1. God and Man.
2. Baptism.
3. The Lord's Supper.
4. The Bible Alone.
5. Giving.
6. Fellow Christians.
7. Family and Personal Life.
8. The Name.
9. Last Things.
I think that without a good understanding of man's dignity and high origin the scheme of redemption cannot be appreciated. Man was created in the image and likeness of his Creator and this image remains although the likeness has been lost. If any man retains a just sense of his own dignity and if he is to fulfil the end of his being he must then be an exhibit to the glory of God. If man is the glory of God, there is inestimable value in him. Through sin man fell away from the presence of God but he was not irretrievably lost. It is impossible to read Romans 2 and retain the idea of total depravity.
While God's likeness in man has been defaced, it has not been destroyed. If the Gentiles were totally depraved they would not have had a conscience with conflicting thoughts accusing them or excusing them, or what the law requires they do naturally indicating it is written on their hearts . We cannot hold that a person is so utterly helpless as the Calvinists say, that man cannot respond to the call of the Saviour. Christ says to the lost, "come and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly"; he certainly implies that they can and will come to him.
God in his love has given his Son Jesus for the salvation of the world. But be sure of this he is also the is also t he God of judgment; that our God is a consuming fire. This gave urgency to Paul in preaching the Gospel. "Knowing the terror of the Lord we persuade men". (2 Cor. 5:11). It was a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God, therefore there is great urgency upon us in our pleading with the sinner to flee from the wrath to come.
One must first discover the design of baptism.
John the Baptist's baptism was not to give salvation but a knowledge of it by remission of sins. The knowledge of our pardon must be communicated to us by message or witness. There are three who bear witness on earth - the Spirit, the water and the blood and the three agree as one. Our baptism in water is a witness of our salvation through the forgiveness of sins. It is not that our sins are pardoned only because of our baptism, but by grace through faith in the blood of God's Son.
The water is only an adjunct in regeneration, and no man is born into the kingdom, till he is born of water and Spirit. The new birth is a unit, there is no such thing as being born of water and then born of the Spirit. God's witness stands as one. We have the witness of the Spirit in the word concerning salvation by Christ and Baptism, and the Lord's Supper are monumental witnesses of the same thing.
Baptism is connected with the forgiveness of sins. We are not saved by faith alone. Israel was not saved by faith alone in Moses and his word from bondage; it was when their faith had its fruition in the action, when they followed Moses to the Red Sea and were baptised into Moses that they realised deliverance; they were free then, and after passing through, they contemplated their enemies dead on the shore, and all their hard bondage ended. It was obedience that enabled them to experience salvation. It is obedience in baptism that allows us to experience God's forgiveness already provided by grace.
Baptism does not save by any efficacy of its own, but by the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
The device of infant baptism has introduced something so complex in man's conception of religion that while they read the New Testament a veil hides from their mental vision the simplicity and glory of God's plan of salvation. Children do die on account of their parent's sin, but we have no knowledge that in the case of babes who lack understanding that they will be penalised spiritually and eternally. A child comes under God's care and grace, but to bring a child up to believe he is a member of the church takes from him the Biblical requirement to repent and confess and then be baptised. I am, however, persuaded that true believers in Christ who are prevented for some reason over which they have no control, may enjoy pardon although not having been baptised for the remission of their sins.
I think some of our preachers have made a mistake in preaching baptism to unbelievers, as they have no part in this matter until they believe the Gospel, or give some evidence of their faith in Christ. There is a real danger that they will be converts to believer's baptism and not to Christ. This is an error that I hope will be carefully avoided.
Not every one who comes forward and confesses their belief in Christ should be baptised. Many are moved by the moment to confess their faith and if they are not known to the preacher some enquiry should be made as to their way of life . Too often a person's good intentions are short lived and the life Christ requires to be lived does not follow.
We have in our state of South Australia a position supported by our American evangelists of open communion. This is a practice of our American churches and is allowable under Alexander Campbell's dictum to 'neither invite nor debar' from the Lord's Table. But open communion is an easy way of attaining the benefits of participating in the church. Immersion is an unfashionable thing and exposes a man to the ridicule of the multitude. It is a cross and many object to taking up any cross; but to go and eat and drink at the Lord's Table is a genteel thing, quite in fashion. Even though I may be branded as denominational, I cannot see that open communion is consistent with churches of Christ position. Open communion to my mind is a surrender of the principles we have been contending for.
