02.A08. Trial Of Faith And Triumph Of Principle

CHAPTER VIII.

TRIAL OF FAITH AND TRIUMPH OF PRINCIPLE. At the time of my conversion, sectarianism in its most embittered forms ruled in all the churches. Most of the denominations also were divided into schools and parties, each of which held the doctrines of the others in the intensest reprobation; schools and parties giving rise in several instances to new and hostile sects. Under such circumstances, the conviction took an early and a distinct form in my mind, that in all these sects and schools and parties there was much of truth, with more or less of intermingled error; and that, if I should make it my simple inquiry, "What is truth?" and be guided in my inquiries, not by prevailing opinion around me, but by an exclusive and prayerful reference "to the law and to the testimony," I should probably be at home nowhere but with my own conscience and my God, and should in important respects -- all differences, however trivial in themselves, being then deemed important -- be esteemed, even by my own sect and, school and party, as unsound in the faith.

Hence it was that, before I had been a believer for a single year, the question was distinctly submitted to my deliberate moral election -- to wit, By what law should my future inquiries after truth and duty be directed? Shall I take unquestioning rank as a member of some sect, school or party? Or shall I be the honest and earnest scholar of truth itself; with my intellect, my conscience, my God, and His Spirit, law, and testimony as my authoritative leaders and guides? Such questioning I was not long in deciding; and fixing permanently my life principles, I determined that, as I had opportunity, I would, with all care and candour, examine all the principles and doctrines of all churches, sects, schools, and parties, and as fully as possible weigh all the real evidences for and against their truth, and then, holding my mind in an even balance, let the weight of evidence, and nothing else, determine my convictions and course of conduct, accepting whatever consequences agreements and disagreements with popular sentiments might bring upon me. To this principle I have, since that good hour, sacredly and deliberately aimed to conform in the formation of all my opinions, beliefs, doctrines, and principles, in every sphere of thought and activity in common. This utter renunciation of the fear of man, and this deliberate election of the fear of God as my immutable motive in determining all questions of truth and duty, was not made without much inward pain and self-crucifixion. I did not know Christ then as I do now, and was not "in Him, and He in me," then as now. As a consequence, it was not then, as it is now, "a small thing to be judged of man’s judgment." Yet, painful as it was, the election was made, and has ever remained as the fixed law of faith and conduct. As the result of inquiries conducted in the strictest adherence to such principles, I have never for a moment stood outside the circle of the evangelical faith, but have ever maintained a fixed position in the center of that circle. The doctrines of the divine origin and authority of "that dearest of books, that excels every other" -- of the Triune God -- of the mystery of the incarnation, "God manifest in the flesh" -- of the universal sinfulness of man -- of atonement through the death of Christ -- of the necessity of regeneration through the Spirit as the immutable condition of our "seeing the kingdom of God" -- of "repentance from dead works, and of faith towards God" -- of "the resurrection of the dead" -- and of "eternal judgment" -- all these and kindred doctrines I hold as of infinite importance in themselves, and as verified revelations from God, and hold them with the distinct consciousness that I must thus regard them, or cease to "walk in the light," and be determined in all my convictions by valid evidence. On other questions of vital interest relatively to the revealed privileges and immunities and "high callings" in this life of "believers in Jesus," my sacred convictions -- convictions induced by the most careful and devout study of the Word of God -- my most sacred convictions, I say, have constrained me to take open issue with the popular faith of the class of believers with whom I was ecclesiastically connected, and of the great majority of evangelical denominations, and hence have often found myself as a stranger among my own people. As I advance near the setting sun of life, however, I have the unspeakable satisfaction to know that these very doctrines, the holding of which was imputed to me as heresy of the most dangerous character, are becoming vital centers about which, in all these denominations, Christian thought is now revolving.

