The Gospel herald. (New Carlisle, Ohio), 1860-07-14

              HERALD.
De-v-oted to Cliristianity-, Morality, the Interests of Sa,t>"batliL Schools, Sooial Impro-trement, Tena-peT-ance, Education, and. General [STe-w-s.
"BEHOLD,   I   BRING   TOU   GOOD   TIDINGS   OE   GKEAT   JOT
ON   EARTH   PEACE,   GOOD   -WILL   TQ-WARD   MEN.
VOL. 17.
DA.YTON, 0., SATURDAY, JULY 14, I860.
NO. 11.
SELECT POETRY.
From the Cliristian Enquirer.
Sow Thy Seed—"Blessed areye that sow beside all waters-'?—Isaiah X!C&ii<20,
BV BERTHA CABROi.
Brooklets in the woodlands flo-w. Waters shallb-«v, motion slotv; Leaping from the mountain height. Sparkling waters, clear and bright; Springing from the desert--waste. Crystal fountains heav'nward haste; Wave omfave from oceans rise, Magio stair-way to the skies; As a pilgrim, on you go- Seed beside all ifaters sow.
So-ff ahd Wait, nor hope to reap
Till you rest in slumber deep—-
Till youi- faded hand is still,
And at Ipeaoe your pulseless will;
Watctand pray-j nor h'ope to hear
Answer to' your earnest prater,
Werdg unuttered yoii shall see,
Siletit wiir your answer be,
Asa'pftgrim, on y()u go—
Herd anil 'tliei'e yoiir life-thouglvt's sow.
Open, wide your well-filled hapd, Drop, your seed on every, laind;  , Beeper than you dare- to think Will your tiniest actions sink, Do-wn within! each, human soul— Soil divine—such'seeds unfold; Blossoms Btailing, here and there, Are the answers to your prayer, As a pilgrim,- on you go—' Love and truth forever sow.
Longing souls for us to bless. Painting in this wilderness; Little lejet to guide aright. By the waters clear and bright; Pount.of God, fore.ver near, Springing from the desert drear, Cool each aching head to-day. As we pause upon our way; And, as pilgrims ou we go, Water well the seeds we sow, May$l.
ORIGINAUTIES.
* WriUen for. the Ootpel Ilerald.
I^irshould come back to the Gtiod old Basis, the Word of God.
BY- H.. SIMONTON:
The Christian world have departed £j.cm the origihal,.primitive Bimplicity ^f the Church of Christ, aud have gone J11 to vain speculations, and contentions £i,tiQut doctrines and forms never heard <3f,' by. the primitive Church. Diflfer- ^jjt .sectarian denominations have as ^tiined to themselves the right to,Ze$fW- /^(;e for the Church of Christ, each.o-qe Iviiiking laws to puit their ftwnjpecial ivjends; ant} then change those j^-ws ,to ^tiit-a change of times,; manners, and ^-ti&tpms—all claiming, .to make: la-ws. r'o govern the churoh of Christ. This ^regentsto the njind a lamentable state I f things—an endless mass of legisla- ^.: vo confusioti.
When, and where, mon ckiim tho irfht and power to make laws to gov- *"Wl any number of men and -t\'omen, ^rt church form, it is tlie best of cvl- \\jtice that that chrirch, for whom those f:.^-vV8 -were made. Is' not tho church of h^^liT'int. Ilonce, the general conference .r tho Methodist  church have, in this
land of free institutions a perfect right to make laws for that church, and niake just such laws as she may call for, and change tbem to suit the times, in the East, West, North and South.— The la-w-8 of this chnrch differ on many points, in England and Amer¬ ica,^
But the G-eneral Oonference has never been able to show any right to make laws to govern the body ofthe Lord Jesus Christ, There is but one Law-giver in this church, and the laws made by him are the same in every ag^and .country. . Thero. is no East, We^t, North or South, with this Law¬ giver.