Let us move further to the recent debate (1884) of our Evangelistic Association on this question.
It is very evident that there is a difference among our people on who should take communion, but we do not have avowed open communionists like the Baptists and Plymouth Brethren, only those who follow the principle enunciated by Alexander Campbell, 'we neither invite nor debar'. Therefore we should recognise that we are not dealing with extremes and I congratulate the brethren at the Annual meeting on their rejection of a creed of exclusion. Creeds to exclude heresy must always be rejected as they have always had a curious habit of promoting the very ends they were intended to defeat.
The most serious question facing the brethren of South Australia is not the creed question nor the communion question, but 'shall we allow a difference of opinion on a single phase of the communion question to become an occasion of division among the churches?'
It is characteristic of dogmatic and narrow minds that all their opinions, however petty and baseless, are held as conscientious convictions from which no departure can be tolerated on pain of severance. As long as a church remains Christian in all the essentials of a vital faith, it is in union with all other churches that are Christian. Is anyone prepared to affirm that the occasional admission of the 'pious unimmersed' to the Lord's Table on the part of three or four churches in South Australia unchristianises those churches? While such an act is probably unjustifiable it is not unchristianising.
We are not putting in a plea for open communion; but we are frank to confess that there are some things that are worse - open Pharisaism, heartless dogmatism, lack of love, intolerance and a substitution of externals as against the fruit of the spirit. All these are subversive of the New Testament teaching on the question of the unity of the body of Christ. One who causes contention and division of Christ's people is the worst. After all we have said against sectarianism and in defence of Christian union, is it possible that we are going to contradict our own testimony, demonstrate to the world the impracticability of our plea, and advertise before the eyes of all men our dire disgrace and irreparable failure by entertaining the thought of division amongst ourselves? May God save us from such a disgrace.
The Bible is what gives to us the knowledge that leads to God.
From it we obtain true knowledge; it is a light that shines in darkness. But man's confidence in the Bible is now turned aside by many insidious ways, and they are taught to depend on some other source than God's word for knowledge.
The ordinary person is often discouraged from studying the Scripture, firstly, because they think it is too hard to understand, and secondly, they believe those trained are the ones qualified to study and expound it. But the revelations of God have been given to babes, not to the wise and prudent. The Bible can be understood by ordinary people but it does demand determination to intensely study the Word. The problem is to make cir take the time to adequately study the word, to withdraw for sufficient time from our worldly pursuits. Careful reading and accurate study will bring God's truths to our mind. Without deep meditation on the word of God, our souls will be starved of the knowledge of God and our spiritual lives will stagnate and cease to grow.
Beware of those who misuse Scripture, having no regard for its context. These charlatans are not true exponents of God's word.
A hindrance to one's personal growth is to depend too much on the clergy. Many feel inferior in the presence of the learned seeming to have a better understanding of the Bible than us. But there is no guarantee that educated people are right. Many clergy have received a preconceived approach to the Bible while in college. Ministers take up positions where they are unable to be free to respond to the truth of God' s word.
When I was a child I was instructed by my parents and minister. When I became a man I followed my own convictions. It is a principle of God's rule over men that he requires from us of what we have, and not what we haven't. It is better to be wrong in following one's own convictions than right at the dictation of another man. The true bearers of God's word will be known by their fruits.
We learn what God's will is - that when his people give of their substance for any good and holy purpose, they are not to give any-thing grudgingly or of necessity, but freely. The tendency today in particular to raising money for building chapels is to resort to the direct tendency to extort money by the rule of necessity. God's work should be supported gladly and willingly. A man's purse and the use he makes of it, is as good a criterion of the health of a man's soul as the pulse is of the condition of his bodily health.
It is apparent that some brethren have gifts to minister in the Gospel publicly: they are comparatively few, but we should fervently pray the Lord to send more such labourers into the harvest field. There is one thing almost all can do who have health and strength in these favoured lands in this Southern Hemisphere - earn money by the sweat of their brow to support or give those labourers wages to do the work.
Yet when the truth is told there are brothers and sisters everywhere enjoying good health and strength who never give anything to religious or benevolent work, except perhaps a mere trifle. They occupy chapels on the Lord's day for which they have contributed almost nothing, yet they accept the services of preachers of the Gospel, and teachers, for whose support they pay next to nothing. So long as such a state of things exist our churches will fall short in being a power to influence in the world around them. Still, it is better that this should be rather than money be extorted by any arbitrary rules, or by much begging and demanding. The Lord loveth a cheerful giver and when there is a lack of willingness it is far better they keep their money.
