fellow-members in the same true body and adding these advantages to the false systems, the nominal church, to help perpetuate and draw others into the errors and bondage which galls you, and which misrepresents you even more than you misrepresent it.
Thus you become a false beacon-light to the poor world seeking the peace and joy of Christ, luring them into doctrines which, if honestly accepted and firmly held by them, will blind them and ensnare them, and prevent the peace, and light, and joy, and love of the real gospel. It was looking thus at the influence of sects in the time of the first advent, that our Lord said to the zealous Pharisees, "Ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, he is two-fold more the child of hell [destruction] than he was before." So now, it is far better to let the world alone, than to get them into sects which will only blind them to the truth and misrepresent to them God's character and plan. Far better; because when the light of the now dawning Sun of Righteousness reaches them, it will have far more influence upon them where they are, in and of the world, than if converted by the spirit of error into tares, in imitation of real wheat.
But when you come to examine the Creed to which you subscribed, Pastors generally say, "Oh, never mind! It matters little anyhow." And if you insist on seeing and pondering its professions, promises, and covenants, they will often unblushingly assure you that neither they, the pastors, nor a majority of the membership, believe all to which you and they subscribed; and that they never did believe or teach such and such portions. And they will try in every way to hold you in their sects (especially if you have money or influence—which few of the little flock have,—Jas. 2:5,) because naturally a professed field of wheat would not like to lose all its wheat and have only tares left.
Such Pastors may even resort to the specious misleading argument that you joined merely the local company of which he is the pastor; and claim that his faith is the measure by which the members of this local organization are to be judged, and not the written confession of faith, and the written Covenant to which you assented and subscribed. But both of these arguments are wrong; all local organizations (except such as have what is known as Congregational government) are parts of systems, so that in joining the Episcopal Methodists, for instance, your covenant is not merely with the local organization, but with the M.E. Church as a system; and the Pastor's faith, or his violation of his covenant with the organization, is no more an excuse for you, than the fact that other men violate business covenants would be an excuse for your doing so. Custom and numbers can never make wrong right. The fact is, a large majority of the membership of all denominations are really covenant breakers, whether they have given the matter sufficient thought to realize it or not. They either do not know or do not care what is the Creed to which they have subscribed, or else, knowing it, they believe it only in part, if at all; and yet by subscribing to it all, they act out an untruth before the world, before one another and before their families. The demoralizing influence of this double dealing is unmistakable in toughening and searing the conscience, tending to make such both unworthy of the truth and unable to readily accept it, as they get into the habit of thinking of others as being as insincere as themselves in their teachings and professions.
Duty seems plain from this standpoint: However others may violate covenants, and misrepresent themselves, the truth and the systems to which they are joined, the consecrated have no choice, as to their course of action. Not any of their influence, time, or money, must go to sustain error. All of it must be enlisted on the side of the truth, which is ever opposing error, even as light opposes darkness. As children of the light, we can have no fellowship with any of the unfruitful works of darkness, but must rather reprove them.
Should all do so, should all honestly withdraw from sects and creeds which do not truly and fully represent their faith, the result would be the immediate disruption of all these great sectarian systems, which now ensnare the consciences of many of God's children, and dress up and fondle "the children of this world" in imitation of the children of God. Many of the "tares" would come out honestly and say that they believe little or nothing, and would get back to their place in the world from which they were never really converted by the truth.
The saints would be entirely free and unhindered to grow up to the fullest measure of grace, knowledge and love. Others in various stages of childhood, and even the "babes in Christ," would be blessed too. At first they would make hundreds of new combinations of thought, only to be broken continually as they would grow up into Christ in all things, until finally they would reach the position of the early Church, and stand where we now do, recognizing no bondage, attempting to bind none, and refusing to be bound by any other than that faith which no man can ignore and yet be in Christ at all, viz., that the Bible is God's revelation of his plan, and the only guide for faith, and that as a race we were sinners, but were redeemed by the precious blood of Christ. Planted on this foundation, all God's children may grow from babes which feed at first only on the "milk" up to strong men who feed upon the "meat in due season" from the same storehouse.
This union of heart and mind upon the rock, without other limitations, gives room for the exercise of every grace and gift of the spirit in the Church, each member of which is a minister, in proportion to his ability to minister to the needs of "the body." And it leaves room, too, for the Head to exalt or debase, to honor or to chasten, according to faithfulness, each member in "the body"—each minister, or servant.
But all will not thus act out conscientiously; all cannot do so; all have not the strength: and so long as they are fed on the present diet of worldliness, pride, sectarian rivalry, deceit (as in professing doctrines not believed), etc., with a very little skimmed "milk of the Word," they cannot get the strength to come out boldly and oppose the majority, the strong, proud children of this world, who grow strong on the diet refused by the "meek."
Hence our Lord pictures over and over again, especially in the Revelation, the complete fall of these systems in order to the liberating of the "great company" of the true wheat class. But we who see, and who have strength, and who by valiant energy for the truth could help others, shall we for fear, or any other motive, draw back and lend our influence in any degree to these systems, which in the name of God and of truth, are misrepresenting God and truth, and blinding and enslaving God's children? Can we expect our Master's approval and the overcomer's crown, unless we do overcome? I tell you, nay. And unless such come out of Babylon, they will be reckoned as partakers of her sins, and receive of her plagues, shortly to be poured out. As our Lord expressed it (Matt. 24:51.) they will have "their portion with the hypocrites" in the time of perplexity, disintegration, and confusion just at hand, though they are not hypocrites, but disobedient servants.
Dear Sir:—Apology for what follows is needless; this would not be written had the writer doubts of your sincerity and desire to live up to the full light.
The June number of Z. W. T., under head of "Come out of Her!" contains in the "Reply" an error, in my opinion, of great harm.
(1.) Briefly—God, at the beginning of the present age, and while selecting his "little flock," made use of apparent human means—an association of believers, who at Antioch were first called Christians. These associations, called Churches, were specially blessed, and several have special mention.
(2.) These associations have been the means used by God to bring down the Truth to this day. This you will admit.
(3.) I believe that the church rightly perpetuated itself—under Divine guidance—by regular means, and that the pedigree of the "Clergy" of the Church is as well authenticated to-day, as was that of the Levitical in its day: that this is not accident, but the result of the Divine interposition, and therefore is to some good end.
(4.) Further, that the Churches each had its own territory in which it was the supreme or only visible means of identification of the membership or legitimacy of the little flock. Concurrent jurisdiction would not be an exception so long as they agreed. The original Churches mentioned in the New Testament have here in the United States of America, certain legitimate descendants, that can be readily identified—The Protestant Episcopal Church. I came out of that district of Babylon known as Congregational.
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