BX 7321 .P3 Painter, J. H. , b. 1841 The Iowa pulpit of the Church of Christ Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2014 https://archive.org/details/iowapulpitofchurOOpain_0 THE IOWA PULPIT —OF THE— Church of Christ, ITS AIM AND WORK. Containing a Statement uf the its History in Inu/a, with Sketches and Principles of our Movement, Sermons, Biographical Engravings, ^EDITED BY J. II. PAINTER. ST. LOUIS : CHRISTIAN PUBLISHING COMPANY. To my Fellow Christian Preachers, my Sympathizing and Helping Brethren and Sisters of Iowa* and TO F. M. DRAKE, THB LARGEST DONOR TO THE CAUSE OF EDUCATION, WITH H. G. VAN METER, the largest contributor to the state missionary work, This Volume is Affectionately Dedicated. The Editor. CONTENTS. subject. contributor, page. Introduction 7 Statement of the Principles and Object of the Religious Movement in the Church of Christ • F. Walden 11 Condition of Sonship N. A. McConnell.. 47 Things to be Heeded G.T. Carpenter... 61 What Saves the Sinner F. Walden 81 Winning Souls D. R. Dungan 106 Salvation all of Grace J. K. Cornell 125 Preaching » J. H. Painter 187 The Royal Priesthood O. L. Brokaw 167 The Seriousness of the Disciples' Mission R. E. Swartz. 173 The Law of Increase John N. Smith.... 186 Living Unto Christ F. M. Kirhham. . . 203 Marriage and Divorce, H. U. Dale. 219 T Tl CONTENTS. subject, contekutor. page. The Geeat Conflict Between Romanism, Protestantism and Infidelity D. R. Lucas 257 The Miebob A lien Hickey 283 What Think you of Cheist? Whose Son is He? L. C. Wilson 295 Personal Responsibility E. L. Poston 327 Why Must Christ Die? H. A. Northcutt.. 343 Abe Ye also Deceived? Chas. Blanchard. . 359 The Will of God J. A. Walters 377 The Suevival of the Fittest R. H. Johnson 393 The Blessedness of Faith /. Mad. Williams. 415 A Brief History of the Iowa Christian Convention J. B. Vawter .... 437 INTRODUCTION. (fl^ljpHE following work consists of three natural divisions : I. A statement of the principles of the move- ment represented by the Disciples in America, Europe and elsewhere, and such a statement as accords with increased biblical knowledge on the part of their advocates, and sets them forth in their present re- lation to the great religious movements of the times. A consciousness of competency to do this work, of course, lies back of its undertaking, and is attempted in the belief that it will receive the approval of a discrimina- ting brotherhood. The object is to put into permanent form and in such association, the statement of principles that it may be, and will be kept before the people, and assist in work- ing out the object of our movement long after its writer shall have passed to his reward. It is not expected that it will supercede or render value- less similar efforts heretofore made by other brethren ; vii viii INTRODUCTION. but will merely help in swelling the forces necessary to our work as a whole, by gaining access to persons, on account of local and personal attachments which others would not do. By a division of labor in the preparation of the book, this work has fallen upon F. Walden, whose scholarly attainments, extensive reading, and twenty-five years ex- perience in the ministry, will enable him to meet the expectation of his brethren. II. The second division of the work is devoted to biographical sketches and sermons of a limited number, though large enough to represent the Iowa pulpit, of liv- ing preachers, whose chief fields of labor have been within the State. The reader who has read Elijah Goodwin's "Family Companion," "The Gospel Preacher " by Benj. Frank- lin, or the u Western Preacher," needs not to be told that this will be a most interesting feature of the work. And when we read the biographies of the fathers of this Re- formation, how natural for us to desire a view of their features. And supposing a similar desire will arise among the readers of this book, we have provided engrav- ings of the contributors. And while it will be of special interest to the Iowa brethren, we are vain enough to think it can be read with profit everywhere. III. In the third division a condensed though accu- rate history of the work in Iowa, is given. The aim has been to avoid tediousness in this department, and still do INTRODUCTION. IX justice to the facts. The more important feature of the history, is that which pertains to the co-operative efforts of the churches, in planting the gospel everywhere in Iowa; and to that feature especial attention has been given. Indeed there is little else in the history of the Iowa work, but that of co-operation, since, from almost the very first, the work has been done by the co- operation of the churches. The difficulty of maintaining sufficient harmonv of views, to make much progress in the co-operation of churches, through a number of years, when there is con- tinual changing of preachers, inflow and outflow of mem- bership by emigration, must be apparent to every one. The following history is valuable in that it reveals, when studied, how the harmony was kept unbroken, and ihe work carried on despite of seemingly overwhelming difficulties. It is valuable in that we can look back over the mistakes, and avoid them in the future. And it is written that the children of those living, may look into it and gather enthusiasm and counsel, when the work shall have fallen into their hands, with an inspiration that will urge them still onward. It is sufficient to inspire confidence in the completeness and accuracy of this phase of the work, to announce that it was prepared by J. B. Vawter, than whom no man in the State has been more closely related, during those years wherein the most potent forces were organized, to the results as they now exist. X nrrFvODTJCTioN. We gratefully acknowledge our indebtedness, without mentioning names, to each of the contributors, and the many others who have encouraged the enterprise by pen and tongue. And hoping for a generous reception, we send it forth, praying the blessing of God upon its career. Editor. STATEMENT OF THE PRINCIPLES AND OB- JECT OP THE RELIGIOUS MOVEMENT OP THE DISCIPLES OP CHRIST. BY F. WALDEN S it right to multiply sects ? There can be but one answer to this question in harmony with the teaching of the New Testament. Divi- sion among the children of God is severely condemned (See Rom. 16 : 17 ; 1 Cor. 1 : 10). Jesus prayed that his people might be one, and this unity cannot refer to the invisible unity among the people of God, as some maintain, for the reason as- signed for their being one is " That the world may be- lieve that thou hast sent me" (See John 17: 21.). The world could not see any unity that is not outward and visible. Unity and union are not convertible terms. There may be unity and not union, but both should exist among the children of God. For this we, as a people, have plead since the beginning of our move- ment. In fact, our existence as a religious people grew out of an effort to bring about union among the divided children of God. This may be seen by ref- erence to the " Declaration " published by Thomas Campbell, September 7, 1809. n 12 THE IOWA PULPIT. If sectism is wrong, what right had we to add another one to the already long list ? No right what- ever. And if we did such a thing as this we did wrong, and ought to abandon our movement. We setup the plea in maintaining our right to live and work with G-od's approval that we did not organize a sect when we began our separate existence. It is pertinent just here to raise this question : Can a religious body be so organized that it shall not be a sect and its members not sectarians ? We think it can be done. Again, was the primitive church as it was organized by the Savior and His Apostles, a sect in the sense in which we now use the word ? No one, we presume, will claim that it was. No sane person would say that the members of the primitive church were heretics, and guilty of heresy, and yet it is well known to those who read the original, that sect and heresy are translated from the same Greek word (See Acts 24 : 14 and Acts 5 : 17.). If the primitive church was not a sect in this bad sense, then to re- store that and stand where it stood, would not be to organize a sect. So thought Thomas Campbell when he published the " Declaration " referred to above. This " Declaration " was accompanied with an Ad- dress and an Appendix explanatory of some things in the Address. Here we find these words : " If the divine word be not the standard of a party, then are we not a party, for we have adopted no other. If to maintain its alone- sufficiency be not a party princi- ple, then we are not a party. If to justify this prin- ciple by our practice in making a rule of it, and of STATEMENT. IS it alone, and not of our own opinions, nor of those of others, be not a party principle, then we are not a party. If to propose and practice neither more nor less than it expressly reveals and enjoins be not a partial business, then we are not a party. These are the very sentiments we have approved and recom- mended, as a society formed for the express purpose of promoting Christian unity in opposition to party spirit." (See Memoirs of Alexander Campbell, vol. 1, p. 265). These noble sentiments were published in the in- cipiency of our movement, and out of this effort to call God's scattered and divided children back to the non-partism position of the primitive church and to the Bible and the Bible alone as our rule of faith and practice, has grown our separate existence as a religious people. Could such a movement, if carried out in the noble spirit in which it was conceived, re- sult in the addition of another sect? If so, then we may utterly despair of escaping the terrible evil of sectism and the charge of being sectarians. That the purpose to return to the faith and practice of the primitive church has been the all controlling influ- ence that has shaped and moulded our religious work, a glimpse at our history will clearly reveal. At the time that Thomas Campbell published his Declaration and Address he was a Presbyterian laboring to unite the scattered children of God in Western Pennsylvania. One of the principles laid down in the " Declara- tion" was that nothing was to be bound " upon the 14 THE IOWA PULPIT. children of God as matter of faith or duty, for which there cannot he expressly produced a 'thus saith the Lord' either in express terms or by approved prece- dent." This led to the abandonment of infant baptism and sprinkling and pouring. Thomas Camp- bell and his son Alexander, with a few others who stood with them in this movement for the union of Christians on the primitive basis, found themselves by this step, standing with the Baptists, but still pleading for the union of the divided children of God. Time passes. In 1823 Alexander Campbell com- menced the publication of the Christian Baptist, a monthly periodical devoted to the advocacy of these noble aims. The following year the Baptist Mis- sionary Association for the State of Kentucky pub- lished in its minutes a call for a general conference of all Baptist ministers who could attend, to meet in Lexington, Ky., July 29, 1825, to consider the state of religion and the subject of reform. This call con- tained the following suggestive statement: "It is obvious to the most superficial observer who is at all acquainted with the state of Christianity, and of the church of the New Testament, that much, very much is wanting, to bring the Christianity and the church of the present day up to that standard." Mr. Campbell published this call and gave it his hearty approval. He declared this a move in the right direction, and with these words as a text and starting point, he began the publication of his famous articles, thirty-two in number, on the " Restoration of the Ancient Order of Things." In his first article STATEMENT 15 Tinder this heading occur s.s ^regnant words: "Human systems, whether of philosophy or of reli- gion, are proper subjects of reformation ; "but Chris- tianity cannot be reformed. Every attempt to reform Christianity is like an attempt to create a new sun, or to change the revolutions of the heavenly bodies — unprofitable and vain. * * * A restora- tion of the ancient order of things, is all that is neces- sary to the happiness and usefulness of Christians. * * * We are glad to see, in the above extract, that the thing proposed is to bring the Christianity and the church of the present day, up to the standard of the New Testament." What came out of the conference of Baptist minis- ters here referred to, I am unable to say, but it was a move in the right direction, and in our hands has borne good fruit. In 1827 the Campbells and many others who held with them as to the restoration of the ancient order of things, cut loose from all party organizations, de- termined to wear no name, have no rule of faith and practice, and have no bonds of fellowship but such as belonged to the primitive church as delineated in the New Testament. This is how we came to have a separate existence. In this step did we organize a sect, and are we open to the charge of fostering divi- sion among the children of God ? If so, then was the primitive church a sect in this bad sense, and to stand with Christ and the Apostles and plead for union is to foster division. This cannot be. If it should be said by any one that we have not restored 16 THE IOWA PULPIT. primitive Christianity and are therefore a sect, onr reply would be that we do not claim infallibility and may have made some mistakes, but stand ready to be corrected. Point out to us wherein we differ from the primitive church and we will change immediately. But no one is prepared to pronounce upon the cor- rectness of our position unless he fully understands us. But experience shows us that when any one, in a candid spirit, has examined our claims, the result is that we have one more added to the mighty army that is pleading for a restoration of the ancient order of things and the union of God's people on that basis. With the captious and fault finding we can do nothing, but with the candid and God-fearing we hope to accomplish much. For the benefit of those who would like to understand our plea, some of our distinctive features are pointed out and our reasons for holding them. L "We hold that Christianity as it came from the the hands of Christ and his Apostles, is a perfect system and incapable of being improved. Mark, this is said of the Christian system, and not of Chris- tians. Christians may go on improving all their lives, but this is done by striving to reach the per- fect standard we have in the Bible. They never go beyond that standard. That standard never can be improved. Christianity in this respect is unique. All other systems can be improved. What wonderful strides of improvement have been made in medicine, for instance. What is true of medicine is true of all other systems, Christianity alone excepted. Chris- STATEMENT. 17 tianity alone, of all the systems with which man has to do, came from God. Man can create and improve a system of medicine, of political economy, of educa- tion, of music, and so on, but God only could give him a system of religion adapted to his wants. Nothing is so transcendently important to man as his religion. Hence, God has undertaken to regulate that and man should keep his unhallowed hands off it. As Christianity was given to us as a perfect sys- tem, we cannot add to it, take from it, or in any manner change it, without marring its perfection. If this position were always kept in view, we should be done with all attempts to legislate for the church. We would also see that all reformations among Chris- tians should be a going back to primitive Christianity. Restoration is what is needed in all such cases. When any religious body finds itself to be in the wrong, and in need of improvement, it should not go to work to reform the system in vogue, such as the Roman Catholic, the Anglican, or that of some sect or party. The imperfect system should be abandoned and the restoration of primitive Christianity effected. This is what we, as a religious people, have attempt- ed to do. This is our distinctive plea, and with this end in view, we have taken our stand on the Bible, the whole Bible and nothing but the Bible. IT. We have no creed and discipline but the in- spired Scriptures. We should be inconsistent in claiming to restore the ancient order of things if we had a human creed. Ther3 can be no dispute with any ;-s to what the primitive church had. Can it be 18 THE IOWA PULPIT. reasonable to suppose that God undertook to furnish man with a system of religion, and that when inspi- ration ceased, that system was so imperfect that man had to be constantly patching it up ? The primitive church, when inspiration ceased, had the inspired scriptures, and these were her creed and discipline. Here is just where we stand. We certainly need nothing more, for the Apostle Paul says that when the man of God has these he is perfect in his equip- ment— thoroughly furnished unto all good works. Nearly all Protestant sects acknowledge the all- sufficiency of the scriptures by making this doctrine one of the articles in their creeds, but practically deny it by binding on thier adherents authoritative, human creeds, as bonds of Christian fellowship. We hold to the all-sufficiency of the scriptures, and we practice what we preach. Some one may be ready to ask, " What wrong can there be in publishing to the world what we believe ? " There is no wrong whatever. We do this from our pulpits nearly every week. Our people are constantly setting forth our views. We have quite a respecta- ble book literature growing up among us in which our views are distinctly set forth. Yea, I am trying to set forth our views in what I am now writing. But there is a wide difference between setting forth our views for the information of those who desire to under- stand us and the act of setting these views up as an authoritative standard, and refusing fellowship to those who will not subscribe to them. It is making theories, speculations and opinions, tests of fellow- ship that we object to. STATEMENT. 19 " But a church cannot get along without some rules by which to be governed," some one may say. Certainly not. But does not the Bible contain all the rules we need ? Ought a man to be condemned for anything that the Bible does not condemn ? Who will dare to say he ought? If the Bible condemns a certain course of conduct, will it make the condemna- tion stronger to put it into a human system ? If a human creed contains more than the Bible, it contains too much ; if it contains less than the Bible, it con- tains too little ; if it contains j ust what is in the Bible, it is the Bible, and not a human system. IH. We reject all human names for the church and people of God. This we are compelled to do if we are true to our plea of a restoration of primitive Christianity. Many Protestant bodies have taken on themselves human names, as witness the names Lutheran, Wesleyan, Baptist, Congregationalist, Presbyterian and the like, and' in this have departed from the ancient order of things. "We positively re- fuse to wear any name not sanctioned by the word of God, as " Campbellite," for instance. Many have wondered why we are so tenacious in refusing this nick-name. We honor Alexander Campbell as a great and good man. It is a great mistake to repre- sent him as the founder of the church of which we are members. He never aimed to found a church or make a party or sect in the church. His aim was to restore the ancient church. But we should dishonor his name if we should consent to wear it as a desig- nation of the church, for in doing this we should have 20 THE IOWA PULPIT. to depart from his teachings, and abandon the great principle of the restoration of primitive Christianity to the advocacy of which he gave the energies of a long and laborious life. We cannot abandon our principles, and above all, dishonor the Lord Jesus Christ, "of whom the whole family in heaven and in earth is named," by wearing an unscriptural name. We have been ca'led exclusive for calling ourselves Christians, Disciples, etc. We do not do this because we deny the right of others to wear these scriptural names. In fact we should be glad to see the children of God everywhere drop the names that designate them as parties, and thus remove one evidence of division, and to some extent a cause of division. No, it is a mistake to suppose that we claim to be the only Christians in the world. If this were so we should at once cease to plead for Christian union, for I hen all Christians would be one, for we are one. Then we should have to labor for their conversion and not their union. It certainly cannot be exclu- siveness for us to wear names that are not badges of sectarianism. Who can say that Christian is a sec- tarian name? Who can say that to be a Christian is the same thing as to be a sectarian ? As we do not claim any right to monopolize the use of this name, but are anxious that all should-wear it, we are not exclusive. It may be claimed, as it sometimes is, that if Pres- byterians, Methodists, Congregationalists, et al., should drop these names, they would soon be so mixed up that we could not tell one from another. STATEMENT. 21 God grant, then, that the names may be speedily dropped. All that we onght to know of each other is that we are Christians — true children of God. " But there is nothing in a name." Then why are these party names held to with so much tenacity ? Certainly it ought not to he hard to give up that which is of no importance. But alas, there is much in these names. They are badges of parties and evidence of sectarianism. If it was wrong for the church in Corinth to have divisions in it and for some to say, " I am of Paul ; and I of Apollos ; and I of Cephas ; and I of Christ ; " how much better is it in New York or Chicago for God's people to be divided and one to say, " I am a Methodist ; " and another, " I am a Presbyterian " and still another, " I am a Bap- tist ? " That noble man of God, Philip Doddridge, in making an application of what Paul wrote to the Corinthians to the present divided state of Chris- tianity, uses these significant words: "Let us avoid as much as possible a party spirit, and not be fond of listing ourselves under the name of this or that man, how wise, how good, how great soever. For surely if the names of Peter and Paul were in this view to be declined, much more are those which in these latter days, have so unhappily crumbled the Christian and Protestant interest, and have given such sad occasion to our enemies to reproach us. Christ is not divided : nor were Luther or Calvin, or even Peter or Paul, crucified for us ; nor were we baptized into any of their names." (See the Family Expositor, 1 Cor. 1 : 12, 13.). This exactly represents the spirit of 22 THE IOWA PULPIT. our teachings. Surely if we love Christ more than party, we will wear his name to the exclusion of the party name. IV. We practice immersion because the primitive church did ; we reject sprinkling and pouring and infant baptism because we are confident that they were unknown to the church of that day. It ma,y be claimed that we ought not to speak with such confi- dent assurance on a question upon which good and true men differ. Our answer is that this difference is not as to what the primitive church practiced. If all the pious and learned Paedobaptists were arrayed on one side, and all who practice immersion only and reject infant baptism, on the other, as to what was the practice of the primitive church in these things, it would be a very different matter from what it now is. Then it would be well to ask us to pause and be more modest in what we say on such ques- tions. But we only carry out what the most candid and scholarly of Paedobaptists teach, when we take our stand as we have done on these matters. If asked to mention three of the most eminent Psedo- baptist church historians, I think all classes would name Mosheim, Neander, and Philip Schaff. What do they say as to the practice of immersion in the primitive church ? Mosheim says : " The sacrament of baptism was administered in this century without the public assemblies, in places appointed and pre- pared for that purpose, and was performed by im- mersion of the whole body in the baptismal font." (Ecc. His., Cent. 1, Part ii, Chap, iv.) STATEMENT. 