00.2 Introduction
Introduction By Rev. C. A. Jenkens, Franklinton, N. C.
“Speak unto the children of Israel, that they go forward.” —Exodus 14:15.
Possibly an overtasked and broken-hearted people had well-nigh forgotten the gracious promise God had made long years before to Abraham, their father, saying: “I will make thee exceeding fruitful, and I will make nations of thee, and kings shall come out of thee. And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee and to thy seed after thee. And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.” As their backs smarted under the taskmaster’s lash, or as they gathered straw in Egyptian fields, like Sarah, they may have laughed at the promise of Jehovah, and esteemed it but an idle tale that they were ever to be an independent people, the peculiar favorites of heaven, dwelling in a land every way fitted to be a type of Paradise. But God is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; and to-day, fleeing in wild confusion, six hundred thousand effective men, besides old men, women, and children, have gathered on the border of the Red Sea. The vast moving throng numbers hardly less than two million souls, and this day is the Lord’s word gloriously fulfilled, “That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore.”
Meanwhile the Egyptians are not idle. Pharaoh and his servants, recovering somewhat from the shock of plagues, and determining still further to defy the living God, go forth in hot pursuit of their former slaves. Their serried ranks march on, “terrible as an army with banners,” until the grating of their chariot wheels on distant rocks and the thundering tramp of their chargers arouse the Israelites from their dreams of deliverance and peace.
Destruction seemed inevitable to the chosen seed. Trembling age looks back upon the neighboring hills crowned with foes, terrified children cling to no less terrified mothers in Israel, and even the stoutest hearts are dismayed at the approaching peril. The people murmur against Moses and against God. Escape seemed impossible. On one hand rose a treacherous mountain; on the other stretched a desert waste; behind them marched an infuriated host, headed by its king; while before them rolled the angry waves of an unbroken sea. To show, perhaps, the strength of his own arm and the glory of his own name, Jehovah commands Moses to “speak to the children of Israel that they go forward.” Go forward? How can it be—difficulties on every side! Half doubting, they obey the strange command, and march to the water’s brink, when, lo, the prophet of the Lord lifts his rod over the sea, and the waters rise on either side a perfect wall, through which a redeemed and happy people pass.
Holding up the children of Israel as a type of that Church the Son of God came to establish, I wish to impress upon the reader the following lessons:
I. Absolute obedience to God, the supreme necessity of the Church.
Demosthenes, when asked what is the first thing in oratory, replied, “Action.” When asked what is the second, he again said,” Action;” and when asked what is the third thing, he still said, “Action.” To pilgrims in a land of sin and death, it matters not so much what are the essential elements of an evanescent art, but we do know that the first and last thing in the divine life of the soul and in the prosperity of the Church, is obedience. The whole duty of the Church, as well as of man, is to “fear God and keep his commandments.” Were it possible for a heaven redeemed soul to cease to obey, it would also cease to live; and if a church cease to obey, it also ceases to exist as a divine institution. Had the children of Israel positively refused to go forward in obedience to the divine command, or had they presumptuously attempted to scale the mountain range on their right, or flee through the desert on their left, or to repel the threatening hosts of Pharaoh at their back, they must have forfeited their freedom and happiness, and suffered defeat and shame. Is it strange, then, that there should be found throughout the history of the Church a people ready to walk in the statutes of the Lord, and willing to suffer persecution and death rather than depart from his law? Baptists are not unfrequently reminded that they lay too great stress on literal obedience in ecclesiastical matters; but, knowing the fearful consequences of disobedience recorded in the Scriptures for the admonition of men, they do not see how they can act otherwise, even if they desired to do so. Below will be given a few of the many reasons why Baptists cling so tenaciously to the Word of God in all points of doctrinal character.
1. Obedience is made by Jesus a test of love. In that chapter of marvellous sweetness and heavenly tenderness in John’s Gospel, our Lord says, “If ye love me, keep my commandments.” In another place he makes compliance with his law a test of friendship, saying, “Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you.” Again, a priceless promise, a promise sacred and glorious to every believer, is connected with the observance of his word: “If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love.” Believing, then, that submission to the will of our Lord is one of the loveliest graces of the renewed heart, we feel that we cannot depart from his commands without proving false to ourselves and false to him.
2. On the other hand, disobedience is everywhere held up in the inspired volume as one of the blackest vices of the human heart—a vice on which rest alike the unmingled displeasure and withering curse of Almighty God. In order to impress upon the hearts of men the “exceeding sinfulness” of disobedience, the apostle Jude penetrates another world to adduce a fitting illustration. He says, “The angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.” Can language be more strong, or doom more terrible?
