Review and Herald, Vol. 46, No. 15. (10/14/1875)

Review and Herald

Oct 14, 1875

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Oct 14, 1875

THE UNITY OF FAITH

By Joseph Harvey Waggoner

THE GIFTS AND OFFICES OF THE HOLY SPIRIT.—NO. 4.

BY ELD. J. H. WAGGONER.

THE UNITY OF FAITH.

Christian union has always been considered desirable; but lately, seeing that confusion and diversity are increasing, and knowing of no means whereby to correct the evil, the churches have resigned themselves to the apparent necessities of the case, and, to solace themselves, have devised what they call “unity in diversity.” But we are sure no such unity as that was ever learned from the word of God.

The gospel inculcates union, and has made provision to effect it. The apostle, concerning the benefits and privileges conferred on the church by Christ, wrote as follows:—

“When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men.

And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ; till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.” Eph. 4:8–13.

Here we have definite information concerning the object for which these gifts were given unto men, and the time of their continuance. The reader will bear in mind that the absence, or the apparent absence, of the gifts of the Spirit at any time or in any age of the church, is no argument against their perpetuity. The apostle says, “Follow after charity, and desire spiritual gifts.” Now if charity should not be found with a certain body of professed Christians, or in a certain age of the professed church, it would not prove that it was not duty to exercise it; but it would prove that there was a serious declension from the divine standard of piety. In like manner, if the gifts of the Spirit were entirely wanting in a given time, yes, if the church had ceased to “desire” them, that fact would by no means prove that God had withdrawn the gifts. But it would prove that the church had forgotten the injunction of the apostle, and had lost sight of the standard of Christianity as it was at first erected. We do not learn what is truth or what is duty by the position or practice of professed Christians at any specified time, but by the teachings of the divine word; and the position and practice of all are to be judged by the word.

Those who plead that God has withdrawn the gifts from the church usually affirm that they were given to the apostles for the especial purpose of completing the canon of revelation, or a system of divinity, and when they had completed their writings the gifts were removed as being no longer necessary. But it is worthy of particular notice that when the apostle specifies the objects or uses for which the gifts were conferred, the above mentioned reason is not given at all. It would be very strange indeed if the apostle, in recounting the uses of the gifts, should mention several, but entirely omit the real one, or the chief one!

It is to be noticed also that all the gifts were given with the same end in view, and for the same length of time. If they were withdrawn, there are now in the church no evangelists, pastors, nor teachers; for these are among the gifts of the Spirit.

Or, if God saw fit, in his wisdom, to withdraw them from the church, it is daring presumption to try to reinstate them. It is allowable, and may be expedient, to devise methods of operation on points concerning which there has been no revelation, when such methods do not conflict with revelation. But when God has ordained a plan and adopted a means, and afterward reversed or abolished it, to endeavor to reinstate it is an effort to impeach divine wisdom. Had it been wise and right to retain it, he would have retained it. If it be proved that he has abrogated a certain order, that is sufficient proof that he did not consider it wise or expedient to have it continued. What, then, must we think of that class of professed Christians who teach that God “set in the church” certain gifts, as evangelists, pastors, and teachers; that he afterward withdrew them and left the church without them; and they themselves proceed to reinstate or supply them to the church, according to their own will and pleasure! Such proceedings toward any earthly government would be considered no less than treason—an entire subversion of the authority of the government by erecting offices contrary to the known will and action of the governor.

The gifts were at first conferred on the apostles to qualify them to preach the word, and so says Paul in Eph. 4:11, they were given “for the work of the ministry.” Jesus would not suffer the apostles to preach even a single sermon until they were “endued with power from on high,” though they had been under his personal direction and instruction more than three years; and we have no warrant for believing that he intended the work of the ministry to be carried on at any time without the direct aid of the gifts of the Spirit.

And it is expressly declared that they were given for their several offices “till we all come in the unity of the faith,” a position unto which the church has not attained. It will not do to say that the church did arrive at such a state in the days of the apostles, and that it has fallen from it; for the admonitions and reproofs given in their writings disprove that. Or, if it were true that the saints at first were so united in faith, but fell from that state in the great apostasy, then is proved the necessity of a revival of the gifts to accomplish their destined work. But it is not necessary to argue that point. The church has not yet been so perfected. Nor is it true that such a state of things is found in any one church of the present age; for in most of them, and in all large bodies of them, there is found almost endless diversity of faith on many Bible doctrines.