Having for nearly sixty years been a disciple of truth under the principles above stated, it will not be deemed out of place if I should offer a few considerations to commend these principles to the implicit regard of all who would "walk in the light of God." The spirit of manly, Christian independence demanded by these principles does not permit us, it should be borne in mind, to regard or treat with contempt, but with deep respect, the doctrines of the churches, or the opinions and sentiments of those who differ from us. This spirit does require us, on the other hand, to examine, with all candour and care, all such doctrines, opinions, and sentiments, to compare them with searching scrutiny with the Scriptures of truth, the law, and the testimony, and to accept or reject them as we find them to accord, or not to accord, with these all-authoritative and unerring standards. This spirit is also at an equal remove from that latitudinarianism, miscalled liberality, which regards with indifference all questions pertaining to truth and error, and blindly fellowships each alike. This spirit, on the other hand, not only "loves righteousness and hates iniquity," but, with equal fervency, loves truth and hates error, carefully discriminates between the right and the wrong, the true and the false, and has fellowship, only with truth and goodness, and always, in questions of truth and duty, searches and decides in the fear of God alone. Why should this be the fixed law of thought and action with us?

This, I remark, in the first place, is the identical spirit, and these are the identical principles, specifically and absolutely imposed in the Scriptures upon every "believer in Jesus," as of absolute authority in all his inquiries after truth and duty. In the Bible we have set before us "one Lawgiver," "the Father, of whom are all things, and we in Him, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by Him;" one Lord, who is Himself "the way, and the truth, and the life," and who is the exclusive source "of all rule and all authority." All believers, as Christ absolutely informs us, are "sons of God," -- sons sustaining to each other the relations of "brethren." "All ye are brethren." "They," He further says, "that are appointed to rule over the Gentiles exercise authority over them;" "but it shall not be so among you." Religious teachers, and all who do, in certain relations, bear rule in the churches, are absolutely prohibited from "exercising lordship over God’s heritage." Paul, while, as an inspired teacher of truth, he did claim for what God communicated through him absolute authority, was careful to inform believers that, as an individual, he had no "dominion over their faith."

While listening to teachers, each hearer is required to judge for himself of the truth or error of what he hears. "Let the other judge." Each believer is further required to "prove all things"-- that is, to discriminate for himself between what is true and what is false, between what is right and what is wrong, and to "hold fast that which is good." When Christ required His followers to "beware of false prophets" or teachers, and gave the test, "their fruits," by which the true ones are to be distinguished from the false, He makes each hearer an independent judge of what he hears. There is no principle which is more distinctly revealed and absolutely imposed in the Scriptures than this. Let me add here, that no individual will more readily and cordially submit to the brotherhood, and to his religious teachers, in all things not pertaining to the conscience, than will the believer who is most absolute in his subjection to the spirit and principles under consideration. Within the holy of holies of the conscience, he knows but one Lawgiver and one Lord, and but one rule of faith and conduct, the Spirit and Word of the living God. Outside of this sphere, he will most cordially "make himself all things to all men." In exercising this absolute and exclusive respect for the Word and will of God in all questions of truth and duty, we become absolutely entitled to the promise, "they shall all be taught of the Lord," and shall consequently be infallibly taught "in all things pertaining to life and godliness" -- that is, in regard to all things requisite to our highest moral purity, peace, and blessedness, and fruitfulness in every good word and work" here, and to assure for our selves "an abundant entrance into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ." "He that followeth me," says our Saviour, "shall not work in darkness, but shall have the light of life." We do not, as He expressly teaches us, become followers of Christ and believe in Him, as He specifically requires, until we have "forsaken all" for Him; and He, by a deliberate act of moral election on our part, becomes, to the exclusion of human authority, "our wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption." When He thus becomes the supreme Lord of our intellect, conscience, and will, then He becomes responsible to give us the Holy Spirit, through whom, in all that pertains to "life and godliness," we shall "walk in the light, as God is in the light." Outside of this sphere, and in respect to all questions not requisite to our highest moral purity, peace, and usefulness, and final salvation, we shall, with all others, be liable to err in judgment. In "the highway of holiness," on the other hand, "God will be our everlasting light," and "our feet shall not stumble." When human teaching and authority, whatever its form or source may be, becomes our light, a veil passes between our hearts and "the light of God," and no promise comes to us that we shall be "taught of God." Our convictions of truth, when the knowledge of it is sought by searching the Scriptures in the fear of God alone, will have infinitely greater influence in moulding the heart and character than when the same truth is received on human authority, whatever the form of such authority may be. To hold the truth itself as a part of the creed of our sect, or party, or school, and to hold the same truth as that which God hath taught us, and as coming to the heart and conscience from Him, impart to that truth entirely diverse influences over the mind. He that has sought the truth for himself; and has gone to God’s treasury to find what he seeks, has an assurance that he is "walking in the light of God," -- an assurance otherwise impossible. In presenting that truth to others, he will always speak with the firm assurance of an original witness, consciously testifying "what he has seen and heard." That, on the other hand, even if it chance to be true, which, without original inquiry, we have accepted as a mere tenet of our sect, school, or party, we can never have any such assurance about, can by no possibility act as a vitalising power in our own hearts, or inspire us with courage and assurance when we present it to others.

