Gospel Trumpet – 1 December 1884

1 December 1884, Volume 6, Number 19.

THE HOLY CHURCH.

BY J. N. HOWARD.

—:o:—

We’r in the Church, the living God
Has purchased with His precious blood.
Ti’s founded on eternal rock:
You now may enter if you knock.

Chorus. On Christ the solid rock I stand.
All other ground is sinking sand.
All other ground is sinking sand.

Come in through Christ the only door,
Enter, remain for ever more.
Kept in the Father’s name alone,
Who sanctifies and makes us one.

Within this Church no sins are found,
The grace of God doth so abound.
Tis kept by power Divine each day,
In Christ the High and Holy Way.

Met two or three in Jesus name,
The promise we can safely claim;
With Jesus Christ our living Head,
Our souls are calm and free from dread.

All in the Spirit, round the throne,
Where Jesus reigns, and He alone,
To God the Father, through the Son,
We pray, Thy will in ns be done.

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Propping up the Walls.

—OR—

BANNER DECEPTIONS.

—o—

It is amusing to see the foolish reason­ing. blind blundering, and desperate floundering about in all the babylon pa­pers, on the question of sectism, and God’s one Church. Some are recommend­ing new holiness churches as they call them, from which we would necessarily infer that the Church Jesus Christ bought and built upon the rock, has proved unfit for holiness people, or else the gates of hell have prevailed against, and destroy­ed it.

On the other hand the old sect worship­ers are becoming alarmed at the fact that all who love God and know the voice of the Shepherd, are fleeing out, thank God! to find their all in Jesus, while others are entrapped in new deceptions. The High­way editor having been “suspended” some time, was anxious to light down some where; so, missing Christ, he lit upon the “new church” theory. To which the Banner of Holiness objects in a series of articles.

For a sample of the unscrupulous and anti-Christ teaching of babylon devotees, we make a few extracts from the editor of that paper of Nov. 8.

That sect-wise editor, takes a position as he claim, between the sin of sectism, and the sin of coming out of the sin of sectism. He is like those professed tem­prance advocates, who deplore the evil of intoxicating liquors, but still oppose complete prohibition. He thinks sectism a sin, but to come out of that sin is a more destructive sin. He says, “That the medium between what is called comeout­ism and sectariansim, or even sectism, is the position to which God will lead, seems to us evident.” All our readers know that we repudiate comeoutism with all the isms. But it is evident that by that word he wishes to designate all who have obeyed the scriptures, and come out of babylon, and abide tree in Christ. Now we would like for this editor to show how a man can hang upon a “medium” between staying in sectism, and coming out of sectism. And we would like him to tell us where he finds directions in God’s Word requiring us to stand on the fence, neither out nor in sectism. To him it is evident that God leads His children, not to stay in “sectism,” nor come out, but occupy a neutral position just on the wall. But to us it is a positive truth that God says, “comeout of her my peo­ple,” yea, “come out from among them and be ye separate.”

He pronounces the act of obeying God, and “coming out of her,”‘ as “destructive and ruinous,” and then in the same article he says, “Holiness must and will refuse to approve of the sect spirit. Now the sect spirit is essential to the sect. In God’s order “there is one Body and one Spirit.” That is, one Spirit can only take on one body. Hence there is but “one body in Christ Jesus.” — Rom. 12: 4, 5. There­fore every “sect spirit is an antichrist spir­it, and there is no effectual way to come out of the sect spirit, but to come out of the sect. Now “Holiness must and will refuse to approve of the sect spirit,” and yet to come out of it is “destructive and ruinous.” So holiness is also driven to the wall, between destruction within, and destruction without. Again he says, “sect love is not holy love.” “The sect love that will manifest itself in a ‘holi­ness church,’ is as inconsistent with true holiness as when manifested by any other church party, and is likely to be more deceiving because of the supposed holiness of the church.” Thus while he thinks it destructive to come out of sects, he admits that men are likely to be deceived into a sect love that is inconsistent with holi­ness, by remaining in; and the more ho­ly the sect the more the danger to the soul to remain in it. Surely the holiness people are in perils in sectism, and in perils of comeoutism. In perils in old anti–holiness sects, and in still greater perils in “New holiness sects.” What shall they do? Behold them rebounding from ism to ism. Fleeing out of old rot­ten sects, to new “holiness” sects, then raising the alarm of still greater danger. Poor fellows, where shall they flee? Well we lift up our voice like a trumpet, and sound an alarm on all God’s mountain, saying, “escape for your life,” tarry not in Sodom, nor in all the plain of babylon. Flee far out of all isms, ites and ists. Get under the blood, — washed from all sins, sin, carnality, idols, setarianism, sectism and comeoutism, and abide se­cure in Christ alone, and you shall find rest for your souls. But they prefer to retain a name and standing in some branch of babylon, rather than incur the “offence of the cross,” and bear the re­proach of Christ clean outside the camp. They shrink with horror at the idea of being simply “joined to the Lord, lest they suf­fer the awful reproach of being called a “stand alone,” or “come–outer.”

Again we quote, “By the mercy of God you have been brought into His favor, and made members of His family. You are members of the spiritual church. By uniting with others in visible church relation and fellowship, you are giving visible testimony and manifestation to the real and vital union existing between you and your brethren in the Lord. These are one in the Lord.”

Whether this is to be credited to a willful deception of the devil, or to blind superstition and dark age tradition, God shall judge. But certainly it is antichrist teaching. He admits that the mercy and grace of God inducts men into His family the “Spiritual Church,” but denies that you are by that Divine induction “united to others in visible church relation and fellowship.” Which is equivalent to pay­ing that when converted and added to the Church by the Lord, you became an invisible and only spiritual being. That your inter–association with the children of God, your greeting them with the holy kiss, your assembling together with them in worship of God, etc. was all invisible, to the eyes of men, until the preacher opened the door of the damnable sect and took you in. Then you became “uni­ted in visible church relation,” — resumed visibility. Is not this a doctrine of devils? Ah the trouble is this, your addition to God’s holy visible Church by the salva­tion of your soul, does not give visibility to your name on their sect class book, among the boasted poll tax membership of “Our Church. Hence does not satisfy these “greedy dogs.” Therefore they use this “invisible,” deception to “make a prey of you, through philosophy and emp­ty deceit,” and systematic deceptions of the devil.

The plea for setting up their sect thresh­old, is a “real and vital union between you and your brethren in the Lord.” “These are one in the Lord.” This is a combination of falsehoods the father of lies could not well excell, First it is a lie that having put your name on the same sect book, others have, is a mani­festation of real union. No, it is by this that “all men shall know that ye are my disciples — says Christ — if ye have love one for another.” Second, joining sect organizations does not unite the saints of God, but separates them into anti-Christ sects, and damnable rival factions, which brake the unity of the Spirit, and destroy the love of God out of the heart, which is the real bond of union. Third, it is a positive falsehood that “these are one in the Lord.” They are only one in the sect, while many of them are not in the Lord at all, while others who are in the Lord are separated by the sect fence.

Again hear this sect devotee. “But you find them organized in various bodies with certain special views and preferences. *** You unite with this company of be­lievers, as such, and thus are of the Church of God. The sect peculiarities do not make, or unmake, the church, and without these, you might be members of God’s Church, and with them you are member.”

Yes sect confusion presents a plurality of rival organisms in the same town or community. But God says, “there should be no schisms in the body.” “Heresies” (sects) are, by the Word of God Pronoun­ced “damnable.” — 2 Pet. 2:1.

This babel prophet says, “You unite with this company (one of the heresies, — sects) and thus are of the church of God.” You are of the Church of God, by uniting with one of these companies, schisms. Does not Mr. Kent know that he is lying? Does he not certainly know that the Church of God is the Body of Christ, and that no such company, creed bound clan is the Church? To be of the Church of God, is to be of God. Hence he indirect­ly tells you that by joining a sect you are of God. But what saith the Word of God?

“Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doc­trine which, ye have learned; and a…. them.

For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly: and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple.” Rom. 16:17, 18.

Thus you see that which Mr Kent says will constitute you of God, the Bible says will constitute you not a servant of the Lord Jesus Christ at all; for to knowingly join “divisions and offences,” involves the same condemnation with him that “causes divisions and offences.”

