1. Forasmuch as " faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen" (Heb. 11:11Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. (Hebrews 11:1)), and is in demonstration of the Spirit and in (divine) power.... there is, therefore, fellowship of thought between God and the believer. For there is unity in the truth; and but one gospel is known in heaven. As to the world, it is written: " If' our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: in whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.... For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ."
God hath shined into our hearts.... the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Mark, here, the unity of truth-that which is the precious brilliancy of God's grace.... shines into the hearts of us who believe.
In detail this may be seen everywhere in Scripture. Thus, Matt. 1:2020But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. (Matthew 1:20), the Lord teaches Joseph, in a dream, to call a babe (who should be born of one whom human thoughts would have put away privily) Jesus; far He shall save His people from their sins: and to know Him as Emmanuel, God with us.
Thus, also, in the very question of salvation-the chief corner-stone, to the Lord precious (to the world a stumbling-stone and a rock of offense), is to them that believe precious.
Thus, too, the one whom God thought of men alone " worthy to be searched after, though unsearchable, the Lord of all, to whom every knee should: bow," Jesus—the God-man—Him Saul despised, and was mad against his name. But when grace reached him-"Who art thou, Lord?" and "What wilt thou have me to do?" told of the sympathy he had with the divine mind.
I shall not stop here to remark, at length, upon the divine power, or on the renewed nature, or on the difference between the Divine estimate into which we are led, and the personal affections of our hearts as men, which all have their respective places in connection with the subject.
2. When faith is simple, and the power of the Spirit put forth in the application of truth great-as in Paul's case-the progress may be rapid, both into truth, and into the discovery of what we ourselves are. On the other hand, when faith is feeble, and when the gospel has been diluted and corrupted by man, and when, through man's wickedness, the Spirit though acting to save souls for eternal glory does little to make good a present testimony, the progress may be slow, and the consciousness of the precious truth that " faith's estimate" is purely and only according to " God's estimate" may he feeble and little.
Again, Caleb and Joshua had to wander with Israel; and the faithful servant of the Lord now will find that he has to endure much by reason of the failure of the people among whom he walks, and by reason of their little 'faith. And truly he that will be as a nursing mother will find his need of tender long-suffering with them that are of little faith, and with the feeble-minded.
How low saints are sunk, how beclouded the testimony of the gospel has been, and how uninstructed the children of God are, few of us, I believe, know. With such a state the utmost patience is needed, and should be exercised.
But there is another and a very different state from this sometimes met with; a state, not of persons unskillful in the word, who mistake one thing for another, and have to learn better, but which is found in connection with high profession of knowledge, in teachers-a condition of soul which does not so much show itself in hindering the progress of the person's own self, as in sapping the very foundations of the faith of others. As to such, the word of the living God to us would rather seem to be (Rev. 2:22I know thy works, and thy labor, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil: and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars: (Revelation 2:2)): " I know.... thy patience, and how thou cant not bear them that are evil: and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars.'
Such a one, in our own day, in the worst form of it, is the unhappy Mr. Newton, who, in a former book, exalted the church to " omnipotence," " omniscience," and " omnipresence;" and, in his later tracts, degrades the Lord's
Christ into the place of an unbeliever: denying that he had any acceptable relationship to God in his work here below. A blasphemer and a heretic are hard and awful names for any man, however much an individual may have done to earn and maintain them as his own.
The great evil of these tracts of Mr. Newton's is, not merely that they have; led many naturally intelligent persons, who trusted to their own understanding, into the same blasphemies, but, what is worse (to my own mind, at least), they have been lent and re-lent among the poor, and statements partially agreeing with them made by others before the simple. The effect is, that the souls of. many have had the dew of grace removed, the bloom of the ripening fruit (which no man can restore) fingered away.; and the blessed Lord, who was to many a poor one enshrined as a beloved object of worship, lost that place in the soul, at all events for the time present, while his person (which no one knoweth save the Father) has become the subject of a speculative analysis and anatomy in conversation, which must sicken those that love, and alarm those that worship Him, and love his flock.