There is an importance about worldly goods; they are given by God to supply our daily needs. But it should be realised what God supplies is for the good of others as well. No Christian should be pleased or think he has enough unless he has something over to give away to supply other's needs and to help in some good work.
There is one test that never fails to indicate the real position of any professing Christian community. It is found in John 13:5 - "By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you love one another". Love does not concern itself only with self. Love considers others. No one who has received the gift of God's Son and no one who has experienced the loving kindness of God and has the love of God in his heart can be anything but imitators of God in being loving and kind to others.
Our love for others should raise the question, "See how they love one another". if we could only love unfeignedly, only have our hearts touched with a live coal from God's altar, then Christ's rule would be plainly seen as fact. Love in the heart will break down barriers and no one can resist the overflowing heart in which is stored an abundance of goodness.
We are to encourage one another lest our hearts become hardened through deceitfulness of sin. We must bear one another's burdens especially those weaknesses and habits developed in youthful days. But we cannot tolerate any unrighteousness and it must be remembered that it is only the just or right acting person that lives by faith, the unjust or unrighteous person has no life in him. It is better to expel half our members than tolerate the unjust who bring disrepute on the good name of Jesus Christ. Numbers are not the test of our strength, but purity, stern uncompromising integrity.
Therefore, we need to particularly care for those who are young in the faith. We need to especially provide ways for those who are isolated from their fellow Christians and are in need of fellowship and nurture because of the danger and temptations to their spiritual lives.
Always remember with thankfulness what God has done for us. How he brought us at one time to believe in Jesus his Son; when the mists of ignorance in which we were enveloped, through the accumulated traditions of men during the dark ages of the past, were cleared away, and we saw that the Gospel of Jesus Christ contained good news to be believed and commands to be obeyed. It was then we rejoiced together with unspeakable joy and filled with glory in our belief.
Let us always encourage one another that we might together keep the faith.
The core of all our social evils is to be found in the imperfect and vicious treatment of children. Youth, it is said, is the seed time of a man's life and as we sow so shall we reap.
Fathers are to be the head of the family, that is to take the responsibility of the management and discipline of children. He is held accountable in this to God. How often does a father treat his children unjustly and provoke them to anger, losing respect. He must learn self-control and not speak angrily over every little error of his child. He should have sorrow and concern for what his child does.
Solomon says, "He who spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is diligent to discipline him". (Prov. 13:24) I do not think the word rod needs to be interpreted literally at all times. There are other ways to discipline. There are men I know to be most successful in bringing up their children in the discipline of the Lord who have never lifted a hand or rod or lash to any child.
There must be love of children to their father for discipline to be effective. We must by our love for them win their love to us. Every day there will offer opportunities for these endearments to bind father and child together in fond affection, and thus will naturally arise that feeling of respect for influence and will enable a father to impart to his child his own principles that will remain all through life.
I exhort young men to love their children; there is this need as women naturally love more than men. Love to God is the motive power to all obedience to his law, the love of the child to his father is the motive of obedience to his teaching and example.
We should bring up our children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. The example of Christ is basic in training our children. Our instruction should be Christian instruction.
Then there is the discipline of the Lord. We are to teach our children to follow the Lord in every-day life, to become conformed to the pattern of Christ's life. All other good ways may help them to live, but not to die; and while we must teach our children how to live, we must also teach them how to die - in that sense that we go to be with Christ.
The entering into the marriage relation is a most important occasion for both man and woman. The only thing that takes precedence over this is a marriage to Christ and even that holy and sacred and eternal union can be best understood by comparing it with union of man and wife.
Man and woman from the beginning shared the sin of disobedience which brought about their fall. The relationship then between husband and wife, that affection and dependency on the part of the woman, and authority on the part of the man, now stands connected with our sinful nature, the effect of man eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
According to Paul, if the woman would learn anything she is to ask her husband at home. God intends that in the process of attaining perfection of Christian instruction, husband and wife are to be mutualIy helpful to one another.
Every Christian woman who has a husband should recognise that God has appointed him to be her instructor, that she has the privilege to ask her husband about anything about which she is in the dark, and unless the matter is very abstruse indeed, a man must feel himself very small in his own estimation if he finds he is unable to answer a simple question, not to speak of what his wife may think of him.