But does L. B. Kent really teach that membership in a sect organization insues membership in the Church of God? The above language so implies, and the lie is repeated in the last words of the quotation. He says, without the sect pe­culiarities “you might be members of God’s Church, and with them you are members.” Behold this cunning sleight and satanic deception. He admits that outside the sect you “might be members of God’s Church,” that is, it is barely pos­sible, but rather doubtful; but with em­phasis, he says you are members, if you take upon you the sect peculiarities. O the deceitfulness of babylon priests! The bare admission that a person might be a member of God’s Church outside the sect proves that sects and the Church are not identical; and if the sect is not an essen­tial element of the Church, it is not an ele­ment of it at all, hence a foreign element, a devil imposed invention, and snare.

In the same piece where sect member­ship is emphatically declared to be the sure evidence of membership in God’s Church, he says, “Sectarian attachments are no proof of grace at all.” So you see this witness is of no force, being self–contradictory, babylon, confusion.

Let us now quote another bit of decep­tion. “You find with the church all es­sential things and hence can abide with the Lord in this your house; you also find things that are of man, as did Paul at Corinth. But these you reprove and seek to correct.”

Frequently in the article the writer discriminates between the Church of God and the sects and then again, he confounds them, which is the deceitful work of the devil. Look at the above. “You find in the church all the essential things and hence can abide with the Lord in this your house,” (your sect.) The argument is this, Every thing you need is in the Church, therefore remain in the sect. Implying that these are one and the same which is false. Here we have some more of the devil’s reasoning. “You also find things that are of man, as did Paul at Corinth. But these you reprove and seek to correct.” This is a direct misrepresen­tation of the Apostle. It makes him jus­tify the sects, and only correct their er­rors. Whereas he utterly condemned and denounced these carnal sect uprisings as of the flesh and the devil; and sought to rectify the Church by utterly squash­ing them out of existence, these God-dis­honoring sprouts of the seeds of hell, with which, the 666 names of denominational blasphemy only differ, as the full grown tree, with its baneful fruit, differs from its germ. To correspond with the use this sect subverted editor makes of Paul’s let­ter to Corinth, it should have read thus. “Paul, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God, and Sos­thenes our brother, unto the Peter branch of the Church of God which is at Corinth, Grace be unto you and peace from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Dearly beloved, hearing that you are about to divide under those several heads, and since “you find in your branch all the essential things and hence can abide with the Lord in this your house.” I write unto you to remain therein, re­proving and correcting whatever seems to be of man, and though “sectarian at­tachments are no proof of grace at all,” by no means come out of your sect; for when “you unite with this company of believers, as such, you are of the Church of God.” “Without these (Paul, Peter, and Apollas parties) you might be mem­bers of the Church of God, and with them you are members SURE”.

How does this modern Jacksonville gospel compare with the old genuine? Surely if Paul spake the wisdom of God, then that from L. B. Kent is earthly, sen­sual, devilish. It is soul damning dishon­esty. He talks as though Paul had or­ganized a Methodist sect at Corinth, and other Apostles had organized Baptist, Presbyterian and other sects there, and then admonished the believers not to leave their respective sect homes, but simply to correct their errors. It is very true that Paul did not advise the believers at Corinth to leave the Church of God, because some were going out of it into Paul, Peter, and Apollos parties. But did he encourage them to remain in their factions, and carry on their carnal sect making? What brazen-faced devil-inspir­ed dishonesty that seeks to palliate cor­rupt factions by applying to them what is addressed to the Church, when the writer well knows the two are not identical, and that the whole volume of inspiration does not speak one word in toleration of sect confusion. If L. B. Kent and other sect devotees were honest they would put their organized babel, in the position of those small sect buds at Corinth, instead of in the position of the Church of God there. They know very well that their corpora­tions are schisms, and not the Church. And Paul did not ”reprove and seek to correct” the wrongs that were in those factions, but he condemned the factions themselves. The great evil in every sect is the sect itself. The parent root of all sin in the sects, is the existence of the sect. In the name of Jesus Christ, we re­buke and expose that vile deception of these prophets of Baal, which blind the eyes of the ignorant, by making their schism the same as the Church which the Apostle would correct, and not the hu­man-centered sect, which he would utter­ly prohibit and annihilate. Every idola­trous sect priest in the land that is intel­ligent enough to read his Bible, knows that Jesus Christ or any of His apostles never gave any license to any disciple, or disciples to form themselves into separate parties, with different creed and name, and with rival interests; yet contrary to the doctrine of Jesus Christ, they are en­gaged in propagating just such factions, and deceiving the ignorant by a blasphe­mous attachment of the name of Church to their “damnable heresies.” Did Paul try to correct the errors in the Paul party, the Peter party, and the Apollos party at Corinth? or did he not rather correct the Church by entirely cutting off these par­ties? Just so if Paul were to come to one of our towns, he would not spend a mo­ment in improving the M. E. sect, the U. B. sect, W. M. sect, F. M. sect, Presbyte­rian or any other sect; but he would cor­rect and restore the Church by vehement­ly calling every child of God in the name of Jesus Christ to come right out of these pernicious schisms, and dwell in the uni­ty of the Spirit, and in the bond of peace. As certain as he would act according to this one epistle, he would not countenance one of those split off organisms: but such as would come out of them and stand “complete in Christ Jesus,” just as he himself did before the devil had in­vented the first sect, he would recognize as God’s Church. And concerning oth­ers who professed the name of Christ, and remained in the sect, he would instruct God’s Church in this wise, “A man that is an heretic (sectarian) after the first and second admonition reject; knowing that he that is such is subverted; and sin­s, being condemned of himself.” — Ti­tus 3:10, 11.

“And if any man obey not our word by this Epistle, note that man and have no company with him, that he may be ashamed.”

Daniel.

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Awake to Righteousness.

—o—

A life of sin is a life of slumber and stu­pidity. Men forget God, and truth, and duty, and follow the blind impulses of their baser nature. They forget their heavenly sonship, their eternal inheritance, and grovel in the dust and mire of sin and folly.

The call of God is like the sound of a trumpet, “Awake to righteousness and sin not!” “Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.” The commencement of a life of righteousness is fitly called “an awakening.” It is an awakening of the soul from sin, from slumber, and from death.

We are not only called upon to awake from slumber, but also to arise from death. It is not enough that Lazarus hear the awakening call, but he must ‘come forth;” he must use his new-found strength, and emerge from tie shades and darkness of the house of death. And if we obey the call, and “come out from our surroundings, to dwell among the living once more, we have the promise that “Christ shall give thee light.”

When the Lord saves a man, he calls him out from amid the unsaved. What has Lazarus, raised from the dead, to do with the sepulcher! Why should he linger longer amid the darkness and cor­ruptions of that grave? The living seed can not tarry in the ground; it must burst into light. The living man has no af­finity for the deathly corruption in which he once lay; the saved man, chosen out of the world comes forth from the darkness of the sepulcher, into the “marvelous light.” even “the light of the knowledge of the glory of God, in the face of Jesus Christ.”

Have we heard this heavenly call? Has this resurrection voice been sound­ing in our ears? Have we awakened from our slumbers, and found the Sun of Righteousness shining, full orbed, to irradiate our souls? Let us then learn that to us it is also given to go forth into the darkness of a world that has forgot­ten God, to open the eyes of the blind, to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and an inheritance among them that are sanctified.

— Christain.

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It has been thought that a person thor­oughly settled in the rut of some formal theological education, can hardly ever be unlearned. But thank God! the Holy Spirit, fully possessed, will hurry a man down and back through the college, and out by the door he entered, so rapidly that he can hardly count the rooms he had toiled up through.

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THE NEW TRACT,

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‘CHRIST IS THE BODY THE CHURCH,’

A tract containing scriptural proofs that Christ Himself is the Church, and the Church is Christ.

It is doing a glorious work. Many write favorably of the light it is shedding. Orders are increasing Send on your orders.

Price…………………10 cents.
One dozen copies………$1. 00
Fifty copies………………..$3. 50

Orders may be sent in postal note, or small amounts in two cent postage stamps

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The Lord is calling us to issue a tract on the Sab­bath, and another embracing the experiences of sal­vation and healing of Sister Coggon, and the three Miller, Sisters, at Battle Creek Mich. One of which we shall print before another paper goes out, in consequence of which, next issue will doubtless be late.

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On account of sickness and disappoint­ment, this paper is late, and the tract is not printed, as mentioned in last paper. We are expecting the Editors home soon, and the tract printed, if the Lord will.

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There will be a meeting at Jefferson Union, near Albion Ind Dec. 31st ’84, to which every member of the body of Christ is cordially invited. Matters con­cerning the body to be attended to as the Holy Ghost leads. Let every saint pray.

Charles Bortner.

