Beloved Brethren: Through the mercy of a kind and watchful father, we are again permitted to exchange the friendly greeting of Christian fellowship and love; and, for the subject of our Circular Letter, offer the importance of Christian watchfulness. What I say unto you, I say unto all, watch - Mark. xiii, xxxvii. If ever there was an age when the above injunction should bear with the utmost force upon the heart, and conscience of God's elect, it is the present. All the elements of the
evil are in activity, concentrating their allied army, for the subversion of Jehovah's government, and the overthrow of all our hopes. That we, as the subjects of the Kingdom of Heaven may act understandingly, and derive profits from our Master's instructions, we notice. We should watch over each other in Christian affection. The fraternal obligations of watchfulness grown out of our relation to God and our Church. If we were not children of the same parent, members of the same family, we can have no common interest to awaken our sympathies, or call forth our watchfulness for each other. Considerations of policy, may, indeed, for a time, unite our hands and centre our efforts for mutual protection, or the furtherance of some great object; but conflicting interests soon dissolve this union, leaving the feeble to struggle on, as best they may, whilst the stronger push forward their advantages with increased energy. But when the family circle centers all the enjoyment of life in the participation of common delights, the eyes of all are watchful to see the evil that would mar their bliss, and ere the baneful withering of its wings sears down their pleasure, guard the avenues against its approach, or turn it in joyous triumph away.In the economy of heaven, association and communion form a prominent part in the moral chain that links man to his dearest interest on earth, and allies the creature to the Creator. A strict watchfulness over each other in the spirit of love is our surest guarantee for its continuance amongst us. While we follow the divine injunction, we guard alike against that subtle temper, envy, with all its heart-burnings, and sickening mortifications at our brother's prosperity, and its kindred spirit, selfishness, that would drink heaven's deep fountains dry, in the presence of thirsty men and angels, though they perished at our feet.
Love knows no contradictions; but as the sun in his beamings scatters, wide o'er the face of creation the fulness of his light, so it opens in the human heart a blooming garden, rich in fruits and fragrant flowers. How different the effects of sin displaying all around us. Dissipation and crime, violence and wrong, brutish intemperance and ungodly strife, mark with fearful distinctness the utterness of man's subjugation to the dominion of sin, whilst God from his throne proclaims his tearful vengeance. Here wars slay; there famine wastes, and the angel of death unchains the plague to breathe the mildew of desolation over the sin stained earth. But in the bowers of love, guarded by cherub and seraph, dwelt safety and peace. We enter the banqueting house, and in the halls of life sit down beneath the trellis work of mercy and the banner of love.
We must watch against a spirit of evil watchfulness. Some think (if
actions disclose the thought of the soul) that it is their whole duty to watch for the errors and follies of their brethren, and to trumpet them every where as the only melody that touches a chord in their heart. A thousand good and benevolent acts may be performed, and they may be familiar with them all without naming them, while one slip is sufficient for a long and voluminous gossip in every circle, company, or audience. It is their theme perpetually. They censure bitterly, and criminate totally the aberration of a moment, forgetting that by this very act they are doing far worse and bringing more reproaoh upon the cause of God than the offender whom they denounce. Our duty is plain, brethren, says Paul, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual restore such an one in the spirit of meekness: - Galatians, 6:1. That mock spirit of religion, manifested in bitter regrets that such and such things are so, while you are but widening the circle and deepening the hue of your brother's shame, is not the spirit of meekness in which you should seek to restore such an one, but the very reverse, the opposite extreme. The rule laid down by the Savior, though relating to personal offences, is in strict accordance with the spirit and proper observance of Paul's directions - "Tell him his fault betweeen him and thee alone," not to every body you see, except himself. If this rule was carefully carried out, how much contempt and ridicule from the world would be avoided. The world loves to find fault with professors, and sneers without disguise when they publish each other's faults. Brethren, we should not only avoid speaking publicly of our brother's offences, but even thinking harshly of him, without well understanding the motives that governed his actions. "Judge not," says Jesus, "that ye be not judged." An error in judgment may betray us into a long catalogue of wrongs. We may believe an innocent brother guilty. The first wrong is to hate him - the second to speak evil of him - the third to mistreat him, and this is but the beginning of mischief that may grow out of an error in judgment. All this may be avoided by following our Savior's rule.We must watch over our words. Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. This fact shows the importance of Christian conversation. As followers of the Lamb, we should observe such circumspection of thought, that when painted in words on the canvass of our social intercourse, the pencilings would give forth the light of religion over the shades and backgrounds of earth and its cares. The Christian's conversation should be sincere and cheerful, solemn and full of the hopes of religion. Thus we are instructed. "Only let your conversation be as becometh the Gospel of Christ." We should not indulge in light and trifling gossip, which leaves an ever daring impress on the ear that hears.
