Christian Messenger. (Dallas, Tex.), Vol. 14, No. 18, Ed. 1 Wednesday, May 16, 1888 Page: 2 of 8
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HEP •:
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T. R. BURNETT, \
C, M. WILMETH, \ ; - Editors.
J. R. JONES, - - - Associate Editor.
W. F. BARCUS, - - - Office Editor.
WEDNESDAY, MAY 16, 1888.
MAKING DISCIPLES.
“The first part of our Lord’s commis*
slon, “Make disciples of all nations”
is much easier to discharge than the sec-
ond part, “teaching them to observe all
things whatsoever 1 have commanded
you.” Andrew was competent to make
his brother Simon a disciple by bring-
ing him to Jesus. He was 'perhaps ut-
terly incompetent to instruct and
train him in the duties consequent upon
becoming a disciple. Discipling is a
very simple work. Teaching is more
complex and difficult. The first disci-
ples were multiplied chiefly it appears,
not so much by the solicitation of. the
Master as the invitation of those who
had already become his followers. It
was so also with the discipes made af-
ter the establishment of the church. It
was not only the presence of the Spirit
in miraculos power and the inspired
ministry of the apostles, which contrib-
uted to the rapid growth of the apostol-
ic church, but most of all perhaps the
individual and informal work of private
-
members of the church. “The disciples
went everywhere preaching the word”
and making other disciples. Hence the
*
work of making disciples was not con-
fined'to the apostles and evangelists
and the regular ministry of the church,
and in point of fact they must have done
a very small part of that work, as com-
pared with the work of private disciples.
The rapid growth of Christianity in the
apostolic age is explicable only on the
supposition that every disciple, or cer-
tainly a great majority of them, became
active m&king other disciples. The "na-
tions were discipled, not by the apostles
or the regularly appointed evangelists,
so much as by the disciples in general.
This surely does not signify that ev-
ery disciple must become a preacher in
the modern sense. For “preaching”
now includes the office of teaching and
training those who have become disci-
ples. But as preaching is used in the
New Testament, it refers not to the of-
fice of teaching and edification. It is
the proclaiming of the facts and com-
mands of the gospel and the peisuading
of men to believe and obey them; and
this work may and should be done by
private disciples chiefly, leaving the
more difficult and complex duty of in-
structing the church to those who are
trained for it and who give their whole
lives to it The qualifications for teach-
ing are manifold; special talent, special
training exclusive and life-long devotion
to the work. The qualifications for
preaching, in so far at least as is neces-
sary to making disciples, is a personal
and experimental knowledge of Christ.
This private activity in making disci-
ples would not do away with the neces-
sity of the evangelist. It would rather
make his labors more fruitful and abun-
dant. It would prepare the way for
his work and render that work easy.
To send for an evangelist to come and
persuade our children, our brothers and
sisters and our friends, to become disci-
ples—those with whom we should have
far more influence than any stranger,
however eloquent and earnest he may
be, can possibly have—is certainly a
sad reflection on ourselves. We should
send for an evangelist, as we send for a
man to shake the tree whose fruit has
been ripened by our patient culture
and care. His duty is to shake the tree
and gather the fruit, not to mature it.
His work is often reported as though he
had done the whole from planting to
gathering ; whereas his legitimate and
appointed part is to finish the process
which others have conducted up to this
final stage. He does indeed sometimes
shake the tree v&ry vigorously and
violently, and the result is the ingather
ing of much green fruit. This result
gives a momentary joy both to the man
who gathers the fruit and the church
which receives it. But though this re
ception of green fruit into the body is
for the present joyous, it after a little
time becomes exceeding - grevious and
troublesome. The distress is the want
of those who eat unripe fruit. I wish
no calamity to our evangelists, for so
far as I know them they impress me as
worthy and excellent men. But I may
suggest that if they had to suffer in
their own persons, and as it were in their
own bodies, for all the green fruit they
gather into the church, they would some-
times shake the community more gent-
ly and wisely.