Albion, Ind.

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COMMITMENT.

—:o:—

COMMIT yourselves to God just as you would commit your watch into the hands of the jeweller to be cleansed so that it may run well, — trust Him to do the work. Consecration, in the Old Tes­tament, means sacrifice — just as a lamb was offered as a sacrifice. It was slain; so all the affections of self must be cru­cified — self must die. We don’t say that believers are not the Lord’s; for all be­lievers are partially given up to God; but are you entirely given up to God? We here induce you to devote yourself entire­ly, so that at every point where your will comes in contact with God’s will, you’ll say yes to God. God asks you to give yourself — entirely, uhlimitedly — not on­ly as far as you know, but as far as God knows. You must come up to God’s stan­dard, and the Holy Ghost will tell you when you have made an entire consecra­tion. You now know that everything is the Lord’s forever — not that you have giv­en “all you know.” You are positive. You say: “I know I am the Lord’s, all the Lord’s; only the Lord’s; forever the Lord’s. This takes in all the items. At conversion, all were surrendered, in a lump. When the Jews left Egypt they all came out in a hurry with unleaven bread; but when crossing the Jordan there was order and arrangement. We yield our ignorance and our knowledge to to God in entire consecration. It is always hard to get a minister to lay down his the­ology; because it is in his stock in trade. But we must be willing to become a fool — to lay down ourself, opinions and views; to give up our mind to God. Entire con­secration takes in, also, our reputation. You can’t try to “please everybody and please God; but if you aim at pleasing God alone, then you will please everybody that God wants you to please, and dis­please those whom God wants you to dis­please. If we please God only we shall be hated by those who do not love God. It is a blessing to be despised, by some people; If they loved you, you’d be curs­ed. We must give our emotions to God. Some say: “I’m all the Lord’s, but I don’t feel” — well, you are not all the Lord’s! Give your feelings to God. Entire conse­cration means giving all the machinery of your soul to God. Like Jacob at Jabbok, put the least valuable animals first, and so on to the most valuable, and at last he was alone with God, and not till God lamed him did he get blessed. “The lame get the prey.”

Yield yourself to God, not to the church.

(Glory be to Jesus! by His help we will not yield to any man made sect, nor sub­stitute such for the Church, the Body of Christ — Eph. 1: 22. 23. Jeremiah.)

God has the most stock in you. He won’t hurt you. Jesus has an interest in us. You yield yourselves to, not a thing. Yield to God.

— G. W. — Christ. Standard.

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HOLINESS.

—:o:—

TEE TWO WOKS-THEIR FRUITS OF VALUE

-o-

S. B. MERRELL.

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SANCTIFICATION is for Christians only; as justification as for sinners alone. Those who are at all acquainted with the Bible language for conversion, and will note that the verbs in the fol­lowing passages are in the present tense, will be clearly convinced that these to whom Paul wrote were at the time Chris­tians. He writes “to the Church which is at Corinth,” saying, “Ye are in Christ Jesus.” Therefore, if any man be in Christ he is a new creature; old things have passed away; and behold all things are become new. — 2 Cor. 5:17. “And I brethren, could not speak unto you, ex­cept as unto babes in Christ.” Jesus said, “Except a man be born again,” of, by the Spirit, and thus become a babe in Christ, or a Chaistian, “he: cannot see the kingdom of God.” — John 3. Paul further says, “I have fed you with milk,” “But we have the mind of Christ.” — Phil. 2:5; Rom. 8:9. For we are laborers together with God; ye are God’s husband­ry, ye are God’s building. — 1 Pet. 2:5. And ye are Christ’s. “Ye are justified,” and many other like expressions. Head these texts in 2 Cor. 1, 2. 3. If all that can truthfully be said of you, you are pardoned. Is it your experience? O, God, open our eyes to see these things. Yet they had not received the second grace, experience or perfection; for if they were thus blessed, Paul, as a spokes­man for God, would not have said to them “This we preachers, God, the Father, Son and Spirit, wish even your perfection.” And I, brethren, could not speak unto you, but as unto carnal, for ye are yet carnal, are ye not carnal? And in this confi­dence I was minded to come unto you be­fore, that ye might have a second (mar­gin: grace or) benefit. Finally, brethren, be ye perfect.—1 Cor. 3:2. 2 Cor. 1:15; 7:1; 9:8; 13:9, 11. Sanctification is not received at the time of, as a part of, or the same as justifica­tion. Since writing the first part of this article, I have found about 50 texts like those used as proof of their being regener­ated. The holiness people surpass all others, (as I believe, and I have had a­bundant opportunity for observation,) in the following traits; they obey “quench not the Spirit” and as a result they often have a shout, noisy season, and to some, curious actions; they strongly be­lieve in and say much of the leadings of the Spirit, and so let him control and lead them in all things. John 16: 13. They are careful and strict in obeying God and not giving any just cause of stumbling, offense, suspicion, or occasion for suspi­cious thoughts, or remarks. The anoint­ing (oiling) of the Spirit gives them great freedom in their talks and study of the truth. They are not hampered, cramped by prejudice or otherwise in their search of truth, but are willing to be convinced. 1 John 2: 20, 27; Acts 2: 1-4. When in their reading, or talking, they meet such words as perfection, sanctification, hell, eternal fire and brimstone, they do not as some do, substitute a milder or smooth­er term, or skip them altogether. I can say of them, Ruth 1: 16, 17. Read their rules, 1 Thess. 5:14-27.

Good Way.

Alive or not at all.

-:o:-

GOD’S Church on earth is nothing more or less than the continued manifestation of the life of Christ. Cas­ting to the moles and bats all modern tra­ditions, superstitions, and all dark age definitions of the Church, we open the Bible and find that the Church is the con­tinued life and operation of Christ on earth. “For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body being many, are one body: so also is Christ.”—1 Cor. 12:12. Here is explicitly stated that all believers con­stitute one body, and that one body is Christ Himself, and in verses 27, 28, this one Christ body, in which all are true Christians, is plainly called the Church. In Eph. 1: 22, 23, the Church is set forth as the body of Christ. But Christ’s body is Himself, just as our body is ourself; So the Church is the continuation of Christ in the flesh. This idea is made very strong in Eph. 5: 30.—”For we are mem­bers of His body, of His flesh, and His bones.” Other scriptures concur in show­ing that Christ’s Church is Himself, His own body, flesh, and bones. Therefore it follows conclusively, that no sect is the Church of God, because no sect is the body of Christ, and no sect lives by the life of Christ. Every sect is minus some of the esseatial elements of the body of Christ, and every sect embodies within it many elements, and members that a.re not of Christ, hence are not identical with the Church.

Now as separation of the body and Spirit, results in the death, decomposition, and utter destruction of our body; so the Church only exists as animated by Christ its life. It does not, and can not live by any other life than the life of Christ. Hence it follows that where Christ does not live, animate, and govern, through the Holy Spirit, there God’s Church has no existence at all. There is no such thing as the Church without the Spirit of Christ, its life. “For if any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of His.” Therefore in a town or community where no one possesses Christ, through the Eter­nal Spirit, there the Church of God does not exist at all. It never exists apart from its life. There may be large meet­ing houses, eloquent preachers, and flour­ishing societies, and all the outward dis­play of what is called religion, but the Church is not there because Christ, its life is not present. As a body is useless without life, and soon perishes in disolution, so the Church ceases to exist when “alienated from the life of God.” The Church of God never exists as a dead body, for, without Christ, who is its life, and with whom it is identical, it is not at all.

Of course we wish to be understood that by “the Church,” we mean God’s Church, the Christ body. For when we say the Church does not exist in the ab­sence of Christ through the Spirit, we must still admit that there may be, and are numerous churches without Christ. Churches, but not “the Church,” the Di­vine Body.