23 Neander in his church history says: "Baptism was originally administered by immersion." "In respect to the form of baptism, it was, in conformity with the original institution and the original symbol, performed by immersion, as a sign of entire immer- sion into the Holy Spirit, of being entirely penetrated by the same." (See Neander's History of the Chris- tian Religion and Church, Torrey's Translation, p. 310). That all who read this may know something of the weight there is in Neander's testimony on such a question, I give the endorsement of the distinguished American Presbyterian, Dr. Edward Robinson, who in his Biblical Repository of 1833 says : " The Lec- tures of Neander upon the New Testament are superior to those of any living lecturer in Germany. He has studied to a greater extent, and with larger result, than any man now living, all the works of the fathers and other ancient writers, as also all the writings of the middle ages, which have any bearing upon either the external or internal history of the Christian religion. He has entered into their very spirit, and made himself master of -all their stores. These are points on which there is no question among scholars of Germany of any sect or name. What Neander affirms upon any subject connected with such studies, comes with the weight of the highest authority; because it is understood and known to be the result of minute personal investigation, united with entire candor and a perfect love of truth." This is the man, though himself a Psedobaptist, who says that "Baptism was originally administered by 22 THE IOWA PULPIT. our teachings. Surely if we love Christ more than party, we will wear his name to the exclusion of the party name. IV. We practice immersion because the primitive church did ; we reject sprinkling and pouring and infant "baptism because we are confident that they were unknown to the church of that day. It may be claimed that we ought not to speak with such confi- dent assurance on a question upon which good and true men differ. Our answer is that this difference is not as to what the primitive church practiced. If all the pious and learned Paedobaptists were arrayed on one side, and all who practice immersion only and reject infant baptism, on the other, as to what was the practice of the primitive church in these things, it would be a very different matter from what it now is. Then it would be well to ask us to pause and be more modest in what we say on such ques- tions. But we only carry out what the most candid and scholarly of Psedobaptists teach, when we take our stand as we have done on these matters. If asked to mention three of the most eminent Psedo- baptist church historians, I think all classes would name Mosheim, Neander, and Philip Schaff. What do they say as to the practice of immersion in the primitive church ? Mosheim says : " The sacrament of baptism was administered in this century without the public assemblies, in places appointed and pre- pared for that purpose, and was performed by im- mersion of the whole body in the baptismal font." (Ecc. His., Cent. 1, Part ii, Chap, iv.) 8TATBMBNT. 23 Neander in his church history says: "Baptism was originally administered "by immersion." "In respect to the form of baptism, it was, in conformity with the original institution and the original symbol, performed by immersion, as a sign of entire immer- sion into the Holy Spirit, of being entirely penetrated "by the same." (See Neander's History of the Chris- tian Religion and Church, Torrey's Translation, p. 310). That all who read this may know something of the weight there is in Neander's testimony on such a question, I give the endorsement of the distinguished American Presbyterian, Dr. Edward Robinson, who in his Biblical Repository of 1833 says : " The Lec- tures of Neander upon the New Testament are superior to those of any living lecturer in Germany. He has studied to a greater extent, and with larger result, than any man now living, all the works of the fathers and other ancient writers, as also all the writings of the middle ages, which have any bearing upon either the external or internal history of the Christian religion. He has entered into their very spirit, and made himself master of -all their stores. These are points on which there is no question among scholars of Germany of any sect or name. "What Neander affirms upon any subject connected with such studies, comes with the weight of the highest authority; because it is understood and known to be the result of minute personal investigation, united with entire candor and a perfect love of truth." This is the man, though himself a Paedobaptist, who says that "Baptism was originally administered by 24 THE IOWA PULPIT. immersion." Surely if there were no other evidence as to the practice of the primitive church, such a guide would be safe. Dr. Philip Schaff, of our own country, known to be one of the ripest scholars of any age or land, says in his Ecclesiastical History, written about the middle of this century: "Finally, as it respects the mode or manner of outward baptizing, there could be no doubt that immersion and not sprinkling was the original normal form," p. 488. Even as late as 1879. the late eminent Dean Stanley in an article on baptism, in the October number of the Nineteenth Century says : " "We now pass to the change in the form itself. For the first thirteen cen- turies the almost universal practice of baptism was that of which we read in the New Testament, and which is the very meaning of the word "baptize" — that those who were baptized were plunged, sub- merged, immersed in water." This is sufficient. I might give the testimony of Luther, Calvin. John Wesley, Philip Doddrige and hundreds of others, all of whom admit that the primitive church practiced immersion. Then the long list of lexicons might be presented, all of which give immerse as the primary meaning of the word baptizo. Charles Anthon, our distinguished American lexi- cographer, voices all the lexicons, when, in his letter to Dr. Parmly, he says : "The primary meaning is to dip or immerse, and its secondary meaning, if it ever had any, all refer in some way or other to the same leading idea. Sprinkling, etc., are entirely out STATEMENT. 25 of the question." (R. Fuller, on Baptism, p. 45). The only support that those who practice sprinkling and pouring can claim from the lexicons is that some of them give wash, bathe, wet, and the like as secondary meanings. But such a distinguished scholar as Anthon says that these secondary mean- ings must refer to the leading idea of immersion and that sprinkling and pouring are entirely out of the question. William Greenfield, whose lexicon was written to explain the New Testament use of the word says that baptizo means to immerse, immerge, sub- merge, sink, wash. But in his Defence of the Mah- ratta Version he explains in what sense he uses the word wash. He says: "It is evident that to wash the body or person, without specifying any particu- lar part of the body, must necessarily denote to bathe, which clearly implies immersion." Thus we see that there is no support to sprinkling and pour- ing in these secondary meanings. They all refer in some way or other, to the same leading idea of im- mersion— sprinkling and pouring are entirely out of the question. These testimonies, be it remembered, are not from those who practice immersion and are trying to uphold their practice il by the violent suc- cor of art, invention and allegory," but are from men who are eminent scholars testifying against their own practice. Then why do they practice as they do ? Some offer one apology and some another. Gen- erally the plea is that ottered by John Calvin, who says in his comments on Acts 8 : 32 : " Here we see plainly what the rite of baptizing was among the 26 THE IOWA PULPIT. ancients ; for they immersed the whole "body into water. Now the practice has come into vogue, that the minister shall only sprinkle the body or the head. But so small a difference of ceremony ought not to be of so great importance to us, that we should on that account divide the church or disturb it with strifes." Thus the fathers, in the early stage of the Reformation, apologized for the change in this ordi- nance that had crept in during the apostacy that resulted in the Roman Catholic church and all its cor- ruptions. But the vital question with us is not what apologies are offered for this change, but what was the primitive, apostolic practice ? Upon this point there is marked unanimity among the leading scholars of all denominations. Now as our aim is to restore the ancient order of things, what could we do, and be true to our plea, but to abandon sprinkling and pouring, and practice that which is not in dispute? For let it be borne in mind that there is not a Prot- estant church in our land that does not sanction the validity of immersion. Let a man present himself to a Methodist, Presbyterian or Congregationalist church for instance, and ask for membership, sajdng at the same time that he has been immersed. If his other qnaliiications are all right, he will be accepted. This every one knows who reads these lines. Thus immersion is endorsed as common ground upon which all ca'n unite, and it is common ground because it is primitive, apostolic ground and that is better still. As to infant baptism we reject it because the New Testament knows nothing of it. This is admitted STATEMENT. 27 "by many of the candid who practice it. Let us examine a few out of the many admissions on this point. Neander in his Church History says : " Bap- tism was administered at first only to adults, as men were accustomed to conceive baptism and faith as strictly connected. We have all reason for not deriving infant "baptism from apostolic institution." p. 311. Olshausen in his commentary when treating of the baptism of Lydia and her household, Acts, 16 : 15 says : " There is no trace to be found here of instruction before baptism ; without doubt the rite took place merely on a profession of faith in Jesus as the Messiah. But for that very reason it is highly improbable that the phrase her household should be understood as including infant children ; relatives, servants, grown children might be baptized along with her, for they would be at once carried away by the youthful power of her new life of faith. There is altogether wanting airy conclusive proof ' passage for the baptism of children in the age of the apostles, nor can the necessity of it be de- duced from the nature of baptism. In the words describing the institution of baptism, in Matt. 28:19, the connection of discipling with baptising and teaching appears quite positively to oppose the idea, that the baptism of children entered at first into the view of Christ." DeWette, an emi- nent German scholar and theologian says : " The baptism of children is not to be considered as an apostolic institution, but arose gradually in the post- apostolic age, after early and long continued resist- 28 THE IOWA PULPIT. ance, in connection with certain views of doctrine, and did not become general in the church till after the time of Augustine. The defence of infant bap- tism transcends the domain of exegesis, and must be given up to that of dogmatics." (See Hackett on Acts 16:15.). We might examine those scriptures sometimes relied on by Psedobaptists to prove in- fant baptism, but it cannot be considered necessary with the candid and unprejudiced. If such able scholars as we have quoted can find no proof of in- fant baptism in the New Testament, when it would so manifestly be to their advantage to do so, for they are all Pa3dobaptists, then we may conclude that such proof is not there. Not a trace of this practice can be found till the church had begun to widely depart from the simplicity of the apostolic age. As we are laboring to restore the ancient order of things we can have nothing to do with that which even many of its candid friends admit is without scriptural warrant and arose in the post apostolic age. We believe in training up children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. But we cannot see that infant baptism adds one whit in this direction. Besides the child baptized in its infancy is denied the privilege among Paedobaptists of making a per- sonal surrender to Christ in this ordinance. Bap- tism has in it no sacrificial grace — no power to change the heart by the mere opus operatum of the institution. As this must be done by faith in Christ and this faith is wanting in the child, the ceremony STATEMENT. 29 is absolutely void of all spiritual effect, and there- fore utterly useless. When the child has grown up and its heart is turned to Christ by the power of a living faith, then baptism may be an obedience from the heart, and an act of personal consecration to him whose blood alone can save us from our past sins. Such a baptism lias something in it that commends it to our admiration. It is more than a mere external ceremony. It represents to us a dying to sin and a rising to walk in newness of life. Our views on the action and subject of baptism are in harmony with those held by the Baptists and we rejoice that this is so. But we hold them not for this reason, but because they harmonize with our plea for a return to ancient, apostolic order. V. We attend to the weekly observance of the Lord's Supper. In this we are peculiar as a people. There are some local congregations among some of the denominations that weekly celebrate the Lord's Supper, as Spurgeon's and some others among the Baptists, for instance, but there is no religious body that teaches and practices weekly communion in all its local congregations except the Disciples. Prom the beginning of our movement we have insisted on this practice. Among our people the practice is universal unless among some of our imperfectly or- ganized congregations in the new settlements of the West. We could not do otherwise and be consis- tent with our plea. We believe that the primitive church met on the first day of every week to break bread — in fact that it was a part of the observance 30 THE IOWA PULPIT. of the first day of the week. If this he so, then, there can he no question as to what we ought to do. Some of the reasons for so believing will now be given. When we have insisted on the weekly observance of the Lord's Supper we have sometimes been met with the question, " Where are we commanded to attend to the Lord's Supper on the first day of every week?" Our answer is: Nowhere. The obligation does not rest on any command left us, but on the example of the apostolic church. The authority for the weekly observance of the Lord's Supper rests on the same basis as the weekly observance of the Lord's day, or first day of the week. The Jews kept the seventh day of the week, Christ ians keep the first. What is our authority for this change? There is no explicit command left us for this. But there must have been such a com- mand given to the primitive church, for we find that the early disciples met on this day and the apostle Paul met with them, and gave his sanc- tion to the custom, a thing he would not have done had it been without divine warrant. So we keep the Lord's day by example. Bat what is the ex- ample? Is it to abstain from work? Not that. Is it to meet and hear a sermon? It is certainly more than that. Turn to Acts 20 : 7, and there we have the ex- ample: "Upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preach- ed unto them." Notice the purpose of their coming togetkev-^when the disciples came together to break STATEMENT. 31 bread. Had they come together to hear Paul preach and then broke bread, the record would have been on this wise : " Upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to hear Paul preach, they broke bread." We have to make the scrip- tures read wrong to fit such an interpretation, and that alone condemns it. The purpose of their meet- ing was to break bread, and no doubt they would have assembled for that purpose had Paul not been there. It seems from the record that Paul and part of his company reached Troas on what we call Mon- day, and in order to meet with the disciples in their weekly meeting, they abode there seven days. Hav- ing met with them when they came together to break bread, as their custom was, he preached to them, "ready to depart on the morrow." Here is our authority for first day observance. But can we keep the day unless we follow the example ? Cer- tainly not. Then we must come together on that day to break bread, whether we have preaching or not. While we are looking at the authority in God's word for the weekly observance of the Lord's Sup- per, it will be well to examine Acts 2 : 42, which reads as follows: "And they continued steadfastly in the Apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking bread, and in prayers." Olshausen, the distinguished German commentator, maintains that this passage gives the order or elements of worship connected with the stated meetings of the early church. But their stated meetings - were upon the Lord's day, so theD 32 THE IOWA PULPIT. when the early Christians assembled on the Lord's day which was every Lord's day, and not once in three months, or once in a year, there was teaching (doc- trine), the breaking of bread, the fellowship (which Olshausen understands to mean the collection, and says that nearly all modern scholars agree with him in this view), and prayers. These elements of pub- lic worship correspond exactly with what Justin Martyr states was the custom among all Christians in the towns and in the country, in the days imme- diately following the apostolic age. These words of Justin will be given under the head of historic testi- mony, soon to follow. Such then, is the scriptural warrant for the stated, which must be the weekly, observance of the Lord's Supper. I now want to turn the light of subsequent history on these scriptures, that we may see more clearly what they teach. We cannot practice anything that does not rest on scripture warrant either in precept or example. Hence, we cannot practice anything that rests solely on uninspired history. But history may greatly help us to understand the teaching of scriptures. This use of history is not always properly understood. We may very reasonably conclude that our Savior meant in the commission what the Apostles taught and practiced, as recorded in Acts of Apostles. So we may also reasonably conclude that that interpretation of the teaching and practice of the Apostles is correct, which accords with what history informs us was the practice of the church immediately after the days of the Apostles. Now STATEMENT. S3 our interpretation of the scriptures is that we have divine warrant for the weekly observance of the Lord's Supper. Does post- apostolic practice confirm this interpretation ? We believe that it does most amply and fully. In the year 110, the Emperor Trojan sent the younger Pliny to govern Bithynia and Pontus. Pliny found many Christians in his province. They were brought before him for trial, and he questioned them and made dilligent search as to their practices. He was perplexed to know what to do, and finally wrote the Emperor, giving an account of the practices of the Christians, and asking for advice. This is what he says of their practices : " They were accustomed, on a stated day, to meet together before day, to sing a hymn to Christ in concert, as to a God, and to bind themselves by a sacrament not to do anything that was evil, but on the contrary to abstain from theft, robbery and adultery, also never to violate their promise, nor deny a pledge committed to them." From this letter of Pliny we learn, 1st. That the early Christians met on a stated day. It was not a hap-hazzard meeting that they practiced, but a stated meeting and that must have been on the first day of the week — could not have been on any other day. 2d. "When they met on that day they bound themselves by a sacrament, and that must have been the Lord's Supper. As often as that day came around, just that often they attended to, what Pliny calls, a sacrament. The disciples perhaps, would not have called it by that name, for sacrament 34 THE IOWA PULPIT. means an oath in the Latin language, but as it was observed somewhat like the Romans took their oaths, Pliny called it by that name, so that the Emperor might understand him, though it is not conceivable that the Christians coupled oaths of any kind with the observance of the Lord's Supper, or any other of their observances. Such is the testimony of a heathen writer to the practice of the early church. Now let us examine the testimony of those Chris- tians themselves as to their practice in this respect. I want to call special attention to the testimony of Justin Martyr already referred to. He was born not later than 103 and not earlier that 98— the precise time cannot be determined. His place of birth was the city of Flavia Neapolis, the ancient Sichem in Samaria. He was a man of great learning and a very candid Christian. He traveled extensively among the churches, and finally settled in Rome, where he be- came a Christian teacher, and paid for his fidelity to Christ by suffering martyrdom in the year 165. On account of the persecutions that were constantly waged against the Christians, Justin was stirred up to offer an apology for them. This he addressed to the Emperor Antonius Pius, his adopted sons, and the Senate and people of Rome, and it could not have been written, according to Neander, later than the year 139. He is careful to state the practices of a*ll Christians both in the towns and the country. He had, as before stated, traveled extensively among them and knew tfceir customs. The following is what he says as to their order of public worship : " On the day called STATEMENT. 86 (by the Romans) Sunday, all Christians that live either in towns or in the country, meet together, and the memoirs of the Apostles, or the writings of the prophets are read, as time permits. When the reader has finished, the person presiding instructs the peo- ple in an address, and exhorts them to imitate the excellent things they have heard. Then we all join in prayer, and after that we celebrate the sacrament. Then they who are able and willing, give what they think proper." — Apol. 1, C. 67. We have now before us the testimony of the younger Pliny and of Justin Martyr — one written in the year 110, and the other in the year 139. Pliny says that the Christians of Bithynia met on a stated day and celebrated the Lord's Supper, and Justin informs us that that stated day was the day called by the Romans, Sunday, and that all Christians followed this practice. Who can doubt in the light of these historic testimonies, that our interpretation of Acts 20:7, is correct. We feel perfectly confident that the apostolic church met on the first day of each week to break bread.* As a confirmation of our views on the weekly observance of the Lord's Supper, I want to present testimonies from a few of the able and candid schol- ars among the Protestant denominations with which we are surrounded. The American Tract Society "The recently discovered manuscript entitled Teaching of the Twelve Apostles, written no doubt some time in the second century, bears this tes- timony as to the Lord's Supper being a part of the regular observance of the Lord's day: "Coming together on the Lord's day, break bread and give thanks, confessing your transgressions that your sacrifice may be pure." So able a journal as the Congregationalist says that this document confirms the custom among the Disciples of breaking bread on the first day of every week 86 THE IOWA PULPIT. published a book by the distinguished Jonathan Edwards, entitled : Thoughts on the Revival of Religion. Here is what he says on page 435 as to the weekly observance of the Lord's Supper: "It seems plain by the scriptures, that the primitive Christians were wont to celebrate their memorial of the sufferings of their dear Redeemer every Lord's day, and so I believe it will be again in the Church of Christ, in the days that are approaching." Such is the testimony of the renowaed author of the cele- brated treatise on the Human Will. I have lying before me, as I write, a work written by a distinguished Scotch surgeon, the late John Mair, M. D., of Edinburgh, extraordinary member of the Royal Medical Society of Edinburgh; Staff Surgeon First-Class, to her Britannic Majesty's Army. The work is entitled " Biblical Temperance." The treatment of the Lord's Supper is incidental, but is nevertheless clear and satisfactory. Here is what he says on page 162, as to the observance of this institution: "May not the Lord's Supper be justly considered as a most important part of the Lord's day? Are they not both sacred institutions of King Jesus ? Is it possible that the Lord's day can be duly observed, while the Lord's Supper is neglected or desecrated ? The common day would be incomplete without its chief meal. The body would become enfeebled for want of sufficient nour- ishment; and so must the Lord's day be incomplete, and the soul of the Christian languish and wax faint, if it be not accompanied by the Lord's Supper. STATEMENT. 