We may never expect to see a rapid,
and at the same time, permanent in-
crease in the number of the disciples
unless the work of making disciples is
taken out of the hands of the few and
committed to the care of the many. The
only way of reaching the multitudes is
the old and simple way—put out your
hands and reach them, each one reach-
ing those nearest to him, Andrew reach-
ing Simon and Philip reaching Nathan-
iel. How to reach the masses ? We
ask. There is no reaching the masses
but one by one. Christ did not die for
men in the mass. “He tasted death
for every man.” Each soul stood out
before him singly and separately in that
awful hour. And as they were seen by
him then, so are they to be sought by
us now—-one by one. This means that
the whole body of disciples must turn
out in the business of soul-seeking.
When we can say every man to his neigh
and every man to his brother, “Know
the Lord,” the time will soon come when
we shall need to say it no longer. For
they shall all know the Lord from the
least even to the greatest. Then shall
the knowledge of the Lord cover the
earth as the waters cover the sea.—J.
M. T., in Atlantic Missionary.
THOUGHTS ON BRO.
: DING'S ARTICLE.
IT IGNORANCE,
VERSITY.
OR PER
%
J. B. Link, of the Baptist Herald,
evidently does not know what we, as a
religious body, teach. Of late he has
made numerous references to the peo-
ple he nicknames “Campbellites,” (he
applies that name to the church of gained security.
Christ,) and the ^alse assertions he
makes concerning us and our teaching,
led me to believe that he does not under-
stand our teaching. I am unwilling to
believe that he would knowingly mis
represent us ; I therefore conclude that
he must be ignorant of our teaching. If
so, he should inform himself before he
undertakes to say what we do, or do
not teach. A member of a church which
has as much humanism in it as the
Baptist church., should be slow h in
charging unscriptural things to others.
- : J. T. Poe.
As God made the world, you need not
fear that he can not take care of so
small a part of it as yourself.
“Fight the good fight of faith, lay
hold on eternal life.” Thus wrote' Paul
to Timothy in the 6th chapter of his
first letter. Then in the 2nd chapter of
his 2nd letter to that same youug man
he wrote, “Thou, therefore, endure hard-
ness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.”
Finally in the 4th chapter of his 2nd let-
ter he said of himself, “I have fought a
good fight.”
The reality of the Christian’s warfare
in primative times is thus established.
Not only preachers, but all others who
would lay bold on eternal life were re-
quired to put on the whole armor of
God, and stand and fight. (Eph. 6th
Chapter.) Besides, they were to make
advances on the spiritual enemies.
Hence Paul wrote in 2nd Cor. 10th, “For
though we walk in the flesh, we do not
war after the flesh. For the weapons
of our warfare are not carnal, but
mighty through God to the pulling
down of the strong holds; casting down
imaginations and every high thing that
exalteth itself against the knowledge
of God, and bringing into captivity
every tthought to the .obedience of
Christ.”
As the arch-enemy is not dead, not
converted, nor even chained; but (1 Pet.
5:8) “ as a roaring lion walketh about
seeking whom he may devour,”
it follows that the “Christian’s warfare”
is not less a reality now than it was in
primative times. The battles fought
and victories won in the fiist century
gives no security for us in the nineteenth
century. The primative warriors strug-
gled, suceeded and fell with the armor
on, but excepting the truth revealed
along the pathway of inspired ones and
the record made of faithful lives, there
is to us nothing seeured by their success.
While grappling with the difficulties
which they encountered, they looked
back and exhorted the ad-
vancing host to put on the whole armor
ot God, fight the good fight of faith, and
endure hardness as good soldiers of
Jesus Christ. Their victories were for
themselves alone.
Herein the Christian’s warfare differs
from all others. No one can fight bat-
tles and secure victories for another.