The word church, does not necessarily, and exclusively refer to Christ’s fold. It is from ekklesia in the Greek, and is said to be derived from ek — out of, — and kaleo  — to call. — It therefore simply denotes a called out assembly, or compact, without indicating its character. In Acts 19:32, 41. the word assembly is from this same Greek word ekklesia. But here it repre­sents a confused rabble, called together by Demetrius a silversmith. In verse 39 we have an “ennomo ekklesia” — “lawful assembly.” Here then we have in one chapter, two different kinds of convoca­tions, not congregations of God, yet both of them axe represented by the same word from which we have the word Church. Therefore, according to the gen­eric latitude of the original word for church, we may apply it to an assembly or organism of any kind, good or bad. lawful or unlawful, religious or devilish. And where even sect forces “gather to­gether against the Lord and His Christ,” to defend their craft, it were just as proper to call such a church — ekklesia — as it is for the inspired record to so designate that throng of shrine worshipers called togeth­er by the silversmith, to defend their craft. Just as there are “Lords many, and gods many,” yet but “one Lord,” and “one God and Father of us all.” So there are churches many, yet but “one fold,” “one body,” one Church of the living God “the mother of us all.” There is there­fore no violence done to the Word of God, to say, “Methodist Church,” “Ad­ventist Church,” but to call any of these

daughters of Home “the Church,’ is an insult to Christ, and blasphemy before God, Because the word ekklesia, trans­lated Church, does not exclusively denote the Divine Congregation. It is usually qualified by other words, as the “Church of God,” the “Church of the Firstborn.” And when it is called “the Church,” some such qualifications are understood from the connection. A church — sect — may therefore exist without Christ, but “the Church” never. But since in common us­age, the word Church is always used in speaking of the Divine fold, we should never apply that term to the sects of man.

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit He taketh it away; and every branch that beareth fruit He purgeth it that it may bear more fruit.” “I am the vine, ye are the branches: he that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for with­out me ye can do nothing.” Christ is the vine, and every individual believer In Him, is a branch. Now the vine and its branches are all one, all of the same material, live by the same life, and bear the same fruit. So is Christ and the Church identical. Now the several Chris­tians of each locality, constitute the Church there. If at any time a branch becomes unfruitful, it instantly dies, and Father takes it away. Should one after another loose their connection with the lifegiving vine, they would suffer the same fate. And the last member of Christ In that place be severed from the vine, and die, the Church would have no existence in that place at all. These dead and severed branches may continue in a sect, which means cut off organiza­tions, and carry on the outward forms, and profession, and thereby deceive the world, but with all that, the Church is not there at all, for it is only composed of living members of the living Christ. Therefore while many a church (sect) is dead, the Church is never dead. It is al­ways alive or not at all. No branch can die while abiding in the vine, and in sep­aration they loose both life and member­ship. Christ says, “I am the resurrection and the life.” He who is the Church is the life of the Church. Therefore when the life disappears, the Church disappears.

“Let no man beguile you of your re­ward in a voluntary humility and wor­shiping of angels, *** and not holding the Head, from which all the body by joints and bands having nourishment minister­ed, and knit together, increaseth with the increase of God.” — Col. 2: 18, 19. You see, that God’s Church, being identical with “God manifest in the flesh,” only “increaseth with the increase of God.” The direct word for word rendering from the Greek in the Emphatic Diaglott is, “being compacted, grows the growth of the God.” This is still stronger, the Church grows the growth of God. How is that? Why, remembering that the Church” in each place is composed of that number of individuals, in whom God and Christ lives, the increase of the Church is simply an increase of the number of temples in whom dweleth God. If there are ten men and women in one place in whom God lives, the Chruch there is com­posed of ten members: should five more renounce sin and the world, and be emp­tied of self and the devil, and let God take possession of them, there would be an addition of one third more God tem­ples in that place. And would not this be an “increase of God” in that communi­ty, and a decrease of sin and the devil? Certainly so. Well this increase of God is the increase of the Church. And it is also enlarged by the sanctification, en­larging and increased infilling of these temples.

Now contrast the above scriptural facts relative to the Church of the living God, with the sects of babylon, and we see a striking difference. The Church only ex­ists in the life of Christ. They live and prosper independent of the life of Christ. They live chiefly by the animation of the sect spirit, the inspiration of party inter­ests, and sectarian pride.

The Church increases only with the in­crease of God. They increase by ensnar­ing unenlightened converts of the cross and also by alluring to their folds, grace­less sinners, lawyers, doctors, and influen­tials of the world generally. An acces­sion to the Church, is an increase of God in that place, because, “Christ is the door and by Him if any man enter in he shall be saved.” And salvation takes sin out of the heart and brings God in. But the door that preachers open to their fold produces no such effects. Passing their thresholds does not remove sin out of the heart, nor bring God in. Hence sect increase is not the increase of God, but is often an incaease of festivity, carousal, pride bigotry, and idolatry.

But if the Church is identical with God and the life of Christ, is it not invisible? Not at all. No more than the incarnate Christ was invisible. In Him “God was manifest in the flesh. And we are “mem­bers of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones.” If it were only the souls of be­lievers that constitute the body of Christ, the Church, then it were invisible. But “know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ.” Now that body is not for fornication, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.” “What if know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you? *** therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.” — 1 Cor. 6:13, 15, 19, 20. He that is joined to the Lord is one Spirit.” The above scriptures are very clear; our bodies are members of Christ, and our spirits are one with His Spirit.” The above facts suggest two important things. First God’s Church embraces our bodies as well as our souls, hence is visible. Second, the Church be­ing identical with Christ, and yet includ­ing our bodies, proves that our bodies must be raised to a moral purity that is identical with Christ, How could it be said that the Church is Christ — nothing in it but the character and elements of Christ — and that our “bodies are member of that Church,” unless our bodies are, with our souls, purified into the very na­ture and image of Christ, and actually pervaded with the very life and holiness of Christ? If any thing remained in our whole being that was not the Christ na­ture, the Church composed of such mem­bers would not all be Christ. But “all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ.” O wondrous truth! the whole body is composed of the moral substance of Christ, no anti-christ material; all is Christ, and Christ is all, in all this body. It is created in Christ’s purity, stamped with His own likeness. It is composed of “His flesh, and of His bones,” and made strong in the strength of His might. It is pervaded and quickened by His life; inspired and tempered by His Spir­it. It is flooded with His own perfect love, and with His own effulgent light. It is transported with “His joy,” and fill­ed with His peace. The Church partakes of His suffering, and receives of His glo­ry. She shares with Him in death, and reigns with Him in life. Her members are all crucified with the Lord, and raised up with Him to sit in the heavenlies. The Church is blessed with the “mind of Christ,” and Himself is made unto her, wisdom. She is “made great” by Christ’s “gentleness,” and adorned in the beauty of His holiness. “Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgement, for as He is so are we in this world.” “Both He that sancfi­fieth, and they who are sanctified, are all of one.” O the Church is substancially the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, in Spirit, nature and fruit. The same in kind and effect, only enlarged from the stature of the lovely Son of God, who walked in Gala­lee, to the tiumphant Redeemer, whose steps drop fatness upon the bredth of the whole earth, and whose praise and do­minion are from the rising to the setting of the Sun.

The Church is Christ, therefore all its members must be “holy both in body and in Spirit.” — 1 Cor. 7:34. But if the Spirit of Him who raised up Christ from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall quicken your mortal bodies, by His Spirit that dwelleth in you. – Rom. 8:11. This language clearly alludes to the thorough work of entire sanctification. The Spirit already dwelling in the justified soul, comes in His fullness, as the sanctifier, and quick­ens, spiritualizes, refines the mortal body into the same state of holiness that the soul is raised to; so that the “spirit, soul and body are preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ: faithful is He that calleth you, who will do it.”

The bodies of the Apostles were so ho­ly, and so charged with the presence of God that handkerchiefs taken from Paul’s body and laid upon the sick were bessed in their immediate healing. Jer­emiah 11:15, describing the apostasy of the Church, says, “The holy flesh has passed from thee.” The Church restored through the blood of Christ and His Truth, must be, and now is holy even as He is holy, in soul body and Spirit, and thus becomes one with the Holy Son of God, who is the life of the body.

Daniel.

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How are We Sanctified?

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Christ is the Christian’s altar. It is written, “We have an altar whereof they have no right to eat which serve the taber­nacle (tent). For the bodies of those beasts whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin are burned with­out the camp. “Wherefore Jesus, that He might sanctify the people with His own blood, suffered without the gate. Let us go forth, therefore, unto Him without the camp, bearing His reproach.” Heb. xiii. 10-13. Let us go forth to our Altar, for He is the bread of life He will give us His flesh to eat, and His blood to drink, and He will sanctify us with His own blood. For “the altar sanctifies the gift” that is placed upon it Mat. xxiii. 19. Ex. six. 37. This Altar is a person and that person is Christ. “For both He that sanc­tifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one.”

But we are also “sanctified by the Holy Ghost.” Rom. xv. 16. We are “elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit. I. Pet. i 2. God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation, through sanctifica­tion of the Spirit and belief of the truth.” II Thes. ii. 13.

