Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jun 11, 1894
The Way of Salvation.
There is only one way of salvation, and that is the Lord Jesus Christ. "Neither is there salvation in any other; for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved." God's name is his character. See Ex. 34:6, 7. Jesus, the Son of God, is the revealer of that character to the world. Matt. 11:27; 2 Cor. 5:19; John 14:9, 10.
His Name His Character.
In his name we receive; by his name are we saved. His name is what he is; what he is is his character. His character is righteousness and life, eternal and immutable, possessing within and of himself absolute immortality, with power to bestow it upon others. But the life and character are inseparable. God's life is God's righteousness. Righteousness is right being and right living; and right being and right living is the only true life there is. God only possesses absolute life and incorruptibility, because he only is absolute in right being and right living.
Life Is Salvation.
Man is a sinner. "All have sinned, and come short of the glory [character, life, righteousness] of God." Rom. 3:23. "Sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death." James 1:15. "The wages of sin is death." Rom. 6:23. "The soul that sinneth, it shall die." Eze. 18:4. Death is not salvation, but destruction. It is cessation of existence, the end of life, the extinction of being. Yet it is all that man, of himself, has to which to look forward as the end of all his brief existence here. He is lost, the race is hopelessly, irremediably lost, so far as aught that man can do. "None of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him," for the simple reason that he himself owes all he has to God, and has forfeited all birthright, by sin.
There Is Salvation.
But man's case is not hopeless. There is salvation in Christ's name. He names it upon us. He invests us with his character. He puts within us his life. He covers us with "the robe of righteousness;" he places upon us "the garments of salvation." He could not be holden of death (Acts 2:24), because he possessed the righteousness of eternal life. With his righteousness upon us, with his Spirit within us, death cannot hold us. We may be subject to the infirmities of the flesh for "a little while," even as was he, but eventual and eternal triumph is ours.
God's Pledge.
God's pledge of salvation is Christ Jesus. It is in the death of Christ, the culmination of the Sacrifice which is the evidence of God's love. Christ died for us, in our stead. He gave his life that we might have it. He redeemed us by his death, buying us back from the death to which man sold himself. He lives again, ever lives, to make intercession for us. His resurrection is a pledge of our life. And yet all these truths avail us naught as historical facts of eighteen centuries ago. They must be vital, living truths now. Christ's death must be manifest in our body in putting to death the lusts of the flesh, in the crucifying of self, in the putting away of sin. Christ's life must be manifest in our mortal flesh (2 Cor. 4:10, 11), in following his footsteps, in walking as he walked, in doing righteousness as he is righteous, in keeping all his commands. This will be God working in us "both to will and to do of his own good pleasure." This is the continual and ever-increasing working of his mighty power in us, which is a pledge of the glorious change to immortality at his coming. See Eph. 1:18-20; Phil. 3:20, 21.
What Shall We Do?
"Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." That simply means receiving him, submitting to let him work in you that which he has promised. It is not believing in him as the Saviour of somebody else, or a Saviour of eighteen hundred years ago; it is taking him now, as your personal Saviour, with all that such faith or belief means. "With the heart man believeth unto righteousness." A belief that stops short of that will never prove salvation. He who truly believes Christ, yields to do God's will, whatever it is. He may know but one thing to do, but if he yields to do the one thing, he has connected with the life of God and the salvation which is in Christ. But, on the other hand, if he declines to do one duty, if he rejects one truth of God's word, he, in so doing, cuts himself off from the Source of life. God asks the whole heart; he demands the whole life—not alone to please him, but because his pleasure is the only thing which will insure our salvation.
Come.
Then come and find salvation in Christ. There is hope for hopeless man. There is help for the helpless, light for the blind, strength for the weak, healing for the sick, life for the dead. There is a Balm in Gilead; there is a Physician there. He knocks at your heart; he waits for your invitation bidding him to enter, with life, blessing, and healing. He will partake with you of your sorrows, burdens, cares, and trials. He asks you to sit at his table, spread with all the delectable things of Paradise. Will you not open your heart? Will you not come to him? "And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. . . . And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely."
ANOTHER PROPOSED INNOVATION.
By W. N. G.
