Donations and Subscriptions will be gratefully received on behalf of the Society, by the Treasurer, GEORGE LOWE, Esq., 39, Finsbury Circus, E. C.; or by the Secretary, THE REV. STEPHEN J. DAVIS, 33, MOORGATE STREET, LONDON, E. C. Much trouble will be saved, both to the Secretary and his Correspondents, if, in making payments by Post-Office Orders, they will give his name as above: or, at any rate, advise him of the name they have communicated to the Post-Office authorities. JOHN HADDON, PRINTER, CASTLE STREET, FINSBURY. THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH (OR BAPTIST) MAGAZINE. No. CLXXIII.-MAY 1, 1858. Essays, Expositions, &c. THE SLEEPY CHRISTIAN. "Therefore let us not sleep as do others." 1 THESS. v. 6. THE sleepy Christian is one of a far too numerous family, whose presence operates as a continual clog on the progress of the church of God. He is to be found in the closet, the family, the church, and the world; and while in most of these connections he produces positive harm, it is evident that in none can he ever accomplish the slightest good. He is always in the way; and being too drowsy to advance with the church, he is too frequently found blocking up the path of those who desire to go "from strength to strength," that they may eventually appear in Zion before God. He is asleep in the closet. His desires, his prayers, and almost his very words, are asleep. There is neither life, nor vigour, nor power, in his supplications. Like a man in a dream, he scarcely knows for what he asks. He never wrestles, nor groans, nor weeps, before God. Of one sacred text, at least, he either never knew the meaning, or never felt the power, "The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force." And to another Christian privilege he has never permitted himself to be aroused,"Ye that make mention of the Lord, keep not silence, and give him no rest, till he establish and till he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth." He has been too VOL. XV.NO. CLXXIII. much at rest himself to put this great privilege into requisition, and the mournful result is, that he has never yet aided to move the arm of the Lord to do his mighty work among the nations. Is it wonderful that such a man is neither happy nor useful? His own soul is not "like a watered garden, nor like a spring of water whose waters fail not." He never enjoys delightful communion with God, nor the witness of the blessed Spirit, nor the full assurance of faith, nor the joy unspeakable and full of glory; and as the spirit of slumber keeps him poor within, so the same sluggish apathy makes him utterly useless without. He is a burden to himself, and an object of pity to his neighbours. He is asleep in the family. In this most important circle the difference between a sleepy and a wakeful Christian, is immense. In the one case it is an Eli, whose sons "made themselves vile, and he restrained them not." But in the other, it is an Abraham, to whom the Lord himself bears the honourable testimony, "For I know him that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment; that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him." The L household of the one is loose, disorderly, and without control. The family wander hither and thither, and the "sleepy" parent cares not to hold them in restraint, nor to keep them close and regular at the house of God. With them he seldom or never prays. In that household the Bible is not a family book. It is not read to the children, nor called in to light the flame upon the family altar. The children are trained up heathens, but with a Christian name; and when they outgrow the family bond, they break away into worldliness, or infidelity, or open vice. But it is far otherwise with the wakeful Christian, for though he has no converting power at command, yet he, like Abraham, will bring up his children "in the nurture and admonition of the sleepy Christian in the pew, it assumes a far more serious aspect when it appears in the pulpit; for there it becomes contagious in an alarming degree, and the infection rapidly spreads among a whole people. When the "watchman" sleeps, the people sleep also, and when the shepherd himself becomes sluggish, then, "Drowsy tinklings lull the distant folds." No condition of the ancient church was ever more treacherous or alarming than the one in which the "watchmen were blind, "sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber." (Isa. lvi. 10.) It must have been a wretched, harrowing sight, to have witnessed the wide-spread floods of ungodliness and pernicious error, threatening to deluge both the church and the world, and the very men who were appointed to watch and raise the alarm, "lying down, loving to slumber." Unhappily, it is the same in every age, more or less. Men as pastors will do any mortal thing for peace and quietness." "Why disturb the churches ?" say they; which, put into more correct language, means, "Why disturb our slumbers ?" And if it is replied, "Fearful error is abroad,—the and crafty men, and the people are in doctrines of God are assailed by cunning danger of drinking in the poison, because there are none to raise the warning voice:" they immediately rejoin, while quietly laying their head on some official