Another sad, but striking instance, may be found in the history of our first parents. Theirs was as a happy lot—God their companion, Eden their home. For them, birds sang, streams murmured, fruits ripened, and flowers bloomed. But, at some evil hour, Satan suggested a rebellious act that resulted in the loss of all. As they pluck the fruit, it turns to ashes on their lips; and as they gaze upon the flowers, they fade—fit symbols of their blasted hopes. The fatal effects of this one treacherous act are seen and felt wherever man lives. Sin has poisoned the entire race; for in Adam all die. Eden! mystic name—at whose mention start into being a hundred thoughts—where to-day is Eden? The traveller may surmise, men may guess, but no man knows. Its general locality may be ascertained, but it is impossible to say with certainty, of any spot on earth, “This is the Garden of the Lord.” Thus has Jehovah blotted out the earthly Paradise as a forceful expression of his wrath against man’s first disobedience.
Fruitful instruction may further be gathered from the case of Moses. This was a man upon whom rested the dews of heaven, and to whom were granted many and peculiar privileges. He was at once the favorite of the Father and the type of the Son. On one occasion, however, Moses was betrayed into an act of disobedience. The thirsty congregation of Israel gathered about him, clamoring for water, and the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Take the rod and gather thou the assembly together, thou and Aaron thy brother, and speak ye unto the rock before their eyes, and it shall give forth his water.” But Moses regarded not the injunction of his Maker, and “lifted up his hand, and with his rod he smote the rock twice.” For this unfaithfulness, the great law-giver was not permitted to enter the Promised Land. The difference between speaking to the rock, and smiting it, may have appeared small in the eyes of the servant of the Lord, but in the eyes of the Lord himself, it was very great.
I shall notice next the rash act of Uzziah. The law touching the sanctuary and its vessels is recorded Numbers 4:15, as follows: “And when Aaron and his sons have made an end of covering the sanctuary, and all the vessels of the sanctuary, as the camp is to set forward; after that, the sons of Kohath shall come to bear it: but they shall not touch any holy tiling, lest they die.” When the Israelites were bringing up the ark from Kirjath-jearim, “Uzzah and Ahio drove the cart.” When they came to the threshing-floor of Chidon, Uzzah put forth his hand to support the tottering ark, “for the oxen stumbled,” thinking, perhaps, he was rendering timely and acceptable service, but at the same time forgetting the commandment of the Lord, that they shall not touch any holy thing, lest they die.” So God’s anger was kindled against Uzzah, and he smote him. A notable instance of God’s abhorrence of disregard to his word, is presented in the life of Saul. The king of Israel was commanded to go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all they had, and to spare them not: but “to slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass.” Saul smote the Amalekites, but, contrary to the divine command, preserved Agag and the best of the spoil, “sheep, oxen, and the chief of the tilings.” The king declares to Samuel that his purpose was to sacrifice to the Lord; but the prophet replies, “Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt, offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord. Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, he hath also rejected thee from being king.” The last instance to be adduced in this connection is the history of Judas Iscariot. Singularly was this apostle favored. He shared the instructions of the other apostles. He witnessed the miracles of his Lord. Jesus makes known to him, as to the rest, the unmistakable requirements of his law. In the full blaze of divine truth, Judas determines to betray the Redeemer, and, violating the spirit of every command Clod has given, sells for thirty pieces of silver his Saviour and his soul.
Remember, then, that by disobedience angels lost heaven; man, Eden; Moses, the promised land; Uzzah, his life; Saul, his crown; and Judas, his soul.
3. Baptists are unwilling for their practices to vary from the Scriptures, not only because fidelity to Christ demands it, but because they fear the expansive power of error. Error is a subtle thing; once begun, it is beyond the science of numbers to compute its end. It is like artillery that shakes the solid earth, and fills the heavens with its thunders, until neighboring hills and peaks and distant valleys are vocal with its echoes. Let me illustrate more fully. Once suffer human authority to be the governing power in the Church, and that body will ultimately have, as a Vicar of Christ, a priest, a bishop, or a pope. Having a human head, it will also have a human body. The moment man began to control it, it ceased to be a Gospel Church. Admit infant baptism, and the result will be the unchaste union of Church and State, an unregenerate membership, or, at all events, a disregard of the Scriptural mode of baptism. Thus a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump.”