This Law-giver never made one code of la,ws to suit the special condition of the Greek ChnrQh; another, to suit tho Eoman Catholic Cburch; that the Pope might stand at lhe head, of civil gov- ernmenment in,, the Italian States—- and ypt another code to meet the de¬ mands of the Ohurch of Brtgland, with its Queen, Arch-Bishops, JBiskops, dhc.— ApdiaHtly, a pro-slavery code to meet the demands of the South, and an anti- slavery abde to meet the demands of the North; neither do I believe that this great Law-giVer has over given, men the power to tnake any such laws to govern the Church of Christ. It is all, in my humble judgement, a viola¬ tion of Christian liberty, to'bind the' freedom of Christian investigation, an,d confine men, in their investigation of Christian truthj within the limits of their several creeds.
Members of tho Greek Church, the Roman Catholic, must live within the limits- of those creeds, or so far as their standing among them is concerned, they are cursed. It is so with nearly all the creed churches, to a greater or less extent. Wherever the spirit ofthe creed-system rales among men, this is tho case. Men laugt live within the small litnits of the creed, or stani to some extent out of their 7*eaZconfidence and fellowship. And hero, I will re¬ mark, that' it makes but little, if any difference, whether the creed-spirit and system be in a book, or inthe head, it will all amount to about the same thing in the end, where men make notions in theory, the test for the Evangelical eharticter of the faith of other men. Fo one creed-has a right to dictate to tho world in matters of faith, and all of them put together would only make the matter worse. The word of God is theonly infallible- teacher, and rule of action.
The Christian Law-giver has given an admirable law, for universal em¬ pire. It is Well suited to all nations, andall time. Every thing should con¬ form to it, and the world will never be what it ahould, and may be, until tnis God-like law of love is the universal ,law, in the Ohurch on earth. Men inay continne to speculate and legis¬ late, with even the best of motives, to better the condition of human nature, and then wonder -why the good work is not done.
But the best of laws mado by men, under the best of motives will not meet th^ case. The Divino law, as expound¬ ed by Chriat, mufct be the law of uni¬ versal action, and when this is the ease all will V)e right, and not until then,— The Divino faw is   the only tangible
hope of the salvation of the world,— This noble work must, commence with the church, with those who.claim to be . disciple-learners of Christ- Christians. They, must manifest an unshaken confidence in the Divine law as the only hope of the world, as the only sure basis of Christian faith and action.
When, and where, men legislate for the church of Christ, they, by this act manifest a want of full confidence in the Divine law. So far as the great Law-giver made laws, he mftdothem good;but he left itforwsto finish, each one to suit himself with, time, place and circumstances. But he gave no sutih liberty to men. They have done vio¬ lence to their religious freedom.
Hence, as remarked Vofoio, the original model, as givpn by the great, infallible Law-giver has been lost sight of, by the assumefi action of men, who have not been content to take things as the Divine Father gave them.to the world. Ttie church will never be right, and fill her proper position.before the world, until she, returns to, the order and simplicity of, primitive times.— That order has been inverted. The beautiful .lineaments of that, once ad¬ mirable system of church govern men t,, have been misced up with the legisla¬ tion qf sectarian system.s of church polity, until thousands have, in the devotion of their, hearts, been lod to believe, that such human -wisdom, in church iegislaticin is absolutely essen¬ tial to the perfection of church gov¬ ernment.. And a large portion of church |6gi8latio,n is done by the Cler¬ gy, who, in alniost every age of the church, have been after power. Ilonce their complicated systems of church government, in which the'largest pos¬ sible amount of power is held by them.
And now, "Wero the whole Chris¬ tian world to revert back to the origi¬ nal model, (given by Christ and his Apostles) bow far more simple, uni¬ form, and beautiful would the church appear, and ho-w far more agreeable to the ecclesiastical polity instituted by the holy  Apostles/"—President Stiles.