There are many who, instead of confessing their shortcomings and trying to remedy their defects, frame excuses and scout every grace they themselves do not possess. Destitute of the gifts of the Spirit, they deny that they were designed to be perpetuated. Having among them such a diversity of faith, they deny the New-Testament doctrine of unity, and urge that it is impossible for all to see and believe alike. They think such a state of things as is now found in the different churches is not only allowable but providential, and a right development of the gospel plan. We admit that men of different education, prejudices, and prepossessions, will not see and think alike, unless their prejudices and prepossessions are overcome. But this is the very end contemplated in the gospel. If this is not so—if each one is to gratify his prejudices and act according to his own prepossessions—then the gospel is a nullity; for then cross-bearing and self-denial are not required, and humility is not even a Christian grace.

But what then means the text already quoted, that we are designed to come into the unity of the faith? That it means all that the words can imply is proved by other texts, as the following:—

“Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; that they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us.” John 17:20, 21.

Here surely is described a more perfect unity, a more complete oneness, than is found among professed Christians of the present time. But verse 11 is equally explicit:—

“Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are.”

If the Christians of this day who plead so much for “union,” even those styled evangelical, think their union truly represents the union or oneness of the Father and Son, then their ideas of a “trinity in unity” are not very exalted. It must be evident to every thoughtful observer that, either there is no very close union between the Father and the Son, or else this prayer is not fulfilled in the churches of the present age. That it was designed to be fulfilled is proved by the apostle’s words in 1 Cor. 1:10, as follows:—

“Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.”

And again in Philippians 2:2, as follows:—

“Fulfill ye my joy, that ye be like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind.”

And that last excuse for discord and disunion among Christians, namely, that the various churches with their diversity of faiths are recognized as so many “branches” of the body of Christ, is removed by our Saviour’s words to his disciples:—

“I am the vine, ye are the branches.” John 15:5.

This language was not addressed to different churches, but to individuals, before any contention or departure from truth had separated believers into different factions of diverse creeds. Every excuse or reason offered to justify the present state of discord, or any diversity of faith and judgment among Christians, is founded in selfishness, and is an evidence of carnality according to the words of Paul.

Some imagine that a gift of the Spirit cannot be manifested “for the work of the ministry” without interfering with the canon of revelation. But this is a very narrow view of the subject. An evangelist may “make full proof of his ministry,” and yet conform to the word already given. And so of any other gift. Paul was directed by the Spirit to go to Macedonia. Peter, by direct revelation, was sent to Cornelius. Paul and Barnabas were separated to a certain work by order of the Spirit. By the same power Elymas the sorcerer was discovered and rebuked. In these and other instances, nothing was added to the body of the Scriptures. And so, since the days of the apostles, in the time of the Reformers, of Wesley, and in later times, as will be shown, instruction, reproof and comfort, have been given by the Spirit. Words of comfort, warnings of danger, personal reproofs, directions to duty, all come under the heads of the perfecting of the saints, the work of the ministry, and the edifying of the body of Christ, while none of them are additions to the Scriptures.

The objection arises from prejudice, and must at once be rejected by all who recognize the truth that the ministry is not sufficient, without being “endued with power from on high,” to so instruct and lead the church as to bring them to the unity of the faith and spirit. Human strength and human wisdom cannot accomplish it.

“And God hath set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, governments, diversities of tongues.” 1 Cor. 12:28.

As God set these in the church we have a right to ask, By what authority and by what power have they been removed from the church? Did God ever make known his intention to deprive the church of their aid? They should remain where God has set them unless he has removed them; but of their removal we have no intimations in his word. The Bible foretells a falling away; the arising of false teachers in the church; the entering in of grievous wolves, not sparing the flock; and the bringing in of damnable heresies. But all these indicate, not the withdrawing of the gifts from the church, but the necessity of their retention; for surely they must be needed most for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, and for the edifying of the body of Christ, when such a sad state of things exists. There is no reason to dispute that the instruction of the apostle to “covet earnestly the best gifts,” and to “follow after charity, and desire spiritual gifts,” was given to the church for the entire dispensation.