It is a very different thing, I am aware, to be set in the service of Satan as one of his, and to fall for a season into acts and words which subserve him. But the question of the person, or his character and service, must be dropped sometimes. The words of Paul (Gal.1:8, 9) are distinct: " Though we or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let ( -) be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, If any preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let () be accursed"-whether the " let be accursed" apply to the person or to the doctrine taught, and sometimes it might be one, and sometimes the other.
Now, I cannot hold myself guiltless before God or his saints, unless I raise my voice concerning statements made by Henry Craik, co-laborer with George Muller, in. Bristol. And to whom shall I better appeal than to the congregation of which he forms a part in Bristol. I do not accuse himself of being a blasphemer or a heretic; I hope better things. But I do challenge his statements as blasphemous and heretical.
3. The statement I lay before them, as in the presence of God, for judgment is the following—
" The ark was formed of shittim wood: the hard, sweet-smelling acacia of the wilderness. The tree from which the sacred chest was made, had grown up and been nourished by the rain and sunshine that sometimes cheered the wastes of the desert; so Jesus, as to his humanity, grew up in the wilderness. He was as a root out of a dry ground. He breathed the same air, and was nourished by the same food, by which mere creatures are sustained. The winds of this desert world blew around Him, and as the tender sapling gradually grows to maturity of height and vigor, -so Jesus advanced through the several stages of infancy, childhood, and youth, to a state of maturity in age and stature. The acacia wood is said to have great power of resisting the inroads of corruption and decay; so the humanity of the Lord Jesus was free from the slightest taint of moral evil, and his body was preserved from all taint, even of external corruption."-" Pastoral Letters," 2nd Edit. pp. 92, 93.
And I pray the congregation to observe how entirely the whole work connected with Mr. Craik, in Bristol, and each of themselves in particular, has been involved in and committed to this statement.
On Sunday, the 25th of June, was read at each of the three places of meeting this notice.
" It is intended, the Lord willing, to have an especial meeting of all the brethren and sisters in communion, next Thursday evening at Bethesda, at seven o'clock, at which explanations will be given relative to the printed letter of our brother, Mr. Alexander. All the brethren and sisters are especially requested to be present. The usual meeting at Salem will be given up that evening."
On Thursday June 29; and on Monday, July 3, 1848, was read at Bethesda, to the meeting so convened, a paper signed by H. Craik; G. Muller; J. H. Hale; C. Brown; E. Stanley; E. Feltham; J. Withy; S. Butler; J. Meredith; Rt. Aitcheson.
In that paper it is stated-
" We feel it of the deepest importance for relieving the disquietude of mind, naturally occasioned by our brother's letter, explicitly to state that the views relative to the person of our blessed Lord held by those who for sixteen years have been occupied in teaching the word amongst you, are unchanged. The truths relative to the divinity of His person-the sinlessness of His nature and the perfection of His sacrifice.... are, through the grace of God, those which we still maintain."
And toward the end it is added-
" One of those who have been ministering among you from the beginning, feels it a matter of deep thankfulness to God, that so long ago as in the year 1835 (Pastoral Letters by H. Craik), he committed to writing and subsequently printed what he had learned from the scriptures of truth, relative to the meaning of that inspired declaration. ‘The word was made flesh'. He would affectionately refer any whose minds may be now disquieted, to what he then wrote and was afterward led to publish." So far Mr. Craik. Then the ten:-" If there be heresy in the simple statements contained in the letters alluded to, let it be pointed out; if not, let all who are interested in the matter know, that, we continue unto the present day ' speaking the same things."'
Now here the ten (workmen or laborers among you) laboring to quiet your minds from all fear, throw out in your presence, a broad challenge to any one. I accept the challenge and answer as before you.
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