4. Baptists hold that Jesus Christ is the founder of the true Church, and that he alone has the right to give it its ordinances and its laws. To undertake to make an improvement upon what he has done, is to impeach his wisdom and jmpugn his goodness. It is to say he knew not how to establish a church best calculated to promote the interests of men and the glory of his name. If, however, it be admitted that he had sufficient wisdom to found such a church, and did it not, the blasphemous conclusion must be reached, that the neglect is due to a want of goodness and love on his part.
Again, they are assured their churches are well founded. Jesus says, “Upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” Glorious truth, and precious promise! I build my church! Not Abraham, not Peter, not Henry VIII., not John Wesley, not Alexander Campbell, but Jesus Christ the Son of Clod. The true Church, then, cannot be traced to human origin.
5. The last reason I shall assign for Baptists refusing to depart from the New Testament church model is, that they have examined the creeds of other denominations, and have failed to discover anything comparable to their own faith. With pain, they have observed the tendency of ecclesiastical organizations, not modelled after the Scriptures, to lose their spiritual power, and to be absorbed in the world. What, for instance, is the spiritual force of the Jews? What are they accomplishing for the glory of God, for the conversion of their own race, or for that of the world? What has been the spiritual tendency of the Romish Church? Let the blood of God’s martyred saints cry out. Let the enslaved nations speak. Give a tongue to ignorance, crime, and war, and they will testify that the Roman Catholic Church has been the fruitful mother of vice and error, opposing in every way possible the cause of truth and heaven. The other pedobaptist churches differ, more or less widely, from the Romish Hierarchy, but as a matter of history, they can be traced as branches of that prolific vine. Romish errors still find a home in their creeds. They have inaugurated many reforms, and done many good works; but they have failed to erect a Scriptural church, or give to the world a pure gospel. The Protestant churches have not been able to contend successfully with the mother church. As Dr. Curry observes, “Baptist principles are necessary in their totality for the final overthrow of Romanism.” Again, “many candid Romanists admit that Baptists are the only thorough antagonists of their creed.” The same author quotes Dr. Buckland as saying, “It was truly said, in that day, that whenever the reformers would find arguments to conquer Rome, they used those of the Anabaptists; and when they contended with Anabaptists, they were compelled to use the arguments of Rome,—the authority of the church, and the established customs and traditions of the past. They could not appeal successfully to the Bible. This inconsistency was again and again urged upon them by Romanists, and it was declared that there is not, cannot be, any middle ground between the Baptist faith and the faith of Rome.”
While other denominations are rising and falling, and while their history has, for the most part, been a history of blunders and changes, the Baptists have held on to the even tenor of their way, glorifying God, and blessing the world. Though their churches are entirely separate and independent, they nevertheless harmonize in doctrine, because the Scriptures constitute the bond of union. They are perfectly satisfied with their creed, believing it to be of heavenly origin, and best suited to the wants of men and the will of God.
Through persecution and ridicule they have come, humbly walking in their Master’s footsteps and hearkening to their Master’s voice. Others may seek strange paths and delight in strange creeds, but they will obey Jehovah’s voice, arid “go forward.”
II. The second lesson we find in the narrative from which the text is taken, is that there are no nonessentials in the divine commands. Moses was not only required to order the children of Israel to advance, but first to lift up his hand, and stretch out his hand over the sea, and divide it. This was not a mere form or an unmeaning ceremony. It was a high and heavenly mandate, invested with the glorious dignity of divine authority. Many who are accustomed to select those truths that are congenial to their creed, and to despise the others, may discover but slight connection between lifting a rod and dividing a sea. It is well to remember, however, that the angry waters parted not, nor was deliverance effected for an imperiled host until this minor command was obeyed. Dr. Tucker forcibly remarks: “Is it conceivable that the great God could possibly lend the sanction of his authority to that which is nothing but emptiness! or that he would command us to do that which might well be left undone? Does disobedience of any part of his law make no change in our relations to him? A mere form is an insignificant thing and unworthy of respect. Has God commanded anything that is insignificant or unworthy of respect? Is any part of his law contemptible? The soul takes fright at the very thought. God’s commandment is exceeding broad; each part of it is jealous of the honor of every other, and each is invested with the majesty of all.” Is there any part of God’s Word that sanctions disregard for even the smallest of his requirements? On the contrary, are there not abundant passages that teach his displeasure at such disregard? When Lot was instructed to leave the doomed city of Sodom, the angel’s warning was: “Escape for thy