"MISS FRANCES E. WILLARD suggests a Christian theater,—one conducted, as she says, in such a way that religious papers could advertise and recommend it, to which a young girl might be taken without fear of anything on the stage that would bring a blush to her cheek." So says the Church Union. The absurdity of the idea is manifest in the fact that the term "Christian theater" is a contradictory expression, excepting in the remote sense of a field of operations. The idea intended in the recommendation, evidently, is that of theatrical performance. In such a sense, a "Christian theater" is an impossibility. Theatrical performances are always mere mimicry, or representation, with sole reference to pleasing the multitude, and getting gain. Christianity, on the contrary, is reality itself, based on a "covenant of sacrifice." Every imitation of it, on the stage or elsewhere, is the direst fraud and deception; and anyone who should engage in such imitation with a view to benefiting either the church or the world, could not be otherwise than wofully self-deceived. The expression of solicitude for the "young girl," that she might have the privilege of a theater without the fear of seeing anything that would "bring a blush to her cheek," is entirely superfluous. The young ladies who have a taste for theater going are not much troubled in that way. Hundreds and thousands of them who profess the Christian name attend the existing playhouses with an avidity that indicates a quite482
general relish for what they see and hear. The Christian professor, young or old, whose life is absorbed in the realities of Christianity, will have no time or affinity for the gauzy imitations that the most alluring artist can place upon the stage. Christianity is light, and not shadow; it is life, and not dead imitation; it is truth, and not falsehood. Christianity never can be dramatized.
W. N. G.
"BE NOT TERRIFIED."
By Editor
MR. H. F. CARPENTER, formerly of this coast, in a recent number of the World's Crisis, the majority of whose supporters it is safe to say do not regard Sunday as having any scriptural authority, tells his readers to "be not terrified" by the Third Angel's Message of Revelation 14, "held over them by seventh-day advocates, because they worship God on Sunday, claiming that by thus doing they take upon themselves the 'work [mark?] of the beast.'" To what does the pronoun "they," twice repeated, refer? And what seventh-day advocate ever found fault with any man for "worshiping God on Sunday"? It is duty to worship God at all times, under all circumstances, on Sundays as well as other days. The writer endeavors to show by a series of questions, which betray his own ignorance of the subject upon which he is talking, that he is anxious that his readers should be as ignorant of the "Third Angel's Message" as he himself. After setting before the world at various times the claim that Christ may come at any moment, the Crisis now declares, through Mr. Carpenter, that the Third Angel's Message is still future, and with it we have naught to do. Mr. Carpenter thus concludes:—
Jesus is "the author of eternal salvation to all that obey him." He has never commanded seventh-day keeping. He never has left a single warning against working on Saturday or worshiping on Sunday, notwithstanding he knew the greater part of his church would do both. He moved his apostle to say, "Let no man judge you in respect to the Sabbath" (Jewish.)
God gave birth to hope for our race by raising his Son from the dead on Sunday, and through Moses indicated that Sabbaths were to be counted from that day. He made Sunday such a day of rest and worship as has never been known before by pentecostal tongues of fire. He moved by the Holy Ghost David to speak of Christ's resurrection day as the day the Lord has made, and by the same spirit told us to be glad and rejoice in it. And in humble obedience we do, and the Christian church has and will "till he come." Any man or set of men who in view of these facts has a face brazen enough to hold over timid souls, the terrible threatening of the third angel's message, with which they have no business, for worshiping God on Sunday, need not be listened to. If they persist in hanging up their chart in your house send them to my office. Be not terrified by them.
And, after all this bad grammar and worse logic, Mr. Carpenter climaxes his soothing arraignment by still worse assumption of his own presence. "Send them to my office," he says. Did he suppose that the readers of the Crisis were limited to his local field? or is he ubiquitous? or does he expect those who may be afflicted by the visitation of a seventh-day advocate with charts to pay the expense of the visitors to his "office"? or that these visitors will take this journey at their own expense? How is it? We are "not terrified," but we are perplexed. However, we are willing, nay, anxious that Mr. Carpenter and all others should worship God on all days, all places. But to honor a day as the Sabbath of the Lord—well, "let God be true, but every man a liar." Christ has spoken in both Old and New Testaments. Christ commanded the observance of the seventh-day Sabbath. Christ confirmed it by his death on the cross. Christ gave the Third Angel's Message. Men may disregard his loving warnings, may misinterpret his prophets, may cry, "Peace and safety," in the time of danger; nevertheless, God's counsel standeth sure, and no word of his is void of power. He does not want men to be terrified by his message, but soothed, healed, strengthened, glorified. Let it not be despised; the message is God's.
HARMONY WITH APOSTATE POWERS A SIGN OF ENMITY TO GOD.
