Entire Consecration and Christ’s Advent
By F. G. Brown
VIEWS AND EXPERIENCE IN RELATION TO ENTIRE CONSECRATION AND THE SECOND ADVENT.
Addressed to the Ministers of the Portsmouth, N. H., Baptist Association.
Having given the book of Daniel a thorough investigation, which I had never before done—supposing if that or any other book of the Bible really taught the doctrine of Christ's speedy coming, those who were more aged, learned and pious than myself, would be likely to ascertain it; and that when they sounded the note of alarm it would be time enough for me to awake,—I was astonished to find the mass of Scripture testimony in favor of this doctrine. My mind had seemed to sympathize with that of Daniel throughout the whole vision; and I waited in fearful suspense for every word of explanation and revelation which the angel gave him; and when his last words were uttered, as contained in the last verse of the last chapter of Daniel, my interest was overwhelming; and I asked, what do these things mean? They cannot have but a very partial reference to Daniel's people after the flesh. Daniel could not have understood them thus. Had they been a plain, literal account of what was to befall his own people, he could not have been so amazed and astonished; he would have more readily comprehended the meaning of the angel's instructions. Besides, there are things in the book which cannot be interpreted as having a mere reference to the Jews; there is a mist, a vail, drawn over the whole book when such an application is made of it. On the other hand, all is clear and harmonious, when it is applied to teach mainly the captivity and the deliverance of the children of God, together with the setting up of the kingdom of Christ. I accordingly found that if I was still resolved on making the Bible my chart in these perilous times, I must believe that the book of Daniel contains a full description of the kingdoms of this world down to the present hour—that it introduces the kingdom of the Messiah, which is just ready to be set up, the consummation of all things, the coming of Christ in the clouds of heaven, to receive his dear disciples home to everlasting habitations, the burning of the earth, and the destruction of the wicked. When I found it admitted, on all hands, that the seventy weeks were weeks of years, and that near the expiration of 490 years, Messiah the Prince was cut off according to the vision; the inference appeared both natural and necessary, that the days should be considered as prophetical days or solar years; but finding that events corresponding exactly to those referred to in the vision, were engraved on the broad page of history, and harmonized perfectly with those in the vision; and seeing that if the last chapter of Daniel did not teach the final resurrection and judgment, no chapter of the New Testament did; that the days in the last verse of that chapter included the occurrence of those great events which Daniel himself was to witness; and that if it were allowed that this chapter does refer to the final judgment, (and before this controversy, it has always been supposed to,) then it seemed to me to be a very strange appendage to affix to the vision which included events which had transpired centuries ago—a wonderful leaping from 164 B. C., when Antiochus died, or 68 A. D., when Nero died, to the time of the judgment, &c. I accordingly felt that I must give way to the clear and sober convictions not only of my understanding, but to the more solemn convictions of my soul, to which the truth was now applied with unspeakable power. Still I sought for additional evidence, by comparing the contents of the book of Daniel with other portions of God's word, by the signs of the times in the natural, political, the commercial, the moral and religious world; and I thought that if we had not, and were not witnessing these signs at the present day, then my imagination could not conceive of what those signs spoken of by our Saviour could possibly be, and it would relieve my mind much to see an individual sit down, and with pencil and brush delineate them any better than they had already been exhibited. Humbling and mortifying as it would have been to me six months ago to have taken my seat at the feet of brother Miller, brother Hersey and brother Himes, I could do it now without a struggle. Light began to break in upon my mind by degrees, until the conflict of old and long-cherished prejudices and errors with pure truth ended forever, and was succeeded with indescribable peace and glory, and yet with dreadful solemnity of mind; and whereas for the past two months, although I had received great light on the doctrine of holiness, yet, as remarked, I had felt as though some undiscovered truth was still to be perceived, not even supposing that it was the doctrine of the Advent near; and whereas I had felt as though the firmament of my mind was yet bedotted with a few remaining clouds, I could now look up to the natural heavens, which were then as clear as crystal, and feel that my mind was just like those heavens; all was like the blazing sun in yon azure blue. I now found that I stood where I could run and read; that I had obtained the mystical key, by which I could open at pleasure and lay my hand on each and all the sparkling gems and precious pearls of the holy treasury; that the Holy Spirit had conferred upon me the white stone, with the new name written thereon, which no man knoweth save he that receiveth it. I seemed to stand on a rock which hell could not shake, and to be armed with ten thousand weapons with which to meet all the hosts of darkness. On the next Sunday I preached the blessed doctrine of Christ at the door; and O, the power of God which came down upon me! I was amazed and confounded at the words which God poured from my lips; for I can call God to witness that it was not me that spoke, it was the Holy Ghost that spake by me! The awful solemnity of that day, of that place, and of that audience, can never be forgotten. After the close of the afternoon services, I feared to open even the lids of the Bible, for the truth came almost