And yet again we are said to be sancti­fied by faith. “That they may receive forgiveness of sins, and an inheritance among thetn that are sanctified by faith that is in me.” Now this is no disagree­ment at all; for the blood of Christ is the procuring cause of our sanctification. He “purchased us with His own blood.” And faith is the conditional or the instrumental cause of our sanctification; while the Holy Spirit is the efficient cause of it. The blood procures (obtains or gains it,) faith appropriates it (sets it apart,) and the Spirit accomplishes it (brings it to pass,) This is, in brief, the process.—

Bible Evangelist.

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Women Preachers.

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The Revised Version of the old Testa­ment, which is soon to appear, makes some changes which will greatly cheer, we judge, those sisters who feel themselve, called of God to preach the gospel. The authorized version of Psa. lxviii. 11. reads: “The Lord giveth the word, and the women that brings good tidings are a great host.” But this is no new translation! Adam Clark insists that the latter clause of this verse should be rendered! “Of the female preach­ers there was a great host.” “Such” he says “is the literal translation: the reader may make of it what he pleases.” In Isa. xl. 9. is a similar rendering. If this be a correct version of the Word of God, why object to women preaching? If Sister Phebe was a “deaconess” and Philip’s four daughters ‘prophesied,’ and the daughters,, were to prophesy, why res­train them? “Would to God that all the Lords people were prophets.” Are we not coming, or come, to that prophetic period?

We think so.

Christian Witness.

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SECTS WITHOUT SECTARIANISM.

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A writer in the Highway is endeavor­ing to prove that sects may exists without sectarianism. We suggest to the brother that he make his next attempt to prove that a fish can live without water; and that atmospheric air is not the necessary ele­ment of the genus man. When he gets through with that experiment to show us wherein the Lord Jesus erred when He said: “There shall be one fold and one shepherd.” Also how He came to blunder when he prayed: “Neith­er pray I for these alone; but for them also which shall believe on me through their word, that they may all be one.”

In fact, this brother will have to amend the prophecy of Isaiah to make it accord with marvelous light which he is pouring upon holiness people. That prophet says: Thy watchmen shall lift up their voice: together shall they sing; for they shall see eye to eye when the Lord shall bring again Zion.

When this prophecy is fulfilled it is quite as likely that there will be sects and sec­tarianism, or sects without sectarianism, as that two and two are added together will make six. Moreover, there is a large part of the New Testament which, will have to be repealed if either sects or sectarianism have any place in the future. Notably among them will be the following: “Now we beseech you, brethren by the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same’ thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.” “For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have all been made to drink into one Spirit.”

We once knew a man who cherished the illusion of sects without sectarianism, and he professed holiness, too. He was very fraternal and called us brother, meaning doubtless, that we were brethren in the Lord.

It so chanced upon a time that we spread a table to commemorate His death and sufferings, to which we invited our brother of sects without sectarianism; but he would not come. Moreover when he spread the same feast and called it the Lord’s table, he would not permit many of those whom he called brethren in the Lord to come to that table. Now we are puzzled to know wherein was that brother’s mistake. It was either in calling us brethren in the Lord, or in calling the table he spread the Lord’s table. If it was the Lord’s table, then the Lord’s brethren had a right there; but if it was a private, exclusive, and sect affair, they had not.

Hence we have been led by our experi­ence to see the evil of both sects and sectari­anism; and also sects without sectarianism. Therefore we have been praying, and by grace expect to keep at it: “From sects and sectarianism, and from every other pre­cious sham and delusion of the devil, good Lord deliver us!”

Nevertheless we have grace enough to love every man whether in a sect or out of it; and to labour with all who love our Lord Jesus Christ, and are endeavoring to build up His kingdom. *** Many are in a sect who are not of it; they have none of the sect spirit and are truly one with all who love God.

 — Bible Evangelist,

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Satan the Accuser.

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Many of the souls who are trying to walk in the way of holiness, have not sufficient keenness and sensitiveness of conscience to reach, and maintain the necessary depth of consecration to God, and loyalty to His word, to enjoy the real experience of entire sanctification. These are always leaning more or less to selfish interests, conform­ing somewhat to the world to avoid re­proach, or holding the friendship of the corrupt fallen sects to avoid persecutions, and the present real offence of the cross. Such can never attain unto real holiness of heart unless they will wonderfully sink down out of self, and pray God to so sharp­en and intensify their conscience that they will tremble at His Word, and count all the wealth, and friendship of this world but dung that they may win Christ, and utterly lose sight of their sect fellowship, for the sake of being fully in. line with God. Real and imperative action of conscience is what is wanted to bring men down from their good name among sectarians, and up to the true standard of the Bible. Get a con­science that has a single eye toward God, and you will soon be a stand alone with Him. That is, you will order your whole life and conduct to please God only, and to have His approving smile, should it even forfeit the friendship of all men. The question of coming out from among, and being separate from every thing that is not sclean and true to the Bible line, is simply a matter of pure, humble, sincere, devo­tion to God; and honest, inteligent, whole hearted, conformity to, His Word.

But what we started to write is in refer­ence to a conscience that the enemy takes advantage of in opposite directions. If ac­companied by spiritual knowledge, and abiding trust: our conscience cannot be to exquisite and tender. But a very fine concience, in the absence of proper light, is apt to give place to the “accuser of the brethren, the old serpent and satan.” What the Holy Spirit has been teaching us we trust God will bless to the peace of fellow sufferers in the kingdom, and pa­tience of Jesus. First then, we assure you, that every accusation that comes to the honest sincerely consecrated soul, is of the devil. However slow we may be to learn, or whatever mistakes, and sad failures we may make, God never accuses the honest, consecrated soul of any thing whatever. Therefore settle it in your heart once for all, that every thing that comes to you in the form of an accusation is of the devil. God and His saints will correct in kindness, ad­monish in love, and when necessrry re­prove with sharpness. But the devil and his children do all the accusing. Accusa­tion is a legal term. It is an attempt to make out a case of evil against a person; it proceeds from a desire to attribute wrong doing to the person accused. Correction, instruction, admonishing, and even sharp rebuke, differ very much from accusation. They are efforts to do the person good, and spring from love for his soul, and the sacred cause of Christ.

How can I tell the difference between a correction by the Spirit of God, and an ac­cusation from the devil? In this way. God is light and love, the devil is darkness and hatred. Therefore all corrections, and advance requirements that come from God, break gently upon your mind, when in tranquility, and when conscious of a holy and sweet presence of God. In short they will come to your soul as light. While the criticisms and accusations of the devil will be accompanied with shades upon your mind, doubts, and a greater or less confu­sion. God always raises our minds to a higher knowledge of His will, by flooding our souls with clearer light. Satan tries to bring in his suggestions, by getting the mind befogged, and our faith unsettled. God never gives His orders to us when the mind is not in a good clear state to receive them. In fact He usually elevates the soul into a clearer knowledge of His will, by an increase of His light and glory upon us. When satan accuses, he first endeav­ors to put the mind into such a state, that it is difficult to determine between duty imposed by the Lord, or temptation from the devil: and the effect is distressing to the mind. When God instructs, He floods the mind with clear spiritual perception, and His orders fill the soul with peace, and grat­itude.

But does not holy men and women err? and does not God accuse them ot their er­rors? They may err, but God looks at the heart. The heart that is “pure as He is pure,” and filled with perfect love, and does all things out of love, God never accu­ses. Accusation is a law term, and against love there is no law. Perfect love casteth out fear, and sets the soul above accusation from every source. Entire sanctification is that state of the soul in which it is “holy and without blame before Him in love.” Eph. 1. 4. “Holy and unblamable and unreprovable in His sight. Col. 1. 22. These scriptures simply describe perfect ho­liness. Therefore the same faith that con­stantly claims heart purity through the blood of Christ, puts us beyond blame, and accusation. If mistakes occur through im­perfect judgment, satan will not cast them up to you, for he would rather you should continue in your mistakes than know them. And God will never accuse you of them, because in heart and in the law of love, He does not count you a transgressor. He will not however leave us in error, if we faithfully and humbly walk with Him. But His revelation of our errors, never puts a riffle upon the sea of our peace, but only starts a new strain of gratitude and praise to God in our hearts. Then set it down once for all, that while you are all consecrated, and sanctified to God, every accusation comes to you from the devil. Christ does not even aceuse sinners, much less holy saints. He said to the pharisees. “Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father; there is one that accuseth you, even Moses.” John. 5 45. The devil and. the law accuse. “But Christ is the end of the law, for righteousness to every one that believeth.” And having come to Christ “we are free from the law.” Yes “Now we are delivered from the law.” Rom. 7. 6. Glory to God it is Christ that justifieth, who is he that condemneth an­other mans servant. Bless God! while under the blood, and perfect in the love of God, you may resist the devil in every ac­cusation he brings.

