Letter from J. B. Cook to F. G. Brown, written April, 1843.
By J. B. Cook
DEAR BROTHER BROWN:—It gives me pleasure to be able to add my humble testimony to yours, relative to our glorious appearing, and the influence of this truth on the heart and life. "In the mouth of the three witnesses every word shall be established." It is an interesting fact, that there are several ministers, one of the Episcopal church, another of the Baptist, and another of the Congregational, whose deep and awful convictions of these things may be expressed in your own language. Indeed, all with whom I have conversed, who are waiting for the coming of Jesus, have substantially the same experience. In most instances, it is in advance of all ordinary Christian experience. It cuts the soul loose from the world, lifts it above the earth, and fills it with glory and with God. They feel, speak, pray, and sing with unwonted energy. They are more like the first Christians than any whom I have known. On the day of Pentecost they felt so deeply, spoke with such power, and were so much above the fear of man, that unbelievers said, "These men are filled with new wine." It was not natural for poor men to feel so happy and independent. It was not common for uneducated men to utter such strong emotions in such resistless argument, without something to excite them. It is apparent, also, that the Second Advent friends have something that is not natural to them; therefore, they ascribe it to some cause.—They know that we do not drink wine, and they dare not say it is from Satan; hence they aver that we are crazy. Anything to set aside the agency of the Holy Ghost. A fact may not be amiss: One of my good deacons, who felt obliged to account for my depth of feeling for the salvation of men, and burning love to Christ and his appearing, said, in a neighboring city, that I must be crazy. He called several times, from sheer sympathy, to see me; we did not dispute, but sung, and then bowed in solemn prayer till all prayed.—The good deacon, though he felt like a great sinner under awful conviction, was touched, and made more willing to look at our Lord's coming. In a short time he became quite as crazy as his so much pitied pastor. But now he knows "we are not mad." No upright mind can long ascribe this spiritual phenomena to any other agency than that of the good Spirit, which applies the most overwhelming truths to the soul. Judging from facts, which have come under my own observation, I should think that thousands have had an experience, in all its leading characteristics, like our own. Our spirit is one—our views, our language, our desire the same.—Each pulsation of my soul beats in unison with yours. Six ministers, as I have learned very recently, say their experiences agree with ours.—There is a flood of light poured on our minds from the Bible. The seals of the prophecies seem broken off, and the mysteries unraveled—indeed, the Sacred Volume seems all light, the blessed Saviour its fullness, and the glory to be revealed as in open vision. I have learned more of the present and prospective condition of man, more of Christ and his kingdom, during the past few weeks, than during all my former life. My soul reposes on God, and seems satisfied with its having, at least, a clue to his purposes relating to man. The nature and reality of our experience may be seen by contrasting it with those who have opposed the speedy coming of our Lord. Were we in a delusion, and our opponents basking in the sunshine of truth, we might expect to see them just so much more spiritual and separate from the world, and zealous for the Lord of Hosts. But alas, their Lord seems, as he says he will, in the parable of the talents, to have taken away what they had. Many of them lose their interest in prayer, even for inquiring souls. I have seen them go straightway into darkness, their lamps go out, and they feel and say that they are wretched. Now my brother, "do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?" "Make the tree good, then the fruit will be good." The truth is adapted to our minds. It sits easily and naturally on our hearts. It is attended by the good Spirit, makes us at home with God in prayer, at peace with ourselves, and to feel compassion toward all mankind. If, therefore, any feel at war with themselves, and in sympathy with the wicked, they have proof positive that they are wrong—radically wrong. This experimental truth is so simple that every mind can grasp it. Every one, not a stranger to themselves and to truth, must see that when love to God burns within, till it absorbs the whole soul, and our eyes are opened to see that we should warn the world, doomed to fire—when we are "crucified to the world, and the world to us," we must be actuated by a spirit that is not of this world. It is the good Spirit, which has no sympathy with sin, in the church, or out of it. This experience, standing out in such striking contrast with that above stated, is a strong confirmation of prophecy. Thousands who do not receive our views, say that we are in the last days, but the Spirit must be "poured out" according to prophecy. Now we may ask, where are any more remarkable proofs of this fulfillment, than in cases like our own, among those who believe the Lord's coming at the doors? Allow me to say some things, which I feel compelled to, though they may seem severe. They are severe, however, only because they are, I solemnly believe, true. Nothing but the truth searches out and shows up what is opposed to the simplicity of Christ. My mind seems to have been like that of the prophet of God, in the chambers of imagery. The views I have had of the church are awfully solemn. It gives me no pleasure to allude to them—I should not, but from a painful conviction of duty, "That which makes manifest is truth." It is manifest to me, that the ruling spirit of this world controls most professors in their dress, in their sanctuaries, in the order of their worship, in the rage of a popular ministry, and in the means for perpetuating such a ministry as the worldly, rather than the spiritually minded, will follow and applaud. The minister who pleases the rich, and secures their attendance by the poetry and eloquence of his sermons, is praised, on the same principle that a successful lawyer or mercantile adventurer is. "Men will praise thee when thou doest well for thyself." But alas, this kind of doing well by a minister, is,127I solemnly fear, but a device of the devil to destroy souls. There are many powerful elements in our nature which the tempter employs to make us worldly. They are employed with tremendous effect to make professors dress fashionably, walk to the house of God fashionably, sit up in church fashionably, worship fashionably, preach and pray fashionably, and, though deeply pained to record it, truth adds, go to hell fashionably! Fashionable disciples of a crucified Jesus! The sin of the Pharisees was unbelief. It was occasioned by their yielding to the spirit of the world. "How can ye believe, who receive honor one of another, and seek not the honor that cometh from God only?" When we with Christian faithfulness say these things to those who most need warning, they regard us a little as Ahab did Elijah: "Art thou he that troubleth Israel?" But were we silent, these very ministers would mark our inconsistency.