independent of the Bible, rushing and streaming, and blazing into my mind like waves of light; God's Holy Spirit still continued to increase upon me, until my body was entirely prostrated, my strength gone, and I was compelled to cry out after the example of my Master, "Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless not my will, but thine be done." Yes, singular, and almost blasphemous as it might appear to some, I could but pray that light might be in a measure withdrawn from my mind, and glory from my soul, if agreeable to God's will. Nevertheless, without the divine will, I felt ready to die under it. Before retiring to rest, God heard; and my soul, that had been like the destructive tempest of the ocean, settled down into the calm and quiet of the rivulet of the valley, and I gave myself to slumber as though nothing had happened, and slept sweetly until morning. And now, dear brethren, I feel so confident that the judgment is just at hand, that the great moral drama of earth is just over, and that in a very few more months, at least, I shall see my Jesus descending from the skies, that I feel as though I could stand up alone in the face of all christendom in defense of these things. God has wrought it into my very soul; he has given me the evidence of it there. Ah! that is significant language! O that I had seen these things years ago! How have I been in such a dungeon all my life! What a Babylon, what a Babylon I have been inhabiting; like the feet and the toes of the image, which were part of clay and part of iron, so the world, our country, philosophy, religion, are a perfect compound. Religious truth has become curiously complicated, and distributed and divided around among all the different sects of professing Christians, each having a portion of the truth; while Christians, in general, have the sacred truth of Christ as our only ground of hope and salvation; but what denomination has82most of the love of Jesus—most of vital godliness, I know not; this seems to be like the blood which is not confined to any one portion, but spreads and diffuses its vital power throughout the whole body. I must say that the religion of Protestants, as it is now held, is, to use the weakest language, tinctured with a little atheism, and deism, and Unitarianism, and Universalism, and philosophy, and mysticism. I am grieved to say it, but it is even so. Many of our dear brethren almost deny the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead—the body is to rise, if at all, in some ethereal, invisible form; and heaven, and Jesus, and all holy intelligences are of the same subtle nature. With many, the judgment, to a great extent, was at the destruction of Jerusalem. And then, too, Christ comes the second time, as he comes to every man the second time when he dies. Whereas Paul says that he shall appear the second time, when he comes, "without sin unto salvation." O, I am confounded at our past ignorance of the word of God, and at our awful abuse of its doctrines. We have spiritualized them all away, until our holy religion has neither life nor tangibility, and there is hardly a solitary motive left to use in inspiring to a life of holiness, and in drawing the poor soul up to heaven! Where is the Christian's God, the Christian's Saviour, the Christian's Comforter, the Christian's Bible? O, to weep tears of blood! The Bible, the Bible! The Old Testament we have all, long since, thrown over to the carnal Jew; and as to the New Testament, we have given him a good proportion of that too, and the rest is distributed among Christians, philosophers, and scoffers. O, what a pity! How it has pained my very soul for the past few months! Where is the Christian's Bible? And now, where are the watchmen upon the walls, that have dared to speak the truth FEARLESSLY, without any regard to popular opinion, station, and at the peril of their life—reputation and influence? Come down into the streets of this blazing Babylon; enter the houses of merchandise, and the gorgeous palaces of the professed disciples of our dear Master, who had not where to lay his head; and then look abroad and see a heathen world plunging down to hell! O, is this, is this primitive Christianity? and yet we are told that Christians are going to convert the world! Why, the energies of the Christian church are all paralyzed, and there are hardly the least signs of life in the spiritual body as a whole; and yet some tell us that the temporal millennium is to commence this very year, or hereabouts; and perhaps in the next breath, that the treasury is exhausted, that candidates for the field have withdrawn their names, that the missionary has settled down in utter despair, finding it worse than useless to cry out, "Come over and help us!" while it is boldly confessed that we need a "History of Moral Stagnation." And it is verily so. O, why do not the dear disciples see that Jehovah is reining in the chariot steeds of earth, and shouting, "Thus far and no farther?" Where are the means, but above all, where is the disposition to convert the world to Christ! Where is the Christian nation that will be the first to advance in this enterprise? England, according to her own confession, is fast going back to heathenism. America, I fear, is in danger of a like predicament; she is exporting Bibles and missionaries to Germany, and importing, in exchange, German neology, the direct tendency of which is to rob the Bible of its inspiration, miracles, and divine authority. She is quite in the arms of the papal hierarchy; the tramp of the iron foot of the Pope already breaks upon our ear from over the hills and valleys of the great West. I am truly confounded, as I look and behold the death-like slumbers of the church; and I do solemnly believe that there is nothing that can save us but the interposition of his arm who is the Almighty. Unless the Prince, the mighty Conqueror, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, does speedily appear, all is lost. But for myself, I entertain no fears. Christ will come, and deliver us according to the word of God, ere such a crisis shall occur. I believe