37 If we neglect to break bread and drink the cup of blessing every returning Lord's day, in remembrance of his death, how can we suitably meditate on his resurrection?" Dr. Mair was a Presbyterian and eminent not only as a surgeon, but as a devout Christian. Not long since I had put into my hands a treatise on the Lord's Supper, by James Ingles, a preacher among the Plymouth Brethren. Among other things he says : " The true ground on which we advocate the weekly celebration of the Lord's Supper is not our own conclusions as to the fitness and advantages of the practice, clear as they may seem ; but the will of the Lord, as that is gathered from the. prac- tice of the church while it was under the guidance of the inspired apostles." Then follow the scrip- tural arguments in favor of keeping this institution as a part of the stated worship on the Lord's day. Scott, in his commentary, has this observation on Act 20 :7. " Breaking of bread, as commemorating the death of Christ in the Eucharist, was one chief end of their assembling. This ordinance seems con- stantly to have been observed every Lord's day, and probably no professed Christians absented them- selves after they had been admitted into the church, unless they lay under some censure, or had some real hinderance." E. W. Hamilton, L.L.D., D.D., in his work on the " Christian Sabbath," after quot- ing the above passage from Dr. Scott, proceeds to say: "Specially should this day be given to the commemorative feast. It was of old called ' the day 38 THE IOWA PULPIT. of "bread.* Unworthy is our regard to it, low is our state of devotion, if its weekly repetition could pall It is unimaginable that the early Christians ever assembled, and this was not the art of their highest transport. * * * The practice of the first churches should be revived." (See Mair's Biblical Temperance, pp. 163, 164). John Wesley, the foun- der of Methodism, published among other sermons one entitled " The Duty of Constant Communion.'-* Of this sermon he says : " This discourse was writ- ten above five and fifty years ago, for the use of my pupils at Oxford. I thank God I have not yet seen cause to alter my sentiments in any point which is therein delivered." Much as I would .like to quote liberally from this sermon, but one extract is all that my space Avill allow me to give, which is as follows: " Let every one, therefore, who has either any desire to please God, or any love of his own soul, obey God and consult the good of his own soul, by com- municating every time he can ; like the first Christ- ians, with whom the Christian sacrifice was a con- stant part of the Lord's days service." (Sermon 106, Yol. LT, p. 350). Wesley writing to the elders in the Methodist church in America in 1784, says : " I also advise the elders to administer the Supper of the Lord on every Lord's day." These quotations must suffice, though they could be largely increased. The testimony of Eusebius, "the father of Church History," Dr. John L. Mos- heim, the distinguished German Church Historian, John Calvin, John Mil ion and hundreds of others ■ STATEMENT. ijy could "be given, all of whom testify that the primi- tive church celebrated the Lord's Supper on every Lord's day. Dr. John Mason of New York in his letters on " Frequent Communion," when arguing for its weekly observance, says : "iVor, will this be de- nied by any man who has candidly investigated the subject?'' This voices the scholars of all denomi- nations who have given this subject attention. Could we be loyal to our plea of a return to primitive Christianity, nay, could we be loyal to Christ, un- less we attended to the Lord's Supper on every Lord's day? VI. Believing, as we do, that the Bible is a per- fect guide, we speak where it speaks, and we are silent whei-e it is silent. If for instance people ask what they must do to be saved, we give them the answers found in the Bible, feeling perfectly sure that we are right. We find under the labors of the inspired apostles that penitent sinners on the profession of their faith in Christ were immediately baptized for the remission of their sins, and were received into the church without delay. We claim that it should be so done now, and such is our practice. Charles G Finney, the noted revivalist, said that the anxious seat now occupies the place that baptism occupied in the primitive church. If this is so, as it no doubt in some sense is, then away with the anxious seat, and let baptism take its place where it was in the perfect church. We have endured much opposi- tion because we have taught baptism for the remis- sion of sins. There is no reasonable excuse for this 40 THE IOWA PULPIT. opposition. Did not Jesus say : " He that "believeth and is baptised shall be saved, and he that believeth not shall be damned." And did not Peter say on the day of pentecost: "Repent and be baptized every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the remmission of sins, and you. shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost." Dr. Hackett one of the most emi- nent of Baptist scholars in his commentary on Acts, translates and comments as follows on this passage: "JSis aphesin liamartioon, in order to the remission of sins (Matt. 26 : 28 ; Luke 3 : 3), we connect natur- ally with both the preceding verbs. This clause states the motive or object which should induce them to repent and be baptized. It enforces the entire exhortation, not one part of it to the exclusion ot the other." This is our position exactly. Baptism without faith and repentance is of no value what- ever. Should any one trust to the mere opus opera- turn of baptism for regeneration he will be sadly disappointed. Only when the heart is changed by a living faith in Christ and the will subdued by re- pentance can baptism be of any value. Then it is an humble recognition of the authority of Christ and is coupled with the remission of sins just as faith and repentance are. Much of the opposition that has been hurled against us for our views of the de- sign of baptism has grown out of a misconception of our position on this subject. Many have sup- posed that we hold to the doctrine of baptismal regeneration — that we believe in some efficacy in the water — or some "sacramental grace" as some ex- STATEMENT. 41 press it. Such conceptions are foreign to our views and there is no excuse for such ignorance. Alexan- der Campbell said in his debate with N. L. Rice : " You may have heard me say here, (and the whole country may have read it and heard it many a time)? that a seven-fold immersion in the river Jordan, or any other water, without a previous change of heart, will avail nothing — without a genuine faith and penitence. Nor would the most strict conformity to all the forms and usages of the most perfect church order; the most exact observance of all the ordi- nances, without personal faith, piety, and moral righteousness — without a new heart, hallowed lips, and a holy life, profit a man in reference to eternal salvation." (Campbell and Rice Debate, p. 678.) These are our views and hundred of similar extracts could be given from the writings of our leading men in all parts of the land. Hence to represent us other- wise is willful ignorance. But whatever may be our theories, we should give to inquiring sinners the answers found in God's word given on similar occasions, and let our theories go to the moles and bats. Since the anxious seat or mourner's bench, as com- monly used, is confessedly a modem innovation, and has supplanted a divine ordinance, we cannot join with many well meaning people in the use they make of it. We believe in praying for sinners, and should not object to praying for them even at the mourn- er's bench, if allowed to have our own way. But we cannot ask God to do for the sinner at the mourner's 42 THE IOWA PULPIT. bench what he has promised to do for him through one of his own appointments. God's way mnst be the best — the only right way. This principle now under consideration leads ns to set aside all human expedients that infringe on the divine economy as revealed in the Bible. A proba- tion, whether for six months or any other length of time, for those who have accepted Christ with all their hearts, before they are received into the church, is a thing unknown to the New Testament. Penitent sinners were immediately baptized and received into the church in the apostolic age. We doubt not but a departure from this ancient order of things origina- ted in a good motive, but very many serious depart- ures have arisen in that way. Human judgment, even when sanctified by the grace of God, is too frail to depend upon when the salvation of the soul is con- cerned. "We need our pathway lighted by the infal- lible guidance of the word of God. Again, faithfulness in following the practices of the primitive church leads us to reject all innovations in the government of the church. In the apostolic age each local church or congregation had a plurality of elders and deacons. (See Phil. 1:1.) Elders and bishops were the same. The elders of the church at Ephesus were called bishops. (See Acts 20 : 17 and 28.) There is no controversy among scholars as to the fact that the distinction between elders and bishops arose subsequent to New Testament times. (See Neander's Church History, vol. i, p. 190 ; also his Planting and Training of the Christian Church, p. 148.) It may be STATEMENT. 43 claimed that this is a trivial matter, and no harm can come of it. Not so ; for the Pope of Rome is an over-grown elder or hishop. There is no safety but to leave things as God gave them to us. " What God has joined together let no man pat asunder," is true of other things as well as the marriage relation. With us elders and bishops are the same and there is a plurality of them, as well as of deacons, in each local congregation, unless in some new and weak churches where there are not enough qualified persons to fill these offices. We have taken our stand squarely on New Testament ground in this, as well as all other matters. We know that our position is a safe one, and it gives us great comfort to know that such is the case. Again, "we call Bible things by Bible names.''1 This we ought to do if we have gone back to the ancient order of things. As an instance of this practice, we never call the first day of the week the Sabbath. Why? Because it is never so called in the Bible, nor for centuries after the New Testament was written. The custom of styling the Lord's day the Sabbath was not known in the times of the Fathers, and not till the close of the sixteenth cen- tury did the practice come into general use. Surely if Jesus and the Apostles and the primitive Fathers never so designated the first day of the week, there must have been good reason for such a course, whether we know that reason or not. It is safe to walk in the footsteps of Christ and His apostles. For the same reason we never call breaking bread or at- 44 THE IOWA PULPIT. tending to the Lord's Supper " taking the sacrament." Such expressions are " Ashdodic " and are used with- out "being understood or convey a wrong meaning. In either case their use should be discontinued. I have now given a brief outline of the principles and object of our movement. Focalized, the whole movement is this : We take Christianity as it came from the hands of Christ and His apostles and reject whatever bears not this stamp. We claim to have restored the primitive church. We are not therefore a sect, unless the New Testament church was a sect, and this no one will claim. Here then is a basis of union broad enough for all God's children and we plead with them to come and unite with us and help in this work. If it should be said that it is arrogance in us to claim to be wiser than others in knowing what is the apostolic church and its prac- tices, our reply is, we do not lay any claim to such superior wisdom. I have endeavored in this state- ment of our principles and object, not only to state our positions, but to show what the scholarship of the world has to say on these things. Is there any doubt among Protestants as to the all-sufficiency of the scriptures as a rule of faith and practice? None. Is there any doubt as to the names borne by the children of God in New Testament times? None. What do the leading scholars of the world say as to our manner of baptizing and our rejection of infant baptism? They say we are right, that is, that we practice as the primitive church did. What about our weekly observance of the Lord's Supper? We are 8TATEMENT. right, if historians and scholars can be depended on. And so on in all we do and teach. And now in conclusion, I know there are many pious and faithful Christians among the denomina- tions with whom we are surrounded. We love them for their earnest devotion to the Savior. "We pray God that we may all be united in one fold. But till then we say, brethren, understand us before you con- demn. Strike, but heajr. N. A. MoCOKNELL. HE subject of this sketch, Nelson Antnm McCoanell, deserves a more extended notice than is usual in a work of this kind. Born January 23, 1824, in Columbiana County, Ohio. Received a very limited education in the common schools, having attended such about eighteen months, before he was thirteen years old. His father intended him for a merchant and apprenticed him to that business, March, 1837. He served five years in that capacity, and at the age of eighteen, abandoned it and learned the carpenter and joiner's trade, at which he spent seven years. During those twelve years he spent four months in the com- mon schools, studying English grammar and natural philoso- phy. His parents were members of the Friends (Quakers) at the time of his birth, and hence he had a birthright with them, and was regarded as a member in good standing until in his seventeenth year. In November, 1839, John Henry and Marcus Bosworth, (both deceased) of Trumbull County, Ohio, held a meeting at East Fairfield, Ohio, which he attended. During its progress the wild, thoughtless and somewhat reckless boy was siezedwith convic- tion, and led to enquire, "What must I do to be saved?" And on the last evening of the meeting he, in company with several others, went forward and confessed the Savior. It was a great surprise to all who knew him, especially to his parents, who were exceedingly mad against that way. which they called "Campbell- ism." Some busy body ran to the village and informed his father that the baptism of his boy was about to occur, whereupon he 48 THE IOWA PULPIT. immediately started for the scene of action. He overtook the crowd on their way to the creek called Bradfi eld's Run, in which the Disciples were wont to baptize, and laying his hand on the shonlder of the lad, bade him stop, which he reluctantly did ; and after some conversation returned to the village with- out obeying the Lord. In just five weeks from that time, another meeting was held at the same place, by John Henry and E. Vanvoorhis, now of Knox County, Ohio. On the last night of which at 9 p. m. , De- cember 12th, 1839, Elder Vanvoorhis immersed him into the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. In a short time he began exercising in the congregation, and in a young men's prayer meeting which he was instrumental in organizing. His former "church," in about seven months after his "apostacy," disposed of his case as follows : "Whereas, Nelson A. McConnell has much neglected the at- tendance of our religious meetings, has not observed plainness in dress, and has been immersed in water for baptism : and having been treated with on these accounts, without the de- sired effect, we therefore disown him from membership in the religious Society of Friends, until he shall consistently regain the same, which is our earnest desire for him. Signed in, and in behalf of the Carmal Monthly Meeting. This— day of seventh month, 1840. Nathan Holb, Clerk." In 1844 he became acquainted with the venerable James E. Gaston, now of DesMoines, who was then living in the village of Fairfield, Ohio and preaching for the church at that place. This man of God took a deep interest in him, and encouraged him to use what talent he had, and prepare for the ministry. And but for his example, advice and encouragement, Bro. McConnell would probably never have been a preacher. On the 10th day of July, 1845, he was married to Sarah Ann Brisbine by Elder Gaston, taking as a fee therefor (by his own proposition) a sermon which McConnell had preached at one of Elder Gaston's appointments six months previously. He entered the regular ministry October, 184S, walking through a heavy rain, and preaching in Elder G. Pow's kitchen I He spent a year with eight churches in the county where he had always lived. JS. A. M'OONNELL. 49 In November, 1849, he came to Iowa, landing at Davenport, whither he had been called by a co-operation of churches and scattered disciples, to evangelize what was then known as the Second District, bounded by the Maquoketa, Iowa and Missis- sippi Rivers. His first sermon was at LeClaire in Scott County ; and from thence he pushed out into the district, laboring hard and receiving therefor the sum of $300 for one year. In November. 1850, he settled at Marion, Linn County, and has preached for the church there more or less, ever since; but he ministered regularly for them seventeen years. By the State Meeting at Mt. Pleasant in 1856, he was appointed State Evangelist, the first the State ever had, and served one year. In 1863 he was again appointed to the same position, which he continued three years. In 1866 he removed to Marshalltown and labored for the Marshall and Hardin churches. In November, 1871, he returned to Marion, remaining there till 1875, when he went to Cedar Rapids, and after a residence of five years, again removed to Marshalltown, where he now resides. Like all pioneer preachers, Bro. McConnell, though a man of peace, has crossed blades with the foes of primitive Christianity. In 1851 he was invited to defend our plea, assailed by a Congre- gational minister in Marion. Dr. Roberts, the challenger, was reputed quite a scholar in the languages. On the first day he made a display of his Greek. But McConnell replied that Rob- erts had the advantage, as he did not know a letter in the Greek. Whereupon Roberts severely rebuking him said: "If the gen- tleman had spent ten minutes a day since he has been in Marion, studying Greek, he could have read it as well as I." When the debate opened the next day, Bro. McConnell said: "I have spent ten minutes this morning in the study of Greek, as suggested by my friend, and am prepared to answer all Greek yet presented." He then rattled off a few Greek words, which so completely nonplussed his opponent that he was glad to play quits. He has had several debates since. Two with the Tunkers, one of which was reported and published. Three with Sabbatari- ans, one with the Wesley an Methodists, and one with an Infidel. His labors for the thirty-four and a half years have been almost exclusively in Iowa, though he has temporarily visited 4 60 TKE IOWA PULPIT. and praacfcfcd ia Wisconsin, Minnesota, Kansas, Missouri and Arkansas. He was at one time connected with the Evan- gelist published in this State ; has ever been connected with the Educational and Missionary enterprises of the church, and has been ever intrusted with the most important positions in them, such as Trustee of College, State Evangelist, President of the State Convention, and of the Ministerial Association, which position he holds at this time. As an able and uncompromising defender of the truth, none surpasses him. He has ever been characterized by independ- ence, firmness, and courage to utter his convictions regardless of consequences from men. Is possessed of fine physique, com- manding appearance; keen black eyes that flash fire when aroused ; a strong, logical inquiring mind, and great power as a speaker His sermons are compact, logical, and severely scrip- tural Weighing about 190 pounds, and standing six feet m height, with a well proportioned body and a bald head, he at once impresses you that he possesses superior ability. He is the only living representative of our "pioneer preach- ers " yet actively at work, among whom were such men as Aaron Chatterton, Arthur Miller, Jonas Hartzel and Levi Flem- mins who have gone to their reward. Bro. Martindale still lives but is not able to preach. And with the exception of him Bro. McConnell is left alone to represent the grand men whose labors have wrought such glorious results. Although having seen hard service, his native force seems unabated and bis resources inexhaustible^ CONDITIONS OF DIVINE SONSHD?. N". A. M'COISTNELL. He came to his own and his own received him not. But as many as received him. to them gave he po.ver 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. — John 1:11. 0 be a son of God in the sense of the text, is to sustain the grandest relation possible to man — a relation not enjoyed by angels : for unto no one of the angels did God ever say, " Thou art my son.''' To be a son of God is to be an heir of God and a joint heir with Christ, to an estate vast, boundless, unfading, inexhaust- ible, eternal. This relation is contingent and can be reached by the children of men only by meeting the conditions as set forth in the Father's will, ratified by the death of His only begotten son. These conditions can be met when understood.* They are not well understood by the masses, however clearly they are taught in the holy scripture. Hence the propriety, if not necessity of the proposed dis- cussion. 61 52 THE IOWA PULPIT. In entering upon the investigation of the subject indicated, viz: "Conditions of Divine Son ship," in the light of the text quoted, I enquire, 1st. Of whom are the words of the text predicated ? The answer is found in the context. " In the beginning was the Word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him : and without Him was not anything made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. * * * That was the true light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. * * And the word was made flesh and dwelt among us (and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father) full of grace, of truth."— John 1:14. These things are affirmed of " Jesus of Nazareth," " The Son of Mary," " The Son of David according to the flesh, but declared to be the Son of God ac- cording to the spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead." 2d. To whom came he ? (a) To the Jewish people who were his own : be- cause he was an Israelite, a son of Abram. To them he icame first and in person. (5) To the Samaritan he came secondly. They too were his own : for although they were a separate prople from the Jews, they were largely descended from the twelve tribes and recognized the God of Moses. (c) Thirdly, to the world at large. CONDITIONS OF DIVINE SONSHIP. 53 " All souls are mine. As the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son." And as a heathen poet, endorsed by an apostle said, "For we are, also his offspring." " This is a faithful saying and worthy of all accep- tation that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners."— I Ti. 1:15. "He gave himself a ransom for all," and "By the grace of God He tasted death for eveey man" (Heb. 2 : 9). And so, " If He died for all," ( 2 Cor. 5: 14). And thus He broke down the middle wall of partition between us, i. e., between Jew and Gentile. But He has come to the race, not in person, but in the gospel, saying, " Go teach all nations." " Go preach the gospel to every creature in all the world." " That repentance and remission of sins should be preached among all nations, etc." 3d. Did His own or those to whom He came receive Him ? No. Those to whom He appeared personally, said, " Let Him be crucified." Both Jews and Samaritans as a whole, rejected Him. There were some noble exceptions during His personal ministry, even among the Jews and Samaritans. The Gentiles also failed to recognize Him as the Son of God. They persecuted His representatives and put His followers to death. Kings and govern- ers unsheathed the sword and crucified the Lord of all glory in the person of His disciples. Even at this present time thousands to whom He comes in the gospel, fail to receive Him. It is very true, there- fore, " That He came to His own and His own received Him not." 54 THE IOWA PULPIT. 4th. What did He— what does He "besides coming? Answer. He made sons of God. To some " He gave power, authority, or privilege to become sons of God." Some have taken the position that this language does not imply actual sonship, hut only a privilege to he embraced in order to sonship. To my mind there is no force in this criticism. I assume, and to me it seems perfectly clear, that the language involves actual sonship. Abbot in his notes on the revised New Testament says. " Made them sons of God." Matthew Henry in a note on the place says, "It is the unspeakable privilege of all good Christians that they are become the children of God." I take it therefore that those who are described in the text were made sons, and all who shall hereafter fill this description will be constituted children of God. 5th. Had He authority to make men sons of God ? If there be an authority to do this, then He had and still has that authority. Said He. " All authority in heaven and in earth is given unto me " (Matt. 28 : 18). " I came not to do mine own will, but the will of Him that sent me.