pillow, -66 Well, never mind; we need not be so much concerned. It is useless to Lord." He both remembers and believes that "the promise is unto you and to your children ;" and, relying upon that faithful assurance, he, copying the example of the great patriarch, places his household in the way and under the blessing of his God and Saviour. The circle of which he is the centre resembles a well cultivated farm, whose beauty, order, and fruitfulness, attest to every beholder that the husbandman there is not asleep at his post. He is asleep in the church. Sometimes, and in numerous instances, this is the case with the рего. The occupant looks on the condition of the church with quiet unconcern and indifference. If it prospers, he gives no remarkable evidence of joy; and if it decays he sheds no tears make a noise and disturb the churches. of sorrow. In all seasons alike, he can Peace, peace. be "at ease in Zion," and join hands with them that " are not grieved for the afflic-own cause." tion of Joseph." The sorrow of the Psalmist was never his sorrow," Rivers "You have waked me too soon, I must slumber Yet, bad as the case may be of the As such a God will take care of his And so, folding their arms, they lie down, "loving to slumber." He is asleep in the world. man moves up and down in society, he gives no evidence of spiritual life apart from the mere name. The persons among whom he moves, would never suspect that he was a Christian at all, were it not that he professes to be one on the Lord's-day. He is not zealous for God, nor anxious about the souls of men. No one can charge upon him open sin, and no one can affirm that he ever warned a sinner. His principles are without point, and his profession without a purpose. Having been asleep in his closet, he bears about him throughout each day all the evidences of the morning slumber. His very atmosphere is that of drowsiness, and his general profession is overspread with the spirit of sloth. As he failed to commune with God in the morning, so in his every-day life he fails to be useful among men; and, while time is flying, life rapidly wearing away, and death and judgment are hastening on,-he neither proves himself the salt of the earth nor the light of the world. Were such a man to be removed to the eternal state this day, neither the world nor the church would have the slightest reason to deplore his loss. He would have lived his day, but not the one nor the other would be the better for his presence. Reader, is this thy state-this thy barren condition? Remember, that "whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap," and that in the awards of the great judgment-day, the "unprofitable servant" will not escape. The time is even now "when judgment must begin at the house of God; and if it first begin at us," what shall be the end of "the sleepy Christian?" L. 0. "HOLDING FAST THE FORM OF SOUND WORDS." BY THE REV. W. R. ARMSTRONG B. A.,* "Hold fast the form of sound words which thou hast heard of me, in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus :" 2 Tim. i. 13. In developing our ideas on this text we make use of some obvious, but not less important observations. I. There is a clear and perfect outline of doctrine, duty, and practice to be found in the New Testament. That Paul taught it to his friend orally is manifest, and we presume there will be no dispute that all Paul taught is contained in his writings; in addition to which we have the equally inspired and equally authoritative productions of the other apostles. If by the expression, "form of sound words" we should be led to seek for an elaborate scientific arrangement of theological topics we should, of course, be mistaken; but if through its absence, we should suppose the word of God to be a mere chaos of materials, shot as it were at the feet of system builders, out of which each might pick a bit as it pleased him, we should be as far in the wrong. There is a Divine system of divinity, our superficial acquaintance with which alone makes us feel the need of a human one. But even to Paul himself Divine truth appeared like a magnificent picture seen in the twilight, and exhibiting only the more prominent outlines. This is a very different conception from the supposition that we see everything undefined and obscure. The revealed outlines of truth are marked by the most exact precision, and a true believer would as soon think of denying the "power" of godliness, as of denying its "form." It The introduction, and some other portions have been omitted by the author.-Ed. has a definite form as well as an evident power, and he holds to both. This is a principle so generally lost sight of, that it is hard to say on what points all would agree. But amidst the strife of opinions it remains that, unless all are wrong, one only can be right. The Trinitarian and the Socinian cannot both be right; neither can the Calvinist and the Arminian. Popery, Prelacy, Presbyterianism and Congregationalism, are surely not all in accordance with the New Testament. The immerser of believers and the sprinkler of babies may both appeal to the Bible, but there is only one baptism" to be found there. Now if we are to "hold fast the form of sound words" we must not only admit the Bible as its standard but insist that truth is, and can be but one; and that those opinions which are not in harmony with Scripture are evil, mischievous and corrupting, and to be opposed and repudiated by all who love truth in its purity. 