By Mrs. E. G. White
BY MRS. E. G. WHITE.
"AS MANY as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name; which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." These are the chosen of God; they are those to whom Christ addresses the words: "Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell that ye have, and give alms; provide yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where no thief approacheth, neither moth corrupteth. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also."
The people of the world are so engrossed in temporal affairs that eternal realities seem of subordinate importance to them. They cannot distinguish truth from error. In spirit and in practice they are repeating the history of the Jews, and in these last days the chosen of God who keep his commandments will be objects of contempt, both to those in high position and those in the common walks of life. "For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand."483In this age of the world there are those who live in the midst of the corrupt society of the world to whom the Lord says: "Thou hast a few names even in Sardis which have not defiled their garments; and they shall walk with me in white; for they are worthy. He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. . . . These things saith He that is holy, He that is true, He that hath the key of David, He that openeth, and no man shutteth; and shutteth, and no man openeth: I know thy works; behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it; for thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name. Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie; behold, I will make them to come, and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee. Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth. Behold, I come quickly; hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown."
We are to know the meaning of the words: "I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." The enmity that exists in the heart against evil has no natural existence, but is an enmity that has been created through the agency of the Holy Spirit. "As many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name." The natural man is in transgression, and his nature is in harmony with that of the first transgressor. There is no natural enmity between fallen men and fallen angels; both are partakers of the same spirit through indulgence in evil. It is according to the law of the synagogue of Satan that in the controversy of the evil against the good, fallen men and fallen angels shall unite in a desperate companionship. From the beginning Satan has worked continually to dethrone the Creator, and whatever may be the divisions among evil men and evil angels, there is no division in their opposition to God. They are banded together as with iron cords to oppose the Creator and Redeemer of man. Satan is determined to utterly deprave human nature through making of none effect the commandments of God. He originates traditions, and through his maxims he succeeds in assimilating to his own nature the nature of those who do not yield allegiance to the law of God.
The harmony of nature between Satan and evil men is the key to all religious persecution from the day when Cain killed Abel to the present time. The same principle that actuated Satan in the courts of heaven to war against God is now working in the children of disobedience, and actuates them to manufacture spurious commandments that contradict the statutes of Jehovah. It is the power of apostasy that exalts religious potentates to the place of God. The false is honored above the true; and thus it is that the Sabbath of the fourth commandment is trampled in the dust, while the spurious sabbath is exalted by earthly powers.
The origin of false commandments may be clearly discerned by the principles which underlie them. All that is not in accordance with the known and expressed will of God, is at enmity with God, and has its origin in the synagogue of Satan. The will of God is expressed in his law, and sin is the transgression of the law. Those who disregard the commandments of God, and teach for doctrines the commandments of men, are working in Satan's line, and are in harmony with the great leader of apostasy. When the Jews were claiming Abraham for their father, while not doing the works of Abraham, Jesus said to them: "Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do; he was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own; for he is a liar, and the father of it." "He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil."
Light is shining amid the moral darkness in this age of the world. The Holy Spirit is working on the hearts of men to convince them of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment to come. But those who refuse the light, and accept the excuses that Satan may frame as reasons why they should not obey the truth, will manifest Satanic enmity against those who obey God rather than man. Those who steadfastly follow the practice and customs of the world in the very face of light and truth, will obstinately oppose the commandments of God, and render unswerving loyalty to him who first rebelled against God, and was expelled from the courts of heaven; but in the face of the enmity of the world, those who truly believe in Christ will take him for their example in all things. Jesus says, "I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love." The beloved disciple said: "He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected; hereby know we that we are in him. He that saith he abideth in him ought himself so to walk, even as he walked. Brethren, I write no new commandment unto you, but an old commandment which ye had from the beginning."
Are the world keeping the law of God?—No; but, although they do not keep the law, yet the professed Christian world unite with the opposers of truth in placing contempt upon those who keep the commandments of God. There is open war both in the professed Christian church and in the world against those who keep the fourth commandment and render obedience to all the moral precepts of Jehovah. The fourth commandment reads: "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work; but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God; in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates; for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day; wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it."
Let every soul who reads this commandment understand that it is to be observed exactly as it is written. It is not to be misapplied or wrested from its true meaning. The man of sin thought to change the time and the law of God; but no power in heaven or earth could change that which had been written by the finger of God, and placed in the ark of the testimony under the mercy-seat.