Daniel.

How Delivered.

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Bangor Mich., Nov. 23d ’84.

Dear Brethren: — While at the assem­bly meeting at Williamston, I was request­ed by Bro. Warner to pray over it, and if the Lord led, to write my experience for the GOSPEL TRUMPET. I feel to-night that the Lord leads me to do so, and in the name of Israel’s God I will tell how the Lord saved me and has delivered me from bondage. In the year 1867, the Lord found me a poor lost, and ruined sinner. After four sleepless nights, and three days of agonizing and prayer, the blessed Lord spoke peace to my soul; then O, how I could rejoice in God, and how I could sing,

     Oh happy day,
     When Jesus washed my sins away.

and also,

     Then will I tell to sinners ’round,
     What a dear Savior I have found.

I commenced to read the Word of God and found there a command to “search the scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life, and they are they, that testify of me.” I soon found that Christ was a perfect Savior, according to His word; there I read, repent, believe, and be baptized and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, And again “He that hath this hope in him, purifieth himself even as He is pure,” and I readily understood that no sinner hath the hope of glory in him, also I saw how the apostles were converted before, and on the day of pentecost they rceived the Holy Ghost, and and I was sure there was a baptism of the Holy Ghost and fire for me I was told I had all that was for me even by those claming to be God’s servants, still I believed God and let every man be a liar. I kept asking for the gilt of the Holy Ghost, for five long years. I wander­ed like the children of Israel, in the wilder­ness, not having any one to explain the word of truth. At last the consecration became complete and the Lord sanctified and baptized me with the Holy Ghost and fire. Glory be to His name forever! I can never forget how the glory of God filled my soul, for five weeks I seemed to almost be in heaven. I was told that if I told these things, people would call me crazy, and would think me fanatic, and I was induced to keep my experience to myself, which, of course caused me to loose power with God. I lived then al­most ten years alone on the Word of God, and the Lord kept me. At last one of those wolves in sheeps clothing, belong­ing to the so-called Church of God. but the most redicuious sect on earth, came to our place and began a meeting. He was a frequent caller at our house soliciting us to unite with them; he finally said we were in the way of a number that would come out. We did not desire to hin­der any one; so thinking perhaps we might as well put our name on their book as to work with them: we did so. Al­though, we were not in sympathy with much of their works, God permited us to go in to see what awful corruption there was in what they dared to call the Church of God; but no sooner were we caged up than we felt the chastening hand of God upon us. He shut my mouth from tesimony, took away the spirit of prayer, and I was made to say, what shall I do to es­cape the awful darkness that was gather­ing around me. At, length, when I was almost, in despair, the devil pleading with me about the reproach it would bring up­on me to leave, they made a feast, or so­cial at the church. I was induced to go. There was the table set, and one of the prominent sinners in the place was sit­ting in charge of a money box. Well I was sorely grieved, for I felt that the house of God had been made a den of thieves. Over head were young people playing all sorts of games. By and by the minister (if I dare call him such) came to me and asked how I enjoyed my­self. I told him, not at all, that I had felt that if Christ could be there, He would take a plaited cord and drive us out, and kick their box over, as. He did the tables. Well, said he, if you feel that way keep it to yourself. May God have mercy on him. Then soon there was meeting in the evening when the man, (I cannot say the preacher, for how shall they preach except they be sent, and I fear he had run before he was sent,) offered the sermon for five cents, saying he had several thousand printed several years ago. Was not that making mer­chandise of the Gospel? When they come to leave, the house, there were two of the so-called ministers, lit their pipes, and a third took a chew of tobacco before they left the house. I promised God right there and then that I would come out, and glory to God! no sooner was the resolution made than my soul was filled with Glory. I arose the morn­ing after, and got my family their break­fast, but did not eat, myself, but went; and called for my name, and once more was free in Christ. While these baal priests were fogging their tobacco, it came to me like this: “cleanse yourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, per­fecting holiness in the fear of God.” I had used tobacco from before. I was seven years old, until I was thirty, and after the Lord gave me the light on the Word, I had to give it up, and when I did so, the Lord took it, appetite and all, glory be to His holy name! I am free in Christ, saved and sanctified, and meet for the Master’s use. To God be all the glory. Amen!

N. J. Doherty.

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The Straight Gate.

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A. SIMS.

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Strive to enter in at the strait gate for many I say unto you, will seek to enter in and shall not be able. Luke 13:24.

In these words our Lord points out that there are two methods of attending to the salvation of the soul, and that one of them is a total failure.

1. The popular method. “Many I say unto you, will seelt to enter in,” or will desire to enter in. When the devil can not prevent a person from seeking salva­tion, he will endeavor to deceive him by heading him in a wrong direction, or by getting him to take up with a profession of religion that falls short of genuine sal­vation. In this popular easy way there is no heart felt sorrow for sin, no burden of soul, no crying, no praying, no giving up of sin and turning to God. All that is necessary is simply to come forward kneel down. In many places not even this much is required, simply holding up the hand to be prayed for is deemed suf­ficient, and they are then encouraged to join the church and profess religion. If they dressed, talked, and acted like the world before, they can do so still, and thus the carnality of their heart is not in the least disturbed. This popular way pampers to flesh and blood, and cries peace, peace, to their smothered con­science while wrapt in in the very slum­bers of death. But the Lord positively declares that this simply seeking or de­siring, salvation is an awful failure, “they shall not be able!” The young ruler sought in this way, but found it not. To­day we see thousands who come to the altar seeking in some way to get through but alas they do not succeed. We could wish that there were only a few who thus deceive themselves to their eternal undo­ing. But, alas! this class of people are very numerous, “many I say unto you shall seek to enter in and shall not be able.”

2. God’s method. “Strive to enter in at the strait gate.” Bible repentance is here compared to a strait gate — not straight but strait, which is a low, narrow gate, and hence not very easy to enter. The meaning is that passing through this gate of repentance is attended with great diffi­culty. Why? Is it because God does not want to save them? No. Is it be­cause there is no room in heaven for them ? No. Please undestand the difficulty is not in the gate, for it is wide enough to admit every one of the right class. The difficulty lies in your unfitness to enter it. There is too much of you: you have so many sins clinging to you, that these sins, those darling idols, make it impossi­ble for you to get through with them. Your secret lodge, your fashions, your plumes and feathers, your tobacco, your church sprees, your ungodfy associates can never be got through this strait gate. The Lord knowing how hard it is to part, with these bosom sins, says: “Strive to enter in,” literally agonize to get through rather than loose eternal life. There would be no striving necessary, but for pride, lust, sinful pleasures, and ungodly associations, but it costs us some striving before we are willing to have them re­moved. Whatever you can get through this gate you will have no difficulty in taking over the narrow way. O, hallelu­jah! You “will have a clear track, all weights gone! Says one: “O you make religion appear a very hard thing.” Not by any means. We are not showing what religion is, but simply what has to be done to get it. Remember this gate is not the entrance into heaven, but it is the entrance into the Christian life.

O precious soul, confer no longer with flesh and blood, but take this way, enter in at the strait gate, and enter now. It is the way of life. Do not be led by the multitudes who profess to become Chris­tians without passing through this gate, for Christ says “few there be that find it.”

Uxbridge, Ont.

— Vanguard.

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A Pastor Suprises His Flook.

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Jerseyville, Ill., Sept. 9. — Rev. Hub­bard, of the Congregational Church at Roodhouse, instead of preaching Sunday morning, rose up and declared he could not preach any more; that he never had been converted, and that he had been trying to teach what he knew nothing about. The preacher sat down in great distress of mind, and the audience was immediately dismiss ed.

Selected

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Correspondence.

