettiest women in the congregation, blushing and smiling, each bearing upon her bosom a placard, on which were the words, ‘You may kiss me for 25cts.’

“It was fifteen minutes before the device began to work; but when it did, the silver quarters fairly showered into the young ladies' circle. Old and young rushed eagerly to the front to exchange coins for kisses. The show lasted only a short time, when the curtain was drawn. Then the storm burst. The women were jealous of their husbands, and a dozen or more family fights were started at once.”

Similar scenes, and still more degrading ones, are occurring daily in the aristocratic religious denominations. The sect parties and socials, the fashionable balls, the obscene theatrical performances, are enjoyed, and admired, and applauded, by thousands so [pg 444] low in morality that they feel no shame. Their hearts are so naturalized and inclined to lewd ways that sin can scarcely bring a feeling of shame. It is only holy and pure things that are repugnant to their dispositions and inclinations.

A large majority of the sectarian world reject the scriptures that teach plainness of dress, that condemn revelry and fleshly lusts. There is not a sect upon the earth but what rejects some portion of God's Word, and taking them all together, probably there is not a text in the Bible but what is rejected or perverted by them. Sectism to-day presents a deplorable picture.

I would ask the reader to look at the plain, simple truths of the Bible as taught by the Savior and the disciples. Picture to your mind, by what knowledge you have of Scripture, the life of Christ and the apostles and the church in their day. Notice their humility, their equality, their care for souls, their privations, their persecutions, their holiness, their faith for healing the sick, their oneness, their unselfishness, their love for each other, their separation from the world, and their belief of the whole truth. Alongside of this place a picture of the religious denominations of to-day with their proud, highly educated and high-salaried ministry, rejecting much of the Bible; denying holiness and the humble ordinances, no healing faith, assuming proud titles, building fine temples, living in ease and luxury, joined to the world [pg 445] free from persecution—their greed for money, their revelry, the pomp and show—and, oh, what do you see of the church of God? Truly, this great dark beastly sect religion has darkened the pure church of God.