The intention of the apostle’s argument in 1 Cor. 12 is not generally appreciated, because its connection is not regarded. After enumerating the manifestations of the Spirit, saying the gifts are divided to every man as the Lord will, he says, “We are all baptized by one Spirit into one body.” This is a most important declaration, as it gives us to understand that if we are not baptized by that Spirit into that body we are not of that body.

When the Saviour left the disciples he said, “Ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence.” Acts 1:5. That baptism they received on the day of Pentecost, according to the “promise of the Father” to the Son. And this promise they held out to all to whom they preached, “even as many as the Lord our God shall call.” With this baptism of the Spirit are all the saints baptized into one body, yet “having gifts differing,” as it pleases God to bestow. This can have reference to nothing but the immediate operation of the Spirit. Then follows the argument for their necessity in the church. He says:—

“For the body is not one member, but many. If the foot shall say, Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body, is it therefore not of the body? And if the ear shall say, Because I am not the eye, I am not of the body, is it therefore not of the body? If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where were the smelling? But now hath God set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him.” 1 Cor. 12:14–18.

God hath set the members in the body so that it is perfect and complete in every part. If any part is lacking, there is schism or division. The hand cannot supply the place of the foot, nor can the ear fill the place of the eye. A perfect body, complete in all respects, has every member in its place; each fulfilling its office; each aiding and strengthening the other; as it is written:—

“And the eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee; nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you.” Verse 21.

Let it be remembered that this argument is concerning the gifts in the church, and here is a rebuke to that spiritual pride which asserts that Christians are now so wise and strong that they have no need of some of the members which God set in the church, which is virtually boasting that we have outgrown the bounds of God’s original arrangement. This is actually taking common ground with

that class of infidels who kindly admit that the Bible was good enough for the time when it was given, but that we have outgrown its narrow confines and find it unsuited to our present wants. Neither the revelation nor the arrangement for the church was local and temporary, unless the gospel itself is temporary or confined to a part of the age.

The apostle has affirmed that no part of the body, as God originally constituted it, can boast against any other part. And yet this is exactly what the professed “body of Christ” is doing in this age. Some of the most important parts which God set in the church are ignored, despised, and boasted against, as if they were hindrances instead of helps; as if they marred the body instead of being necessary to its perfection. Of this same subject the apostle further says:—

“The members should have the same care one for another. And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honored, all the members rejoice with it.” Verses 25, 26.

The error commonly entertained in regard to this chapter is this: It is supposed that “the members” referred to are individuals in the church without any reference to the gifts. But such certainly is not the idea conveyed by the language; nor can any gather that idea from the entire chapter in its connection. It relates to the gifts as divided to the several individuals composing the entire church, as God was pleased that they should exist, that no part be lacking, or weak, or defective, but that the whole body may be perfect according to the divine plan. For they were all given

“For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying [building up] of the body of Christ; till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.”

Happy state! blessed privilege! May we all have grace to obtain it, and humility to accept the means whereby it is obtained.

ETERNITY

By Bonar

Days come and go In joy or woe; Days go and come In endless sum. Only the eternal day Shall come but never go; Only the eternal tide Shall never ebb, but flow. O long eternity, My soul goes forth to thee!

Suns set and rise In these dull skies; Suns rise and set, Till men forget The day is at the door, When they shall rise no more. O everlasting Sun, Whose race is never run, Be thou my endless light! Then I shall fear no night! —Bonar.

Duty of Parents to their Children.

By Ellen G. White

One of the signs of the “last days” is the disobedience of children to their parents. 2 Tim. 3:2. And do parents realize their responsibility? Many seem to lose sight of the watch-care they should ever have over their children, and suffer them to indulge in evil passions, and to disobey them. They take but little notice of them until their own feelings are excited, and then punish them in anger.

Many parents will have to render an awful account at last for their neglect of their children. They have fostered and cherished their evil tempers by bending to their wishes and will, when the wishes and will of the children should bend to them. They have brought God’s frown upon them and their children by these things. Children are left to come up instead of being trained up. The poor little children are thought not to know or understand a correction at ten or twelve months of age, and they begin to show stubbornness very young. Parents suffer them to indulge in evil tempers and passions without subduing or correcting them, and by so doing they cherish and nourish these evil passions until they grow with their growth, and strengthen with their strength.