What gave Paul, for example, such utterance and power as a minister of the everlasting gospel was the absolute consciousness that the gospel which he preached was not after man, that he "neither received it of man, neither was he taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ." So, when our dwelling-place is not the undigested teachings of our sect, school, or purity, but the Word of God, when we walk up and down amid the great revelations of that Book, and all our convictions take conscious form from a direct and divinely-illumined vision of those revelations, then "will our righteousness go forth as brightness, and our salvation as a lamp that shineth" We shall not "despise prophesyings," or religious teachings; but we shall "prove all things," and thus discern and "hold fast that which is good." The mere disciple of the sect, school, or party, not only does not receive truth in any form as from God, but never embraces it in its unadulterated form. The truth which he happens to find is always weakened or neutralised in its influence by the interminglings of error. When all believers in common, I remark finally, shall inquire for truth, and determine all questions of doctrine and duty in the fear of God alone, and shall avail themselves of all human helps, but regard the same as human and nothing more, then, and only then, will that unity of spirit, and of views of truth, duty, and order obtain which God desires to see, and the honor of our divine religion among men demands. All having a common source of truth and standard of judgment, and all directed in their thinking and judging by a common divine illumination, and all, with singleness of purpose and object, seeking to know God’s truth and will as God apprehends, and would have us apprehend them, and all entertaining a sacred respect for the right of private judgment in every member of the sanctified family, discord in the household of faith would be impossible; while in all essentials there would be absolute unity, and in all non-essentials there would be universal charity. This is the unity which Christ prayed for in the behalf of all who believe in Him, and God desires no higher unity than this.

I will here give two examples of the influence of the spirit and principles under consideration: When I became a student in college, I found that my room-mate and myself, though members of the same denomination, and fully agreeing in the essentials of the evangelical faith, held antagonistic views on questions of doctrine then deemed of almost fundamental importance. In our room, angry debates often occurred between him and friends of mine who agreed with me in doctrine. In such disputes I took no part whatever. When we were alone, however, I would freely question him about his views, and draw from him a clear statement of his reasons for holding the same. If I differed from him, I would fully state to him the points of disagreement, with my reasons for my own views, and my objections to his, asking him, at the same time, to furnish me fully with his objections to the views which I had advanced. With such statements our discussions always terminated. We had been together but a few weeks when my associate thus addressed me"Room-mate, I will confess this to you, that you always treat my views and arguments with perfect candour." In my own secret thoughts, I thus replied, "Before we graduate, a perfect unity of judgment will obtain between us on all the questions about which we now so widely differ." The result was as I anticipated. I cannot designate a single doctrine about which our views were opposed when we took leave of each other. When a student in theology, leading members of the institution, who belonged to the opposite schools into which the now United Presbyterian Church was for a time divided into two distinct denominations, organised a society for the purpose of a comparison of views upon the identical principles above indicated. Our object was to know one another, for the united purpose of finding the truth. The result was the same, unity of "mind and judgment" among all the members of that society, and that, without exception, the same unity as obtained between my room-mate and myself. "I would to God" that all teachers and pupils of God’s truth would "go and do likewise."