life; look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all the plain; escape to the mountain, lest thou be consumed.” As they were hastening across the plain, it may have appeared to Lot’s wife a trivial matter to look back toward the fated city, the scene of past associations, and the home of her children. Not hearkening to the angel’s voice, she hesitates, turns, and looks; and “she became a pillar of salt.” Only a look! yes, a look, but a disobedient look. As it is true that there is life in a look, so it is true that there is death in a look. “Remember Lot’s wife.” Samson may not have conceived any essential relation between his long hair and his great strength; yet when he lost the one he also lost the other. What essential link is there between rams’ horns and the destruction of a city? Yet the walls of Jericho stood firm until the horns were sounded. And again: “Moses was admonished of God, when he was about to make the tabernacle: For, see, saith he, that thou make all things according to the pattern showed to thee in the mount.” Hebrews 8:5. How minute the details—yet how important, each one an essential part of the divine pattern. As the tabernacle of the Father was constructed after a pattern, so was the church of the Son. His pattern was his own commandments: “teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you.” Matthew 28:20. Who will be bold enough to assert that the last instructions of our Lord to his church embodied nor.-essentials? Rather let every believer say with Dr. Gill: “Whatever is done in a way of religious worship should be according to divine rule; a church of Christ ought to be formed according to the primitive pattern, and should consist, not of all that are born in a nation, province, or parish; nor should all that are born of believing parents be admitted into it; no unholy, unbelieving and unconverted persons, only such as are true believers in Christ, and who are baptized according as the word of God directs.”
Jesus has set his people an illustrious example. How careful he was of the minor points of the law. He kept the whole law, and deemed no prophecy of so small importance as not to attend, even amid the pangs of the cross, to its fulfilment. “Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps.” 1 Peter 2:21. To teach that there are non-essentials in the Gospel, is not only insulting to Jesus but dangerous to men. Who is to decide what is, and what is not essential? The whole matter is left necessarily to the wild caprice of misguided men. Men differ as to the importance of the various doctrines of the Scriptures; they must have, then, different churches as the expression of their faith. Creeds of every description are framed, confusion arises, and Christianity is dishonored. Who is to say that it makes any difference whether Christ or the Pope is head of the church? Who shall condemn Episcopalians for encouraging the unhallowed union of Church and State? Who shall decide between Unitarians and Trinitarians, between Methodists and Mormons, between Presbyterians and Campbellites? In other words, who is to judge between truth and error? Pedobaptists answer, “I.” Baptists answer, “Jesus.” There is no middle ground. We must receive the truth, and the whole truth, as found in the inspired volume. To do otherwise, is to plunge into mists and endless error.
III. God makes a way for his people. This is the concluding lesson. Hedged in on every side, humanly speaking, escape was impossible in the case of the children of Israel. But with God all things are possible. He looks down upon the bewildered people of his peculiar and unchanging love, and through the depths of the sea he makes a way for them to pass dry-shod. Strange way—but safe and glorious and right joyfully did Moses and the people sing a sweet song unto the Lord, saying: “And with the blast of thy nostrils the waters were gathered, the floods stood upright as a heap, and the depths were congealed in the heart of the sea. The enemy said, I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil; my lust shall be satisfied upon them; I will draw my sword, my hand shall destroy them. Thou didst blow with thy wind, the sea covered them; they sank as lead in the mighty waters. Who is like unto thee, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders?” In ways quite as wonderful has Jehovah led those who have delighted to obey him. Enoch walked with God; and by a path never trod before, entered the gates of glory. When the stern prophet had ended his mission on earth, the Master honored him with a chariot of fire and flaming horses; and “Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven.” When sorrow had filled Jacob’s heart, and he cried in bitterness, “Joseph is not, and Simeon is not, and ye will take Benjamin away; all these things are against me,” still, all things were working together for his highest good, and a lovely providence was preparing a way for him to enter a land of peace and plenty. The world was corrupt and full of violence, and God determined to destroy our wicked race. One man, however, a preacher of righteousness, has found favor in his sight. On Noah and his family rests the divine love. When a guilty race is overwhelmed in ruin, and the footprints of men have been blotted out from the earth, Noah rides on the universal wave, until the storms are hushed, the wrath of heaven appeased, and the rainbow of promise beams from the peaceful clouds. No less remarkably has God preserved his Church. From its inception until now, it has not lacked enemies. Foes within and foes without have sought either to change or to destroy it. Early men began to transgress the commandments of