The idle jests, you thought to be but momentary, that died away with the sounds that gave them form and feature, may revive again. And O, if they should have stung your Redeemer, wounded your brother, or excited a feeling of contempt in despisers of religion, they may prove noxious plants, that your hand has fixed in your future pathway to send forth a sickening odour and obtrude a rankling thorn, the fearful disturbers of your future peace. Let us remember that our conversation should be of heaven - "from whence, also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jeaus Christ." We must watch for opportunities to do good. Our religion teaches that no man liveth unto himself, and surely a world like ours, so full of sin and sorrow, offers a field sufficiently wide for the display of all our Christian benevolence. Look at the oppressed, groaning under their intolerable burdens. Look at the bereaved, weeping, broken-hearted, and see some of the objects to awaken our sympathies. They are all around us. How many tears may be dried by affection's hand - how many sighs hushed by the whispers of love, and how many pangs alleviated by the glorious Gospel of the Son of God. It is wrong to suppose that distant countries and distant millions are the only objects to awaken our interests and to call forth our charity. However dear the cause of Foreign Missions may be to our hearts - however, steadily borne forward on the wings of a thousand prayers in its sin-subduing and soul-renovating course, we are not to lose sight of home scenes and all the thrilling hopes and fears which centre in the conversion of friends and neighbors to follow its gilded pathway on the dark shores of heathen lands. It is our duty, as Christians, to turn and survey the borders of our own Sion, and see if no opportunity can be improved, for the furtherance of religion amongst ourselves. Look what a large extent of territory lies around us unoccupied by religious institutions. No Ministry of the Word - no welcoming the Sabbath - no worshipping in the congregation among them. Parents live and die without hope and without God, and their children follow in the same career of ignorance and sin, leaving other generations still to grope their way in darkness and death. Thus sink successive generations beneath the waves of time; and thus they will continue to sink, till the church sends forth the Gospel among them. Now the question arises, shall we abandon the field to other denominations, or go forth and occupy it ourselves? If we do not oocupy the ground, we yield to other sects their vaunted claims of superior light and purer institutions, or we prove recreant to the trust committed to our charge. Dare we in the face of God and perishing man, with the Bible, the platform of our holy and republican institutions, our light amidst the darkness and solitude of earth, the resplendent
beamings of heaven's eternal sun over the agonies of death and the putrid damps of the sepulchred dead - prove recreant to that trust, and withhold from the perishing around us the bread and water of life. Shall we any longer, neglect to send for that gospel, which changes the turbulent and angry spirit into the docility of the lamb and the innocence of the dove - the violent stripe and the fiendish cruelty into gentleness, mercy, piety and love, which twines from the amaranthine bowers the gay garland of life, and bedecks the soul, all humbled and washed from its filth and shame, in the costume and livery of heaven.We must watch against error. Error is a dangerous foe when it enters the church. It produces wrong conceptions of man in all his relations to God - theorises the system of our salvation to our carnal wishes, and places the ceremonies and traditions of the fathers in the room of the revelation of heaven. How many have been chained in the dungeon, burned at the stake, or broken on the rack, for resisting error; and how many schisms and rents has the same cause produced in the church of God? It has produced infidelity in all its forms and atheism in its deepest hues.
We must watch for the approach of death. The fleet roll of time will soon have borne us over the narrow space of life, and we shall no more behold the sun in his glory opening anew the brightening day, nor see him pass with undiminished splendor to gild the halls and flood the fields of other lands. We shall tread no more the active walks of life; no more shall we hear the voice of friendship, nor feel the hand of love - our home in the cold earth, our covering the clods of the valley, and the gayest ornament that bedecks our cheerless dwelling, an humble flower, or a creeping vine. But O! the soul, if qualified by grace through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, shall have a better home, free from chilling winds and poisonous breaths, amidst heaven's refulgent glory, amidst its songs, its harps and its praises. - Brethren, adieu.
=========== [Campbell County Baptist Association Minutes, 1852, pp. 3-7. From a photocopy at the Campbell County Historical Society Library, Alexandria, KY. Transcribed and formatted by Jim Duvall.]
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