THE BABEL OF CHRISTENDOM.
By Editor
It was Christ’s prayer for his disciples as he was about to depart to the work of his ministry above, and leave them in the world as sheep among wolves, that they might all be one, as he and the Father were one. If this point was of sufficient moment to be mentioned thrice in the Prayer of our Saviour as recorded in John xvii, we need not dwell upon its importance. The reason is also assigned: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. Who can tell the power which christianity would have had, had its professors ever stood shoulder to shoulder in the unity of the faith? No form of error or unbelief could have stood before it. In unity is strength. This the enemy well knew, and, ever busy to sow tares among the wheat, he has not ceased through long centuries to poison the truth with baneful error, to sow discord in the ranks of the brethren, to introduce confusion into their creed, and lead them to turn the weapons of their warfare against each other. We have now passed the middle of the nineteenth century, and behold the mass of those who profess to follow the man of Calvary divided into hundreds of fragments, and harboring against each other the bitterest animosities. Well may we exclaim as we contemplate the melancholy prospect, “An enemy hath done this!” But it was not so designed. Had men adhered to the truth, the truth would have made them adhere to each other. Had they not given place to the mystery of iniquity, and suffered its poisonous leaven to work in their midst, the disciples of Jesus might still have been one, and thus have answered the prayer of their Master, and given power to the good news of salvation through Jesus Christ. When we consider the spirit of the gospel, and the plain teachings of Christ and his apostles, we wonder that it is not so; and that wonder is by no means abated, but is rather turned into a blush for mankind, as we look at the centuries that have succeeded the days of the apostles, and behold the frivolous and foolish pretexts upon which faction after faction has arisen to trouble and distract the church, and thus bring christianity into disrepute. But plain as is the truth, and foolish as are the questions from which divisions have sprung, the enemy has accomplished his purpose, discord reigns over the religious world, confusion is branded upon its teachings, the inquirer after truth is bewildered, a stumbling block is laid in the way of the wicked, and the scoffer and the infidel point in triumph at the existing anarchy, whenever a Christian would present to them the claims of the gospel. A fearful responsibility rests somewhere for all this. Ask the unbeliever to become a Christian, to leave the broad and downward road, and walk in the way to heaven; he will ask you which way. He will tell you that one denomination points out to him one way, another another, and another tells him that a different way only is the right way, and as there is but one right way, all others lead to perdition; that they all profess to be founded on the Bible; that he does not know which to believe; that one appears to have as good claims as another, but they cannot all be true, and therefore he will receive none. This confusion among the churches, is one of the greatest causes of infidelity in the land. Ask the Catholic to renounce the corruptions and traditions of the Papal church, and become a Protestant; he will at once point you to the sects and divisions of the Protestant body, and tell you that the church of Christ is one church; you therefore cannot move him. He says his church is a unit; and upon that evidence alone, he is content to trust it as the true church. To the Jew also this is no less a stumbling-block. The vail that is upon their hearts is rendered heavier and darker by the inconsistencies of Christians. We have direct testimony upon this point. There is published in The Israelite of the 11th inst., a letter from a Jew who has embraced christianity to a Mr. Weschler, and his reply to the same. In that reply, which contains his objections to christianity, we find the following words: “The poor fellow forgot in his letter to tell me what particular church he has joined,—if a Methodist, a Baptist, a Catholic or something else, among the various Christian churches. In this respect he has gained, because the Christian church has so many denominations that every taste can be suited. Go and hear a Methodist preacher, and compare what he has to say with the instructions of a Baptist minister: here at once you will find a great difference. As it is not absolutely necessary for the first one to use water for the saving of the soul, it is a matter of great importance for the latter to make use of the ‘good water,’ that the soul may be saved. And every Christian minister, while speaking in his own congregation, expresses his opinion, that the doctrines of his particular church only lead to heaven. The Catholic thinks no Protestant can be saved, and similarly thinks the Protestant about the Catholic. Now, my friend and believer in Christ, if the teachings of Christ are true, how does it come that Christians differ so much about his teachings. The doctrines of a church can be conveyed only in a plain and certain understanding—in one way and in no other.” Such are the objections that are every where thrown in the face of the sects of the present day. How will they meet them? How will they account for the confusion that holds wild revel in their theological halls? How will they answer in the day of accounts for its effects upon their fellow-men? The Saviour prayed that they might be one; and will God accept such a service at their hands? The apostles have everywhere exhorted them to unity, to be kindly affectioned one to another, and to mind and speak the same thing; and is it all the same to fall into discord, divisions and heresies? Is there anything lovely, is there anything pleasing to God, is there anything that calls for our sympathy or charity in all this? And yet they are ready to gnash upon us when we apply the term Babylon to all this mixture, notwithstanding its features are without controversy so unlovely, and its effects so pernicious. But they may be assured that God will not regard such a work with complacency, and that great Babylon, the city of confusion, will yet be thrown down, as a millstone is cast into the mighty deep. Had that Spirit of truth which Christ promised his followers, ever been cherished in the bosom of the church, and no departure made from the plain, literal teachings of Christ and the inspired writers no divisions nor heresies would ever have entered the church. This is a sufficient answer to those who would make the schisms of the professed church an argument against the merits of the gospel. Its whole genius and spirit and teaching, when followed, is to unite. Would the churches take it now, and laying aside their creeds, follow it, there would be a union speedily. Whatever church will do this will be the true church. Such a church we believe is coming forth—a church free from every denominational creed, planting itself upon the broad basis of the Bible, keeping the Commandments of God and the Faith of Jesus. Then let us, brethren, strive to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace, endeavoring to progress in all knowledge of the truth, through the means which the Lord has appointed, [Eph. iv, 11-13.] till we all come into the unity of the faith. But is not your church, says one, included among the sects of the day? We answer, If we are the true church, the people of God indeed, we are not to be reckoned among the supporters of a corrupt or degenerate religion, included in the general name of Babylon. Israel are not to be reckoned among the nations. Num. xxiii, 9. In all the denunciations of God’s wrath against such, his people are, of course, excepted. Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.