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Shawtown, Ohio. Oct. 12. ’84

Dear Brethren: — The blessed Gospel Trumpet has reached us again, I say bless­ed, because, God does bless it to our souls, and because it does advocate the great cause of Christ, and His glorious Kingdom. Glory to God, for lull salvation. It makes us free, and takes us out of babylon. Bless God, for deleverance from the mother of harlots, and all her daughters. She is fall­en, and is become the habitation of devils, and the cage of every unclean, and hateful bird, and the hold of every foul spirit. God says, “Come out of her my people.” But how few will obey the call, and how deaf, and blind, and dull of apprehension they are, and the more we try to bring them to the light, the more they persecute us. But glory to God for the “more grace.” While they are under this contam­ination of satan, we can rejoice that we are counted worthy to suffer shame for Christs sake. It is “The merchants that have waxed rich, through the abundance of her delicacies.” “Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire.” God help you to hold up the standard for the people. Blow the Trum­pet, waken sinners. “Cry aloud, spare not”. Sectarian pens are leading souls to destruction like a whirlwind. Preach ho­liness. Preach the Word, not history as the blind guides do. I am saved now. “We had a glorious meeting here this even­ing. The saints are very much encour­aged of the Lord, but are persecuted on the right, and on the left, but they say the grace of God is sufficient. Yours in Christ.

A. M. Dick.

—o—

Worstville O. Nov. 3.

Bear Brethren in Christ We: are saved to the uttermost just now. Glory be to God forever, and ever! My testimony is, that the blood of the everlasting covenant sanctifies me wholy, being applied by the Holy Spirit, subsequent to justification, Rom. 5: 1,2. “Whereof the Holy, Spirit is also a witness to us.” Heb. 10: 14, 15. we recognize no other Head but Christ, no other body but His. “And gave Him to be head over all things to the Church, which is His body, the fulness of Him that filleth all in all.” Eph. 1. 22, 23. Hallelujah! this is the only head and body, God recog­nizes. It is the house of God, which is the Church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. It was not founded by Wesley. Otterbein, or Fox, or any other man, but by the Lord Jesus Christ. He is both builder and foundation. “And other foundation can no man lay than that is laid which is Christ Jesus.,, Glory to God! this “foundation of God standeth sure.” “Therefore we are no more, foreign­ers and strangers, but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God; and are built upon the foundation of the Apostles, and Prophets, Jesus Christ Him­self being the Chief Corner-stone, in whom all the building fitly framed together, groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord, in whom also ye are builded together for a habitation of God through the Spirit.” Hallelujah! The devil, with all his priests of baal, and all their dark age creeds, and sect organizations, and with all his combin­ed powers can never prevail against this Church.

Come ye sectarians, let us reason togeth­er. You say your sect is a part or branch of the one Church. Is that so? thus you are a dead branch; for the word sect means a cut off part, a section severed from the main trunk. Christ says, “If a man abide not in me he is cast forth as a branch, and burned.” So you see a sect being a cut of branch, is not a part of Christ. His living united body. If a man, says Christ, abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered.” All can see that the doc­trine, that a sect is a branch of the Christ vine, is a false doctrine, and of the father of lies.

Again you say, “These sanctified fanat­ics, are every where tearing down our churches.” Do not your own works con­demn, you, and your miserable shaky sects. If a few men and women, full of faith, and the Holy Spirit, with the Word of God in their hands, can tear down your sects, does it not clearly prove that they are not of God; that your babel organizations are no part of the Church that Jesus built upon the rock: against which the gates, or coun­cils of hell, could never prevail. Shame on. that hypocritical teaching that would make something the Church, or a part of it, which a few men could destroy.

Well beloved in the Lord, I hereby send you – for the Trumpet. Let it continue to sound the wonders of salvation. Glory to God, it is the clear Gospel ring. Step not to the right nor to the left, from the whole truth. Make no compromise with the devil, or with babylon. The truth is what we want. The flying roll that cuts of false sweaters, hypocrits, and thieves. Glory to God! “I will bring it forth, saith the Lord of hosts.” Amen.

Your Brother All the Lord’s.

J. N. Howard.”

-o-

Battle Creek, Mich, Nov. 7. ’84

Dear Brethren: — I have made a new covenant with God, never to doubt again. And it was when I gave all trying over simply trusting I was blest. I did not know how to trust, when I first came to Jesus, but thank God, the rest in Christ is mine at last; and I am lying passive in Father’s hands “That He may work all the good pleasure of His will.” And that text Bro Warner gave us at cousins. 2. Thes 1:11, 12. It is my prayer day and night, that God may count me worthy of this call­ing. There is one thing that I desire, and that is, that I may “Teach transgressors thy ways” and bring sinners to Christ. There are so many that claim to be chris­tians, and in their prayers, they confess that they are sinners, and not entirely sanctified: they pray forgive us our sins, and save us in heaven. St John said, he that sinneth is of the devil. Sin is the transgression of the law. Jesus said “I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved.” May the Lord help me to use the sword of the Spirit.

Your Sister in Christ; saved and sancti­fied to the uttermost.

Frances Miller.

-o-

Tiffin Oct. 11. ’84

Dear Brethren: — I am inspired to write to you. I am glad to receive the Gospel Trumpet. Glory to God? How it cheers my heart, to read the truth, as it is in Christ Jesus. I am saved to the uttermost through the blood of Christ, just now. Glory to Jesus for ever more. May God bless you, in preaching the truth to the peo­ple, and sustain you in all your trials. Your Sister in Christ.

Leah Miller.

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Onarga Oct. 6th. ’84

Dear Brethren: — May God’s rich bless­ings rest upon you all; is the prayer of all the true saints here. God is still keeping us. We are all waiting for God to send some dear one, filled with the Spirit, when it pleases Him. I know He will. I love the pure Gospel of Christ Jesus. Praise His holy name! O how sweet it is to walk with God. I Praise the Lord for all things. Glory to His name. My prayer is that God will keep you all by His power. “Oh if our fellowship here below In Jesus, is so sweet; What heights of rapture shall we know, When around His throne we meet.

Your Sister in Christ, saved from sin.

Sarah K. Wells.

-o-

Lodi O. Nov. 2. ’84.

Dear Brethren: — While the sect people are highing to their idol temples, to offer strange fire. I will try to write a few lines to you to the glory of God, and speak of His glorious dealings, and His glorious power. Glory to God! This morning as I was reading the Word I came to the fol­lowing which by the Holy Ghost, the inter­preter, was rich food to my soul. “It came even to pass as the trumpeters and singers wore as one, to make one sound to be heard in praising and thanking the Lord: and when they lifted up their voice with the trumpets and cymbals and instruments of music, and praised the Lord, saying, for He is good: for His mercy endureth forever: that then the house was filed with a cloud, even the house of the Lord: So that the priests could not stand to minister by reason of the cloud: “Seeing then that we have a great high priest that is passed into the heavens, Jeans the Son of God, let us hold fast our profes­sion, for the glory of the Lord had filled the house of God. “Heb. 4. 14, II. Chro. 5. 13, 14. Whose house are we. Glory to God! May the cloud, the Holy Ghost, con­tinually fill the temple, so that the. priests cannot stand to minister. Ye also as lively stones are built up, ‘whose builder and maker is God;’ a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.” I. Pet 2. 5. Hallelujah! Praise! Praise!! Praise!!! the Lord. Yours saved and sanctified and made white in the blood of the Lamb.

Cyrus Mohler.

Freemont Center, Mich. Oct. 11th.

Dear Brethren in Christ; Greeting. I praise God from the depths of ray soul for the privilege of greeting you with a few lines. Glory be to His name, for His kind­ness. Praise His holy name for that fel­lowship and union which blends our hearts in one. Though separated by distance, we are present in spirit. The Lord is so won­derfully keeping His dear children here, and pours out His Spirit on us. Thanks be to God for His goodness. His work goes on in spite of the devil. We are working for the Masters cause. Satan is loosed here for a season. Some are accepting the light, and have crosed over the Jordan, and have taken up their abode in the land of Canaan, and are feasting on the things of the land. Praise God for that blessed inheritance, where all carnal desires die out of hearts, and where all are one in Christ Jesus. O the precious freedom that is in Christ Jesus, when all babylon yokes are destroyed. Tru­ly she is fallen here, and, “Has become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and hateful and unclean bird.” Yes all nations are drunk on the wine of her wrath. There are four proud daughters of the old Mother here. One calls them­selves Christ’s disciples, but unlike His disciples, they say that we should not wash one anothers feet, but they keep boarding house on the worlds fair ground, to make some money, for babylon service: A disciple is one who followes the Lord Jesus Christ Well praise God we are saved by the blood of Christ, from all traditions. The Lord has been good to us, since we came up here. While the hand of affliction has been on some of our family, God has been glorified in this. Wife has been raised again by the power of, God. This makes the third time she was healed, by the Lord, in sixteen months. Some that saw her during her last illness said she could not recover; but nothing is impossible with God.