66 Men more willingly allow a doctrinal unity to the New Testament, than they admit a completeness to the revelation of the order appointed for the churches of Christ. But if we keep steadily before us the idea that the "form of sound words," is a simple and definite outline, we shall be able to maintain with equal firmness that this also is fully revealed. The necessity of the case, and the genius of Christianity, both demand that there should be no elaboration of details. Life in Christ is an inward thing, developed by the Holy Spirit under infinitely L 2 nance of the gospel church. Such a case exists, for the vast majority of professed disciples of Jesus are living and dying unbaptized except in so far as a most childish travesty of Christ's holy ordinance is to be accepted as a substitute. We must "hold fast the form of sound words," and neither tamper nor tem Before quitting this topic, it is worth while to observe how all who depart from the "form of sound words" encumber themselves with a mass of worthless inventions. The laws of the Church of England, apart from Acts of Parliament, fill two huge folios. The Presbyterians of Scotland have a tedious multiplicity of forms, and the Wesleyans have overlaid the Bible with their patron saints, sermons, trust deeds, and the minutes of Conference, in endless multitudes. We have only the New Testament, but we have never been brought to a stand yet. We have tried it, and against all the world we maintain that no truly Christian church can ever want anything more. Hold fast, brethren, to the "form of sound words," which was enough for Paul and Timothy, and is enough for you, and let the men who count you fools flounder on in the maze of their human inventions. varied conditions, in perfect accordance | nicious corruption of the principle ordiwith the individual tendency just as flowers springing from the same kind of seed, vary according to the soil, climate, and nurture, they receive. We do not expect, therefore, a rigid iron mould out of which to turn a pattern Christian. What we do find is a simple yet complete institution, capable in its fair operation, of realizing all the benefits of social co-porise with the evil. operation in combination with all the advantages of individual energy. We find a society organized for a distinct purpose and perfectly competent to carry it out. If we ask in what circumstances that society is to be formed, who are to be members, how they are to mark their accession to its ranks, what they are to do, how they are to behave, for what causes and in what manner they may, if offenders, be excluded from it, we can never be at a loss for reply. There is not an enquiry we can make concerning the constitution of a Christian church, its members, officers, ordinances, revenues, or discipline, to which an answer cannot be furnished by the New Testament. So far from this being a difficult enquiry, it is in fact easier than almost any other. The church order of the New Testament is not one of those things hard to be understood, which unlearned, and unstable men wrest to their own destruction. is rather one of those things on which learned men darken counsel by words without knowledge, in support of their own vain traditions. To speak candidly it appears easier for a plain man to understand the scriptural doctrine of baptism, than even that of justification by faith, and when men assert that they understand the latter, but do not apprehend the former; if we speak without hypocrisy, we should say, such a result is almost impossible to one who searches the scriptures with an honest desire to understand the will of the Lord, and to do it from the heart. We must not play fast and loose with the word of God, and find in it merely what it is convenient for us to find. The whole word of God will judge us at the last day; and if a case were to be imagined in which it should become absolutely necessary for God's people to separate themselves, surely we could not find a more urgent It one than when the whole of Christendom is united to maintain a glaring and per II. There is a special urgency in the admonition to firmness in the retention of truth. "Hold fast," is a fervent cry. If we were in a boat drifting upon shoals, and should suddenly come upon the line attached to some anchor, with what speed we should hand that line on board. "Hold fast," friends would cry as they struggled to make the end secure; and because life and death were depending on your hold, you would hold fast. You would clench your grasp, and stiffen you knees; and never mind the strain on your muscles till all was safe and your boat could drift no more. So in the changing tides, and adverse gales of human opinion, Christ calls on his people to hold fast. "Look to yourselves that ye lose not those things ye have wrought, but that ye receive a full reward." "Hold fast, that which thou hast, that no man take thy crown." Brethren, we are called with an effectual calling that we may lay hold, and hold fast. This is the good fight of faith, |