Established, Strengthened, Settled.
By A. M. Lindsley
It is a good thing, says the apostle Paul, that the heart be established with grace. To this end, Peter prays that the church might be made perfect, established, strengthened, and settled. If ever there was a time when a multitude of doctrines prevail, then now is emphatically the time. The very foundation of our religion and of God’s plan of salvation, provides for a oneness of faith, as there is one Lord, one faith, one baptism. But in opposition to this, we have to contend with hydra-headed error. The various gifts were set in the church that unity might prevail in mind and judgment. A church fully united on points of revelation will have the ingredient of love largely developed, and in union of love and faith there will be strength. The church of Jesus Christ having apostatized from their primitive faith, Satan was well pleased that there should be union if it might only be in error. For this, witness the history of the Roman church. They are united in error, and their union proves to be their strength. Mohammedanism, and other heathen religions also, become strong by a oneness of belief in error. But what will the end be of the union and strength so founded? The answer to us is plain, the very depths of the bottomless pit will be their doom. Protestantism is to-day strangely divided. Why is this? Why so many different beliefs held among the only true representatives of the religion of the Bible? While passing through the wilderness state, as brought to view by John, in Revelation 12, they imbibed from the papal sink of pollution errors which have clung to them like the leprosy, and like Daniel’s feet of the image, which were part of iron and part of miry clay and would not unite, so has a difference of opinion come in and separated in mind and judgment those whom God would have firmly united on all his blessed truth, that they might indeed be the light of the world. Jesus prayed that his disciples might be one, even as he and the Father were one, that the world might believe he was sent of God. In order that Protestants should be strong, they must be united on points of Bible truth. In vain will be their Evangelical Alliance, while laying aside those very truths that were given to enlighten, unite, and strengthen. In the 8th chapter of Isaiah, we think there are at least three classes brought to view, living at the time when some are looking for the Lord. One of these is pleading for a “confederacy.” But, says the prophet, “the Lord spake thus to me with a strong hand, and instructed me that I should not walk in the way of this people, saying, Say ye not, A confederacy, to all them to whom this people shall say, A confederacy; neither fear ye their fear, nor be afraid.” But “sanctify the Lord of hosts himself; and let him be your fear, and let him be your dread.” Why would such a union be wrong? Evidently, because it compromises the truth. And we think as the prophet speaks of association that shall be broken in pieces, and the counsel that shall not stand, he looked with prophetic eye down to this very time, when such a union will be attempted from wrong premises, and carried on upon wrong principles, and for this reason it shall come to naught. The second class mentioned are those among whom the testimony is bound up, and the law sealed. They are given for signs and wonders in Israel from the Lord of hosts. Contemporary also with these is the work of spiritualism, referred to in the 19th verse, against which the inspired penman again warns us. “To the law and to the testimony; if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.” In the time of trouble and pouring out of the plagues, referred to in the 91st Psalm, the truth will be the shield and90buckler of the righteous. In preparation for that time a platform of truth is being brought out upon which God’s people may every one be established, while error will fall back to its place among those who love and make a lie. Truth is beautiful and harmonious. Let us seek for it, not partially, but wholly, and be established, as Peter says, in the present truth. In every age there is a truth applicable to that time. In his day it was a crucified Saviour—light and immortality brought to light through the gospel; so now, in our time, it is the restoration of the down-trodden law of the Father in connection with the faith of the Son, embracing all ten of the commandments, the seventh day of the fourth commandment in particular, with all the teachings of Christ in this dispensation, and the manifestations of the Spirit given to perfect the church of God and bring them into the unity of the faith. Vermillion, N. Y., Dec. 12, 1874.