Communication from Bro. Frisbie.
By J. B. Frisbie
DEAR BRETHREN: We truly live in perilous times. There is deception enough in the world to deceive if possible the very elect. But we feel thankful that the Lord has a great care and love for his people. If the Lord had forsaken us, ere this time we should have fallen out by the way. The Lord has been sifting his people, by testing them on every hand. Many have already fallen, and more are in danger. I feel this danger. What shall I say? It has been the plainness of the truths we have believed that has kept us so long. Our love and care for each other have not been any too great. The cause we did not know, until God in great mercy led us to see the cause. Behold, we are the Laodiceans, and should have been a just people in the judgment. But instead of this we were lukewarm, neither cold nor hot, neither dead nor alive to God, and boasting of our rich knowledge of divine things, and thought we had need of nothing; not knowing that we were miserable, and wretched, and poor, and blind, and naked, and were in danger of being spued out of the mouth of God, which is the remnant church. Jer. xv, 19. "If thou return, then will I bring thee again, and thou shalt stand before me: and if thou take forth the precious from the vile, thou shalt be as my mouth: let them return unto thee; but return not thou unto them." Still there is mercy if we return unto the Lord; and those who do, will be under the necessity of making a separation between the precious and the vile, in order to be the mouth of God. Lord is it I? 1st. "I (Jesus) counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich." We have been earnestly inquiring to know what this gold is. One brother says it is love, another faith, &c. May it not be also the grace of God, [2 Cor. xii, 9] and a growth in grace. 2 Pet. iii, 18. Thus, Add to your faith, virtue; and to virtue, knowledge; and to knowledge, temperance; and to temperance, patience; and to patience, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, charity. For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But he that lacketh these things is blind. 2 Pet. i, 5-9. For the lack of these things we were blind. He that has these things must see. But it is impossible to abound in these graces without the help of God's Spirit. "By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also; knowing that tribulation worketh patience; and patience, experience; and experience, hope; and hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us." Rom. v, 2-5. My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. James i, 2-4. Rich in faith. James ii, 5. That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise, and honor, and glory, at the appearing of Jesus Christ. 1 Pet. i, 7. "Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not high-minded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy; that they be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate; laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life." 1 Tim. vi, 17-19. "Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell that ye have, and give alms; provide yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not." Luke xii, 32, 33. "True riches." Luke xvi, 11. "So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich towards God." Luke xii, 21. "Author and finisher of our faith." Heb. xii, 2. This gold tried in the fire, is fiery trial of faith by sacrifice, by patience in tribulation through grace. "That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness towards us through Christ Jesus. For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God." Eph. ii, 7, 8. "But who may abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appeareth? for he is like a refiner's fire, and like fullers' soap. And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness." Mal. iii, 2, 3. 2. "White raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear." Fine linen is the righteousness of saints. Rev. xix, 8. We are to have the righteousness of Christ by following him as a pattern. "It was imputed to him (Abram) for righteousness." Rom. iv, 22. 3. "Anoint thine eyes with eye-salve that thou mayest see." "But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you and ye need not that any man teach you, but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things and is truth and is no lie." 1 John ii, 27. "God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost." Acts x, 38. "The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints." Eph. i, 18. 4. "As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten." "And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him; for whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons. Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless, afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby." Heb. xii, 5-8, 11. "Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution." 2 Tim. iii, 12. We feel rebuked of the Lord when we do wrong and feel condemned. If on self-examination of our past life we can see our wrongs, then can be humble enough to confess them, we may be forgiven. Let the law when one sinned, and it came to be knowledge, he was to confess it. Lev. v, 5; Num. v, 11. The wise man says, "He that covereth his sins shall not prosper; but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy." Prov. xxviii, 13. "Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another." James v, 16. "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." 