it with all my soul. I believe it with as much confidence as I believe that the doctrine of regeneration is a doctrine of the Bible; with us much, and perhaps more assurance than I believe that I have a personal interest in the blood of Christ. I am willing to peril everything on it. In thus proclaiming, I am well aware that I incur a most tremendous responsibility. Granted; so did Noah, and Jonah. But hear, beloved brethren; God has made me take upon myself this awful responsibility; and you must feel that I should be the last man to bear it, had not God himself laid it upon me. Once I should have trembled to have stood up in the face of the world and the church, feeble as I am, to preach this startling, awful, and yet, to the Christian, glorious truth. But God has ordered; God is on my side; and God is witness to what I write. O, that I had been more diligent for my Master; that I had labored more faithfully for souls; that I had more frequently denied self, and made greater sacrifices for him who died for me, and who is now coming to take me to be with him forever! At the eleventh hour, and when the last cry that "the Bridegroom cometh," is just ready to be uttered, I am graciously brought in, to blow the trumpet in Zion, and to sound the alarm in God's holy mountain. My soul is now content, and in a state of greater peace and joy than ever; Jesus has seemed to smile affectionately; and the Spirit, which had so long been striving with me in relation to something, seems to have left me to go about my Father's business. Beloved brethren, do not censure me for the confident tone in which I speak; for it is the confidence of my soul. God has wrought this great truth on my soul, too, "as with a pen of iron!" I cannot think that it is my nature to be headstrong in my religious opinions; on the contrary, I have ever been more disposed to yield my own to the better judgment and wisdom of my superiors. There is only one respect in which I think that I have the advantage of those who differ with us on the great question of Christ's advent; it is that God has vouchsafed to me the aid of the Spirit of truth to lead me into all truth, and to show me things to come. In the midst of such a clashing of opinions on this subject, I want light; I want a guide; and I feel that I must make the Bible that light, and the Spirit that guide, and learn and decide for myself. I do not set myself up haughtily and arrogantly as a teacher of those who are so much my seniors, and for whom I have not as yet lost my reverence. I am only reading God's word for myself, and I hope that I shall teach it with a modesty becoming my youth. If now I have imbibed an error, then I will with all patience and humility sit at the feet of any of our Master's holy servants who can supply me with truth, promising that I will heartily renounce my present for more scriptural views, when they are produced, and will rejoice to labor on for years to come in the cause of Christ, feeling that I am just qualified to be a laborer in the vineyard of our Lord. I am wedded to no party, and to no stereotyped theory. What I have learned of late, I have, I believe, been taught by the word of God. I have not read Mr. Miller's lectures, neither know what they are. But it may be said that I am laboring under a delusion; that I am visionary and fanatical. In refutation to this charge, I must refer not only to the cast of my mind, which would sooner incline me to scepticism than to fanaticism, and sooner subject me to the slow progress of my reason, than to any sudden impulses of feeling; but to the brief history of my life, brethren, as you are acquainted with it. You know that I have always been a conservative on all the great moral topics of the day, and exceedingly fearful of all "isms." And as for being deluded, I cannot allow. I know that the devil is always busy, and for fear of attributing either to the devil or to nature what ought to be attributed to grace or to God's Spirit, I have all my life long been in bondage. Must I throw away all good impressions and influences for fear the devil may have originated them? If in the present instance I am deluded, then I was deluded fourteen weeks since, and sixteen years ago, when first converted to God. The same kind of arguments by which I satisfy myself that I was ever converted, I urge in order to prove the reality of what I experienced at the opening of this year; and in like manner I prove the genuineness of what I have again experienced by what I then saw and felt; each were perfect conversions, brought about by the sovereign agency of God. If it still be contended that I am deluded, then I would humbly ask, how may I know when my prayers are answered; when I am under the influence of God's Spirit, and the leadings of the Spirit of truth? In despair I must cry out, I am like a vessel at sea, with the storm beating, the winds raging, the waves dashing, the stars obscured in impenetrable darkness, the helm gone, and chart and compass as good as useless. Have we forgotten some of the first principles of our faith? Has God left us to such awful uncertainty, and been no more mindful of the safety, comfort and good of his children? The Spirit and Word agree in what I have seen and felt; and I feel as though it would be next to the communion of that sin which hath no forgiveness, either in this world or in the world to come, to go contrary to the Bible as I now read it, and to the Spirit which now influences me to give the midnight cry. It is far, far easier for me to believe than to disbelieve that Christ standeth at the door; and that I am under the influence of the good, than of the evil spirit. Could the devil so deceive me, and fill my soul for days and weeks with such unutterable peace, joy, and glory—give me such nearness to God in prayer—make me willing to leave all for Christ's sake—to endure the loss of the friendship and esteem of my dear brethren—to be accounted as "stupid"—and willingly to stand and suffer the scoffs and sneers of both the wicked and the professedly religious! Will not Satan be likely to lose more than he can possibly gain by