Parents stand in the place of God to their children, and they will have to render an account, whether they have been faithful to the charge committed to their trust. Parents, I fear some of you are rearing children to be cut down by the destroying angel, unless you speedily change your course, and be faithful to them. God cannot cover iniquity even in children. He cannot love unruly children who manifest passion, and he cannot save them in the time of trouble. Will you suffer your children to be lost through your neglect? Unfaithful parents, their blood will be upon you, and is not your salvation doubtful with the blood of your children upon you? children that might have been saved had you filled your place, and done your duty as faithful parents should.

God says: “I know Abraham, that he will command his household after him,” and God gave him the honor of being the father of the faithful. It is the duty of parents to have their children in perfect subjection, having all their passions and evil tempers subdued.

Parents, correct your children. Commence while they are young, when impressions can be more easily made, and their evil tempers subdued, before they grow with their growth and strengthen with their strength.

You should correct your children in love. Do not let them have their own way until you get angry, and then punish them. Such correction only helps on the evil, instead of remedying it. After you have done your duty faithfully to your children, then carry them to God and ask him to help you. Tell him that you have done your part, and then in faith ask him to do his part—that which you cannot do. Ask him to temper their dispositions, to make them mild and gentle by his Holy Spirit. He will hear you pray. Through his word he has enjoined it upon you to correct your children, to “spare not for their crying,” and his word is to be heeded in these things.

It certainly must bring God’s displeasure upon parents when they leave him to do what he has left and commanded them to do. God corrects us when we disobey, and go astray from him; and parents are bound by the word of God to correct their children when they disobey them, and show evil tempers. Check the very first manifestation of passion. Break the will (but do it with feelings of tenderness, and with discretion), and your children will be far happier for it, and you will be happier. Your effort will be remembered of God, and he that is so particular as to observe the falling of the sparrow; he that noted and commended Abraham’s faithfulness, will not pass by your efforts. He that never slumbers nor sleeps will be ready to aid you with his Spirit and grace, and will reward your feeble efforts.

Children are the lawful prey of the enemy, because they are not subjects of grace, have not experienced the cleansing power of the blood of Jesus, and the evil angels have access to these children; and some parents are careless and suffer them to work with but little restraint. Parents have a great work to do in this matter, by correcting and subduing their children, and then by bringing them to God and claiming his blessing upon them. By the faithful and untiring efforts of the parents, and the blessing and grace entreated of God upon the children, the power of the evil angels will be broken, a sanctifying influence will be shed upon the children, and the powers of darkness will be compelled to give back.

When the destroying angel was to pass through Egypt, to destroy the first-born of man and beast, Israel was commanded to gather their children and families into their houses with them, and then mark their door-posts with blood, that the destroying angel might pass by their dwellings, and if they failed to go through with this process, there was no difference made between them and the Egyptians.

The destroying angel is soon to go forth again, not to destroy the first-born alone, but “to slay utterly old and young, both men, women and little children” who have not the mark. Parents, if you wish to save your children, separate them from the world, keep them from the company of wicked children; for if you suffer them to go with wicked children, you cannot prevent them from partaking of their wickedness and being corrupted. It is your solemn duty to watch over your children, to choose their society at all times for them. Teach your children to obey you, then can they more easily obey the commandments of God, and yield to his requirements. Do not let us neglect to pray with, and for, our children. He that said, “Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not,” will listen to our prayers for them, and the seal or mark, of believing parents will cover their children, if they are trained up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.—E. G. WHITE, in Signs of the Times.

Let the Church Awake.

By D. Downer

“As soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children.” Isa. 46:8.

The above language was spoken concerning God’s ancient people; but it is equally applicable to his people now. We are in pressing need of the Spirit’s influence, and we must have the anguish of soul no less than they. At the time this language was used, Israel had fallen to a low condition, but their hearts yearned for a divine blessing. Proof is given that whenever a great blessing has been bestowed on the church, it has been preceded by a great searching of heart. Before any great deliverance has been wrought for the people of God they have cried earnestly to him. Israel was sorely oppressed in Egypt, and as a natural result they became crushed in spirit. God would not have it continue so. But before he could work, they must cry. God heard, and delivered them. The whole nation cried, not one alone, “O God of Abraham, deliver us from these stripes and this cruel bondage.” The result of their travail is seen in God’s smiting the field of Zoan with plagues, and delivering his people with a high hand and an outstretched arm.