The body, or Church of Christ is one —itis a oohsolidated unit, and it is composed of all living, active, obedient believers, in the Messiah, as the sent of the Eternal Eather, such as are de¬ votional and obedient to the divine comnaandments, as found in the reveal¬ ed word of God, and not the tech¬ nical dogndas, as found in the dif¬ ferent creeds of men, which do not agree among themselves, on many im¬ portant points, and the most of them differ widely, in niany things from re¬ vealed truth.
If they would only consent to re¬ vert back to the Heaven-conceived, und original model instituted by Christ and his holy Apostles, thou the church would appear more uniform and beau¬ tiful than what it docs in its present distorted condition, with so many forms of church government, standing out in bold and defiant opposition to each other, and forming so many tests of what is termed evangelical fellow¬ ship. I presume that all will admit that the primitive ohurch had but ono form of government, and in this they were all united. If this be true, which T havo no reason to call in ques¬ tion, for ono moment, then all depart-
Z,^!-.^—.i^..-..A,»~«.,.i..,'..,,H.j,jijaj.-^ji»-.-j-'n      '
ure from the original model aad simple fo,rm,. ia a positive departure from christian obligation,       ,    ,
Christ and his form of government was not di,vided to suit the carnal,-.selfi ish disposition of sectional men, in form¬ ing sects: and sectional churches; but creeds are, and their native element is,' sectionaUstii\r~Ao, divide men and women in sentiment, feeling and actiott. The great and God-given mission of the Messiah,.was tosuhdaethe carnftl)Self- isji mind, ,and unite contending na-, tions and; sectional tribes of men, and^ by,,th^ saviflg^; power of Gospel truth,. constittite one .•wndtei . and consolidated,. OftwrcA, bound together by the uniting, bond ,,of. christian .love. , But tho, mission of creeds has been: to promote sectionalism in the church—to continue; the unchristian; spirit pf contention among brethren, Christ eanxe to.teach the spirit of, peace,nnd'univemalJove;. but creedp, the sjpirit of contention iand" universal idivision, and seotionalisni! among men, i;
I am.not so vain as to claim anyi-; thing like ,absolute, p^rfoetion, for¬ the Christian church or depomijiia-; tion,, either in their denominational' basis on which to form a real unioft! among all christians, or their lead.-l. ing doctriti^s, in which, they m,ay differ from others, in whole, or in part. They never have, neither do they.at this, time claim, the seal of infallibility in judgment, theory and actions.
But, I do most positively claim for them that they have been and are ac¬ tuated by honest motives, in search af- ter the fundamental elemcnte of di-. vinely revealed truth. And that they hold in common with,others, all the leading, a,nAfundamental, and Evangeli¬ cal doctrines of the blessed oldfc^miiIyJi'\l^le^.. as given to the world by the'Divine .Father, in and through the ever bless¬ ed Messiah and his Apostles. And that tho points of difference between them and other churches, will be found to,consist more, in abstract specula¬ tions found on systems of technical Theology, than in plainly-revealed and well-defiaed Biblical doctrines; auch as are essential to the salvation of men. We have the blessed old family Bible as well as other men—the same as theirs, word for word. We lovo it because wo believe it.is from God-— Thegreat, moral aud spiritual light of lights, to, shino into tho dark,noBB of the understanding. By its sublime and Heavenly teachings we are trying to live; and by it we hope to be judged, and not by tho selfish, sectarian creeds of men,
Itis no evidence that we are in er¬ ror in doctrino, church government and basis of Christian union, because I we havo met with severe opposition, from other, older and larger denomina- htons, calling thomaolves the evangeli- I cal branches ,of the church of ChriM I on earth, Thi-j has been the common j fortune of all, in their attxrt as sepa^ ' rate churches.
I All, or at least the most of tbe I Protestant denominations met with sp- I verp,:flnd poveral of them, bitter oppo¬ sition, in the days of their infancy, from those who preceded theip, and from those who,se foltls they bad left. This is nothing new; it is as old as tho proaching of the .Gospel' of the grace of God by Christ and his little band.