A wife bound in duty to obey her husband, will be careful to choose one for a husband in whose judgement she can trust herself. Even the subjection of a wife to her husband, though, has limits; her conscience cannot be controlled; she must in all cases be free to obey God.
There is no guarantee that a Christian will automatically be given health and prosperity. God does require from us obedience and his promises are conditional. Let us consider the words, "He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, will he not give us all things with him?" (Rom. 8:32) No one can adopt this sentiment and not conclude that God will prosper him and give him health, if he ask of God, unless there exist some cause or reason why we should not enjoy them. l think then that anyone who is afflicted by adverse events or bad health should search his heart and find out what is spiritually wrong with him that prevents the Father in heaven bestowing on us health and prosperity.
Regarding affliction or the loss of our loved ones. It is a hard lesson, not only to be subject to the will of God as revealed to us in his Word, but also to his ruling in his providence. It is not easy, but we can learn obedience through suffering. The reason that affliction is allowed to come upon us is in order that we might give greater attention and love to God.
I think it would be wrong for us to understand that particular sins have special chastisements in order to correct them; the better conclusion is that they are meant to discipline the soul's affections - to purify the heart - to correct all wayward feelings. One strong consolation there is when affliction comes upon us is that however adverse or painful, God still reigns. We are not exposed as victims to blind fate or to some inexorable law of nature - God is still in control and not a sparrow can fall to the ground without him.
We can lift up our hearts in confidence knowing that our loved ones who have gone before are in God's care. It is no vain hope that we cherish regarding our children who have been taken from us in the morning of life, that they are now like the angels and part of the family of God in heaven.
Names stand for things and suggest ideas of a definite kind. All who profess to be Christians should confess to be only followers of Christ. We should be known only by his name. Sectarian names and sectarianism divide and weaken the Protestants. This is contrary to the spirit of Christ.
We need to be free to respond to what God wants. We have no creed so we are free to follow when anyone shows us in the Bible a more excellent way. If all others cast aside everything except the Bible they would find themselves in the same position as the Disciples. God in giving the Bible into our hands did not cast an apple of discord and strife among men. His intention was to unite man in heart and life to himself, and to unite men one with another in a bond of peace and brotherhood.
It is sad that there is division. Christ's prayer was that all may be one. There should be a unity of Christ's people. There are things set down by God that demand agreement and it is sinful to quarrel or divide on inferences or opinions. If all were lovers of Christ like kindred drops of water to run together and be fused into one, there would be opportunity for use of all the variety of gifts and needs of the holy brethren. It is good for a family, for a nation, for the world to live in unity, and it must be a lovely thing for the church of God to be perfectly joined together and be one in name and effort.
How wise it is that Christ's people should be called Christians.
The prophecy of Paul in his letters to Timothy and Titus respecting the state of things in the last days has now reached such a literal and exact fulfilment as to convince us of New Testament revelation. There exists in the present state of society very strong temptations by the abundance of teachers to suppress portions of God's truth - to popularise it as much as one can, and specially to gratify itching ears by declamatory and meaningless orations, making pleasant sounds but not really pricking the consciences of their hearers. There are many who show the form of godliness but not the power of it.
We are in a terrible degenerate state of affairs in this present time. This is an age of falling away or apostasy. What pretence there is when we see men who, through the week engage in blasphemy, in unsound money management, in cheating their neighbours and telling lies, then putting on their best clothes, going to what is called the House of God on Sundays and join in singing hymns or psalms in praise of God, and hearing preaching. But in such things the Scriptures are fulfilled!
There are some brethren who believe that no progress of any importance will occur until Christ comes again. Therefore they seek only to save themselves from the world's guilt of unbelief by witness to the truth of the Gospel. But the Gospel is not preached in all its fullness unless all the details of all the things Jesus began to do and teach have been declared or made known. It is a great mistake to think that Christ is coming to convert the nations, his coming is in judgement. To sit back and wait for Christ to convert is to encourage apathy. Greater zeal is required in preaching the Gospel before his return.
Let all men now who believe in the nearness of Christ's second coming make their light shine. The idea put forward by many Millenarians that Christ as King and his Kingdom exists only potentially, has only deterred me and others from believing in the near and personal reign of Christ on earth. Jesus is now a king and saints are subjects of his kingdom. The reign of Christ is not spiritual. The promises of Christ require a first resurrection of the saints who have died and are then to reign with Christ upon the earth.