-' The works that I do, I do not of my- self, but the Father that sent me, He doeth the works. And the Father said, " This is my Son, the beloved in whom I am well pleased, hear ye Him." 6th. To whom did He give power to become the sons of God ? Or. whom did He make children of God f The text answers this question and states the con- dition upon which all are made the children of God. CONDITIONS OF DIVINE SONSHIP. 55 "But to as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become sons of God." "As many as received Him." Whoever then, or at any time since, or shall hereafter receive Him, was or shall he made a child of God. And so John says of such, " Beloved now are we the sons of God " (1 John 3 : 2), and Paul says, " Because ye are the sons of God, God hath sent forth the spirit of His Son into your hearts crying, Abha, Father, Blessed privilege and rich in bless- ings. 7th. But who are said to have received Him ? Answer. "JEJven them that believe on His name." Hence all who believe on His name, within the meaning of the text, are made sons or children of God. Are adopted into the divine family — have di- vine sonship, and so it is written "Ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. All the conditions of sonship are involved in receiv- ing Christ and all those who "believe on His name" receive Him and hence are made children of God. 8th. Who do believe on His (Christ's) name ? Answer. Those " who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." This language describes those who believe on the name of Christ, and such, and only such as are here described, do believe on " His name," and those be- lieving on His name, receive Him, and only such as receive Him are made children of God. This description involves a birth. What is that birth? 1st. Negatively. It is not to be "born of blood." It was the pride and boast of the Jews that 56 THE IOWA PULPIT. they had the blood of Abraham in their veins. " "We are Abraham's seed and were never in bondage to any man. How sayest thou ye shall be made free?" Christ replied, "If Abraham were your father, ye would do the work of Abraham." Then they said, " We have one father, even God." To this Jesus re- plied, "If God were your father, you would love me : for I came forth from Him and He sent me." " You are of your father the devil." "While it may be true that "blood icill tell" it is absolutely certain that nationality does not entitle men to "Divine sonship." Other people boast of their nationality and claim rights, privileges, and immunities, even in the church, upon this ground. All State religions recognize the birth of blood. But the text says "Born not of blood." This is laying the ax at the root of the tree of law established churches. No man is recognized as " Believing on His name " because of his nationality. " Nor of the will of the flesh." This is simply natural generation. Every man is born of the will of the flesh, but he is not entitled to membership in the divine family thereby. Natural generation does not make us sons of God. Natural generation from believing parents is by some made the ground of infant church membership. The church is composed of the children of God, hence it is claimed that "The children of believing parents are in covenant relation with God and therefore graciously entitled to bap- tism." " Nor of the will of the flesh," lays the ax at the root of the tree of infant church membership, and it must f alL CONDITIONS OF DIVINE SONSHIP. 57 " Nor of the will of man." The Jews were tena- cious of the traditions of the elders, and found fault with Christ "because His disciples transgressed them. He replied, " You have made void the commandments (the will) of God by your traditions, and teach for doctrines the commandments of men." They claimed acceptance with God because they strictly observed the traditions of men, but this was no more than to be born of the will of man. In the beginning of the seventh century, there ap- peared a man by the name of Mohammed, who became the author of a new religion, now embodied in the Alchoran. Whoever embraces that system is, in a religious sense, " born of the will of man : " for as a religion or system of salvation, it is man-made. It is the will of man in opposition to the will of God. Not those born of the will of man are made sons of God. In 1830 Joseph Smith and Sydney Rigdon inaugur- ated the Mormon religion, founded upon the Book of Mormon. This book was manufactured out of a manuscript written by a Mr. Spaulding and entitled " manuscript found" stolen from a printing office in the city of Pittsburgh, Pa., by Rigdon, who was a renegade from the Baptists and Disciples. Those who embrace the Mormon faith are " born of the will of man," but are not, as a consequence, "sons of God." " Nor of the will of man" is the ax laid against human tradition and man-made systems : "But" now affirmatively, 'lborn of God." It is now clear to every 58 THE IOWA PULPIT. one that those, and only those, who are horn of God, helieve on the name of the Son of God, and those and only those who believe on His name receive Him, and those who receive Him are constituted sons or children of God. There is now simply one question to he answered and then the conditions of divine sonsliip will he set- tled, viz : What is it to he horn of God? What are the agencies, instrumentalities, and means by which this birth is affected? Or, in other words, What is involved in this birth of God ? To make this clear and certain, I will collate all the passages that speak directly of this subject, and learn eveiything mentioned as pertaining to or invol- ved in being " Born of God." First. I read (James 1 : 18) " Of His "—God's — " own will begat he us with the word of truth." This shows that God is the author— the prime factor. Second. (1 Cor. 4 : 15) " For though you have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet have ye not many fathers : for in Christ I have begotten you through the gospel." And (Philemon 10) Paul says of Ones- imus, "whom I have begotten in my bonds." Here the Apostles are introduced as agents in effecting the work. Third. (John 3:5) "Except a man be born of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." This passage gives the Holy Spirit as an agent, with- out whose work we cannot become sons of God. Fourth. (1 Peter 1 : 23) " Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of CONDITIONS OF DIVINE SONSHIP. 59 God which lives and abides forever. * * And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you." This furnishes us the instrument — the seed — employed in the birth. Fifth. (1 John 5:1)'* Whosoever believes that Jesus is the Christ, is born of God." Here faith is men- tioned as in some way connected with or involved in the birth. Sixth. (1 John 4:7) * * "Love is of God, and every one that loveth is born of God." Love has some place in the birth by which we are made sons of God. Those who do not receive the love of the truth will be damned. — 2 Thess. 2 : 10. Seventh. (John 3:5)" Verily I say unto thee, ex- cept a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he can- not enter into the kingdom of God." Here baptism is said to have something to do in accomplishing the birth, or making us sons of God. I say baptism, for all agree that baptism is meant. These seven things are mentioned as in some way related to, " Being born of God." Besides I know of none other. The order in which these are related to each other and being " Born of God," is the following, viz: 1st. God purposed. 2d. Sent the Holy Spirit who inspired the Apostles. 3d. The Apostles preached the gospel with the Holy Spirit sent down from heaven. 4th. The word — the seed that quickens — the gospel heard is now present in the heart where it works effectually, and 5th. Produces faith, or the belief " that Jesus is the Christ." 6tk. The faith 60 THE IOWA PULPIT. thus begotten inspires love for the truth, and he who loves the truth will obey it. Or, 7th. " Be baptized," and thus be born of water. Thus were men born of God. Thus are men now born of God, and being bom of God, are recognized as believing on His name. And as many as believe on His name receive Him, and those who receive Him are made the sons of God. "And because sons, God hath sent the Spirit of His Son into their hearts, crying, Father, Father." " Be- hold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God. 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 one that hath this hope in bim, purifieth himself even as he is pure." — Amen. G. T. CARPENTER. GEORGE THOMAS CARPENTER HE subject of this sketch is well known as an able preacher, educator and writer. He was born March 4, 1834, in Nelson Co., Ky., of Germ an -English parent- age. His father was a brother of Judge Samuel Car- penter, of Bardstown, Ky., and his mother a relative of the lamented Abraham Lincoln. Ere George was born his father died, leaving quite an estate, which was afterwards fraudulently wrested from the heirs. After a widowhood of seven years, his mother married Mr. J. W. HufFaker, of Bureau Co., Ills., where George grew to manhood, amid the privations and hardships common to a new country. But by dint of industry and perseverance, which have characterized his whole life, together with strictly moral habits and manly traits, he made commendable progress in whatever studies he had opportunity to pursue. He receiv- ed a preparatory course of instruction in the Princeton Acad- emy, then in charge of Prof. James Smith, an able teacher, and a deacon in the celebrated Owen Lovejoy's church. While in this school he supported himself, mainly by labors of various kinds. He boarded the entire time with a Mrs. Wood, doing chores for her, and remembers to have sawed fifteen cords of wood for Mr. Lovejoy's church. His own struggles in preparing himself for usefulness, intensifies his sympathies with young men in like circumstances now. But he has no patience with lazy, aimless and dissipated youth. With him the sweat of honest toil is more honorable than the glitter of inherited wealth. After leaving the Academy he taught a few terms with mark- ed success, first in Iowa, then in his home district school : when 61 62 THE IOWA PULPIT. he determined to enter college. He matriculated in Abingdon College in 1855, where, as in the Academy, he made good use of his t'me, had but one boarding place, and graduated in 1859. Shortly afterward he took charge of the Academy at Winterset, Iowa, teaching and preaching there for nearly two years.* In September, 1861, he and his brother, J. W., now of College City, Cal., opened the school in Oskaloosa College, umler cir- cumstances that would have appalled less determined spirits. In a building only partially inclosed, inconveniently situated, and heavily burdened with debt, these two young men opened school with five students. In the face of such an undertaking, the strong hopefulness and heroic faith of such men, need not be written. To them are due, the subsequent respectability and usefulness of the institution. At Oskaloosa he labored as teacher, preacher and editor for twenty years. In 1873 he re- tired from the College, and, as he then supposed, from an active educational life, that he might give his time to the Evangelist, of which he had become chief editor. But after three years, at the urgent request of the Board, Teachers and friends of the College, he reluctantly returned, and took the position of Pres- ident. The school grew in numbers, harmony and influence, excepting the financial condition, for which, of course, the faculty were in no way responsible, until three of the teachers declared themselves "starved out." At this juncture the project of establishing a Christian Uni- versity at Des Moines was hopefully inaugurated. And after careful and prayerful consideration, President Carpenter and the other members of the faculty, felt it their duty to identify themselves with the movement. This course was approved by a very large majority of the brethren of the State. And the fact that a majority of the students, with all the faculty, but one, followed him, gave assurance at once of the popularity of the enterprise, and of the subject of this sketch. He had long had a fervent desire to see a strong church school in Iowa, and looks upon Drake University, in the founding, organizing and building up of which he has performed so conspicious a part, as the great work of his life. His religious life began in December, 1854, when he was baptiz- ed by Elder Daniel Parkinson. Having previously begun the study of law, and possessing some gifts as a speaker, he was GEORGE THOMAS CARPENTER. 63 urged to exercise them in the church. This led to the aband- onment of the law, and a resolution to engage in the work of the ministry. Hence, July 3, 1859, he was set apart to this work, President P. H. Murphy, Prof. J. W. Butler and others of the Abingdon church officiating. From that time to the present, while not exclusively confined to the ministry, he has been a successful proclaimer of the Word. He has held several fruitful revival meetings, though his labors have been mostly confined to Lord's days, and ad- dresses during his travels. He has also held a number of debates with Infidels, Uni- versalists, and others, with credit to himself, satisfaction to his brethren, and damage to. error. No where do his powers appear to better advantage than in discussion. One debate was held with W. F.Jamison, Spiritualist, at Oskaloosa,in 1871, lasting six days. Soon after, the gist of his arguments was published in a little book, entitled " The Bible vs. Spiritual- ism," which was eagerly sought, and became a sort of text book among debaters with Spiritualists. His latest debate was with John Hughes, the champion of Universalism in the West. It was reported, and published by the Ceir* ral Book Con- cern, and is regarded as one of the ablest debates extant, in- volving the subject in dispute. He was married June 21, 1863, to Henrietta T. Drake, daughter of Judge J. A. Drake, of Drakeville, Iowa, who has been to him a true, loving, Christian wife, and a sharer of all his labors and cares. They have one son and three daughters. Few Iowa preachers are strangers to the cordial hospitalities of their home. He has held positions of trust and honor in religious, fra- ternal, educational, municipal and national affairs. In 1873, he was appointed an honorary United States Commissioner to the World's Fair at Vienna, Austria. During that sum- mer he made an extended tour through Europe ; sketches of which appeared in twenty-six articles, published in the Evangelist. He has since frequently lectured on his travels and observations. He has long been a radical Prohibitionist, and in 1879 was nominated by the Prohibition Convention at Cedar Rapids, for Governor of the State. But as other duties forbade his making 84 THE IOWA PULPIT. a proper canvass, he declined the honor, and by his suggestion the Central Committee substituted the name of D. R. Dungan. In personal appearance, Chancellor Carpenter is of medium size, well formed, and his once raven locks are now almost white, or giving place to baldness. In disposition, he is com- panionable, and liberal almost to a fault. As a preacher, he is clear, logical and forcible, and withal possessing some gifts of oratory and pathos. In mental traits and habits, common sense and energy, rather than abstract profundity and abnormal brilliancy, seem to lead. In short, he may be said to be a well-rounded, all-sided man, who can readily turn his energies into any call- ing that promises the glory of God and the good of men — a man earnestly striving to live under the approval of God. THINGS TO BE HEEDED G. T. CARPENTER. " Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things that were heard lest haply we drift away from them."— Heb.2:l. |AUL is the prince of logicians. He that would understand him must note the rela- tions of his introductions, propositions, f arguments and conclusions. It is rightly conceded that the Hebrew Letter is a Pauline epistle. Hence to understand it or any part of it, we must study it as a strictly logical pro- duction. This letter was to the Hebrews ; and yet its writer was the great apostle to the Gentiles. But his consistency in this is apparent when it is re- membered that here, as in most of his writings, he vindicates the rights of the Gentiles to all the bless- ings of the gospel without any observance of the law, and thus defeats the heresy of the Judaizing teachers then so common. To do this he shows that the law was national, temporary, and insufficient for eternal salvation. Hence the close student of Paul's writings would readily anticipate that the 5 65 66 TI13S IOWA PULPIT. burden of this epistle is to show to the Jews the all- sufficiency of the gospel, and that the law, having served its purposes, had become dead. Our text is introduced by the word " therefore, " a term that is used to introduce a conclusion drawn from a former argument. Whether such conclusion, in any given case, is final or only subordinate, must depend upon the argument from which it is deduced. In the case before us, it will be observed that it in- troduces a conclusion drawn from the first of a series of arguments designed to establish the supremacy and sufficiency of Christ and his institutions. A brief analysis of the entire letter will render this"" statement more apparent. In the first four verses of the epistle, the apostle presents a most direct and sublime introduction, in which is couched the grand general proposition thought to be proven. The apostle assumes that God had spoken to the Jewish fathers at various times and in different ways through prophets ; but he further affirms that "in these last days he has spoken unto us by his Son. " ' This announcement is followed by a declaration concerning the exalted character and mission of this Heir of all things, Law-giver and Priest, the one, the only one, whose law is henceforth to be heeded, and whose media- tion is worthy of being sought. This supremacy of Christ over everything relating to the old covenant must be proven in reference to its several important particulars. This Paul proceeds to do in the fol- lowing propositions and proofs: THINGS TO BE HEEDED. 67 I. Jesus Christ is superior to the angels by whom Moses received the law. Verse 4. This proposition is maintained by six distinct quotations from the Jewish scriptures, showing, 1. That Christ is a be- gotten son ; angels are not. 2. Christ is to be wor- shipped ; angels are not. 3. Christ holds the scep- tre ; angels are only servants. 4. Christ has been annointed above his fellows ; angels have not. 5. Christ was a creator ; angels were not. 6. Christ as a Sovereign shall occupy the throne till all his enemies are subdued ; angels are only the ministering servants to the followers of Jesus. Having occupied the remainder of the first chap- ter with this argument concerning the superiority of Christ over the angels by whom the law was given, the apostle introduces the conclusion drawn from such arguments, by the language of our text. This deduction and the admonitions connected there- with, occupy the entire second chapter, which con- cludes with a reference to Christ's priesthood. II. At the beginning of the third chapter, Christ is introduced in the double office of Apostle, or one sent as a leader and law-giver, and as High Priest. Moses was the apostle to the Israelites, while Aaron was the High priest. But Jesus Christ combined both offices within himself. (See also Zech. 6:13, and I John 5 :6.) Then separating -the double office, the writer proceeds to show the superiority of Christ over Moses, the acknowledged giver of the law. Moses is shown to have been only a faithful servant in the house which God built through the Word that 68 THE IOWA PULPIT. became flesh, while Jesus Christ is the Son, and heir of all things. This argument and its admonitions con- tinue to the close of the third chapter. The fourth contains conclusions and deductions, and prepares the way for the next step in this progressive argu- ment. m. Jesus Christ is superior to Aaron and his descendants as Priest. This is abundantly proven in the fifth chapter, and proper deductions are drawn in the sixth. But in the seventh the nature and superiority of the Melchisedec priesthood to which order Christ is proven to belong, is clearly demon- strated. A summary of this argument is given in the eighth chapter, concluding with the declara- tion that the old covenant with all of its priestly and legal functions was decayed, and must give place to the new law and priesthood under Christ. " The priesthood being changed, there was made of neces- sity a change also of the law. " TV. Having now shown Christ's superiority over the angels by whom Moses received the law, and over Moses as a law-giver, and Aaron as a priest, begin- ning with the ninth chapter, he undertakes to show that the ordinances of the Jewish covenant were in- ferior and temporary, while those of the new cove- nant instituted by Christ, are better and more en- during. This argument continues to the close of the eighteenth verse of the tenth chapter, when a most impressive conclusion and admonition is intro- duced. The eleventh chapter is a grand exemplifi- cation of the power and perfection of faith as con- THINGS TO BE HEEDED. 69 trasted with the ritualistic works of the law. The twelfth and thirteenth chapters contain the grand conclusion of the whole argument, with the sundry admonitions, exhortations and salutations consistent with the scope and character of this most wonder- fully logical and incisive production. With this very brief and necessarily imperfect outline analysis of the Hebrew Letter before us, it is hoped that we can more readily understand and appreciate our text, which, it will be remembered, is the introduction of the conclusion drawn from the first of the series of sub-arguments, and in which the superiority of Christ over angels is conclusively proven. The text and context may be properly and conveniently considered under the following heads : I. The obligation enjoined. II. The things to be heeded. HI. The reason for thus heeding. In considering this peculiar passage under these headings, the reader is earnestly requested to keep in mind the relation of this particular passage to the general scope of the entire argument or series of arguments contained in the entire letter. I. " Therefore " — in consideration of the argument just concluded — " we ought " — we owe it — " to give " — not only heed, but " the more earnest heed " to something. If our obligation is thus strong, the thing enjoined must be very important. The awful solemnity, imperiousness and importance of this obligation might be readily inferred from the fact that it is related to one superior to angels, and who 70 THE IOWA PULPIT. made the worlds, who is the image and son of God ; one who upholds all things by the word of his power ; and one who, " when he had by his own sacrifice purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high. " Surely there is wonderful em- phasis in this little word ougJit, in this connection. This obligation enjoins, not only the giving of heed, but the more earnest heed. " II. We next inquire what the things are that we are thus enjoined to heed so earnestly. The text and context give five descriptive tests to aid us in determining what is included, and consequently what excluded from this important injunction. j. The things to be "more earnestly heeded," are things that were heard, had already been preached to the saints. 2. They embrace a great salvation which we are in danger of neglecting. 3. These things had at " the first been spoken through the Lord. " 4. They had been confirmed by them that had heard Jesus. 5. " God had borne witness with them, both by signs and wonders, and by manifold powers, and by gifts of the Holy Spirit according to his own will. " Whatever religious ciaim does not come clearly within these five tests, may be rejected by us with entire impunity. This rule would work utter de- struction to modern creeds and all ideas of a "pro- gressive Christianity. " We are not to give earnest heed to popular clamor, demands of fashion, time serving expediences, stilted rank, imperious wealth, ©r any whim, convenience or doubtful expedient THINGS TO BE IlEED]Si>. 