such a manoeuvre? I must hazard the issue, in connection with many whom I am gratified and surprised to find had an experience just like my own on this subject; they are good men, whatever I may be. In months and years gone by, the preaching of "Christ at the door" has resulted in the conversion of souls, who still adorn their profession. If the preaching of this doctrine is calculated to frighten men into religion, and to make spurious converts, then is the preaching of future punishment, when disconnected with this subject, liable to like objection. And if the doctrine that Christ is about to leave the mediatorial seat, is calculated to lead to insanity, then should the doctrine of final judgment be a proscribed theme, on the same ground. And the friends of evangelical religion ought to beware how fast they work into the hands of those who are not the friends of the religion of Christ. Should time continue, and the world run on as ever, they will have to meet their enemies under circumstances new and strange, but which they will have the satisfaction of knowing have been of their own creating. The fortifications of sand which they have hastily thrown up as a seeming defense against one enemy, will be washed away by the first storm that sets in from the opposite quarter. One good, at least, has already resulted from this controversy: it has shown to some extent what are the real, tangible doctrines of the church—to what the heart as well as the mind assents in the Scriptures; and it has exhumed some of the cardinal doctrines of our holy religion, with the reasonable hope that they will be preserved, in all their native freshness and power, unto the coming of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. And now, dear brethren, I take my leave of you; and in so doing, let me ask you as friends to me and the cause of truth, will you account for what I have experienced? If disposed to reject all natural phenomena, as indicative of Christ's coming as christian philosophers will you account for the present religious phenomena in the moral heavens! How is it? I had never read the experience of any soul on this subject, until I read my own experience in theirs. Here are ministers of the gospel, and christians of all sects, in all parts of our land, without any previous knowledge of each other, exercised alike by the Spirit and power of God, and led into the unshaken belief that the Judge standeth at the door. And nothing as yet advanced by their opponents can persuade them to the contrary. 83Brethren, I could write much, but time is short and forbids it. I have not given you the argument on this great subject, for it was not my design so to do. I only give you my experience in connection with it. Others have prepared works on this subject, to the investigation of which I now invite your prayerful attention. My present aim is merely to conciliate your feelings in behalf of this great truth. God's word is intelligible; you may understand it; search for it with childlike simplicity; cry after it, and you shall find it. Consider, God is the same as ever; and hence it would not be strange, if he should cause the midnight cry to swell up first from among the poor and illiterate. He is a mysterious God! And now, brethren, often have I wept and agonized in prayer to God for you. You have my heart; I love you; and because I love you, I want you to see the truth. You have labored anxiously and faithfully for God, and now I want you to fill up your heads and rejoice, for your redemption draweth nigh. You need not be assured that it is not in my heart to harbor one hard feeling against those who do not see the vision: I can sympathize with them in their blindness—just so I once was, and should be now but for the sovereign power and unmerited grace of God. I can truly say that I never loved them so well: and I feel strong convictions that they will soon be startled from their slumbers. If ever there was a time when every minister of Christ should prayerfully think, solemnly study, and independently act, now is that moment. They hazard souls more than we do; for if Christ should come suddenly, how many poor souls will they be the means of destroying! Brethren, need I remind you of your own individual responsibility at this interesting period? Will you suffer one soul to perish through your indifference to the cause of truth. Brethren, I have written hastily and familiarly. I have left much unsaid, and some things unexplained. By a reference to page 26, you will perceive that I allude to one brother in particular, who had for weeks and months prayed much for me, although we had had but a partial acquaintance. He knew not, as he has since confessed, why he should have such feelings for me. But when God so signally blest me at the opening of this year, then with a heart full of emotion and tears gushing from his eyes, he said God had heard his prayers, and made all plain to him. I have learned, too, that many praying souls had agonized in prayer to God for me, that my eyes might be opened to the momentous truth of the approach of our Lord to gather home his children; and they had gained an evidence at a throne of grace that their prayers were accepted, and should be answered. My own people had felt, and publicly declared their convictions, that persecution and suffering awaited me for the truth's sake; and hence their prayers ascended to God in my behalf, little thinking, as well as myself, from what quarter, and on what ground the trial and pain would come. Their impressions were well founded; the fiery trial has overtaken me; but as I then said, so I now say, let the storm come; I was never before worthy of persecution. God, however, is my daily support and consolation; and I am thankful to be one to suffer reproach for his sake; for I have the promise that if I suffer with him, I shall also reign with him. And now it is my prayer that this brief narrative of God's gracious dealings with me, may be blest to your everlasting good. May the grace of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ be with you all forever. AMEN. Boston, April 19th, 1843.