In holy vision John was taken into the heavenly sanctuary. He says: "The temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament." "And after that I looked, and, behold, the temple of the tabernacle of the testimony in heaven was opened." The sanctuary that Moses was commanded to make was to be after the pattern of the heavenly sanctuary. In the ark were placed the ten commandments which had been written by the finger of God. The law that was placed in the ark on earth was a copy of the law that is contained in the ark of the testament in heaven, and the precepts of Jehovah are immutable. The ten commandments constitute the moral standard of character. God requires on the part of man perfect conformity to his law, and a curse is pronounced against everyone who continues not in all things written in the law to do them.
The human race do not stand in the righteousness of character which Adam possessed at his creation. Although neglect to keep the requirements of God is sin, and the wages of sin is death, yet there is no claim made that man may have eternal life except through the obedience and righteousness of Jesus Christ, who is the representative and head of all humanity. The sinner can find hope only through dependence upon the perfection of Christ. We are to avail ourselves of the merit of the sinless offering that was made through the death of the only-begotten Son of God. "Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God; therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not. Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be; but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure."
(Concluded next week.)
SUNDAY-LAW PERSECUTION.
W. L. CARTER, Esq., in his argument before the Supreme Court of Tennessee, in the case of the "State of Tennessee versus W. B. Capps, in error," made at Jackson, Tenn., in the April term of 1894, well sets forth the true animus of all the Sunday-law cases in that State, and incidentally in this country. In his last paragraph, after speaking of railroads, street cars, steamboats, public carriers, livery stables, messengers, etc., he says:—
It is also worthy of remark that while the labor, as enumerated above, is openly, publicly, and notoriously carried on every Sunday, and has been at all times in the past, there has never yet been a case of a single conviction for Sunday labor in the State since its foundation, except the person convicted was a member of the sect known as Seventh-day Adventists; and in no instance has the labor complained of been such as to molest or interfere with the comfort, well being, or rights of others. For this reason the prosecution smacks so strongly of religious persecution that it should be repelled from the courts.
And every fair-minded man will say, "It is true."
LIGHT IMPLORED.
By Mrs. A. Goldsborough
BY MRS. A. GOLDSBOROUGH.
SHRIVE us, our Father, of our sins and our shame;
We've all gone astray, brought reproach on thy name.
Our nation, Lord, help us, loves bickering and sin;
There's strife in our councils, confusion, and din.
Thy judgments, O Lord, are abroad in the land,
But there's none who learn wisdom, none, understand.
Send to our aid in this time, drear and dark,
Light from the mercy-seat, light from the ark.
Shrive us, our Father. Satan now, as of old,
Enters our homes and scatters our fold;
And marriage, so sacred in Eden of yore,
Is merchandise now; our afflictions are sore.
Give help of thy help; stop our traffic with sin;
Send light from above; place thy Presence within.
Shrive us, our Father. Faith groweth weak;
We scarcely have strength of thy mercies to speak;
Help us to take of the power in thy word
And heed every message through Christ we have heard.
May we humble our souls in the dust in thy sight.
Send help from thy temple; in thy light give light.
O'er the devil and flesh may we conquerors be,
In the strength of our Lord be eternally free.
Shrive us, our Father; give us faith to perceive
How doubtings and murmurings the Spirit doth grieve.
The richest of blessings all heaven could give
Was the life of thy Son, and through him we may live.
Our Wisdom, Salvation, a Covert and Tower;
To trust in thy word is to be saved by thy power.
Pardon our sins and bestow us thy grace,
The light of thy goodness in Jesus' dear face.
Humility and Trust
By John Ruskin
Most beautiful when the strength is one of humility instead of pride, and the trust no more in the resolution we have taken, but in the hand we hold.
The Theater and Moral Force
This is from the Catholic Mirror on the theater:—
“But if only good plays were presented, what an enormous moral force the theater would be! Nothing else could equal it, for nothing else goes so directly to the heart of the masses. There is the fascinating interest of the story, the charm of the acting, the lights, the music, the crowd; as Charles Lamb said, it is enchanted land.”
The Italics are ours. But think of it. Such an expression could never come from one who knew the mystery of godliness,—Christ within, Christ’s life working from within outward. But the Roman Catholic religion is a religion of sense, of outward form. Its appeals, its influence, are from without; in fact, it is similar to the theater. There is no moral force in anything which has not moral force within itself. But this man has not apart from God, nor has any institution of man. Christ dwelling in the heart by faith is the only truly moral force which will reform men.
