Life and Labors of Elder John Kline, the Martyr Missionary / Collated from his Diary by Benjamin Funk

by John Kline

I must here call special attention to one point in all the miracles of healing wrought by the Lord, and that point has relation to the cause of all our woe. It is the sin of man. To the impotent man who had lain by the pool thirty and six years, unable to get in, after being healed, the Lord when he met him in the Temple said: "Sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon thee." Paul says: "By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin." Death of the body is the point at which all diseases, ailments and infirmities aim; and the death, the eternal death, of the soul is the point at which all sins aim. "Death is the wages of sin." "And ye are witnesses of these things." In relieving insane, idiotic, epileptic and dumb people of the mental ailments afflicting them, he always removed the cause by casting out the devils or evil spirits as the cause of their troubles.

I know that some people doubt or disbelieve that sin is the cause of all suffering. I have met such. They freely aver that this cannot be so, because the brute creation suffers, which they say is sinless. It is a well conceded fact that brutes are not accountable. They have no future state of existence. They lack that freedom of the will to choose good or evil, and that understanding to know good from evil, both of which man has in unlimited possession. Still, brutes are subject in a low degree to the very same vile passions, the indulgence of which in man becomes sin to him. And why? Because man is destined to live to eternity, in another state of existence. If man's existence were to terminate with the life of his body, his sins, although of a somewhat viler character than those of the brute creation, would be of no more account. The Lord sent out his apostles, and in their steps others to follow, whose great business it was, has been, and ever will be to tell people that they are sinners; that sin is the cause of all the misery, wretchedness, suffering and unhappiness in earth and hell, and that the only way for people to be rid of the multiform evils of existence is to be rid of sin.

Salvation from sin, then, is immensely the most important matter that can possibly engage man's heartfelt attention, as I said at the start. How to get rid of the evil of sin—I mean the love of evil—and how to come into the possession of the love of what is good, and as a result of that love lead a good life, is the sum and substance of all divine teaching. And why? Because a man's character, whether good or bad, goes with him when he dies. Character is the only thing we do take with us when we leave this world and enter the next. "He that soweth to the flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting." "Whatsoever a man soweth the same shall he reap," is a law as immutable as the law of gravitation. Our Lord has mercifully opened up a way, a highway, out of a life of sin into a life of holiness. The first step in this way, nay, the first step towards it, is repentance. This involves a very great change in the state of man's will or heart. Heart and will have the same meaning. Repentance is a change in the affections of the heart. It is a change so great that man of himself, unaided by the Lord, would never make it. It is a change from the supreme love of self and the world to love of the Lord and one's neighbor. "Except a man deny himself, and take up his cross daily, he cannot be my disciple." Self-denial and bearing the cross are repentance.

"If any man cometh unto me, and hateth not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple." All these relationships symbolize evil affections and thoughts which are to be no longer loved. The withdrawal of the affections from all our inherited and acquired evils is repentance. If the right hand be in the way of our repentance, it must be cut off. If the right eye cause us to stumble, it must be plucked out.

But it will not do to leave the matter thus. The quotations and references I have given are so strong they almost overwhelm us. We almost cry out when we hear or read them, as the disciples did when the Lord had just told them of the impossibility of a rich man's entering the kingdom of heaven: "Who then can be saved?" But I give you the same answer the Lord gave the disciples: "With men this is impossible: but with God all things are possible." It is the Lord who gives us the power to repent. Bartimeus could not see until the Lord opened his eyes. But when he called, the Lord heard. So we must call. "And whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord, shall be saved." This is faith; and I may here add the Lord's words: "I am come a light into the world, that whosoever believeth on me should not abide in darkness." But remission of sins is as sure to follow true repentance as day is sure to follow the darkest night. "Every good tree bringeth forth good fruit." Remission of sins, and a life of good works, is the fruit borne by the penitent man symbolized by a good tree. And what does remission of sins imply? It implies casting our sins behind us; forsaking them; leaving them off, and not looking back. It implies putting one's hand to the plow in a new field of life and labor, and never looking back. "He that putteth his hand to the plow, and looketh back, is not fit for the kingdom." Looking back with a longing eye, as Lot's wife did, is sure proof that we have not fairly remitted our sins in heart, but that we still love them.

I perceive from the expression of some faces that surprise is felt at my intimation that man remits his own sins. But he does as truly as he destroys the grass from among his corn or the weeds from his garden. God gives him the strength and the will to do both, but man has his work to do. He must be a coworker with God. Would there be any good in blind eyes being restored to sight, unless man would be willing to see with them? Or any good in palsied arms made strong, unless they were used to do good? Or any good in having the whole leprous body cleansed, unless the cleansed man would return to give glory to God?

Isaiah's very first vision of the church called forth that wonderful exclamation: "Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes: cease to do evil; learn to do well." This, when done, is the remission of sins. It is sending them back, to the rear; while we have the Lord always before our eyes. He said to the blind Pharisees: "Cleanse first the inside of the cup and the platter, that the outside may be clean also." Paul says: "Let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit." James says: "Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded." Does not all this look as if man had a good deal to do with the remission of his sins?

It is natural, or, rather, it is in harmony with God's order in the creation of man, for him to desire to have a part and lot in all the Lord does for him. He enjoys most the fruit of trees planted by his own hands. A lady appreciates the garden or lawn arranged and set according to her taste, and cultivated by her hands. God mercifully favors us with similar feelings in making good, pure-minded, truth-loving, faithful men and women of his intelligent creation. With this intention he has given man special work and ways of manifesting his will to work with the Lord. The only ordinance of this kind which I will call your attention to to-day is that of baptism for the remission of sins. It is also called the washing of regeneration. As the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, or Holy Ghost, the three eternal and infinite essentials of the Divine Trinity, all have part in man's repentance, in the remission of his sins, as well as in the regeneration of his will unto eternal life, baptism in water, in each of the three names, is enjoined in our Lord's great commission. "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost."

As an order of Christian Brethren, we hold that a threefold immersion of the body in water by a properly authorized administrator is necessary to fulfill the requirement of the great commission. As water, in its highest and divinest significance, symbolizes all the holy means by which man is enabled to renounce and remit his sins, so baptism symbolizes his heartfelt acceptance of and submission to those means. From this it is called the baptism of repentance first, and, later on, as the truth became clearer, it is called baptism for the remission of sins. As additional light was still thrown upon man's salvation, a light which Nicodemus could not see, baptism acquired a new significance, described by Paul as "the washing of regeneration."

Almost unwittingly we now find a threefold significance in the ordinance. It symbolized first, in the ministry of John, repentance toward God the Father. But after the martyrdom of John no baptism was administered until the day of Pentecost, when it received its full significance. As Peter had experienced so much of the evil of sin and the joy of forgiveness, it symbolized to his mind the remission of sins. He was right. Paul was the unbelieving, educated Jew, whose heart was so set against the Lord that after his conversion he felt himself to be a new man, with a new name; and in his letter to Titus he calls it "the washing of regeneration." Thus we have a threefold significance of the ordinance, as well as a threefold act. Anyone, then, whether fully conscious of the truth or not, says, by submitting to the ordinance, "I have repented of my sins; I have forsaken my sins and desire to keep them forever behind me; I desire to walk in newness of life. I accept the love of the Father, the truth of the Son, and the power of the Holy Ghost by which I have been taken 'out of death into life,' and from the power of Satan to God; my feet set into the way of holiness, and a 'new song put into my mouth, even praises unto our God.'"