p. 99 | The Old Paths

Publishing Committee · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jan 29, 1857

The Old Paths.

I HAVE been a reader of the word of God for nearly sixty years. I have always found and so understood the Scriptures to teach, that the Saviour of poor lost sinners, while he tabernacled here on earth, called, qualified, and commissioned certain men, called apostles, or ministers, and sent them forth to preach his everlasting gospel to a dying and ruined world.

In tracing the history of these men from their first starting out on their mission from Jerusalem, to the end of their pilgrimage on earth, wheresoever they went, we find that they preached Christ and the resurrection, Christ and him crucified, and taught the people every where to submit themselves to every ordinance of man, for the Lord’s sake, whether it be unto kings or unto governors, and whosoever resisted the power, resisted the ordinance of God, and they that resisted should receive to themselves damnation. Wheresoever they went preaching the gospel of the kingdom, the power of God was manifested, with few exceptions, in the conviction and conversion of scores of poor perishing sinners. Paul tells us that should an angel from heaven preach any other gospel unto us, than that which we the apostles have preached, let him be accursed. Tracing the history of Christ’s church and preaching, of such ministers as preached the apostolic doctrine down to my own recollection, I find the power of God and the conversion of sinners attended their preaching wherever they went. And since my recollection, wherever the word was preached in demonstration of the Spirit and with power, believers were built up in the most holy faith, and many poor sinners were converted and added to the church. God owned their labors, and the church flourished. But alas, the glory of the church, I fear is departed, in these last days. Preachers will now take the circuit or field of labor allotted to them, and preach a whole year on it, and at the end of the year, few, if any souls are converted, and the circuit left as good as dead.

Being a strict observer of these things, and searching for the primary causes, I am sorry to say that I am forced to the conclusion, that if ever we have a reformation in the church it must begin in the stand. Paul tells us that he ceased not to warn every one, night and day, with tears, and taught the people publicly, and from house to house. But some of our would-be preachers, in these last days, scarcely visit their brethren, much less the men of the world once in a whole year; and should they happen so to do, the welfare of their souls and future prospect of heaven is not thought of. Praying with them is out of the question, unless they stay over night with them; and when several of these preachers are in company together, their light and trifling conversation, and that before the men of the world, would make any sincere Christian blush; and when in the sacred stand in the house of God, they will read as a text, a verse or two of the holy Scriptures, and forthwith sail out into the politics of the day, and not one word of Christ and the resurrection in the whole sermon. They forget to meet their class after preaching a time or two for a whole year.

I believe the gospel is the same, has the same power, and would have the same effect, if preached in its purity to-day, that it had in old times. O, brethren, let us try and hunt the old paths and walk in them.—Selected.