71 While we are to " be wise as serpents, " we must not forget to " be harmless as doves. " The glory of God and the welfare of others must be the inspir- ing motive, and the gospel law the rule of action. Affirmatively considered, it is evident that there are something, to which we should "give the more ear- nest heed, lest we should glide away from them, " "let them slip," or "leak out." These are the things that began to be spoken by Christ Jesus, were reaffirmed by the apostolic witnesses, and con- firmed by miraculous demonstrations of the Holy Spirit. These things embrace the elements, terms, and conditions of the " great salvation. " That the gospel in its transcendant facts, uncompromising commands and glorious promises, is here intended, needs no detailed proof. This same apostle declares' " I am not a shamed of the gospel ; for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth. " (Eom. 1 : 16.) Again, the same writer says : " Now I make known unto you, brethren, the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye received, wherein also ye stand, by which also ye are saved, if ye hold fast what I preached unto you, except ye be- lieved in vain. » (1 Cor. 15 : 1, 2.) Then follows a narration of the three great and fundamental facts underlying the gospel, namely the death, burial and resurrection of Christ. Indeed Paul, in common with all the apostles, was laboring under that great commission of the Savior: "Go into aU the world and preach the gospel to the whole creation. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, but 72 THE IOWA PULPIT. he that believeth not shall he condemned. " (Mark 16:16.) The apostle not only knew the tendency and danger of the early Christians being gradually lead away from the simplicity, fullness and absolute authority of the gospel, by the teachers that then beset the church, but he also doubtless foresaw the tendencies of later times to apostasies by adulter- ations with Judaism, heathen mythology and idol- atry and gnostic and agnostic philosophies. For centuries the tendency was to formulate these errors into creeds that partially displaced the word of God. But more recently a reaction has taken place, and the dogmatic creeds have nearly given place to a kind of attenuated, emasculated, and semi-infidel broad-gaugism or isms. These are called " liberal- ism, " "progressive Christianity," etc.. with a mark- ed trend towards "free thought," "free action,'* " free love, " blatant, blasphemous infidelity. There is now little need to wage an iconoclastic war against the dogmatic creeds of the past. These are failing shattered and ruined all about us. Bather our effort should be to manfully maintain the divine creed, lest in the opinion of the masses, it shall fall in the General and indiscriminate assault upon all creeds. The masses moved by an over-awing religious im- pulse or anti-religious impulse, are little more likely to discriminate between the real and the fancied, the good and the bad, than an infuriated mob. Cool, clear heads, pure hearts and steady nerves, must preserve the right by directing the great movements of the times. The masses, after due thought, will accept the right and true. THINGS TO BE HEEDED. 73 "We are no alarmist, but undoubtedly there is great immediate danger of the church's gliding away from the simple truth of the gospel. Let the engineers of the gospel train put on breaks ; let the commander of the army of the faithful call a halt, not in good works, but in the mad rush from the true path. Like the prophet restorer of Israel, let there be an exhortation to " ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein. " These old paths are not the ones worn by human tradition, but those clearly traced by Christ and his apostles. They are the gospel paths that lead to the everlast- ing city of God. Among the things fundamental and necessary to be heeded and maintained, may be mentioned : 1. The absolute personal being and authority of God. 2. That Jesus Christ is the only begotten of the Father, who "was bom of the seed of David accord- ing to the flesh, but who was declared to be the Son of God with power according to the spirit of holi- ness, by the resurrection from the dead." Christ is the Jmmanuel, the God with us, with one human and one divine parent. That " Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God," is, after all, the creed truth of the Bible, and the thought must not be expur- gated from it, nor the truth and confession elimi- nated from the Christian formulas. No " higher " (lower) " criticism " or modern platitudes and doubt, can take away this central proposition, dependent upon which is the whole Christian system. Chris- tianity stands or falls with the proposition. 3. 74 THE IOWA PULPIT. Nearly allied to the last proposition stands the di- vine inspiration, all-sufficiency and absolute author- ity of the Holy Scriptures. " The Bible, the whole Bible, and nothing but the Bible, is the religion of Protestants. " By this it was not meant that the Bible was intended, except by general principles, to provide for every contingency and expediency that may arise in the varied relations of life. But in everything relating to" Christian doctrine and or- dinance it is all sufficient and imperative. 4. The alien sinner must believe upon Christ as the Son of God, he must repent, and he must be baptized in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. These things are clearly involved in the " things that began to be spoken by the Lord, " in the gospel. 5. Chris- tians are the bight of the world, the salt of the earth, and must keep themselves pure, must not " forsake the assembling of themselves together, " nor fail to weekly commemorate the Lord's death and suffer- ing. To use a political term of recent origin, " stal- wart" Christians are demanded. By this is not meant stubborn, fossilized fogies, who simply swing upon the skirts of progress, and mistake their own whims for the gospel, and the traditions of the fathers for infallible revelation. Christianity cannot progress, but Christians can ever progress in knowl- edge, holiness and labors. Other matters to be heeded will readily suggest themselves to the Bible students. LH. It is now in order to inquire why we should " give the more earnest heed to these things. " 1. THINGS TO BE HEEDED. 75 There is great danger that we may " let them slip, " " lest we drift away from them. " The danger is not that the well grounded Christian shall suddenly drop, or cast from him either the doctrine or the practice of his religion. A strong religious life is a growth, not an instantaneous acquirement. "We come into the Church of Christ as new horn babes and must feed upon the sincere milk of the Word, that we may grow thereby. At first we are weak in faith, experience and spiritual power; but by diligent study, prayer and works, we grow to be strong in the Lord. So the falling away from Christ theoretic- ally and practically, is a gradual, often almost im- perceptible process. As one stands and looks upon the young and rapidly growing oak, yet perceives no deepening of roots, broadening of trunk or raising of branches ; so in looking upon the decaying tree, no present rottening is perceived, yet the work of decay, though gradual, is certainly going on. In either case it is only by comparisons separated by considerable lapse of time, that the changed condi- tions are clearly detected. So it is with a Christian both in his growth and in his apostasy. Some of the pre-monitions of the apostasy, of this letting slip our religion, may be noted : The party affected begins to sit farther back in the audience ; takes less part in the prayer-meeting, Sunday school and other church work; begins to absent himself from the meetings of the brethren ; to speak of the church work as what "they "are doing instead of " we ; " finds fault with the preacher, the officers and 76 THE IOWA PULPIT. the members ; is found more and more in the com- pany of the scoffers ; begins to speak lightly of the Scriptures and of religion ; grows in this till he be- comes a blaspheming infidel, denying the Lord that bought him. Nothing was farther from his thoughts when he began his retrograde movement, than that he would ever reach this depth of hopeless wretchedness. Perhaps when he began to forsake the assembling of the brethren, it was with the delusion that he would do just as well by staying at home and reading his Bible ; and when he left the church he thought he could and would live just as good a Christian life out of the church as in it. What a delusion ! Little by little, little by little, the teach- ings of the Master and the life predicated thereon, have slipped from him, leaving him in mental whirl- pools of doubt, and a moral wreck. No wonder the grand old apostle admonishes us to " give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip. " 2. As a consequence of allowing ourselves to drift away from the teachings of Jesus, we shall certainly neglect and lose the " great salvation. " It will be noticed that it is not necessary to formally spurn or refuse this great salvation, to lose the great blessings. It is enough simply to neglect it. The measure of our appreciation of this great salvation will depend upon the estimate we place upon the danger and the certainty and importance of rescue. "Salvation" pre-supposes danger as "justification" pre-supposes accusing. A " great salvation " pre-supposes a great THINGS TO BE HEEDED. 77 danger. If, as used to be taught by some, man can- not escape the punishment due to his sins ; if there is no resurrection of the body ; and if there is no future hell; then wherein is the true greatness of this salvation ? What high incentive to give the more earnest heed to the terms of this salvation ? Simply very little. But when we recognize that man is far away from God by transgression, but can be brought nigh by the blood of Jesus, and have his sins all blotted out and their just punishment estopped ; that Jesus told the truth when he said, "I am the resur- rection and the life " — that the bodies of the saints shall be gloriously saved from the grave by Jesus Christ, and made immortal; that the bottomless pit and the second death yawning for the sin-stricken souls of the world, have no power over the obedient to the words spoken by Jesus, oh, how great does the salvation appear ! As the apostle approaches the grand conclusion of this most extraordinary letter, he says in thunder tones of anxious warning to those about to slide from the truth : " Let us hold fast the confession of our hope that it waver not, for he is faithful that promised ; and let us consider one another to pro- voke unto love and good works ; not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the custom of some is, but exhorting one another ; and so much the more as ye see the day drawing nigh. For if ye sin wilfully after that ye have received a knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more a sacrifice for sins, but a certain expectation of judgment, and a THE IOWA PULPIT. fierceness of fire which shall devour the adversaries. A man 'that hath set at naught Moses' law dieth without compassion on the word of two or three wit- nesses • of how much sorer punishment think ye, shall he he thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God. and hath counted the blood of the covenant wherewith he was sanctified, a common rhino-, and hath done despite to the Spirit of Grace. For we know him who hath said, vengeance telong- eth unto me. I will recompense. And again, " The Lord shall judge his people. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. (Heb. 10:23-31.) It will he observed that the language, "counting the blood of the covenant wherewith he was sancti- fied a common thing," etc., can apply only to those who have been once in a saved state. Before such declarations the old doctrine of "once in grace al- ways in grace," must fall. Men may sin and be foro-iven, but those "who were once enlightened, and having tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Spirit, and tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then fall away, it is impossible to renew them a^ain to repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh and put him to an open shame. fHeb • 6-4-6 ) Those that so far apostatize as to deny he merits of the blood of Jesus, cannot be brought to repentance, hence cannot be saved. « There is a sin unto death ; not concerning this do I say that he should make request. All unrighteousness is sin: 'iWOS TO BE HEEDED. 79 and there is a sin not unto death" (1 John 6 : 16, 17.) These sins are of the same class in effect as the "sin against the Holy Spirit that shall not he forgiven in this world nor the world to come." (Matt. 12 : 32.) There remains a fearful looking forward to that justly terrible retribution. As the fashionable tippler does not expect to become a comfirmed drunkard, no more does the Christian just beginning his downward course, expect to reach such fearful depths of apos- tasy. Oh brother Christian be admonished " to give the more earnest heed to the things that were heard lest haply we drift away from them." Heaven with its eternal, full salvation, is above you, and the words of Jesus are in your hands. Be inspired by the one and guided by the other. Hell with its eter- nal torments, society of the damned, and angels fallen, is below you, yawning to swallow you up. The descent is easy, gradual, and seemingly enti- cing. Be not deceived. Keep your feet in the "highway of holiness." Cling to the rock that is high. Give earnest heed to Him that spoke as never man spoke , and all will be well. Amen. F. WALDEN. tr preactjoi Sias been more prominently connected with tne wort in Iowa, than Freeman Walden. Born in tf royct county, Indiana, March 18, 1839. His father, Dr. Joseph Walden, was born and raised in Connecti- cut, waere the Walden family trace their ancestry back to rool. His mother's maiden name was Rhoda Sparks, born in Tennessee, and raised in Indiana. Dr. Walden removed to the Territory of Iowa in 1846, and settled in Mahaska County, not far from Oskaloosa. Here Freeman grew up to manhood. His father dying when he was but fourteen years oM, left him to make his way in the world, under the disadvantages of poverty and orphanage, as best he could. He had the usual advantages of the district schools, and by improving them in winter, and working by the month in summer, with economy, he was enabled to enter a select school in Oskaloosa, in 1855, taught by Geo. W. Drake. By the kindness of Mr. Drake, in taking him into his family and boarding him for doing chores, etc., he was enabled to continue in the school with limited means, nearly a year. He then went to work in a saw mill to earn money with which to prosecute his studies, but meeting with a slight injury he gave up his place in the mill, and by the advice of Prof. Drake, sought and obtained a school when but seventeen years old. He continued teaching and attending school alternately for about six years; his teacher for the most part being Prof. A. Hull, now of Oskaloosa College, to whom Bro. Wafden feels" that he owes more, for whatever mental training he received, and for his start in the ministry, than to any other man It was during this time, April, 1859, that he confessed Christ 82 THE IOWA PULPIT. and was baptized by J. B. Noe. Be was influenced to cast his lot among the Disciples, by hearing a discussion on the action, subject, and design of baptism, between Aaron Chatterton, Disciple, and F. W.Evans, Methodist. At the time he united with the church, he had not the remotest idea of preaching, but by being called on by the elders from time to time to exercise in the congregation, it suggested to his mind, that he ought to prepare for these, to save himself from embarrassment, and from this he gradually grew into a preacher, in less than a year. In the autumn of '61 he quit school, and in the Spring ol '62 began preaching for the church at Albia, and teaching the higher branches in a select school, conducted by himself and J. O. Sellers. , __. In August of the same year, he was married to Miss Mary Olivia Berry, who has faithfully stood by him in the work of the Gospel, from that time to this. The double work of preaching and teaching school proving too great for his physical strength, he abandoned the latter devoting his whole powers to the ministry. Hence, in the tall of 1863 he removed to Lee County, and preached for the church at Lost Creek, till the spring of 1865, when he went to Columbus City, and preached for the church there till autumn, 1667 During his stay there, he preached and held meetings at various places, and was again called to Albia. where he con- tinued six vears, adding about 500 to the church during that time He also held protracted meetings at several places, and held a public discussion with John Hughes, a Universalist. In 1873 he resigned at Albia, and accepted the position of Financial Agent of Oskaloosa College, which he held for one Year and then visited New England, and spent two months m the employ of the Evangelizing Board there. He held- meet- ings in Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts. On his return, he held a meeting at Steubenville, Ohio, and was invited to become pastor of the church there. Accepting, he removed there in the spring of 1875. But the smoke of the city, so affected his throat, that he asked to be released, and returned to Iowa. . He spent one year with the church at Charles City, and then bought a fruit farm at Albion, moved to it January 1, 1877, and F. WALDEW. 83 preached for Liscomb, Bethel, Bangor and Albion churches for about four years, and gained some notoriety as the "Strawberry man." Id 1881, he moved to Illinois, and preached a year and a half for the church at Old Bedford, McDonougb County, when, hav- ing sold his fruit farm, he was invited to locate with the church at DeSoto, Iowa, his present field of labor. He has been Secretary of the State Convention quite often, was a trustee of Oskaloosa College twelve years, and is now on the Board of Drake University. He has contributed to the columns of the religious press quite freely, and is the author of a tract on the " Indwelling of the Holy Spirit," a pamphlet on the " Sabbath Question," and a " Treatise on the Culture of Small Fruits." In personal appearance : fair complexioned, blue eyes, large head, and a little bald, about five feet ten inches in height, and weighs about 160 pounds. In style as a speaker : deliberate, full rounded periods, posi- tive, without flourish, but with force, his points are put with mphasis. He has rigid regard for accuracy in thought, as well as in the dress in which it is to appear. He bears acquaintenance, and proves to be more compan- ionable and fraternal than you will at first suppose him to be. And being ever ready to aid every good work, he is a most val- uable yoke-fellow among the preachers of Iowa. WHAT SAVES THE SINNER? F. WALDEH". For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God ; be- ing justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Rom. 3 : 23, 24. kJ^HPHAT all men are sinners and need a Savioi is taught both by the Scriptures and by the history of the human race. History is largely made up of wars and strife. If men were not sinners, would they so often stain their hands in each other's blood? The very language we use tells the sad story that man is fallen. Trench has forcibly said: "It needs but to open a dic- tionary, and cast our eye thoughtfully down a few columns, and we shall find abundant confirmation of this sadder and sterner estimate of man's moral and spiritual condition. How else shall we explain this long catalogue of words, having all to do with sin or with sorrow or with both? "We may be quite sure that they were not invented without being needed, and they each have a correlative in the world of realities. I open the first letter of the 85 86 THE IOWA PULPIT. alphabet ; what means this ' Ah, ' this ' Alas, ' these deep and long-drawn sighs of humanity, which at once encounter me there ? And then presently there meet me such words as these, ' Affliction, ' ' Agony, ' ' Anguish, ' ' Assassin, ' ' Atheist, ' ' Avarice ' and a hundred more, words you will observe, not laid up in the recesses of the language, to be drawn forth at rare opportunities, but many of them such as must be continually on the lips of men. And in- deed, in the matter of abundance, it is sad to note how much richer our vocabularies are in words that set forth sins, than in those that set forth graces. " (See Trench on the Study of Words, lecture ILT). We are sinners all. Sin has stained our history and colored our language. We need not dwell longer on this picture. What is the remedy? Sin is transgression of law, — it is lawlessness. All laws have penalties, so sin brings on us the pen- alty of God's violated law. How can we escape that penalty? Some fallacious answers are given to this question. One of these misleading answers is given by the moralist. He practically says: "I know that I have sinned, have come short of the glory of God and have incurred the penalty of his violated law, but I don't see the need of becoming a church member, of confessing Christ and obeying him, but I will try from this time on to live a moral life and reckon that God will count the good I do as equal to the wrong I do, and thus square the account. " Not a few take about this view of the escape from sin : so much goodness to balance so much sinning. WHAT SAVES THE SINNEB? 87 Now the fallacy in this is that our own goodness can in no wise reach hack and remove the penalty already incurred. If this is once rightly understood no one will depend on his own morality to save him from his past sins. This may be understood by an illustration. Suppose a man steals a horse. The penalty is incarceration in the penitentiary for a period of one or more years. Suppose after the man has stolen the horse, he gets to reflecting about the matter and concludes that as " murder will out " so will horse stealing and that sooner or later he will be found out and disgrace will come upon his family. So he quits and for one year he steals nothing, he strictly keeps all this time the law he had violated. But in some way the crime is found out and the man is arrested and brought before the court. What lawyer could be found that would ask the court to dismiss the prisoner on the plea that he had kept the violated law for twelve months since he committed the crime ? The answer would be that it was his duty to keep the law if he had never violated it, and that nothing can be carried back to settle up the old account. The fact is that the man is just as guilty of the crime of horse stealing at the end of one year as he was at the end of one day, and he would be at the end of two years, five years, ten years, any number of years. Human govern- ments have statute limitations for some crimes, on account of the imperfections of all human arrange- ments, but there are no limitations of this kind in God's government. The man that steals a horse 88 THE IOWA PULPIT. can get rid of the penalty only in one of two ways ; one is to suffer out the penalty and the other is to be forgiven. If he is not forgiven and has not suf- fered out the penalty, then it hangs over him, with- out statute limitation, as long as he remains a sub- ject of that government even should that be forever. From this illustration we can see that i7ie subsequent keeping of a violated law does not remove the pen- alty already incurred. No one would think of de- nying this rule when applied to human government, then why should we expect anything different when applied to the divine government ? Just here is the mistake of the moralist, he depends on the keeping of God's violated law to save him from the penalty of his past sins. If he could keep God's law perfectly, still there would remain those past offences with the penalty still hanging over him. But he cannot keep God's law perfectly, no one can do that even though he may be a follower of Christ, so that pen- alty grows heavier all the time. This makes the outlook of the man who depends on his own worth a hopeless one. But the moralist may ask, Why cannot my good deeds be counted as an off-set to my sins as well as the good deeds of a man who is a fol- •lower of Christ? They can ; but it is a grievous mis- take to suppose that any man's good deeds remove the penalty of sin. Our redemption is in Christ and is freely bestowed by the grace of God if we come into Christ and remain in him. Let us read again our text : " For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God ; being justified freely by his grace WHAT SAVES THE SINNEB? 