Glory to his name! He is being wonder­fully glorified in her healing. Praise the Lord, for the faith that was once deliver­ed to the saints. These signs shall follow them that believe. In my name they shall cast out devils, they shall speak with new tongues; they shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; They shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover. Now brethren pray for us, that our faith fail not, and that we may teach the way of life, and salvation. The Lord has work for us to do here, some are accepting the light, and God is showing them that His Body is the Church, and that the sectarian bodys are not the spotless Bride. Praise God I belong to that Body.

your Brother saved and sanctified.

I. M. Gray.

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Silver Lake Ind., Nov. 17th ’84.

Dear Brethren: — The Lord bless you, and keep you perfect in His love, is our prayer. Amen! We just came horns to­day, had meeting. Saturday and Sunday at Sevastopol, three miles north, of Bea­verdam. Had a glorious time waiting on the Lord. The people there are eager for the truth; and gave the best of atten­tion to the straight word of God. Wife preached three sermons there, with won­derful liberty in the Word, and in She power of the Holy Ghost. Oh glory to God for the wonderful liberty we have, de­claring the whole Gospel. Glory, Glory! says my soul, for freedom in Christ Jesus. On our way home we came by the Beaver­dam brethren, and they requested me to write to you and invite you to come there and hold a meeting as soon as you can. They told me also, to inform you that your expences will be paid’ if you come; and they would like a. meeting in two or three weeks, if the Lord wills, as we expect to make a winter trip into Mich., and they wish us to be there if you come.

We expect to visit your place, as we will be in your County. We hope to meet you some time this winter.

Enclosed find 20 cts. for two tracts, title, “Christ is the Body, the Church.”

Your brother in love for the Gospel.

J. L. Kiplinger.

__________

God sends his true servants with the red hot thunderbolts of His truth, thus He per­mits the devil to stir up his children not to stand the fire, but take their hats and leave. Thus God is using both the truth and the devil to purify the Church. Hallelujah let the separation go on.

Both Light and heat.

-o-

God is Light: — 1 John 1:5.

The natural manifestations of literal fire, when very hot, are light and heat. Corresponding with these, spiritually, we have light and love. “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaver.” Matt. 5:16. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one for another.” John, 13: 35. “But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son Cleanseth us from all sin. 1 John 1;7.

True Light and Love go together.

“He that; loveth his brother abideth in the light, and there is none occasion of stumbling in him. But he lhat hateth his brother is in darkness, and walketh in darkness, and knoweth not whither be goeth, because that darkness hath blined his eyes. 1 John 2: 10, 11.

True Light a knowledge of the Truth.

In Paul’s commission, he was to turn them from darkness to light. Acts 26:18. “Take heed therefore that the light which is in thee be not darkness. If thy whole body therefore be full of light, having no part dark the whole shall be full of light, as when the bright sinning of a candle doth give the light.” Luke 11: 35, 36.

“And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men. loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil: for every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither com­eth to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.” John 3: 19—21. Yet in the face of God’s Word, with these and many such precious passages of light; we find that some holi­ness teachers of to-day are teaching, that “heat and not light is the want of the hour.” They cry five! fire! FIRE! but reject light. Who ever heard of fire of the right stamp, wihout light? Although the fire of hate or ratio may become very hot, yet it remains dark, and is earthly, sensual, devilish; it is from beneath, and originated with the father of lies, who counterfeits every thing that is good: transforming himself into an angel of light, and if he can get us to remain in darkness, he will pass his counterfeits upon us by the wholsale; labeling them “five,” “heat and not light” “don’t ask for light.” “don’t pray for faith,” ”only ask once for a thing,” ”don’t make such a loud profession” “don’t pay you are sanc­tified;” or turn his bible, and cry “light,” “seeking light.” He even comes “with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they recived not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.” 2 Thess. 2: 9, 10.

Hence the need of, light, and that of God. “But if we walk iu the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin.”

“For it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret. But all things that are reproved are made manifest, by the light: for what­soever doth make manifest is light. Wherefore He saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light. See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as look, but as wise. Eph. 5: 12—15.

Since God has promised light, and ev­ery thing else that is for our good and His glory, and will be “enquired of by the house of Israel, to do it for them:” and has said “Ask and ye shall receive.”

“It any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.” James 1:5. “But in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanks­giving let your requests be known unto God.” Phil. 4:6. We are fully author­ized by the Captain of our Salvation to ask for light, purity, salvation and every thing we need for God’s glory, from the least auto the greatest, while we are in line with God; glorifying God in body and spirit which are God’s. Hallelujah! “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glori­fy your Farter which is it heaven. If we do His will we shall know of the doctrine. Blessed be the name of Jesus. When the holiness Editor, who is so fearful, in regard to the holiness peo­ple, tnat they will not be known, as ho­ness people, that he wants them to be la­bled with a holiness “badge” gets, filled with the pure light of God, to the extent, that he does not compromise with the world or sect babylon; but cries aloud and exposes all her corruptions in the light of God, by the Holy Spirit sent down from heaven, he will find that God knows him, holy people know him, the devil and wicked men know him as a holy man of God What is true of him is true of all that will let the light of true holiness shine. “Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.” Matt. 7; 20. “Yea and all that will live godly in Ghost Jesus shall suffer persecution.” 2 Tim. 3: 12. Hallelujah! Such need no tape badge, but will be known every whereas a “mover of seditions,” “turning the world upside down.” “Away with such a fel­low from the earth: for it is not fit that he should live.” Blessed be the name of Jesus! while the world despise and reject those, that walk in the light of God: they have fellowship with the Father and His Son Jesus Christ, and with all that have true fellowship with Him. Hallelujah!

Amen.

Another holiness Editor states, “We have a multitude of deluded people in the holiness work that are seeking light on this that and the other question.” In the same article, he declares “Heat and not light is the want of the hour.”

We refer him, and his deluded people, seeking light, to God’s Word; for “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.” “The entrance of Thy Words giveth light; it giveth understand­ing to the simple.” Psalm 119:105, 130. And to Jesus Christ, who said “I am the Light of the world; he that followelh me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. “Ask and ye shall re­ceive. And to the Spirit of truth; for “He will guide you into all truth, and show you things to come.” John 16: 13.

This same editor in referring to the true Church, admits that his “Wisdom is not sufficient to know just what that order in all respects will be.” But before he gets through this sentence, he takes the infidel dodge and says “Nor do we think anybodies is.” Like Wesley, who not having received the gifts of the Spirit spoken of 1 Cor. 12., healing, discerning of spirits, &c. did not believe any one else had them: thus leaving his tstimony on the side of unbelief and darkness, on this subject after letting his light shine, as he did in respect to holiness. So with many to-day in reference to the Church question, and especially this editor, yet he admits that the “True Church is mov­ing by the Spirit into the apostolic order.” but his wisdom is not sufficient to know just what that order will be. Glory to Jesus! Our dear Lord has left us a little book that tells us just what that order is, and when he gets straight with it he will be in the apostolic order. Hallelujah! “It is the same God which worketh all in all.” What is true in his case is true in all. “For by one Spirit are we all bap­tized into one body whether we be bond or free; and have been ail made to drink into one Spirit. 1 Cor. 12: 13.

People with their human wisdom can not see how God can build and govern His own Church, without human inven­tions. But let the light of God shine in their hearts and minds, until every thing opposed to God’s Word is removed, and they walk in the light as He is in the light, being not unwise but understanding what the will of the Lord is; each one ex­ercising the gift, or gifts of the Spirit in the light, and by the power of Cod through faith; he being in God’s order is also in the apostolic order, for the Apostles were only in God’s order. Hal­lelujah! All that are in His order are in hamony with each other; being in harmo­ny with the Head. That same God, that worketh all in all, is always in harmony with Himself, in His Word, by the Spirit Christ. The Church, which is the Body of Christ. The Spirit living in, controling, giving light to every member of His Bod­y, the Church: removing an darkness and discordant elements, and guiding jn the way of all truth, executing the will of God; becomes to His House an armor of light and love: so that we see light in His light, and love in His love. Thank God! Love works no ill to his neighbor, but seeks even to turn enemies, from darkness to light. Hallelujah! Amen. In the creation, “God said, let there be light: and there was light.” Gen. 1: 3. So with the new creation in Christ Jesus. “Ye are all the children in Christ Jesus. day: we are not of the night nor of dark­ness.” 1 Thess. 5:5. Christ is to the true Church, His body, light, life savation all and in all. Therefore to persecute His Body, the Church is to persecute Christ. “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness.” Isai. 5:20.

“To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this Word, it is because there is no light in them.” Isaiah 8:20. Amen.

Jeremiah.