To the Churches composing the Elkhorn Association:
DEAR BRETHREN: We desire, in the first place, to call your attention to the description given us in the first chapter of Romans, 29-32: "Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, without un¬derstanding, covenant-breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: Who knowing the judgment of God, that they who commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them."Is it not impossible to conceive even of worse creatures than those here described? But who are they that are thus portrayed? The ancient heathen; the refined and polite, as well as the rude and barbarous; the learned philosopher, as well as the ignorant savage. In a word, we have, from the pen of the Apostle, the Holy Spirit's picture of unregenerate human nature without the Gospel.
We now call your attention to the description in the third chapter 2d Timothy, 2-5: "Men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blas¬phemous, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, truce-breakers (rather, implacable, as Alford translates it), false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God; having a form of Godliness, but denying the power thereof."
We are at once struck by the marked resemblance between this picture and the former. Is it, then, a portraiture of the same being by a different artist? Nay; but the limner is the same. The Holy Spirit still describes by the pen of Paul. Yet twin-brothers could not be more alike than the two pictures. May it not be a representation of the same person, modified only by attitude, or dress, or other circumstance? Truly it is so; for it is the description of those who hold Christianity merely in form; or, in other words, it is the picture of unregenerate human nature with the Gospel.
Look at the points of identity. Both are covetous: and from our childhood have we not constantly heard and read sermons and essays charging that "covetousness is the sin of the Church?"
Both are boasters: and when was there a more boastful spirit than now, and where is there more of it than among professing Christians?
Both are disobedient to parents: and are not children now notoriously disregardful of their parents' wishes; and, as a general thing, are the children of professors of religion more obedient than others?
Both are implacable: and are not the Churches full of men and women entertaining and cherishing bitter grudges against each other, and often for causes too trivial to be mentioned?
Both are proud: and when did people have a more inordinate opinion of themselves?
Both are destitute of natural affection: and rare indeed is the affection which sacrifices self for any other.
Other traits of resemblance are most manifest throughout the whole description; the variation, indeed, seems to be of circumstance rather than of substance.
But one form of sin appears in the former catalogue, which may be absent from the latter. We refer to the lust of licentiousness, plainly held forth in the one, and which can only be doubtfully embraced in the other. There is a difference, too, in the outward form: for in the former there is no pretence of anything but sin, while in the latter the form of Godliness is put on and worn as a cloak.
From the description in the word of God, and from our own observation, it is easy to be seen, unregenerate human nature with the Gospel is no better than unregenerate human nature without the Gospel; or, that a merely formal Christianity it no letter than open infidelity. For Christianity, merely formal, is real infidelity — not the less dangerous because it is insidious in its attacks.
We are warned that it is in the last times this formal Christianity is to be developed. How long these times are to continue we cannot tell, for God has not clearly revealed; but enough appears to convince us that the last phase of the contest between truth and falsehood, between holiness and wickedness, is to be realized in the contest between VITAL and FORMAL Godliness.
In this contest many organizations calling themselves, and recognized as, Churches of God, will range themselves on the side of falsehood and wickedness, having "a form of piety, but having repudiated its power." Where shall Baptist Churches be found? Brethren, we have been grievously mistaken in our reading of God's Word, and in our conception of the principles which lie at the foundation of our distinctive organization, if the true mission of Baptist Churches is not to uphold vital Godliness in opposition to formal Godliness; for we alone, while holding the true form of Gospel ordinances, and repudiating all hereditary claim to holiness, maintain the necessity of the power of Godliness in each individual, by the regeneration of the Holy Spirit, without the intervention of man or ceremony, and by the continued indwelling of that same Spirit in the heart to control the life.
But this being so, is there not reason to fear that we have lost sight of our mission, and are failing to accomplish it? Should we then not awake from our slumbers, and arouse from our stupidity? Every thing calls us to activity and zeal. The open wickedness of the world is a rebuke to our sluggishness. The covert infidelity of formal Christianity is a challenge to our own faithfulness. In this conflict we cannot overcome by bold declamation or empty denunciation. Only the real power of Godliness, shown in a holy life and earnest zeal, can make us conquerors. "This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith."
========== [From Elkhorn Bapitst Association Minutes, 1867, pp. 4-5. The document is from the association office, Lexingtron, KY. — Scanned and formatted by Jim Duvall.]
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