God by their traditions, and to make his word of none effect. Slight errors, and then grosser errors, crept into the early churches. Slight deviations from apostolic practices resulted, at length, in bold subversion of the divine arrangement. Thus arose the “man of” the Church of Rome. The true churches were persecuted and despised. Ecclesiastical authority was blended with temporal power, and the civil arm was raised to crush the gospel of God’s beloved Son. Dark ages brooded over the nations, and over the apostolic churches. It almost seemed that God had forgotten to be gracious, and Jesus to remember his promise, “Lo, I am with yon alway, even unto the end of the world.” Liberty was crushed, and there was scarcely a light to shine amid the unmingled gloom. The Lord Jesus had, however, faithful witnesses and a peculiar people dwelling in mountain caverns. The gospel light had burned low, but had not been extinguished. Forces, divinely ordered, were at work, which resulted eventually in the Reformation. While apostate churches were seeking alliance with the State, and reposing in the unchaste embrace of princes, the true church of Jesus never bowed to temporal power, nor laid her virgin head on the pillows of royalty. She repelled alike the threats of priests and the flattery of kings. As the heavenly influences of these churches began to spread, a few great minds caught the spirit of Christianity, and, under divine guidance, inaugurated the Reformation. Thus did God make a way for his elect — a way that led through deserts, wildernesses, persecution, blood, and death. The reformers had too much of the spirit of the Romish Church remaining in, them to be altogether favorable to churches holding Baptist views. The heaven-taught doctrine of religious liberty, so fondly cherished by these churches, was strenuously opposed by the Protestants. Protestants, true to the spirit of the mother church, soon began to seek union with the State, or else to assume authority not delegated to men. The Baptists were again in disfavor, and again persecuted and despised. Under Protestant sway, there seemed to be no genial soil where a pure gospel could flourish. A brighter day was soon to dawn. There was a land, basking in the rays of the western sun, and washed by western seas—a land whose forests as yet had never resounded with the glad tidings of eternal love and the praises of Almighty God. America, long reserved for a noble end, is now discovered. Here liberty has built its temple, and a pure gospel has made its home. Here the shackles of superstition fall from the captive’s hand, and the blood-redeemed soul exults in conscious freedom. Here the humblest believer is taught that he is superior to priests and popes, and destined, under the influences of immaculate love, to rise superior to ignorance and sin, and wear a crown brighter than “flaming suns or shining constellations.” The passage of the children of Israel from a land of bondage, through the Red Sea, to the land of promise, is strikingly suggestive of the passage of a pure Christianity from the spiritual bondage of European superstition, across the ocean, to a land of liberty and peace. We know, at all events, that God has made a way for his church, and that that church is destined to bless not only America, but the whole world. Yes, blessed Jesus, thou hast built thy church upon a rock, and the gates of hell have not prevailed against it! The Baptists of America have done a noble work, and their influence is even now felt throughout this land. In numbers they have multiplied from thousands into hundreds of thousands, and from hundreds of thousands into millions. But their power is not to be estimated by numbers; they have taught freedom of soul to this nation, and furnished a model for its great government. Their influence extends far beyond their own ranks. It is exerted unmistakably in other denominations. How many more persons are immersed in other communions than formerly. In many communities, where once the custom prevailed, how seldom are infants baptized. Other changes might be noticed that are traceable to the same religious power; but it is unnecessary to relate them now.
Then, “go forward,” Church of the living God; “ye are the light of the world.” The Saviour’s words find a forceful illustration in an incident related by a distinguished traveller, and quoted by the late Dr. Richard Fuller. “Being at Calais,” remarks the writer, “I climbed up into the lighthouse and conversed with the keeper. ‘Suppose,’ said I, ‘that one of those lights should go out.’ ‘Go out, impossible!’ he exclaimed, with a sort of consternation at the bare hypothesis. ‘Sir,’ he added, pointing to the ocean, ‘Yonder, where nothing can be seen, there are ships going by to every part of the world. If to-night one of my burners were to go out, within six months would come a letter, perhaps from India, perhaps from America, perhaps from some place I never heard of, saying, on such and such a night, at such and such an hour, the light at Calais burned dim, the watchman neglected his post, and vessels were in danger. Ah, sir, sometimes, in the dark nights, in stormy weather, I look out to sea, and feel as if the eye of the whole world were looking at my lights. Let them go out? burn dim? O never, never, never!’”
Go forward to greater attainments in grace and to nobler works of love! Remember that one is your Master, even Christ. Remember that it is his to bind the earth with fetters of ice, or wreathe it with the flowers of spring—his “to kindle the fires of suns or quench the light of stars “—his to frame a world or found a church—his to command, ours to obey!