1 John i, 9. It is well to set in strict judgment upon ourselves. "For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world." 1 Cor. xi, 31, 32. How good it is to set in judgment in our own cases and feel rebuked of the Lord in our own consciences, and feel chastened for our sins that we may not be condemned with the wicked world. But if we have beams in our own eyes, and then try to pull motes out of our brother's eye, it makes sad distraction. What a state, to feel that I am about right and you are all wrong. This has made sad wounds often among brethren. A fault-finding spirit, speaking evil one of another, will cause wars and fightings among brethren. These things ought not so to be. Wherever brethren will get into habits of self-examination and of confessing their own faults, they will stand a good chance to get the eye-salve to see their own faults, and become zealous and repent, and get every hindering cause out of the way that the door of the heart can be set open and Jesus come in and dwell there. May we hunger and thirst for righteousness that we may be filled. May Christ dwell in the hearts of the remnant by faith, and be formed within the hope of glory. I thank the Lord for what my eyes have seen, and ears heard, and heart has felt for about two weeks past, while visiting in the towns of Locke, Meridian, Delhi and Windsor. I found that the brethren had generally received the message to the Laodiceans written out in the Review. The Spirit of the Lord manifested itself in every place to the uniting of the hearts of the brethren to love as Christians. And while endeavoring to feed I was fed, as also was Bro. Lowree, who accompanied me. The "Age to Come" had distracted some who had partially fallen under its influence; and in seeing its deleterious influence, I came to the conclusion that the Age to Come doctrine has and will prove as fatal if held on to any great length of time as arsenic is to rats—it is sure death. By the fruit we may know that the doctrine is not of God or of the Bible. Most every leader has his own Age to Come. We find Eld. Storrs, Dr. Thomas, Joseph Marsh, D. P. Hall, J. M. Stephenson, &c., &c., have each one a different view, hardly any two agreeing. It is much like learned men on the Sabbath: scarcely any two agree as to the cause of change. The "Age to Come" is much like an old brass kettle worn out and patched; and while one is trying to tinker one leak, he creates another worse still. Whoever loses sight of the glorious Sanctuary in heaven, for the "Age to Come," he leaves a certainty for an uncertainty; for surely we have never seen any light in the so-called Age to Come since our faith caught a sight of the heavenly Sanctuary, and the work of our High Priest there, after the ending of the 2300 days in 1844, the seventh month and tenth day. When Christ shall finish his work of atonement, and the judgment of the righteous ends, there will be no more mercy for sinners, as we learn from Prov. i, 24-31; Isa. lix, 16-20. "No Intercessor." He that is unjust, let him be unjust still, and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still, and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still, and he that is holy, let him be holy still. And behold, I come quickly. Rev. xxii, 11, 12. A little time before Jesus comes probation ends. Let us beware of hewing out to ourselves broken cisterns, that can hold no water. Jer. ii, 13. My heart rejoices to know that the church is rising in spirituality. The time to the day of trouble looks shorter than ever before. No sacrifice looks too great to be made for salvation. Now appears to be the time for all wrongs to be made right. We must worship God in spirit and in truth. It is right to be zealously affected in a good cause. Let our hopes be strong in Israel's God who made the world. May the Lord help his people to be all engaged for salvation. We hope the time will soon come that every lover of truth will feel like a missionary in the place in which they live, so as to be looking around them for honest souls who may be induced to read or hear. How much good can be done in this way if it is done in the right spirit. We find that many feel when they first see the truth as if they wanted to preach. This is all right, if every one will preach in his or her own gift, either by the fireside, by being examples of piety, by scattering our publications, or by getting their friends to take our papers, &c. There are many other ways to preach besides public lecturing to the people. Has not every lover of truth some influence over a friend, at home or abroad, that they may do good in different ways, as the Lord in wisdom may direct? There is a great work to be done, and a great High Priest at the head of his church, and may the Lord send by whom he may send; but let instruction be given in the kindest spirit, in meekness and love at all times. A harsh, denunciatory spirit will do no good, but will irritate and disgust. "But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear." 1 Pet. iii, 15. Your brother in the hope of the soon coming of our Lord. J. B. FRISBIE.