[In the last REVIEW we gave several pages from an excellent pamphlet, written in 1843, by J. B. Cook, entitled, "A Solemn Appeal to Ministers and Churches, especially to those of the Baptist Denomination, relative to the Speedy Coming of Christ." The following is another extract from the same work.—Ed.]
We should have no will of our own, especially in religion. Such was my conviction; but my good name, my situation as pastor, or, what was more, the peace of the church—in truth, everything relating to this world seemed at stake. To admit the truth, was probably to forfeit the friendship of those whom I had most highly esteemed. Everything of this kind was presented to my mind’s eye in all its importance; and much of what was then seen, has been realized; so that I did not rush recklessly into my present position. O, no! the truth never was admitted with a more complete survey of consequences. I did not see anything with the second advent doctrine, in this world, but disgrace and the promised blessing of Jesus. On this condition my soul submitted. Soon, very soon, I was constrained to say, that whatever sufferings might be allotted me, I enjoyed enough to compensate for them all. My very soul and body were bathed and blessed,—my whole person was baptized with the Holy Spirit’s influence; never did my heart love God so much. In fact, it seemed to me that I had been a comparative stranger to love. His word was verified: "No man forsaketh father or mother," &c., "for the kingdom of God’s sake, but he shall receive an hundred fold more." My whole intellectual and moral nature was made to repose sweetly in the truth and its Divine Author. My Bible seemed nearer now than when I bought it, at my first conversion. If friends had been lost, I found those who were an hundred fold nearer and dearer. Heaven, for which my soul at times had panted, seemed as in open vision. Hell is an awful reality. Sinners seem to be in the condition of persons in a house on fire; their doom is seen to be so dreadful and so near, that I want to call after them continually. God never wrought in my soul with such power to rescue souls as brands from the burning. He gave me about all that my physical strength could bear. Now my concern seems directed to my brethren in the ministry, and the state of the churches. Beloved brethren, suffer the word of exhortation. It is not possible for me to address you as if you had a long life of usefulness before you; it is not possible for me to feel that you or your people are safe. It is my settled, solemn conviction, that you are many of you in infinite peril. Many of you have been to me amiable; but it does seem that you, who put off the coming of Jesus, occupy a wrong position with reference to that amazing event. If you are in doubt as to the time, still there is no excuse why you should despise those who are not in doubt. Surely, the least you can do, with safety to your own souls, is to pray to be ready, and labor to get your people ready. "Take heed to yourselves—watch and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man." Tell me—settle it in your mind before God,—how you can be safe, when the announcement of this tremendous event, on the authority of the Most High, produces little or no prayer. How can you forgive yourselves,—how can our common Judge forgive you, when you fulfill the character of the unfaithful servant, and turn to smite your fellow servants? Do you not see that just so far as you oppose the speedy coming of our Lord, you please the ungodly? It is dangerous to stand in the way of sinners, for the next step will be to sit "in the seat of the scornful." Ministers have passions like other men, and are as easily excited, except they watch and pray. Ministers have more at stake than other men—their salary, reputation, comfort and the respectability of their families, will all serve to tempt them to take just that stand against the unpopular doctrine of the second advent, that the rulers of the synagogue took against Paul. My brethren, you are exposed to temptation, and Jesus saw it, or he would not204have charged you, as well as me, to watch.
There are many, however, who seem not to suspect danger of being unprepared; these do not watch with reference to the coming of Christ. Some make light of "going up." They may not have read with attention, that some who mocked at Elisha for saying that Elijah had "gone up," were cursed, and made a monument to the impious in after ages.
