p. 206 | The Fathers by J. Clarke

Publishing Committee · Battle Creek, Mich. · Nov 18, 1858

The Fathers.

By J. Clarke

Our Fathers worshiped in this mountain. John iv, 20.

It is very natural to suppose that what our fathers have practiced must be right, especially in religious matters; and in the remark above quoted it is evident that the Samaritan woman placed great reliance upon the opinions and practice of her ancestors, without investigating the foundation and tendency of those opinions; and she felt assured that their opinions and practices were at least of some importance.

Had she looked at Scripture, and informed herself with regard to the origin of the Samaritans, and the reasons of their separation from the Jewish nations, and had she then looked for the origin of the Samaritan worship, and compared it with the divine authority for the temple and its form of devotion, its ceremonies and rites, she would at once have seen that the Samaritans were only heathens, slightly inoculated with Jewish rituals.

But not so; she had been content to follow in the track of her fathers; their ideas were congenial and common; and now she begins to inquire, when the best of her life was spent in sin; now some doubts arise whether she had been taught aright. The presence of the holy Jesus wrought conviction upon her heart, and she began to see that wrong opinions had influenced her life, and the crimes of her youth were attributable to the erroneous ideas which she held on moral subjects.

These erroneous ideas were handed down to her from the fathers. Here was the snare: Reverence for age, filial affection, and a natural respect for experience had been the means of encouraging idolatry.

Here was the secret of her faith in their mixed religion; it came directly down from "our fathers." Certainly, she would argue, the fathers must have been in the right; it is safe to follow in their footsteps; but now in the presence of Jesus her faith in the fathers begins to waver.

Even so now, many when convicted upon moral subjects, fall back upon the practices of the fathers and primitive Christians, as they often express it, and say, "the early Christians" did thus and so, and why may not we? and then without taking the pains to investigate the matter, they settle down in popular error, and float smoothly down the stream of life, farther and farther from God, and from his revealed truth.

"Our fathers worshiped in this mountain;" this is the sweeping argument which is expected to be the final termination of all controversy. The fathers, or the practice of the church, or the primitive Christians, or some such authority, is by many deemed amply sufficient to overturn the moral law, and invalidate the whole fabric of divine law and order. No matter what was the practice or precept of Christ or his apostles, all must be interpreted according to the traditions and notions of the so-called fathers.

No inquiry need be made as to who these so-called fathers were previous to their conversion; or what prejudices might have biased their minds; or what ambitious object they might have had in view; or what ecclesiastical or political force might have borne them on; or what might exert its silent influence upon them. None of these things are to be considered. It is enough to know they were fathers in the church, and their testimonies must be heeded, their example followed. Let the Bible say what it may, it must be understood in such a way as to justify the fathers. Even though the word of God was so little known that many of those fathers never saw a whole copy of the Bible.

How different the example of the prophets. Read how Daniel confessed the sins of his people, and the sins of his fathers, chapter ix, 6, 8, 16; Eze. ii, 3; and through the Old and New Testaments, we find, continually, reference made to the fathers as corrupt and sinful, and they are placed in the same list with the children.

"As your fathers did so do ye." Acts vii, 51.

J. CLARKE.