The Spirit of Dissolution in the Church
By Editor
The prevailing spirit of the age seems to be that of secession and dissolution. In the hearts of the wicked and ambitious we cannot perhaps expect that any better principles would rule. It may do for the nations of the earth to manifest such dispositions, as seen in the old world at the present time; and a few ambitious and defeated demagogues in our own land, may resolve to ruin where they cannot rule, and with treasonable madness endeavor to sow discord among the States of this confederacy, and pull down and destroy this Union. But such a spirit has no business among brethren. Those who compose the body of Christ on earth, who profess to have been made nigh by his blood, and to have been cemented together by his love, have no right to wage war among themselves, to sow discord among brethren, and to endeavor to pick to pieces, pull down and scatter the church. Beware of this. Let not the spirit of dissolution which seems to be reigning in the world, leaven the church; lest that which is preparing the world for its final state of anarchy and confusion, should involve the church also in the same general ruin. Whenever we hear of a church in trouble with itself, we think at once that it is suffering the prevailing spirit of the world, the spirit which now worketh in the children of disobedience, to bear rule in its midst. No such foe has a right in the camp of the saints. Let every member place himself on duty, knowing that such sentinels as humility and watchfulness, it can never pass.