THE APOSTASY CONSIDERED.
By I. E. Kimball
Early Dissenters.
BY ELDER I. E. KIMBALL.
WE should be uncharitable and in error were we to imagine there were no Christians in the Catholic Church of the second and third centuries. Doubtless scores and hundreds were discerned of God with unfeigned faith and fervent devotion to Christ. The primitive persecutions began with Nero, about A.D. 64, continuing under Domitian, Trajan, Hadrian, and Marcus Aurelius. The last two named were the best of Roman emperors; the first were among the worst. God's purposes are established in persecution. It may accomplish more than we can discern for the discrimination of light and purification of the church. Such an ordeal comes not causeless. Of the persecution (which was indeed terrible) which commenced in the apostles' days, Peter spake: "Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you; but rejoice, inasmuch as ye4are partakers of Christ's sufferings. . . . If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye, . . . but let none of you suffer as a murderer, or as a thief. . . . Yet if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed. . . . Wherefore, let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to him in well doing, as unto a faithful Creator."
The fires of persecution are intended to burn away the chaff, that the gold and silver may remain; "wood, hay, and stubble" can alone be burned by the fire. And such chastening comes "that we should not be condemned with the world." Blessed is the church which the Lord chastens, even as the individual. It is to "purify, make white, and try."
When the pagan persecutions came, multitudes renounced the faith and reviled Christ, but many were found firm as the rock; and upon such the church is built. "Then salvation blazed out before all men," as Eusebius affirms. Thousands were converted in the very midst of persecutions. The records coming to us of Perpetua, Felicitas, and Blandina are indeed affecting. They testified their faith valiantly. Many indeed do not seem to have had the right spirit, for their thoughts were darkly intermixed with heathen error; but then this last resort in the way of purification of the church redeemed the cause of Christianity, and for a time kept the harvest field of God comparatively fruitful. Pagan writers record how at the apprehension and incarceration of a Christian, at early dawn, old women, widows, and orphans would come even from far to comfort the prisoner, while men stayed with him all night, "eating a meal," doubtless the Lord's Supper. "It is beyond all belief," said they, "what exertions they would make when such evil befell one of their number." Such a purgation of the church was healthful and altogether necessary. Without it heresies and worldliness would have utterly overthrown her.
We have already shown the progress of apostasy. So little is this defection of the early church realized that many will be loath to give credence to the facts positively established by the concurrent testimony of the Bible and history. What has been already said of the antenicene church but opens the way to a rehearsal of the utter subversion of the Catholic Church, for anything like an accurate description of the Nicene church and era, will reveal it abandoned to the devils and the belief of lies—the demonolatry of paganism in full possession of the church.
Can we imagine that saint worship, prayers for the dead, etc., now coming in, were mere venial offenses, upon which the eye of Jehovah rested with indifference and complaisancy? Who cannot see that the many mediators which were sought amongst departed saints and martyrs, and the especial patronism of Mary, the mother of God, were effectually shutting out Christ from the church, and making naught of the Saviour's claim to be the "one mediator" between man and God? Was it with indifference that Jehovah beheld Christ set at naught, and mediation now intrusted to man, whom their fond hopes had advanced to heaven? or was it a matter of unconcern that the mass was now held to "release from the burden of sin," a repetition of the sacrifice of Christ on the cross? Thus Calvary was hidden, the True Sacrifice forgotten, and a thing of naught trusted in, in lieu thereof.
How effectual was all this to utterly annul all the benefits and glory of Christ to the church!
Was it a matter of no special moment that the church was transformed as a kingdom of this world, with her high functionaries exercising a lordly and ever increasing authority, whereas Christ had said, "So it shall not be among you," for "ye are all brethren," and "whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased"? Referring to the Pharisaical desires to be called "master" and "father," he commanded, "Call no man your father upon the earth; for one is your Father, which is in heaven. Neither be ye called masters; for one is your Master, even Christ." It is most evident from this that we are to acknowledge no man as a spiritual father to us, for man is erring, and may deceive us. No man is to exercise spiritual mastery and control over us but the Man Christ Jesus. Howbeit, in the church of this period bishops and sovereigns began to be recognized as having God-given authority as intermediaries, to whom the soul should be prostrated and a childlike obedience tendered.