89 through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. " Here we see that our justification does not rest on the merit of our good deeds whether many or few hut on the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. The same idea is in the mind of the Apostle when in his epistle to the Philippians he says that he was will- ing to suffer the loss of all things that he might win Christ and be found in him. not having his own righteousness which is of the law, hut that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith. (See Phil. 3 : 8, 9). Now that righteousness which is of the law, here spoken of by the Apostle, must refer to that righteousness that consists in keeping the law which he had violated. That Paul calls his own righteousness, just the kind of righteousness that the moralist must depend on so longs as he stays away from Christ, but it is not sufficient. The Apostle was willing to suffer the loss of all things and count them but refuse rather than depend upon that righteousness instead of the righteousness of Christ. What the Apostle calls the righteousness of Christ in his epistle to the Philip- pians, he calls "the redemption that is in Chi is! Jesus " in our text in his epistle to the Romans. W must come to Christ if we would have this right- eousness, this redemption, and not stay away and depend on our own good deeds as the moralist is wont to do. Again we may see the need of coming to Christ if we study the context in which our text is found. The church in Rome, we gather from the body of 90 THE IOWA PULPIT. the epistle to the Romans, was composed of those who had previously been Jews and Gentiles. There was more or less strife between these two classes of Christians wherever they were to be found. Rome was no exception to this state of things. The Jew was constantly claiming that because he had been circumcised and had kept the law of Moses, he occupied a higher position in the kingdom of Christ. He held his Gentile brother in contempt and was not willing to accept him as an equal in Christ. This seems to have been the state of tilings in the church at Rome when this epistle was written. After the introduction, which comprises the first seventeen verses in the first chapter, there is given a list of the sins of the Gentiles. This brings us to the close of the first chapter. This list of sins is a fearful one and shows to what depths of iniquity sin will lead men when they are "without God and without hope in the world." The Jew would be disposed on reading this much of the epistle to say : " This is what we have been claiming all the time, that the Gentiles are sinners above all others and must not be placed on an equality with us in the king- dom of Christ. " But he reads on and he finds the second chapter opening with these words : " There- fore thou are inexcusable, 0 man, whosoever thou art that judgest. " This calls a halt on his haste in condemning the Gentile. . He reads on : " for where- in thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest doest the same things. " This is discouraging to the boasting and condemning WHAT SAVES THE SINNER? 91 Jew and by the time he has finished this second chapter he learns that though he is a Jew and rests in the law and makes his boast of God and knows his will and approves the things that are more ex- cellent, being instructed out of the law, yet this turns out rather to his grief than to his joy. Though he made his boast of the law, yet, the Apostle tells him that through the breaking of the law he dis- honored God. Then he reads this stunning sen- tence: "For the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentile through you. as it is written. For cir- cumcision verily profiteth, if thou keep the law ; but if thou be a breaker of the law, thy circumcision is become uncircumcision. " So the Jew is condemned by the very law in which he boasts and his circum- cision is rendered null and void by his breaking of the law. Surely he ought not to claim any advan- tage over the Gentile. The Jew is supposed to see this and ask in the opening of the third chapter : "What advantage then hath the Jew, or what profit is there of circumcision ? " These questions and several others are answered by the Apostle, till we come to the ninth verse where the Jew in despair asks: "What then? Are we better than they?" The answer of the Apostle is : " No, in no wise ; for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles that they are all under sin. " Thrn follows a long list of quotations from the Old Testament to prove the universal sinfulness of the human family. " There is none righteous, no, not one. " The Jews have had a written law, and the Gentiles have had the law — 92 THE IOWA PULPIT. some standard of right and wrong — written in their hearts, yet the law of right and wrong never was and never can be a means of justification. Its pur- pose is to make all feel that they are sinners and need a redeemer. Hence, the Apo stle says : (Rom. 3 : 19, 20,) " Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law ; that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justi- fied in his sight ; for by the law is the knowledge of sin. " So the Jew though he had the law was not justified by it, for its purpose was to stop his mouth, make him feel guilty and thus bring him to the knowledge of sin. What was true then, is true now, we are never justified by that law the breaking of which makes us sinners. Justification comes through the merit of Christ which is freely bestowed on us as a work of grace. This is just what the Apostle wanted to make the church at Rome feel. They were .all sinners, all were condemned and when they came into the kingdom of Christ they came in on account of the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, and hence stood on an equality so far as their rights there were concerned. They all needed his redemp- tion and he paid the same price for each one. A colored man once arose and spoke in the social meeting where I was. He began by saying : "Breth- ren I am worth as much as any of you." Urang my head fearing that he was going to boast of his own worth, but he went on: "It took the blood of WHAT SAVES THE SI NITER? 93 Christ to redeem me, and it took the blood of Christ to redeem you ; he paid the same price for us all. " I lifted up my head and said: " Thank the Lord for that speech. " A poor man once approached the communion table when the Duke of Wellington was seen approaching. Some one touched the poor man and said : " Wait a minute, the Duke is coming. " The Duke laid his hand on the poor man's shoulder and said : " Don't depart on my account, we are all equal here. " That is the true Christian idea. We are all equal so far as our rights in the kingdom of Christ are concerned. That was what the Apostle aimed to make the brethren at Rome feel. They were all redeemed with the same price and hence were equal. Boasting was excluded not by the law of works but by the law of faith. Let us look somewhat closer' into this work of re- demption and we shall see still more clearly what saves the sinner. Our text says that we are justi- fied freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. By turning to Eph. 1:7, we read, " In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace. " From this scripture we learn that it is the blood of Christ that redeems. In harmony with this is the language of the Savior when he in- stituted the Lord's Sapper. Handing the cup to the disciples he said : " Drink ye all of it ; for this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins. " (Matt. 26 : 27.) The beloved disciple likewise says : "If we walk in 94 THE IOWA PULPIT. the light, as he is in the light, we nave fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. " (1 John 1 : 7.) Kin- dred to this is the saying of the Apostle in the epis- tle to the Hebrews : " For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh ; how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God. " Thus we find that turn where we will in the New Testament we find that we are saved by the blood of Christ. The blood of Christ is the procuring cause of our salvation. When salvation is ascribed to what we do, it is only in the sense that these acts of ours bring us to " the foun- tain filled with blood drawn from Tmmanuel's veins, " and not that they save oy any intrinsic merit they have in them selves. Thus it is said that faith saves us, repentance saves us, confession saves, baptism saves us, hope saves and so on, yet none of these things really take away our sins. The blood of Christ and that alone takes away the stains of sin. This is the great doctrine of Protestantism as opposed to the Roman Catholic doctrine of Superer- ogation. The Roman Catholic holds that a man can do more than his duty and whatever is done in this way can be applied to his past sins or those of any one else. This is rejected by all Protestants as contrary to both Scripture and reason. Nothing can furnish the ground for the remission of our past WHAT SAVES THE SINNER? 95 sins but the merit of the blood of Christ. When the sinner is redeemed he can sing : "Christ has paid it all, All the debt I owe ; Sin had left its crimson stain, He washed it white as snow." When we have passed the pearly gates and take our stand with the redeemed in heaven, we wilt not be praising ourselves for the good things we have done whereby we have been redeemed, but realizing that we have washed our robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb, we will cry out in the joy of our hearts : "Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unttf God and his Father ; to him be glory and dominion forever and ever, Amen. " Again, as salvation is a free gift bestowed on us through the merit there is in the blood of Christ, we may ask, Upon whom is this grace bestowed ? Is it bestowed upon all men ? So far as I know no one advocates that all men will be saved through the redemption there is in Christ Jesus. True, there are men who maintain the doctrine of the salvation of all mankind, but not through the blood of Christ. Universalists maintain cither that there is no pun- ishment for sin in the next world, or if there is, that .the sinner pays the full penalty by suffering it out. In either case there is no redemption through the 96 THE IOWA PULPIT. blood of Christ. We know that all men are not saved from sin in this life through the redemption of Christ, for some reject him and even blaspheme him to the very hour of their death. Then, if in the next world, the sinner suffers out the full penalty for his sins he owes nothing to the blood of Christ. The doctrine that the sinner must suffer out the full penalty for his sins, which is held so far as I know, by all Universalis ts, has no salvation in it, has no redemption through the blood of Christ in it, has no mercy in it, has no forgiveness in it, has no pardon in it, has no grace in it, and in short has nothing in it but the cold demands of justice that demands the payment of the last farthing. But can the sinner sutler out the full penalty of violated law and thus reach heaven independent of the mediation of Christ ? He cannot. Among other reasons for saying he cannot, this one is sufficient. Had it been possible for fallen man to meet the full demands of violated law and finally to have come off free from sin and all its stains, God would not have sent his Son into the world to die on the cross, and in this way to extend pardon to him. for God never does for man what man can do for himself. Had it been possible for man to have "extricated himself from the thraldom of sin, it is reasonable to believe that God would have left him to do so. The analogies of nature teach us that God does no unnecessary work. But the doctrine of pardon, forgiveness, remission of sins, redemption, salvation through the blood of Christ, abounds in both the old testament and the new. WHAT SAVES THE SINISTER? 97 Hence, man could not save himself and God has had mercy on him in the gift of his Son. But the question remains still unanswered. Upon whom is the gift of redemption bestowed? The an- swer is, Upon the obedient believer. Let a few among many Scriptures suffice. " Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered ; and he being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him. " (Heb. 5 : 8, 9.) " Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father who is in heaven." (Matt. 7:21.) "And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. " (II Thes. 1 : 7, 8.) From these Scriptures it is readily seen that obedience is necessary. There is no obedience where there is no faith, hence it is proper to say that faith and obe- dience are necessary to qualify the sinner to receive the gift of redemption through the blood of Christ. This obedience on the part of the sinner does not earn salvation, but simply brings him to where it is given. To some minds it may not appear clear how salvation can be a free, unmerited gift and the work of grace, if obedience is necessary. But a free salvation can be conditional, but complying with the conditions does not earn the gift. What we do in complying with the conditions of salvation pays 9a THE IOWA PULPIT. nothing to the giver, but simply fits us for its reception If I go a thousand miles to receive a gift from a friend, my traveling though attended with much toil and labor to me, makes no return to him, he is none the richer because of my struggles. Just so with reference to our salvation. We must believe, repent, confess Christ before men, be baptized, watch and pray and • work, and yet all these things return nothing to God and could not by any merit in themselves, either separately or combined, remove the penalty of one single sin. Had not Jesus died and opened the way to salvation through his shed blood, all we. could do would have left us still " without God and without hope in the world." From the premises now before us two things appear perfectly clear : First, salvation is a free, unmerited gift, secured to us through the blood of Christ ; and secondly, we must be obedient believers in order to secure this salvation. Now certain deductions can be made from these conclusions that are highly important to us : L There is a difference between what saves the sinner, and what the sinner must do to be saved. The blood of Christ saves him, that is clear. Let us never lose sight of this great fact. But he must come to the blood of Christ by whatever steps God has appointed, but these steps do not save orly as instrumental causes. The real procuring cause is the shed blood of Christ. When salvation is ascribed to these steps on the part of the sinner, this is done by a kind of accommodation of the term. WHAT SAVES THE SINNER? 99 Let us take a case as an illustration. Jesus said to the woman who had come unbidden to the house of Simon and had washed his feet with her tears and had wiped them with the hair of her head. " Thy faith hath saved thee ; go in peace. " (Luke 7: 50.) Here salvation is ascribed to the woman's faith, but the context shows that Jesus had saved her for he had forgiven her sins, and in this sense she was saved. So when he said that her faith had saved her we are to understand that her faith had enabled her to be saved, had brought her to the feet of the Savior in ' humble penitence. In the same manner are we to understand the matter when we find salvation ascribed likewise to repentance, con- fession, baptism and works. These do not save by any merit in themselves but they are the steps we take to come into Christ and are necessary. People sometimes differ as to what steps the sinner must take in coming into Christ. Some say that by " faith alone " the sinner comes into Christ. When by " faith alone " it is meant to exclude those acts of faith, repentance, confession and baptism, then such a position is clearly in conflict with the teachings of the Savior and his Apostles. By reading the great commission as found in Matthew, Mark and Luke and by following the Apostles as they carry out that commission on the day of Pentecost and on other occasions, we learn that the sinner must believe, repent, confess Christ before men, and be baptized in order to the remission of sins. Some, however, strenuously oppose mnking baptism one of the con- 100 THE IOWA PULPIT. ditions of the remission of sins. Bnt baptism is clearly tanght to be for the remission of sins in Acts 2: 38, and is so understood by the leading scholars of all denominations, (See the comment- aries of Hackett, Olshausen and Lange on this pas- sage.) Superficial thinkers have often charged on us that in holding to baptism for the remission of sins we teach a tL water salvation" or baptismal re- generation. Such a charge grows oat of either ig- norance or spite. Very far are we from holding to any efficacy in water. There is not water enough in the ocean to wash away a single sin. Only the blood of Christ, as we have seen before, can do that. But baptism administered to a penitent believer brings him in humble submission to the authority of Christ, and while baptism may thus be said to save him, it by no means takes the place of the blood of Christ, nor does it save him in the sense in which the blood of Christ cleanses him from all sin. Let us not confound that which actually takes away the stains of sin by its own intrinsic merit and that which is only one of the steps by which we come into Christ. And because neither baptism nor any other human act has the power to cleanse from sin, let us not think that it is not necessary and may be dispensed with. The Savior knows best. We must be loyal to him. n. The value of whatever we do in coming into Christ is owing to its appointment to that end. We are compelled to stand by this deduction or as- sume that there is intrinsic merit in human acts to WHAT SAVES THE SUTLER? 101 save from sin. But we cannot do that unless we abandon the distinctively Protestant ground that all merit in redemption from sin is in the blood of Christ. Let us illustrate this position by referring to the case of Naaman, the leper. The leprosy that prevails in the East is an incurable malady by human means. The great Syrian captain was directed by the prophet Elisha to go and wash him- self seven times in the river Jordan. Naaman was not willing to do this at first and was about to de- part to Damascus. He must have looked at this requirement too much as some are disposed to look at God's appointment in these days. Surely there can be no efficacy in the waters of the Jordan to heal a leper, and if he must dip himself in water, better go back to Damascus where there are two rivers, the Abana and Pharpar, "better than all the .waters of Israel. " But his servant prevailed on him to do as the prophet had demanded and he did so " and his flesh came again like unto the flesh of a little child, and he was clean." (2 Kings, 5.) Now this is a beautiful and forcible illustration for us. There is no efficacy in the waters of the Jordan to heal the leprosy. Why did it heal Naaman then ? Solely because it was God's appointment to that end. God did the healing and Naaman placed him- self in proper relation to God's government by doing as the prophet directed. So faith, repentance, con- fession, baptism and whatever else we may be com- manded to do cannot by any merit in themselves save us from sin, but by doing what is commanded 102 THE IOWA PULPIT. we place ourselves in proper relation to the author- ity of Christ and he heals us. We must then do whatever Christ commands us to do and all that he commands and nothing more. If we do something that he has not commanded it will be of no avail for the value of what Ave do is owing to its appointment. Self-inflicted tasks or punishments then, such as Roman Catholic penance, can be of no avail, they lack the authority of Christ, the thing absolutely essential to their value. So we must not alter, change or modify the commands and ordinances of the Lord, for thereby we neutralize the authority of Christ. Christ must in all things be supreme. HT. It follows from what we now have deduced that one thing appointed of the Lord in order to salvation is just as good as another. This must be so, for the intrinsic merit is not in* what we do but in the blood of Christ, and the value of what we do grows out of its appointment to that end. If we keep this last deduction in mind we shall be done with all quibbling about the Lord's appointments and simply ask like the awaked Saul " Lord, what wilt thou have me to do. " Such then is the plan of redemption. Man is a sin- ner ; the penalty of God's violated law hangs over him ; he cannot remove that penalty by keeping the violated law ; if he undertakes to suffer out that pen- alty it will ruin him forever; he needs to be par- doned ; Christ has come to redeem him and for that purpose shed his blood on the cross; that blood WHAT SAVES THE SINNER? 103 alone can cleanse him from sin ; he must submit to the authority of Christ before this blood-bought re- demption can be his. 0 sinner, come to Christ, flee to him. " Come you sinners, poor and needy, Weak and wounded, sick and sore : Jesus ready stands to save you, Full of pity, love and power. " D. R. DUNGAN. B. R DTJNGAN. AVID ROBERTS DTJNGAN, the subject of this sketch, was born in Noble County, Indiana, May 15, 1837. His father, James Dungan, was born in Beaver County, Pennsylvania, October 5, 1807. The great grandfather was one of the first settlers west of Pittsburg and one of the first purchasers of land under our government in the State of Pennsylvania. He is said to have been a descendant of the Earl of Dungannon, but to have been of Scottish and Welsh extraction. James Dun- gan was married to Mary Ann Johns, near Wilmington, Ohio, in 1828, and soon after, moved to Noble County, Indiana, where he remained till the spring of 1838, from whence he moved with his young family to Clay County, same State. Here he remained till the summer of 1852, when he took trail for the great North- west, and stopped in Harrison County, Iowa. The bulk of the Mormons had just gone to Utah, and the Pottawatomie In- dians had but a short time before, gone to their hunting grounds farther west. The subject of this sketch had been a delicate, sickly lad up to this time, weigking on his fifteenth birthday, only sixty- three pounds. In this new country, fare was coarse and work was hard. Council Bluffs, then called Kanesville, was the nearest trading post and post-office. There were two grist-mills a few miles nearer, where corn could be ground. A log house with one room and a sod chimney on the outside was the place of shelter for the first year. There was no lumber in the build- ing; still it was a good house for that country. In point of ventilation it was without a blunder. The wild meats, corn 106 106 THE IOWA PULPIT. bread and potatoes seemed to be wholesome diet, for with all the toil incident to making a new farm, his weight was 120 pounds on his sixteenth birthday, and all signs of ague had dis- appeared, and now, but for a premature grayness and baldness one would never suppose that he had been a sickly youth. He has reached a height of about five feet ten, and weighs about 170 on an average. He was baptized into Christ by C. P. Evans, March 31, 1858, and one year from that day tried to preach for the first time. He has preached regularly ever since. Was ordained to the ministry of the Word in autumn of the year following. February 17, 1861, he was married to Mary Ann Kinnis, of Glasgow, Scotland, was employed by a co-operation to preach that year, part of the time in Iowa and part in Ne- braska. C. P. Evans and W. A. Denton were co-laborers in that work. Part of the time he resided in De Soto, Nebraska, and part of the time in Omaha, same Territory. In the spring of 1862 he returned to Harrison County, Iowa, where he farmed and improved some land which he had previously bought, and preached on Lord's days to country congregations. During the winter, however, he taught school near Glenwood, Iowa. In the spring of 1863 he moved to Plattsmouth, Nebraska, where he preached and taught for a year. This school was offered him the next year at double wages, but he chose to give all his time to the work of the ministry. On the first day of January, 1865, he began work under the auspices of our General Mission ary Board, in which work he continued for about six years, only taking out of it time for a short course in Kentucky University. Through his efforts R. C. Barrow was located as a fellow- missionary in Nebraska, who still continues to labor in that State as its evangelist. Under their labors the cause was well established in Nebraska. In the summer of 1867 he was chap- lain of the first State legislature of Nebraska, and the last one that was held in Omaha. In the fall of that year he moved to Pawnee City, where he preached till the spring of 1871, when he went to Lincoln where he remained till 1874. In the beginning of the effort to buildup the State University in Lincoln he was made a regent, which position he held up to the time of his removal from the State in the summer of 1874, having been a regent for six years. He also served as chaplain of the senate, the winter of 1872-73. D. R. DUNGAN. 