A Call to Ministers to Repent
By S. Baker
From the Sabbath Recorder.
A Call to Ministers to Repent.
The Elders that are in the church I exhort, who am also an Elder, nor is there any higher office in the true Church of God. The vineyard of our God, committed to our care, is overrun with weeds, and wild beasts are in it, so that nothing is safe there. No wise man would pay his laborer for leaving his farm so. Yet we receive wages, and some of us more than our supporters can earn. What is this but a cheat? We see the church devoted to idolatry before our eyes, but we are afraid to give them warning. Is not this like the dumb dogs spoken of in the Bible, that cannot bark? The idol, fashion, takes more of the Lord's money for its support, than all the necessaries and conveniences of life, and we silently approbate it, and by our own example encourage it. When our missionaries in heathen lands, receive converts, they require them to give up their idols, but we bring them in with their idols, so that our churches become the patron of idolatry. Adoniram Judson has told us that there were two idols in a Christian land where there was one in the heathen. What are our fashionable dresses, rich tables, gay furniture, corniced buildings and high steeples, but so many species of idolatry? To say they are not, is to say there is no idolatry in the world. Do we not know that the vast expense for fashion in our churches, is for no other reason but to conform to the world, which is the very thing we are commanded to shun. What deception can be so fatal as to encourage such that they are going to heaven? Do not the world know that if proud, fashionable church members are going to heaven, that they are safe? Common sense, by the light of the Bible, teaches us that a drunkard will go to heaven as soon as a proud person. Suppose a Yankee minister pays three dollars for his dress more than modest convenience requires, is he not brother to an English bishop who pays three hundred, and to the Pope of Rome who pays three thousand? And suppose the minister's wife adorns herself with jewels, ribbons, laces, wreaths, curled hair, etc., will his preaching against Sabbath-breakers or heretics have any effect? In excuse for this mass of idolatry and pride it is often said, God looks at the heart; as though the outside did not show what was within; or as though the world must judge of us by our hearts, not by our works. One of the worst evils attending on unholy fellowship, is that the Bible is turned to sustain it, and forced to say that our Lord had fellowship with devils and called one to preach his Gospel, and that he has told us to let the wheat and tares grow together in the church. Now my brethren in the ministry, I feel a jealousy for the Lord of hosts, whose word is thus perverted and whose house is thus defiled; and I feel to sympathize with bleeding Zion, mourning in sackcloth, and can but say, woe is me if I do not give warning, and I tremble for you if you neglect it. You say that our church members are regular, keep up their forms, and give much for charitable and religious purposes. Good—but we must remember that the apostate Jews were even before us in all these things, when they had not one cent for Christ, nor inn for his virgin mother in her hour of trial, but she must agonize all alone with the beasts of the stall. Now, if while reading this Voice of Warning, the love of the world, or fear of man beset you, evil will enter, and serpentine excuses will prevent conviction. But if we stop to consider, we shall soon perceive that a radical reform must commence, and we shall delight in the work, and the toil thereof will be rest, and the reproach thereof our greatest glory through love to Christ. While retrenching worldly fashions, as a last resort, the adversary may say to us, look at the quiet of the Jewish ministers and the grandeur of Solomon's temple. So say the D. D.'s of our country; so say the Lord's spiritual of England; and so says the Pope of Rome. But consider again, and we shall find that God who ordered outward ornaments then, has forbidden them now; just as one who required lamps at night, would have them lain aside by day. Repentance is indispensable, and it must begin with us, if we would hope for a reform in the Church and in the world. And this repentance must be deep and thorough, if we would save our own souls, or those who hear us. And if we would make our calling and election sure, we must begin without delay. Delays are dangerous. God will not bear much longer to see his house a house of merchandise. The Judge is even now at the door. Soon repentance may be hidden from our eyes. If we say we are God's elect and he has promised us salvation irrespective of our works, God will say to us as he said to Israel on a like occasion, 'Ye shall know my breach of promise.' If we reform ourselves, and effect a reform in others, we shall, at least, save one half of the outsets of the Christian community, and have it all to build up the cause of our God. The enemy will strive hard, no doubt, to make us believe that all is well; that no general reform is needed. But, again stop and consider. Would we bear with a servant who should spend half of his time and half of the money that we gave him as a steward, to feed and nourish our enemies? And what is an enemy to God, if the pride of life is not? What would our Christian fathers say if they were here? Would they say we are safe? The first Baptist Church in England trembled at the thought of the doctrine of unconditional election and reprobation. Our Pilgrim fathers would find no church among us. The first Methodists would receive none of the present day. Starting as these facts may seem, they are notwithstanding true, and doubting it is dangerous work. What are our churches but the graves of young converts, and the number of our converts, but the number of our spiritual murders? It may seem very hard for us and our churches to level all our proud expenditures to the simple economy of the Gospel; but it will be much harder for us to bear the consequences of a neglect. But the difficulty after all, is only the difficulty of the drunkard in overcoming his cup. When once it is done he feels a happy self-possession that he did not before. These, my brethren, are not from a wild fanatic, but the sober reflections of a respectful friend.
S. BAKER.