At this time almost every ordinance was perverted, the Sabbath trodden underfoot by the many, and more and more the church looked to as authority, and personal responsibility to God lost sight of. Did this fatal step look trivial to Heaven? Was it, indeed, a matter of little moment that they should see, or seem to see, divinity itself in the sign of the cross, which they could discern in flower, fish, and fowl, in tree and ship, and the human body, and that they should trust in amulets and charms—all of which was a retention of heathenism? or that, losing sight of Christ's atonement, they should hold to the Platonic idea of a state of purification after death? Platonism and Christianity, both in doctrine and in their code of morals, were blended into one. Bishops, presbyters, and deacons, though taken in adultery, perjury, or theft, were not excommunicated. What shall we now say of such a church? The Scriptures were wrested in every conceivable way by trusted leaders; oblations were made for the dead, and a multitude of other errors hid the truth. Shall we be disposed to hold such things as of no especial concern?
SOME DISSENTERS FROM ERROR.
The ark of God, together with his loyal ones, led on by faith, passed out of the portals of the church of apostasy, putting the deep between. More purity was maintained among the dissenters. Novatian, ordained pastor in Rome, A.D. 251, separated from the Catholic communion and maintained no fellowship with it. Vast multitudes all over the empire followed his example. They were called by their enemies "Cathari," or "puritan," denoting, even by the confession of their bitter opponents, the purity of their discipline. Novatian is said to have been a man of much learning and eloquence. He was, of course, excommunicated, and is called by Catholic authorities the first antipope.
Novatian's writings, two books of which are now extant, show apostolical purity of doctrine. In his book on the Trinity eight chapters speak of the Father, twenty of the Son, showing him to have been the one who inspired the Old Testament, and who appeared to the patriarchs and Moses, and twenty-nine sections are given to consider the operations of the Holy Spirit. This was written A.D. 257. Of the law of God he speaks as follows:—
The law was given to the children of Israel for this purpose, that they might profit by it and return to those virtuous manners which, although they had received them from their fathers, they had corrupted in Egypt by reason of their intercourse with a barbarous people. Finally, those ten commandments on the tables teach nothing new, but remind them of what had been obliterated—that righteousness in them, which had been put to sleep, might revive again, as it were, by the afflatus of the law.
The Novatianists allowed no converts from the Catholic party to come into their communion without rebaptism. They were charged with not giving due reverence to martyrs, or worshiping their bones, or regarding relics. Their kindness to the oppressed in the Arian controversy was so exceptionable that it comes down to us in history. Even Milman says it reflects an "amiable luster" upon the character of those dissidents. They alone were spoken of with leniency in the Council of Nice, and exhorted to return to the Catholic fold. Three churches in this period were established in the city of Constantinople. Catholic writers in every quarter of the empire speak of them. They were mentioned as existing in "vast multitudes." Puritan churches flourished for more than two hundred and fifty years, and under a variety of names. This remnant continued even to the Reformation. Servetus, also, remonstrating against the adulterations in the Roman doctrines, withdrew.
Donatus, of Carthage, from whom sprang the Donatists, who, throughout the third and fourth centuries, were very conspicuous in Northern Africa, was another dissenter. Both Arians and Catholics so desired the coöperation and help of the Donatists that imperial messengers, and also a Catholic convoy, were sent to them. To the imperial messengers Donatus replied: "What was the emperor to do with the church? We at least will have nothing to do with his largesses." The emperor had ordered the commissioners to distribute alms freely among the churches. They were, however, utterly intractable. "What have bishops to do with kings? or what have bishops to do at court?" was their stern, almost scornful, answer to the emperor. They resembled the Novatianists, and required rebaptism of all Catholics who came to their fold. They were styled "puritans" by Optatus and Augustus, who wrote against them. A little later, in a council at Carthage, there were present two hundred and seventy-nine Donatist bishops, and two hundred and eighty-six Catholics. So we see to what extent the Puritan church of Northern Africa grew, and what their influence must have been.
We ought also to mention the Corinthians, Ebionites, Hypsistarii, and Montanists, who obtained a large footing in the early times; but their history, coming through the hands of their enemies, has been destroyed or greatly distorted. They were Sabbath keepers, as we know the Cathari very generally to have been. They also believed in spiritual gifts, and, if the truth could be known, it probably would reveal them to have been much more exemplary in life than the Catholic element, from which they stood aloof.
Such was the church of Christ, now fled to the wilderness, retreating from the stage of public observation. Gradually the church of God is lost sight of in the mists, which deepened, and the antichrist of prophecy prepared to stretch out his scepter over the world.