107 He drew the prohibitory liquor law that came within one vote of passing; and the final passage of the Warren Criminal Code that winter was largely owing to his influence and man- agement. From 1874 to 1877 he pre'ached for the church in Oskaloosa, Iowa. He was then two years preaching in Eldora, Iowa. In the summer of 1879 he was nominated for Governor on the prohibition ticket. He made a gallant fight, as is claimed by the Radicals of that State, who maintain that it was this campaign that brought the Republican party to an inter- pretation of their platform, which bound them to submit the constitutional amendment in favor of the prohibition of the liquor traffic in that State. Not long after the campaign was over, he came to Davenport, where he has remained until a month ago, when he went to assume his new responsibilities as professor in the Bible department of Drake University, at DesMoines, Iowa. He is not a graduate of any college, and yet he is regarded as one of the really learned men of the West. He has made every man his teacher, and acknowledges himself particularly indebted to Professors Fisher, Hand and Benton, aside from his teachers in Lexington. He is thought to have read and studied widely and deeply. He has served as lecturer and teacher at Clear Lake and Lake Minnetonka, the Chautau- qua of the Northwest, and is now president of the Iowa State Sunday-school Association. He has been president of the Iowa Chrisian Missionary Convention for five years, and of the Gen- eral Convention for one. His unanimous choice by the Board of Trustees of Drake University, as teacher of sacred literature, indicates the confidence of the brethren of that State in his ability. In the many public debates he has had he is regarded as a fair and able disputant. He has thus considered Mormonism, Methodism, Baptistism, Soul-sleepingism, Adventism, Spirit- ualism, Atheism, Quakerism, etc., etc. Synopses of two of his debates have been printed — one with Leonard Parker, Method- ist, which is now out of print, and the other with W. F. Jamie- son, Spiritist and Infidel. He published "On tlie Rock" in 1873, " Modern Phases of Skepticism " in 1878, " Rum, Ruin and the Remedy" in 1879. He gave three out of the five lectures in the first printed "Lectureship of Missouri." He has written a number of tracts, such as " Modern Revivalism," Mistakes of "Ingersoll about Moses," "Our Plea and Mission," " What Must 108 THE IOWA PULPIT. we do to be Saved?" These works have met with good sale. During his pastorate in Davenport he edited the Northwestern News, the temperancepaper of Iowa, for about a year and a hall. His preaching has everywhere had a good result. He does solid work only. His style isplain, scriptural and argumentative. His manner is that of a teacher, rather than what is known as a pulpit orator. Still, as a popular lecturer, he is valued highly, and in his State brings the highest price.* Since the above appeared in the Standard, he has taught very successfully, in the Bible Department at Drake University; and has received the degree of Master of Arts. Besides, he has written " Chang Foo," prepared and delivered two lectures for the Missouri Lectureship, and preached and written on various topics almost every week, attended meetings of State Board, Preachers' Institute, delivered oration on the Fourth, etc., etc., showing that he is an inveterate worker. •From Christian Standard, Nov. 8, 1888. WINNING SOULS. BY D. E. DUNGAN. "He that winneth souls is wise." — Prov. 9:30. RIGHT vocation makes life easy and prof- itable. A mistaken life-plan is a continued annoyance with but few, if any, profitable results. He who has the ability to accom- plish the work, should choose the noblest and most responsible of callings. Men of genius may invent. Men of science may discover the subtle forces that control the world of matter. Our geogra- phers may sail all seas and introduce us to sunny lands and show us the mountains of gold. The men and women of aesthetics may beautify the earth. The learned may help to endow the world with intelli- gence. But of all the hosts of human agents, of the busy workers in all fields, he that wins souls from sin and folly, and purifies the fountain of human life ; he who turns the world from corruption and mis fry to the God of all grace and blessing, is most truly wise. 110 THE IOWA PULPIT. The greatness of this work may be seen in the characters of those who are thus employed. The best men who have ever graced the world have been thus devoted. The Prophets, Apostles, martyrs and the saints of all ages have been engaged in saving their race from sin and consequent ruin. The angels have ever manifested a deep interest in the salvation of our race. They were employed in giving the law of Moses, and have come to our earth times out of number with messages that were to help us to a higher and holier life. The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit have been, and are, engaged in this grand work of elevating and saving fallen humanity. In this work we are laborers together with God. The whole of the Savior's earthly ministry and death was undertaken and accomplished in our behalf. His toil and teaching, his sorrow and suffering, were all for the purpose of lifting the world up to him- self, that through him we might be saved. The Spirit was sent to complete the revelation and con- firm the word with signs following. How great must be that work to which the heavens bow ! Surely nothing can be proposed by man that will be more worthy of his loftiest devotions and mightiest energy. In this work he has the society of all the pure and good of earth, all the unfallen angels, and even of the Godhead. The wisdom of this calling may be seen in its results. It may be seen in the sins removed, in the peace and good-will which follow, in the prosperity and happiness of all living, in the purity of soul WDTNJSG SOTJLS. Ml and the peace of God which passeth understanding. If the whole world should at once begin to prac- tice only as the New Testament teaches, all we have understood by the Millennium would begin at once. Sin and all its concomitants would be forever at an end. Drunkenness, and theft, and murder, and vio- lence of all kinds would be entirely obliterated. Anarchy and misrule, injustice and dishonor would go, never to return again. In the place of all that injures and spreads disappointment, misery and death, would come peace and good-will, harmony, joy and gladness. Swords would be beaten into plowshares and spears into pruning hooks, and the nations would learn war no more forever. This is what would be, if all souls were won to the Lord. But he who wins any soul from its error saves it from death and hides a multitude of sins. He contributes, too, just so much toward that gen- eral good which would result from the conversion of the whole world. Hence, when we calculate the sin and misery that would be avoided on the one hand, and the joy and blessedness which would follow on the other, we must say of all the vocations open to men, that of winning souls is the grandest and most Godlike. The text assumes that men may win souls. This involves the thought that men may be turned from sin by human instrumentality, nay, that such agency is the divine plan for the salvation of the race. In the written creeds this is contradicted, but in the real creeds of the people, it is everywhere believed. Mul- 113 THE IOW a. *ULPIT. titudes, whose creeds say that man must first he regenerated hy a direct operation of the Holy Spirit "before he can do anything for himself, or have any thing done for him hy any fellow mortal, are "busy at work to save the world from sin : reproving, re- buking, exhorting with all long suffering and teach- ing, thus showing that they know they have a work to do in the matter, and that men can hear and heed the divine will and thus he saved. Their real creed is right and their written creed is wrong. Paul said to Timothy, (1 Tim. 4: 16.) "Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine; continue in them; for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself and them that hear thee. " Of course no one thinks of Tim- othy saving any one hy virtue of any sacrifice which he might offer. All that it was possible for him to do was to point the people to the way of the Lord and induce them to walk therein. This however, would do no good unless it were possible for the unconverted man to hear and accept truth and be saved thereby. The gospel is the power of God to salvation. But the gospel must be preached that men may believe in it and follow its teachings that they may be saved. "When Paul was called to be an apostle, he was commissioned to go to the Gentiles. " To open their eyes, and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me. " Acts 26 : 18. And in all history, no man has become WWNINQ SOULS. US a Christian without first having heard of Christ. Through the channel of direct power, without human agency, no man has ever "been made a Christian that we know of. Jesus everywhere and always treated men as if they could accept of truth and be saved. Indeed his condemnation of unbelief would be ex- ceedingly unjust on any other basis. Why should he ever have commanded the world to believe on him, und pronounce eternal death upon them if they did not believe, if he knew all the time that they could not believe ? But as no one really believes the doctrine that men are so depraved that they can not turn to the Lord, we can afford to let it pass and assure ourselves, as Solomon did, that men are re- sponsible to Grod for the acceptance of his truth. But the practical question connected with this whole matter is, How shall we convert men? How shall we win souls ? How shall we turn men from darkness to light, and from the power of satan unto God? 1. If we would win souls to Christ, we must be right ourselves. A revival of religion is usually preceded by spirituality in the church. The old plan of holding a revival meeting was first to get the Lord willing and ready to save sinners. Night after night he was besought to send down the nec- essary power to convert the world. When the church became duly aroused on the subject, the work would begin, not before. A body of profess- ors who are godless or indifferent, will effectually estop all religious interest in that community. 8 114 THE IOWA PULPIT. Some men can read nature and learn much of nature's God. Others read history and know of him by his dealings with men. A still larger num- ber read the Bible and know of God by its teach- ings. But all men read the church. And they judge of our religion by the lives of those who pro- fess it. Nothing ever commends the religion of Christ bike a godly life. And nothing so impedes its progress, or neutralizes its power, as indifference and impiety on the part of those who profess it. David gives us a good hint on this subject in Ps. 51 : 10, 13 : " Create in me a clean heart, 0 God ; and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy Holy Spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation ; and uphold me with thy free spirit. Then will I teach transgressors thy ways, and sinners shall be converted unto thee. " Knowledge puffs up, while love builds up. If the soul be without knowledge, it is not good. But impiety is complete ruin. 2. The truth must be preached. It has pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. He has proposed to purify the heart by faith, and yet faith comes by hearing, and hear- ing by the word of God. The gospel is the power of God unto salvation. And yet the gospel may lie on our center stands, or stand in our libraries for- ever and save no one. In Romans, 10 : 13, 14, Paul throws out a challenge which I believe no one has yet taken up. "WINNING SOULS. 115 "For whosoever shall call ivpon the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed ? And how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher ? " A church can do much in the way of preaching the gospel, by having all the members at work in spreading the good news, or in earnestly contending for the faith. When the first church was broken up by persecution, the members went everywhere preaching the word. The church at Thessalonica sounded out the word of life and were praised for it by the Apostle. But there is work to be done which a church can not do in this way. Men who give all their time to the cares and anxieties of this life cannot do justice in preaching the gospel in this day of infidelity and sectarianism. If there was nothing in the way of the people receiving the gospel and acting upon it, about all that would be needed would be to have the truth clearly presented. Almost any one who has thoroughly studied the word of God could do that. But, alas, they are not ready. On account of their lethargy, the persuasive power of the preacher is necessary to bring them up to the condition of hearing and heeding the will of the Lord. The work of the preacher has in all ages been necessary. Call him by what name you will, preacher, pastor, evangelist, clergyman or missionary, he is heaven's agent in turning the people from darkness to light, and from the power of satan to God. 118 THE IOWA PULPIT. The importance of the preacher makes it proper to consider his qualifications, howwe shall be able to find the men we need for the ministry, and how we shall be able to keep them in the field. Of course I have time but for the merest reference to each of these several thoughts. If I were to name the qualifications for a preacher in the order of their importance, I would say : (1) piety, (2) good common sense, (3) a thorough knowledge of the Bible, (4) a liberal education, (5) good health, (6) industry and energy, (7) trustful and persevering, (8) large sympathy with the peo- ple. I could name a great many qualities and qual- ifications, but these are the most important, and, for the present, quite sufficient. A measure of success may be had, in the absence of some of the qualities I have named. But if the preacher be not a man of piety and common seuse, his energies ought to be turned in some other channel as soon as possible. I would have the education as full as possible, but a knowledge of science and the classics will no more qualify him for his work as a minister of the gospel than to plead law, or practice medicine. As a preacher, knowledge of the word of the Lord is above all other knowledge, and, with- out it, he ought to be kept out of the pulpit. A man too, may be educated out of sympathy for the people for whom he is to minister. This should not be the case ; for the man who lifts the people up into a higher life, must come close to them. If he cannot sympathize and fraternize with them, he will not be able to do them much eood. WINNING SOULS. 117 Bnt we are frequently met with the question, how shall we get these preachers ? Certainly we are au- thorized to look for them. "Without doing so, we will not likely find them. The Master directs us to pray for them ; to pray to the Lord of the harvest to send more laborers into the field. Do we do that? I verily believe that if all disciples would pray con- stantly over this matter, we would have no lack of preachers. If we would encourage the young men who are already seriously thinking of preparing themselves for this great work ; if we would assist them in going to school and thus preparing them- selves for this work of winning souls, we would turn the steps of many in the right direction, whereas, for the want of such timely aid, they turn to other fields of labor. We have the coming preachers right in our own houses ; they are our own boys. Do we ever en- courage them to enter the ministry? Do we ever tell them of the blessedness of this work? If we are to be able to supply foreign fields with compe- tent missionaries, they must come from our homes. They will be our boys and girls. Are we ready to give them to this work of the Lord? It was the home training that prepared Timothy and even Paul, in a very large sense, for the work which they accomplished in after years. No young man should enter the ministry unless the ministry is in him. But the desire to preach the gospel usually comes from the pi«jty of home, from the teaching and influ- ence of father and mother 118 THE IOWA PULPIT. How to support these preachers after we get them is one of the great questions of the day. I would say, first, let us provide the men we ought to have, and half of the difficulty will have been met and pushed aside. It is a great trouble to sustain in- competent men. When we have godly men, full of faith and the Holy Spirit, endowed with wisdom and prudence, who will go anywhere to preach the gospel, it will not be difficult to sustain them. A very little machinery, or even none at all would work wonders in the salvation of the world ; if our piety and earnestness were what they ought to be, plans of work would trouble us but very little. 3. Use personal influence. When Andrew found the Messiah, he went immediately in search of Simon, and soon had him added to the number of disciples. When Philip knew Jesus he went and found Nathaniel. And though he might not have been able to answer all of Nathaniel's objections, he could get him to come and see for himself, which re- sulted in his faith and devotion. Personal contact is the surest way of reaching the people. When Philip, the evangelist, had but one in his audience, he was entirely successful. Paul seems to have converted all the household of Lydia, when he sat down and talked to them concerning salvation in Christ, at the river side. He who visits the people at their own homes and teaches them the way of the Lord, is most likely to be successful. But this is a work that needs not to be limited to the man we call the preacher. The whole church WINNING SOULS. 119 can largely assist in it. If every member of every church would work in this way for the advancement of the cause of Christ, there would be at least one hundred conversions to one that now obtains. It is a good thing before a protracted meeting, to get all who will enter the work to meet for drill. Let the preacher prepare them for this service with special instruction. These are the days of great revivals. If one of them was about to come to the place where I was preaching, I would go to work at once to put • the forces in array, not to withstand the effort, not to run a tilt against the sentiment that would then be created, but to direct it. I would have all the young members especially prepared to go into the meeting, Bible in hand, to show every inquiring soul the way of life in Christ. Some one will say that I would be invited to retire. It might be, and yet it is not likely. But if I should, what of it ? It would only give me and my brethren the sympathy of the community, and enable us to do still more good. Church members can do a great deal of good by the circulation of our tracts and books. This may be done without any cost whatever, except that of time and effort. Many persons could be reached in this way, who cannot be had to hear a sermon from one of our preachers. It is by this personal effort that Spurgeon's tabernacle is kept constantly full. He has hundreds of young men who go out on Lord's day afternoon, and speak to the people where they can get a hearing for a few moments, 120 THE IOWA PULPIT. and then as the crowd is dispersing they invite them to the tabernacle. In this way thousands of persons are reached who would otherwise never take any interest in the subject of Christianity. 4. Two extremes have to be guarded against; either giving all the time to argument or dispensing with it entirely. It is easy to mistake a hobby-rid- ing zeal for piety. Even truth may be pushed to an untruthful extreme. Men have been converted to right ways of thinking rather than to Christ. Some have seen this extreme and have gone to an opposite view ; that it matters little about the doc- trine, just so the people love the Lord. They would paint out the lines which separate truth from error, and regard with equal favor all religious dogmas. This is a great mistake. No healthy full-grown Christian can be produced in that way. A church built upon that kind of teaching is essentially weak. They do not know the difference between truth and error, and the first time the church comes into trouble they will go somewhere else. They will not only cease to be our friends and helpers, but turn to be most bitter opponents. This disposi- tion does not stop in giving up baptism and the Lord's day and the Lord's supper, but it bends to all the demands of the times, until it yields up the atonement, and the divinity of Christ, and accepts a gospel of sentiment. It is a mistake to suppose that we must deal in this kind Of linsey-woolsy, in order to reach the popular ear, or to keep from of- fending the religious world. Hundreds of our best WINNING SOULS. 121 thinkers to-day do not attend church anywhere, simply because they feel that the time is wasted. They get to hear only flights of rhetoric or goodisli sentimentalism, until they are surfeited with it. They want to hear some one who believes something; who has a gospel that must be accepted, the receiv- ing of which is life, and the rejection of which is death. There never was a more doctrinal preacher than Jesus of Nazareth. The Apostles were in the highest sense dogmatical. They believed that un- less men accepted the gospel they would be damned. They believed their teaching to be the truth and that whatever opposed it was not true. There is a great charm in plain teaching. Jesus presented matters of greatest importance in most simple phraseology, and the people heard him gladly. If two-thirds of the adjectives in the average sermon of to-day could be exchanged for sound teaching concerning the great things of eternal life, the peo- ple would hear with greater relish. 5. Preach the truth ih love. It is not enough to condemn sin, to show its terrible and awful results ; nor when we have pointed out the remedy for sin, can we be at all sure that we are going to reach the people. Hortatory power is of great advantage. As a people, we know but little of exhortation. We have been given so wholly to right views that we have lost much of that warmth and fervency in our preaching, that has been used with such good effect, by the revivalists of every age, Every sermon 122 THE IOWA PULPIT. ought to be studied over and over again in the light of its purpose. Whom do you expect to win by the effort ? What good do you expect the sermon to do? Let the soul become saturated with the thought of the sermon and thoroughly aroused to the end in view. When the eternal destiny of the hearer weighs heavily on the heart, there will be that earnestness that will go far towards carrying conviction to all who hear. It is this same power of love for God and man that makes the sermon helpful to saints as well as sinners. This fervency is not simply for the preacher, or the pulpit alone, but for all workers in all efforts to win souls. Indeed, in the hand-to-hand engagement it is indispensable. It is better than all studied forms, and will introduce the subject of religion with less probabilities of giving offense than the follow- ing of any of the rules of social and religious eti- quette. I go into a sick room with the intention of doing something in directing the mind of the sufferer towards God. I am careful lest I give offense. So I wait till I can change the subject gradually. But some good old mother in Israel comes in, and she is talking about the Savior in less time than I could think of the plan by which to introduce the subject. No one knows just how she introduced the matter. The truth is, her heart was full of Christ and conse- quent earnestness, and she began the conversation because she could not help it, and all thought it was entirely proper. If you will win souls to Christ, WINNING SOULS. 