We may remember with profit the days of Josiah. When he saw that the book of the law was neglected in the temple, he was troubled for fear that misery would come upon his people for their sins. Then there came a reformation, causing the Passover to be observed as never before. Sorrow of heart among God’s people wrought a happy change. Travail before increase in the church has been God’s plan all along to the present.

Look at the disciples sitting in their upper room. Their hearts are torn with grief at the death of their Lord. Each one is intent on receiving the promised Comforter. There with one mind they tarried, but not without agony and prayer. Finally the Comforter was given, and three thousand were converted to God. Such prayer and agony must exist among us, not of one man or twenty men, but of all Zion’s people; then we shall see a mighty impetus given to the work of God.

Luther was not the only man who brought about the Reformation. There were hundreds who cried in the forests of Germany and on the hills of Switzerland. Others cried from the dungeons of Holland. Women who baked their Bibles in loaves of bread to conceal them added their cries. God’s people were then in travail. As the result, they were liberated from the bondage of the pope, and the Vatican was shaken to its base.

The people of God at the present time have a work of no less importance than Luther’s. If we have the burden of soul which they felt, we shall have a triumph even greater than they experienced. Theirs was a deliverance from the pope; ours will be a deliverance from the power of Satan. Oh! let us sow liberally while we may expect a hundredfold. Why are we so slow to work when we know this is our last struggle with the enemy? We may talk the truth eloquently—all form and no power. God may bless some such labors. The truth sometimes converts people when it is spoken by men of unclean hearts. The bread brought to Elijah nourished him; but the ravens were ravens still. If God has blessed truth in the hands of the erring, what may we not expect him to do if we become pure?

The travail of Christ—think of it. He wept, and sweat great drops of blood. He endured great trials, and fastings, and spent sleepless nights in prayer, and behold the mighty work done by him. When our hearts break for sinners, then will sinners’ hearts melt under this message. Scores were converted by the sermons of Whitefield and Wesley. They were full of the Spirit of God—not formality. I know a man who gave a lecture on present truth. No one seemed affected. He grasped a farmer’s hand and sobbed, “Are you bound to be lost?” There was an appeal that he could not resist. That was the Spirit speaking through a soul in travail. How often we come back defeated after a long argument with an awakened mind. Then we feel what weak creatures we are, and that God must take the case into his own hand. Yes, the travail is ours; the work is God’s. How humiliating to preach truth and have men pleased who should be smarting under it as they would under fire. We may have theory, but it is the Spirit that troubles hearts. The time has fully come when our scattered people should flee to their chambers, and cry mightily to God. Good results would follow. Our ministers would be clothed with might, and the truth would go to the dark corners of the earth. There is no hope of the world’s being stirred until there is more travail in the church. Through the church light is to be given. In it God’s truth is to be preserved from its enemies. Do we feel it, brethren? Christ multiplied the bread, but the multitude could only get it through his disciples. It is time for us to awake and seek the Lord and the good of dying millions. Why are we not stronger in the power of God? Is it not because we shun responsibilities, and harbor unbelief?

Those who depend more on the helps God has kindly given us in our publications than on him will have no travail of soul. If God’s work prospers when done by machinery, it is because of his blessing and not of our strength. Our church plow too often enters the furrow instead of being kept constantly breaking up fallow ground. Satan’s plow is always in the field. He leaves no headlands, but plows while we sleep. May a knowledge of his activity and vigilance stir us up, and awaken anxiety on the part of the church. We may each find a place to labor. Not an idler need be found. O brethren, are only God’s friends asleep, and his enemies awake? Are none of the twelve awake but Judas? When the church is not serving God, there is always mischief brewing within. A church bearing no fruit will be cursed like the barren fig-tree. Would to God that dead churches might come to life. They breed skepticism. The fate of those who came not up to the help of the Lord in the past, will be ours if we falter here on the verge of eternity. He who hinders the work most of all is the worldly-minded professor. He does not openly violate any of the commandments; but he has a care for worldly things, and is careless in regard to spiritual things. He has just enough grace to make him hope he is a Christian, but not enough to prove him one.

While souls are perishing, we must wave personal differences. Even golden apples must not tempt us in this race for life. Every man who is not a worker in the message is a hinderer. In working for others we get our own souls watered. With our hands to the plow, let us not look back. Let us gird our loins for the trying scenes before us. May our travail for souls increase as we near the promised land, and at last may it be said that we have done what we could.

D. DOWNER.

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