COMMUNICATIONS by E. Everts

Publishing Committee · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jul 31, 1856

COMMUNICATIONS.

By E. Everts

"Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another."

"Follow Me," Luke ix, 59.

To follow is to imitate; to copy; to obey.—Webster.

DEAR Brethren in the Lord, let these precious words of Jesus have weight and influence on our hearts. Has the Captain of our salvation said "Follow Me?" Have you really started to "follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth?" Do you ever stop, and think how great is the hope of your calling? Ah, do you realize from what you are called; and what you are called to be; and how you are called; and that obedience to that call will bring you to stand on Mount Zion with him who has called you? I am confident that if these inquiries were pondered well in our candid and anxious minds, a great share of my object would be accomplished before you would follow my thoughts further.

If Jesus has said, Follow me, he has beckoned us away from some thing, or place; and his call is to all that have ears to hear. In order to follow Jesus we must get our eyes on him, and imitate his examples, and keep his sayings, and possess the mind that was in him.

These thoughts make me cry out, Lord, increase my faith! Jesus has said, "I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you." Jno. xv, 19. The life and sayings of our Saviour, and the lives and teachings of the inspired apostles show us what it is to follow Jesus. But, I begin to tremble within me as I progress with these all-important inquiries, because the masses of Christendom are as prone as the sparks are to fly upward, to turn their eyes toward the fathers, and to their commentaries, and teachers.

What are all these to thee, when Jesus has said, "Follow thou me?" What, dear brother, dear sister, is your standard of faith? Is it not the Bible? You say, yes! then there we will come. That we may learn whether we are following Jesus or no. I will stop in before you in your pathway, and reason with you; and this pathway is our every act of life. We will take a wide survey, first, and ask, Do you act like the world? But you inquire, What do you mean? I will try to tell you. Do you take a part with the world in its maxims and laws? If so your pathway is not the one that Jesus trod. Jesus said, They (disciples) are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Jno. xvii, 16. When saw ye Jesus in Ceasar's hall of judgment? Never; only when led as a lamb to the slaughter.

But, we want good laws, and it is our duty to get good men to make and execute them.

Truly we want good laws; and Jesus has not left us to follow him without them. He says, "The word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father's which sent me." Jno. xiv, 24.

The Psalmist says, "The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul." Ps. xix, 7. Paul says, "All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness; that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works." 2 Tim. iii, 16, 17. What more do you want? or, What less do you want, dear brother? If you go to the ballot-box, you show your infidelity to the efficiency of the gospel of Jesus. You reject God as your Law-giver, and James says there is one Law-giver. Jas. iv, 12.

You say, we will choose men that will enact good laws, and rule in righteousness and in the fear of the Lord. Nay, verily. Let me tell you the effect of the ballot-box. The moment you go to the ballot-box, you unite with the world from which Christ has called you out, and you take hold of the sword. But Paul says, "The weapons of our warfare are not carnal." 2 Cor. x, 4.

If you elect a good bishop, deacon or pious one of the church, whose motive is to do good; you necessarily make a bad man of him. You require of each officer, at his inauguration, an oath, which makes him a violator of God's Law. It is written by inspiration: "Above all things, my brethren, swear not; neither by heaven, neither by the earth, neither by any other oath; but let your yea be yea; and your nay, nay; lest you fall into condemnation." Jas. v, 12; Matt. v, 34-36; xxiii, 16-22.

The next step you require of your agent, is to enact laws, which, if disregarded, are enforced by the sword, an unchristian weapon; said laws are the essential, vital being of said government of which he is a component part, which can sustain its nationality only by arsenals of implements of death, large navies and military, equipped with their deadly weapons. You next place your good brother christian, follower of the Prince of Peace, aside the scaffold, to inflict death; or at the head of a body of military, with a habeas-corpus writ to thrust back into bondage a poor brother, for the crime of desiring to inhale heaven's free air. Or, if he is Chief Magistrate of the Nation, you mount your good bishop on a war-horse, armed cap-a-pie, General-in-chief over all the sinews of death in the nation, perchance, to saturate the land with the blood of our brethren in the South; and he might justly do it, according to the declaration of this hypocritical government, that all men have certain inalienable RIGHTS, LIFE, LIBERTY, and the PURSUIT of HAPPINESS.

Perhaps you may think of discriminating between the responsibility of a religious and political functionary by justifying their acts as being faithful in either calling. This reminds me of an anecdote about a Dean of Canterbury, England, whom the king mounted on a war-horse, as General of an army to subjugate a revolted province. While on the way at the head of his followers, equipped with a badge illy becoming followers of peace, passing a common of gazing spectators, a rowdy in the front commenced shouting, kicking up his heels and tossing his cap into the air, &c. At this the Hon. Dean was incensed. He at once despatched his Aid to inquire of the clown what he meant? He replied, that it was because he saw the Dean heading an army. Answer was accordingly returned to the Dean. Then says the Dean, Go tell the blockhead that I don't go as a Dean, I am the king's general. At this answer, the rowdy shout-louder than ever, and throwed himself into all manner of exciting gestures worse than before. This exasperated the pious Dean. He orders his Aid to go again, and demand what the villain meant. He replied, that he was thinking, when the Devil got the king's general, what would become of the Dean of Canterbury. Jesus says, "All they take the sword shall perish with the sword." Matt. xxvi, 52.

I would ask, dear followers of Jesus, if man can make it right to kill, when God has said, "Thou shalt not kill?" Does not the whole fabric of human governments rest on the sword? Are they not to be dashed to shivers when he comes whose right it is to rule in righteousness?

But I am not at war with human governments. No, no. David says in a hymn of praise to God, "Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee: the remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain." Ps. lxxvi, 10. "For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil." Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? Do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same." "For he is the minister of God to thee (Christian) for good." Rom. xiii, 3, 4.

If, my brethren, you keep in mind that Christians are a different company, a little flock, separated, chosen out of the world, to be lights in, or to, the world, that the world by beholding their good works, (light,) may be led to join in company with the little flock, counted all the day long to the slaughter, and thus glorify your heavenly Father then you will be able to comprehend such scriptures as Rom. xiii, and 1 Tim. i; ii, which I may notice hereafter. "Let the potsherd strive with the potsherds of the earth;" [Isa. xlv, 9;] but, let Christians possess the mind of Jesus, then they will "follow Jesus."

Have we seen some of the results of professed Christians following the world? May it prepare us then to gain an eminence as did Balaam, when Balak called him to curse Israel, when he uttered his parable and said, "How shall I curse, whom God has not cursed? or how shall I defy, whom the Lord has not defied? For from the top of the rocks I see him, and from the hills I behold him: lo, the people shall dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned among the nations." Num. xxiii, 8, 9. E. EVERTS. Round Grove, Whiteside Co., Ill., July 18th. 1856.