Saturday, March 8. Council meeting at Beaver Creek meetinghouse. The church has under consideration the matter of preparing for Annual Meeting to be held at the Brick meetinghouse, near Christian Kline's, on Middle river in Augusta County, Virginia, to begin Saturday, June 7, 1851.
Sunday, March 9. Meeting at the Beaver Creek meetinghouse. First Peter 1 is read. Afternoon meeting in Bridgewater, in the Lutheran church. Speak on John 3:29. Text.—"He that hath the bride is the bridegroom: but the friend of the bridegroom, which standeth and heareth him, rejoiceth greatly because of the bridegroom's voice: this my joy therefore is fulfilled."
This is a wonderful testimony, borne by John the Baptist. It at once shows the love which that wonderfully great and good man had for the Lord, and at the same time his own deep humility of heart in his presence. And the Lord's testimony concerning John given in these words, "He was a burning and a shining light," is equally wonderful, and carries with it the great love he had for John.
John had many friends. All held him to be a prophet of extraordinary character; and if his popularity had tended to corrupt the honest simplicity of his heart he would not have borne this testimony to Jesus. But he goes still further in his disavowal of all claim to preferment by confessing and not denying that he is not the Christ. He says: "He must increase, but I must decrease." Jesus was the sun rising in his splendor; John the moon paling in his light.
The church is the bride. The Lord is the bridegroom. "He that hath the bride is the bridegroom." There is a doctrine of deep interest involved in John's testimony. It concerns every one of us to know it. It is the relation subsisting between the Lord and the church. This relation is represented as that existing between husband and wife, the very nearest that can subsist between two human beings—the unification of one with the other to the extent that they are no more twain, but one flesh. Reference to this relation of the church to the Lord is to be found in the Scriptures at several places. Isaiah prophesying the glory of the true Christian church exclaims: "For as the bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride, so shall thy God rejoice over thee."
But it is consistent and proper for a bride to adorn herself preparatory to her marriage. But even for this occasion she should be arrayed in modest apparel, as becometh saints. But God recognizes the propriety of suitable ornamentation, and uses it as a figure in these words: "My soul will greatly rejoice in the Lord, for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels." The garments of salvation beautifully symbolize the holy life of God's saints, and correspond to the fine linen, clean and white, in which the bride, the Lamb's wife, is arrayed, as described by John in the Apocalypse. Her jewels correspond to the divine truths of the Word, which ornament a good life.
I will now offer some practical thoughts on what I have stated, so as to draw the attention of your minds more closely to the subject. Some people seem to think it a matter of small moment whether one makes a public profession of religion or not. Such seem to satisfy their minds by concluding that God knows what is in their hearts, and that the church has no business to concern itself about them. They think they can live as good and as pure lives out of the church as in it. This last conclusion may be correct, for many do not live very pure or good lives in the church. But all this has nothing to do with God's established order. A man might say: "I love that lady, and with her consent I will live a virtuous life with her. But I do not intend to marry her after the ceremonial style of most people. Marriage ceremonies are useless, and with her consent we will just go together as husband and wife, and so live; and whose business is it but our own?" In the first place I have to say, that if two could be found who were willing to go together and live in this way, if they were not in some way severely punished, they might thank their good stars for it. In the next place I have to say that such cohabitation would wholly subvert the order of society by giving loose reins to lust which would break in upon the legal relationships of the social compact to an extent that would place us on a social level with the aborigines of America.
And what would the Lord's kingdom be without a visible church? He says: "My kingdom is not of this world." His kingdom being essentially invisible, it remains a matter of necessity that there be some way for making its subjects visible to one another as such, and capable of being recognized and known as such.
Our Lord says: "The kingdom of heaven cometh not with observation; for lo! the kingdom of heaven is within you." Now, we cannot look into a man's heart. All we can know of a man's heart is from what he says and does. But the Lord has established an order for the subjects of his kingdom. He has proclaimed a law, call it a ceremonial law if you choose, by obedience to which all the subjects of his kingdom on earth may be found out and become known to each other. That law is the Lord's will made visible in the order of his brethren, carried out in the forms of church organization by means of established ordinances appointed by him. The Lord does not want his bride to wander through earth's vanities a viewless, inactive, unprotected entity:
Doing nothing for his cause,