We must individually believe and obey
in order to become Christians, and we
must individually repent and pray when
as Christians we have erred from the
truth. Responsibility cannot be shift-
ed. True, we may help each other in
work, and encourage each other along
the pathway of trial. Yet each must
put on the whole armor, and each must
“fight,” and each must “endure hard-
ness.” And as the writer of Ecclesias-
tes said, There is no discharge in that
war.
Woe to that Christian who thinks
that the victories of others have for him
Woe unto those who
flatter themselves that the severest bat-
tles have been already fought If we
would enter heaven we must be godly
men and women; and * it is as true now
as when Paul wrote 2 Timothy. 3 :12
that “all that live godly in Christ Jesus
shall suffer persecution.”—“Daniel,” in
Octographic Review.
Bro. Redding’s basis idea is, that dur-
ing the apostolic age, Christians were
not subject to death from natural
causes.
His ijrst argument is that but two
oases are mentioned. I think these
were mentioned because of the miraclea
performed and the results which follow-
ed, not that they were otherwise iso-
lated.
John 11: 26 certainly does not prove
that the believer should not be subject
to the penalty of Adam’s fall.
Bro. Redding quotes 5 :23 of 1st
Thess. to prove the continuous union of
spirit, soul and body in man.
I believe the >old version' gives
the apostle’s meaning more clearly
than his quotation from Convbare and
Houson’s translation, Paul’s prayer
was that they might be made entirely
perfect and kept so. That is, that th^
soul oi mind and body should be alto-
gether under the control of the spirit
then should the triune man be blame-
less.
Can any man sin while his mind or
soul is fully under the control of the
spirit which God gives him ?
In 1st Cor. 15, Paul speaks of those
who had fallen asleep in Christ as per-
ishing without the resurrection.
The phrase “fallen asleep” certainly
means that they had died; and as there
is nothing in the record to prove
many had suffered “judical” death
conclude believers died then as now* ^
Yes, Jesus had obtained a c
victory over death, but did any
ever recieve the benefits of Christ’s
tory until he had himself grappled
the enemy and the body had
cumbed ?
“Where are they,” apostolic C
tain? Their bodies are dust
minds or souls rest in Paradise,
spirits returned to God who gave
I write not from love of cavil or coi
versy, but love of the truth.
Give us some more food, Bro. Red-
ding. J. W. Gentry.
I
Via
DON'T LAUGH AT BREAKING
HEARTS.
A precious one from us is gone,
A voice we loved is stilled ;
A place is vacant in our home,
Which never can be filled. .
God in his wisdom has recalled,
The boon his love had given ;
And though the body moulders here,
The soul is safe in Heaven.
—Ex.
Do not laugh at the drunken man
reeling through the streets, however lu-
dicrous the sight may be. He is going
home to some tender heart that will
throb with intense agony. Some doting
mother, perhaps, who will grieve over
the downfall of her once sinless boy; or
it may be a loving wife whose heart will
almost burst with grief as she views the
destruction of her idol; or it may be a
loving sister, who will shed bitter tears
over the degradation of her brother,
shorn of his manliness and self-respect.
Rather drop a tear in silent sympathy
with those hearts so keenly sensative
and tender, yet so proudly royal that
they cannot accept sympathy tendered
them either in word, look, or act al-
though it might fall upon their wounded
and crashed hearts as the summer dews
upon the withering plant.—Ex.
1
There is no shame along the pathway
of virtue. Shame comesjfrom disobedi-
ence—from sin— from imorality—from
licentiousness—from crime commit-
ted under cover of darkness. But there
is no darkness nor shadow of death
where jthe workers of iniquity may
hide themselves .—Octographic Review.
Atheism is p disease of the soul before
it becomes an error of the under-
standing.— Plato.
Q
vmM
V.
• •
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Burnett, Thomas R. & Wilmeth, C. M. Christian Messenger. (Dallas, Tex.), Vol. 14, No. 18, Ed. 1 Wednesday, May 16, 1888, newspaper, May 16, 1888; Dallas, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth922612/m1/2/: accessed July 11, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Bonham Public Library.