God has given us one illustration, in each dispensation of the revealed truth, that his people shall be "caught up to meet the Lord in the air." Enoch in the patriarchal, Elijah in the prophetic, and Jesus in the Christian; yet many make a mock of it. Though ministers may have read, they seem not to believe that even children were destroyed, who mocked at Elisha, for saying that Elijah had gone up. It was mocking God, who caused Elijah to go up. So now, it seems plain to me, that all who make light of second advent believers "going up," mock God. One minister says that he had as lief be found fighting the doctrine of the second advent when Christ comes as not; but I forbear. "Father, forgive them, they know not what they do." If my service be not accepted of the brethren, it will be, I trust, a relief to myself. I was constrained to write, and though I have written amid the interruptions occasioned by the sale of furniture and "breaking up," yet here are some of my convictions stated—some of my feelings portrayed. *
As to spiritual influences, are they not what has been foretold? What cause can be assigned for Brother Brown's primitive experience? There are, I presume, thousands who have had an experience strongly resembling his. A ministering brother has just told me of a pious woman, who had essentially such an experience as Brother Brown's, and she was brought by nothing but the Word and Spirit to just those views I now entertain. She was deemed crazy, but the Spirit of God wrote this whole second advent doctrine on her soul; she has it all without human agency. If there are to be in the last days instances of remarkable outpourings of the Spirit, where are we to find them, if not among second advent believers? A child of six years old, when converted, told me the most interesting experience I ever heard; her whole soul was quickened, and she was a believer in her Lord's speedy coming. Now I should like to hear some of those who feel and act as if the Lord could not come yet, account for these spiritual influences, on any other principles than those by which "the rulers of the synagogue" accounted for Paul's experience—for the miracles of Jesus, &c. Account for them, my brethren, if possible, on any other principles than those by which Universalists and Infidels account for ordinary conversions. If insanity, mental imbecility, or the devil, be the cause of our experiences of truth, what is the cause of revivals? My brethren, let those engaged in them be your judges. This is a solemn truth. I feel awfully in view of the necessary conclusion to which these premises lead. You cannot justify opposition to that agency which cuts the soul loose from the world and fills it with the second advent, as well as "glory and God," except you virtually justify the Jewish rulers in opposing the apostles. Therefore, it is my solemn conviction, that you need beware, lest ye only behold, oppose and perish. It is true that there were miraculous powers attending Paul; but observe that is not the basis of my argument. The church has long regarded the argument derived from Paul's conversion, (it being sustained by the same kind of conversion in all parts of the world,) as a strong one. It has been urged as if irrefragable. If it be a good argument in any case, why not in the one before us? You observe that the argument is based only on spiritual influences. Every effect has an adequate cause; every direct spiritual effect has not only its adequate cause, but a cause of its own nature; as it is written, "Satan is not divided against Satan," nor can Jesus "deny himself." These eternal truths are not recognized by wicked men when they oppose the Holy Spirit's agency in the experience of the saints; nor do you, my brethren, when trifling with the same sort of agency in writing the second advent on the hearts of many. This Spirit is "not of the world;" if it was of the world, the world would love its own; but seeing it is not of the world, "therefore the world hateth it." All ministers who believe in the Lord's coming at hand, must be hated, or at least neglected. Those who believe, cannot, therefore, have the ordinary impulses to action, which worldly men have; they must have higher, holier impulses, derived from the Holy One, to separate from the spirit of this world, and wait, on scriptural principles, for the coming of Jesus to judgment. *
Jesus solemnly inquired, "When the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?" Yet the masters in Israel are making the verification of this dreadful truth a reason for their continued unbelief. When unbelief is predicted to be a fearful token of his coming, many ministers, with an unbelieving world co-operate to create that token. Surely I have not mistaken the application of my text. Beware, lest in unbelief ye only wonder to perish.
Even though a definite period had not been named for the coming of the day of God, such are the general admonitions to be ready, to wait for, look for, and love his appearing, that no one can disregard them without infinite peril. Beware, then, beware, lest that come upon you which is spoken in the prophets.
Did you ever learn the whole name of Jesus? Rev. i. 8. "I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come." The last clause, literally rendered, may read, The coming One. Faith respects him in his whole character. Many have spoken to me about preaching the gospel, not seeming to know that the gospel is the good news of the kingdom to come when Jesus shall appear. The gospel dispensation is not his kingdom, except in embryo in the hearts of his people, because, [Luke xix, 11-13,] "He spake a parable to them, because they thought the kingdom should immediately appear." The disciples were expecting the kingdom. Acts xvi. It shall be set up at his appearing; [2 Tim. iv, 1.] and we know, on the highest authority, that it cannot come till after the resurrection. 1 Cor. xv, 50. Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. No one will ever enter that glorious, everlasting kingdom, but by the resurrection, or a change equal to it.
Some want me to preach Jesus Christ and him crucified. Such, probably, do not know that he, who was the crucified One, is now The coming One. If we, my brethren, preach, and the people believe in Jesus as he is revealed, we shall both preach and have the people believe in the coming One. Beware how you omit to preach the coming of Jesus! By the terrible splendors of the Day of God, I charge you to preach the coming of Jesus. By your past remissness, I charge you to preach the coming of Jesus. By the doom of the unfaithful watchman and the unfaithful servant, I charge you to preach the coming of Jesus. To all, I say, in view of the opening judgment, repent, be baptized and believe in Jesus, the coming One. Amen!