—Many ministers and people unite to hinder the breaking of the slumbers of the church by the revealed truth that Christ is coming. Alas! that they do not see that opposition to his Second Advent is more sinful than was the opposition of the scribes and Pharisees to him at his First Advent: then he came to suffer and die, now he is coming to be glorified. He is coming to reward all his injured servants. O, it is "far more exceeding" sinful for them to oppose the Saviour's coming now, than eighteen hundred years ago. They have more light—they oppose the destruction of the man of sin, the consummation of Christ's glory, and the happiness of all his servants. They would perpetuate the reign of sin and Satan, and see hundreds of thousands going weekly to perdition. That the church is seeking to perpetuate the existing state of things, is seen in all that is said and done to resist a change. It is seen in the advice given to ministers to adapt their discourses to the taste of respectable ungodliness. Thousands of pastors would lose their places, did they not conform, and leave sin in its more specious forms unrebuked. One minister just told me that his people wanted him to cater to the Unitarian palate of his audience. Many ministers need no such advice from without to induce them to such a course.—They are too "wise and prudent" to risk much on God's word. They want a "sign"—something to insure them. So did the chief priests; and so they were damned. Could I speak in thunder tones, I would say to every one who is fearful to follow the word and Spirit of God, "O ye of little faith."—You tell a sinner to cast himself on God—why don't you? Unbelief in a minister of Christ is far more sinful than in a skeptic, whose mind has always been darkened. Their excuse is, that there are difficulties about the prophetic periods; but you are right in saying that if we set aside all the evidence from that source, we ought still to expect the speedy coming of our Lord. Thousands have become assured of it, by the current language of Scripture, sent home to the heart by the Spirit. It is not for me to judge or set at naught my brother—but it is for me to give full utterance to truth, when our Lord has written it on my heart. He has written out two classes of ministers, as plainly as he has two classes of people. Matt. vii, 21-27. One class digs deep, and does God's will at all hazards—does not, dares not, flinch, though traduced and despised: these stand. The other class do many things—achieve wonders—are highly esteemed, but they build on human wisdom and prudence, which is folly—'tis sliding sand. This class "fall" forever. In Matt. xxiv, 42-51, our Lord has given us a pair of scales in which all ministers may be weighed. One class is free to avow their expectation of their Lord's coming. They do not fear a failure; therefore they say to the household, be ye ready, trim your lamps, have them well filled and burning. Let your work be all done and well done.—Now what says the Judge? "Blessed is that servant"—"He will make him ruler." The other class is not looking for the Lord's coming. From some cause they say that our Lord is not now to be expected. They call their fellow-servants, who would rouse the household, weak, or deluded, or insane. O, that they would read their doom! They say to others, "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, but he that believeth not shall be damned." My soul is pained to see ministers living in disregard of more plain and pointed descriptions of their character and their doom, than did the scribes and Pharisees. If courtesy or charity demands silence of me as to the doom which Jesus has written out before-hand, for those who say their "Lord delayeth his coming;" then are they required, on the same principle, to hush the note of alarm, given to arouse the unbelievers in their congregation! No, no, it is not charity to be silent. It is treason to Christ, and cruelty to man, either to suppress or misconstrue the doom of the unbeliever, or the unfaithful minister. My brother, we must renounce all our ideas of faith and spiritual guidance, and become infidels in heart, before we can cherish a doubt as to which of the above classes we and all other ministers should belong. At all events, I go for trusting all with God—for following the Lamb whithersoever he leads. When the truth is seen, it should be received, though it subject us to a banishment in our day, as painful as was that of Roger Williams.—Nay, it should be proclaimed, though it consigned us to the fiery furnace, seven times heated. I hear the Judge saying, "If any man come to me, and hate not father and mother, wife and children, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple." These are fearful words, because they cut off so large a portion of those for whom we would entertain a hope. Our Lord is coming—no one can dispute this except they be ignorant, or at heart infidels. Then let us preach his coming, in public and in private. If our ministering brethren shut us out, it will be one fearful token against them. Isa. lxvi, 3. "Hear the word of the Lord, ye that tremble at his word. Your brethren that hated you, that cast you out for my name's sake, said, Let the Lord be magnified: but He shall appear to your joy, and they shall be ashamed." I pity them, from my soul. Father, forgive them. Amen! The accompanying letter shows the progress of my mind in relation to the Second Advent, and is at your service. Adieu.
Yours in the blessed hope,
J. B. Cook.