123 keep your own- heart full of the divine message that is to be employed for the good of others. The blessedness oe winning souls. Preachers have many discouragements. Many of them are financially straitened all through life. And yet there is a joy and blessedness in the ministry to be found nowhere else. The true servant of God lives in the hearts of the people as no one else does. God blesses him in his deeds of love and makes him a real possessor of the earth. Paul says of the brethren at Philippi that they were his joy and crown. In writing to the Thessal- onians he says: "For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of glorying? Are not even ye, before our Lord Jesus at his coming? For ye are our glory and joy. " There is no other joy that is comparable to the spiritual happiness experienced by the true minis- ter of the gospel, in being a worker together with God, in advancing his truth and saving the world. When Simon and Andrew, James and John were made fishers of men, they were lifted into the highest position that may be occupied by any mortal. The prophets of old and the angels in heaven may alike admire this holy calling. No wonder it was said of old : " How beautiful are the feet them that bring glad tidings of good things. " This joy is not limited to public teachers of the word, but it belongs to all who will strive together for the advancement of the truth of God and the 124 THE IOWA PULPIT. salvation of the race. In the midst of misfortunes, the thought that their lives have been given to che service of him who never forgets his faithful children is blessed indeed. The reward in the world to come will be heightened and sweetened by the presence of those whom we have directed in the way of the Lord J. K. CORNELL. J. K. CORNELL. HIS preacher, so well known in Iowa, was born at Woos- ter, Wayne County, Ohio, April 30, 1829; son of Samuel B. Cornell an only son in a family of eight children. Had only the advantages of a country school education : but witb unusual, native proficiency, made soeh prog- ress, that he began teaching school when but sixteen years old. Removed to Macon County, Illinois in 1854, where he contin- ued teaching in winter and working at mechanics in summerf having learned the trade of masonry Here also he made his first efforts at preaching, his first appointment being with the Texas congregation in DeVVitt County; but his principal efforts were with the churches at Newburg, Macon, and Creek Nation De Witt Counties. In 1860 he came to Iowa and again engaged in teaching and preaching, as opportunity offered. Was three years principal of the public schools at Farmington, but resigned in the autumn of '63 to evangelize under the auspices of Van Buren County Co-operation. After two years successful evangelizing in that county, he spent a year at Fairfield and Brighton, and again returned and labored another year in Van Buren. He next re- moved to Brighton, Washington County, where he remained for three years. At that place his ministry was well received, and in debate with one M. E. Cornell, a Sabbatarian, he carried off the spoils of victory, by the verdict of the people. He also de- bated with D. M. Canwright at Richland and also at Leon, eaeh time fully meeting the expectation of his friends. Since his pastorate at Brighton, he has labored at Fairfield West Liberty, Winterset, Chariton, New Sharon, Montezuma, 125 126 THE IOWA PULPIT. Albia, et al. Was made President of the Iowa Christian Con- vention in 1872, which position he held for three years in suc- cession. Was made State Evangelist in 1877 and served one year. Was again made President of the convention in 1879, and served one year and a half and resigned. Was Trustee of Oskaloosa College for ten years, during which time he attended every Commencement, and meeting of the Trustees. He has also attended every State meeting since 1863 except one. He is now one of the State Evangelists, hav- ing been selected last year— 1883. Bro. Cornell stands six feet in his boots, has excellent health and tips the beam at 195 pounds. Of fair complexion, turning somewhat gray, though not much for one of his age. Is ener- getic and careful in his work, companionable a nd fraternal, and withal one of our best preachers. His place of residence is Kent, Union County, Iowa. He is the father of Profesor A. B. Cor- nell, Trenton, Missouri, the eldest of five living children, three sons and two daughters. SALVATION ALL OF GRACE. BY J. K. COENELL. "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves : it is the gift of God : not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them."— Eph. 2: 8, 10. HE great theme of the Bible is the salvation of man from sin and its consequences, and Christ is the center and the circumference of the whole plan of salvation. Salvation implies danger or a condition from which it is desirable to escape. But when we turn to the Scriptures and read of salvation or the means of salvation, we readily learn that the same salvation is not always spoken of. Sometimes the inspired writers speak of salvation from the condem- nation into which the human family had fallen when sin was introduced into the world, as in 1 Tim, 4 : 10, and sometimes of being saved from our past sins, as in Rom. 10 : 10. 127 128 THE IOWA PULPIT. There are at least three distinct salvations taught in the Scriptures and all are emphatically through grace. I. When man had fallen on account of sin, and became separated from God, the way was closed and guarded so that it was impossible for him to return to God until a way was opened for him. All men, whether they had sinned as did Adam, or were guilty of actual sin or not, were under the same con- demnation. "Therefore, as by the offense of one- judgment came upon all men to condemnation." Rom. 5 : 18. The reason all men were under the same condemnation was hot because all men had in- herited a sinful or depraved nature from Adam, for it is not clear that any of Adam's posterity inherited such a nature from him, or that even Adam's nature was changed by the fall. His character was changed by his sin and he thus became a sinner, and because he had become sinful he was driven from the pres- ence of the Father. But the reason that all men were under the same condemnation was because the way to God's presence was closed and no man could open it. None but divine power could open the way to God. And even a divine being could only do this by the offering of such a sacrifice as would answer the demand of infinite justice. This demand was answered when the "Word was made flesh " — Em- manuel— living among men, " learned obedience by the things which he suffered," (Heb. 5 : 8) and when he had accomplished all things given him to do, he gave himself a sacrifice for man, went down into SALVATION ALL OF GRACE. 129 death and the unseen world, and from the far off depths in which man was separated from God he arose, conquering the power of death and the unseen world, breaking down and overcoming whatever may have been in the way of man's returning to God, the Father, ascended to heaven and made an offering of t his own blood on the altar of God in heaven for the redemption of man. The Father accepted this sac- rifice and offering. Then was man redeemed — saved, " not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began." — 2 Tim 1 : 9. The way is thus opened and man ir no longer in a condemned state, helpless, but may now come to God through Christ. He is thus through grace saved from his fallen, lost condition, and appears before God to answer for his own doings, and is not now under condemnation for the sin of another. Here then we have a salvation, a universal and unconditional salvation, and therefore the Apostle says, " For therefore we both labor and suffer reproach because we trust in the living God, who is the Savior of all men, specially of those that be- lieve."— 1 Tim. 4 : 10. And again, " Therefore as by the offense of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation ; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life." — Rom. 5 : 18. This is the first salvation and this having been accomplished for man without any condition on his part, and having merited nothing at the hand of God, it is all of grace, therefore the de- 130 TUK IOWA PULPIT. claration of Paul, " But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved)."' — Eph. 2 : 4, 5. II. But it must he remembered that by this ex- pression of God's love, man is not saved from his * own sins, hence the Apostle says, " For by grace are ye saved through faithy — Eph. 2 : 8. Here is a con- dition required of man in order to salvation. But to all children and others incapable of knowing the truth and believing, this first salvation will result in their final and eternal salvation, because, not having the power to know a law, to them there is no law, and, " where no law is there is no transgression." — Rom. 4:15. But man having been redeemed and saved from his helpless condition, unfortunately has fallen by reason of his own sins, and therefore if he is accepted of God and owned by the Christ, he must be saved from his own sins. But the heavenly Father proposes to save man from his own sins upon certain condi- tions. These conditions God in His own wisdom and love has arranged and calls upon man to accept, yield obedience, and be saved. The Savior, in anticipation of these conditions, that man must know in order that he may yield obedience to them, and also recognize the authority by which they are demanded, after the last and greatest demonstration of his divinity — his resurrec- tion from the dead, said to the Apostles whom he had chosen, " All power is given unto me in heaven and SALVATION ALL OF GRACE. 131 in earth." — Math. 28 : 18. And after informing them of the high authority with which He spoke, com- manded them, saying, " Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that be- lieveth and is baptized shnll be saved; but he that believeth not shall be condemned." — Mark 16 : 15, 16. ♦ But they were not yet qualified for the work they were commanded to do, and He said to them, " And behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you : but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high." — Luke 24:49. After Jesus had ascended to heaven and was " made both Lord and Christ," and, " being by the right hand of God exalted," He sent the Holy Spirit, in fulfillment of His promise, to qualify them for the work He had given them to do. When they had received the Spirit and power to demonstrate the truth which they preached " by signs and wonders, and with divers miracles and gifts of the Holy Spirit," they began at once to preach the gospel, that man might believe, for the Savior said, " He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved." Now here is a salvation that depends upon condi- tions. As recorded by Mark (16 : 16) we have the extremes, faith and baptism, but Luke (24 : 47) gives us another item, " that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name," or by His authority. From a careful summary of the items found in the commission as given by Mark and Luke, we have " He that believeth, repents and is baptized shall be saved or receive the remission of 133 THE IOWA PULPIT. sins." Therefore the Apostle says, "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that (salvation) not of yourselves : it is the gift of God." — Eph. 2 : 8. This salvation or remission of sins is not the par- don of original or inherited sins in us, but the pardon of our own actual sins — wrong doings that we have done. Whatever condemnation man was under in consequence of Adam's sin, that has been taken away by the sacrifice and offering of the blood of Christ. Now as our being saved from our sins depends upon these conditions, it may be asked if there is any virtue or merit in our faith and our repentance, or in our baptism, to take away our sins. To which the answer must be in the negative. There certainly is no virtue or merit in any or all of these conditions to take away any sin, not even the least. But it may be further urged that if these have no virtue by which sins are removed, why, then, any neces- sity for doing them? This may be illustrated as fol- lows : Suppose a stranger stands at your door on a cold, dark night, with the thermometer thirty degrees below zero, while you are seated with your family about your warm and cheerful fire. He cries out, I am perishing with cold ! warm me, O warm me or I shall die ! You invite him in to be warmed by your fire, assuring him that there is an abund- ance of fire to warm him and make him comfortable. All that is necessary for him to do is to come to the fire and he will be warmed. He answers, it is useless to come in, here are several steps to pass SALVATION ALL OF GRACE. 133 over to get there and this walking will not warm me. I can and will be warmed without this walking. The fire alone will warm me, this I know and I will not do this walking, that will not warm me. But you plead with him and tell him it is true that the walk- ing to the fire will not warm him, but this is neces- sary to bring him to the fire that he may be warmed by it, and if he refuses to do this and thus come to the fire and be warmed by it, he must perish, for there is no other way to be warmed. If he refuses to do that which is necessary to bring him to the fire, he must perish. So it is in coming to the blood of Christ, that we may receive the remission of sins. It is the blood of Christ that cleanses from sins, not the coming to the Christ. " Without shedding of blood is no remission." — Heb. 9 : 22. " If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth us from all sin." — 1 John 1 : 7. This walking is the obedi- ence— the coining to the blood of Christ, and although there is no efficacy in the obedience to take away sin, yet this walking is necessary to bring man to Christ's blood that does cleanse us from all sin. Christ "is the true light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world." " I am the light of the world : he that followeth me shall not walk in dark- ness, but shall have the light of life." — John 1 : 9 and 8: 12. 134 THE IOWA PULPIT. Thus in obeying Christ we are walking in the the light — in Him. Now as is our walking to get to the fire, to be warmed, so is oar obedience to bring us to the place where pardon is received — to Christ. Now as our works have no virtue or worth to procure pardon, it is then all of grace and " not of works, lest any man should boast." This then is a second sal- vation by which we are saved. III. But man is not yet eternally saved, therefore the Apostle says to the brethren atPhilippiwho had been saved from their past sins, ''Wherefore, my be- loved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my pres- ence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling." — Phil. 2 : 12. And again, Peter in writing to the "So- journers of the Dispersion," including all they had done to bring them into the relation of elect persons in the one word " faith," says, " add to your faith, virtue ; and to virtue, knowledge ; and to knowledge, temperance ; and to temperance, patience ; and to patience, godliness ; and to godliness, brotherly kindness ; and to brotherly kindness, charity — love, * * * for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall : For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ." Here then again are conditions upon which eternal salvation depends. Having turned away from the service of sin to the service of God, there is before us now a life of right- eousness. This is a perpetual service in obedience SALVATION ALL OF GRACE. 135 to Christ. But the Christian life is not a menial service, but a service of love. The Apostle said, " For the love of Christ constraineth us." So must the Christian be moved to action, not through fear, but through love. While he cannot and ought not to feel that he is earning or meriting the Father's blessings, yet should he rejoice that God has provid- ed the means whereby he may come to Him through Christ and receive the gift of eternal life. The prom- ise is that to him "who by patient continuance in well doing, seeks for glory and honor and immortality," God will give " eternal life." Salvation then is all of grace and the Christian may and ought to sing as the real sentiment of his heart — ■ "Grace ! 'tis a charming sound, Harmonious to the ear; Heaven with the echo shall resound, And all the earth shall hear. Grace first contrived the way To save rebellious man ; And all the steps that grace display, Which drew the wondrous plan. Grace led our wandering feet To tread the heavenly road ; And new supplies each hour we meet While passing on to God. Grace all the works shall crown Through everlasting days ; It lays in heaven the topmost stone, And well deserves the praise." 138 THE IOWA PULPIT. And having such a privilege given to us of becom- ing sons of God and heirs of life through this grace, we should most earnestly" press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus," singing praises to God and of Jesus and his love. My heart would sing, yes always sing Of God, the good and blest, Who comes to man with grace and love, Through Christ, to give him rest. J. H. PAINTER. J. H. PAINTER. i3 subject of this sketch was born of Samuel and Nancy Painter, in Fleming County, Kentucky, Feb- ruary 1, 1841. In 1844 they removed to Gold Brook, (now Cameron) Warren County, Illinois, where was, nt that time a flourishing congregation of Disciples, and where their son received his first religious impres- sions in witnessing the worship of the Davidsons, Whitmans, Sheltons, Reynolds and Murphys. In 1849 they removed to the south part of the county, near Swan Creek, and bought a farm on which J. H. worked with his father during the summer months, and attended the district schools in winter : till 1855 when his father sold out, and bought some wild land in McDonough County. The work of opening up a new farm of 320 acres, was attended with much privation and exposure, but with a little hired help the father was enabled to send the lad to school during winter as before, where he made rapid advancement in his studies. In 1860 an Academy was in operation, under the auspices of the Free Will Baptists, at Prairie City, Illinois. The Principal was Daniel Branch, one of Garfield's old teachers. To this school he was sent. About two years previously, he had united with the M. P. church, and was immersed, intending to unite with the Disciples at the first opportunity, there being no church nearer than Bushnell. But being associated with the people he was, he soon learned to scorn the doctrine of "water salvation," "no Holy Spirit religion," " no change of heart," etc., and decided to remain in the Methodist church, on the principle that, while it did not exactly suit him, it was per- haps as good as any ! In 1861 he enlisted in the army; and going through the cam- paigns in Missouri and Arkansas under Gen. Curtis : siege of 137 138 THE IOWA PULPIT Corinth, Mississippi, under Halleck; The march op through Kentucky, under Buel ; down to Chattanooga, under Rose- crans ; and Georgia under Sherman, his term of service expired in 1864. During the period of his enlistment he made no pre- tensions to piety. Shortly after leaving the army he was married to Mrs. Kate Carter, of Tennessee, and again united with the church, this time the M. E. church. He was soon made class leader ; then licensed to exhort, and finally nominated for license to preach, while he was on "probation." He was licensed in 1865, made a few attempts to preach ; but in 1866 he removed to Cass County, Missouri, whither his father also moved from Illinois. While there his father prevailed on him one day to go with him and hear M. D. Todd preach, who was holding a meeting a few miles away. He was impressed with the earnestness and candor of the preacher, but pitied his ignorance concerning the Holy Spirit. Todd gave opportunity for written questions, and he wrote out three, which were answered so Scripturally, evincing a much greater knowledge even of Methodism than he himself had, that after both a private and public conference, he united with the Disciples in the autumn of 1868. When he took the step he abandoned the idea of ever preach- ing again; but early in 1869 he was pursuaded to make an ap- pointment at Morristown, Missouri. It was his first effort among the Disciples, and was urged to continue monthly preaching at that point, which he did for three years, adding during the time about one hundred members to the church. Meanwhile he had been teaching school, and growing in the confidence of the brethren, so that he had appointments every Sunday. In 1872 he removed to Kansas and engaged actively and exclusively in preaching, meeting with large success, (baptizing in one year, 516 persons), until the grasshopper scourge in 74 and 75, when he went to the place of his boyhood, in Illinois. Here- his relatives and early companions kindly provided for his necessities; and he in turn preached the gospel to them; bap- tizing several of his relatives, and some, around whose knees he had played in childhood ; organized a church, numbering about one hundred, and built a house of worship which was dedi- cated September, 1876. i\ H. PAINTER. 139 On Christmas day of the same year, he landed in Iowa and began preaching for Nichols and Big Springs' churches, and has been " as busy as a bee " ever since. He preached for Nichols two years ; for Big Springs four years ; for Columbus City and Frank Pierce one year, besides holding several meetings outside of his field. In November, '81 he was employed as State Evangelist, which position he still holds. He has never held any meetings where the additions reached a hundred, but he has worked so con- stantly that he has received into the church by baptism and from other religious bodies, up to the time this sketch was written, 3065 persons. In personal appearance he is five feet six inches in height, weighs ahoutl35 pounds, brown hair and hazel eyes. In style as a speaker, conversational, clear, pointed and instructive: relying on the power of the truth, when understood, to bring the wonted results. He has held a few public discussions, with credit and satisfaction. Is a fair singer, a good organizer, agreeable among his brethren, and energetic and untiring in the work of the gospel. PREACHING. BY J. H. PAINTER. " For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved."— Rom. 10:13. HATEVER is covered by the expression " Call upon the name of the Lord " is a question in dispute ; but that it is neces- sary to salvation none will deny. There is also great concord in the position that, whatever is essential to calling upon the name of the Lord is likewise essential to salvation. But just what is essential to that, is in dispute. The controversy shows about the following positions : 1. In order that the sinner may call upon the name of the Lord and be saved, his spirit must be impressed by the Holy Spirit, so as to incline him to seek the Lord in prayer. If the Scriptures figure in the matter at all, they are certain portions which the Holy Spirit applies to his heart, by which he unerringly sees his real condition, and the way out therefrom. It is held that the Holy Spirit will lead sinners to call upon the name of the .Lord and be saved, who never read or heard read the Scriptures ; that if 141 148 THE IOWA PULPIT. preaching has anything to do with it, it is because the Holy Spirit at the time, or at some other time, applies it to his heart, and not because there is any thing in the preaching itself that enables him to call upon God. Just how the Holy Spirit does this is not known, as it is held to be miraculous. Those holding this position use the Scriptures to illustrate rather than to establish their doctrine ; and of course rely upon prayer as the most potent of all human means in enabling men to call upon the name of the Lord and be saved. 2. The other position agrees that the Holy Spirit must influence the act of calling on the name of the Lord, but holds that he does so through human agency; that the scriptures " Are able to make men wise unto salvation ; that they contain the Gospel of Christ which is the power of God unto salvation. " 2 Tim. 3 : 15. Rom. 1 : 16. It denies that sinners are enabled to call upon the name of the Lord who never heard the gospel, nor read it ; that any power is known outside of the gos- pel to impart such ability to the sinner; or that the " Righteousness of God " is revealed elsewhere than in the gospel. Rom. 1 : 17. On the other hand it affirms that the gospel is a divine power, placed at man's disposal to enlighten him, to direct him ; and that to exercise this power it must be preached by tongue, type, or pen. Those holding this position rely upon the Scriptures to es- tablish, defend and illustrate it; and consequently resort to preaching as the most potent of human PREACHING. 143 means to enable their fellow-men to call upon the name of the Lord and be saved. This position assigns to preaching a very high place in the scale of conditions necessary to man's salvation ; and ought to be well supported by the Bible before any man adopts it. In the investigation of the subject of preaching, we will observe the following order : 1. Its necessity. 2. Upon whom rests the responsibility of preach- ing. 3. What to preach, and 4. Its aim and object. I. Its necessity. If men can know the will of God and do it, without hearing it proclaimed, they certainly can be saved without preaching. For Christ says : "He that doeth the will of my Father in heaven, shall enter into his kingdom. " (Matt. 7 : 21.) And while preaching might be of assistance in some phase of salvation, it would not be actually necessary to- secure it. And if preaching is not nec- essary, neither is a preacher, since those who do not preach can sing, exhort and pray as well perhaps, as a preacher. And if a preacher is not necessary, it is a foolish waste of money to employ him his whole time in doing an unnecessary thing. Besides it is difficult to see any inducement to devote one's time to j> reaching, when it is not necessary, unless there is money to be made at it, And by the same rule, if something else would pay better, then, we would bettei do something else. 144 THE IOWA PULPIT. These reflections lead us to inquire what saith the Scriptures about this matter? We shall assume that, what they say is the truth about it, and urge every one concerned to act accordingly. 1. Notice then the following: "How then shall they call on him in whom th