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About Christian herald. (Portland ;) 1882-18?? | View Entire Issue (Oct. 27, 1882)
CTTHÌHTI A. N I know of no their hearts.' When “ the perfect, are law of lilierty ” is in the .minds and principle l»y which anything that Ye Are Not Under 'Law, But hearts of men, th6y will’ yield a is morally wrong for an ungodly Under Grace.” complete and loving obedience to man, could l»e morally right for a all TR requirements, and not seek. godly one. On the contrary, 1 be- REPLY TO ELDER 3. 0. ADAMS BY K. H. MOSS. Jan vadLulhiui i ing. that .JJiUA— lieve That th^^lly. nians moral, are “ weak and lieggarly,” “ statu obligation is as much greater ami Listen to this farther, “ In the tory and commanded,” and that as more binding, as his profession is world and in the flesh we plow ami God’s freemen they are above and greater and better than the un sow and reap ; we buy and sell, free from, and not under them. godly man’s. TAvould think it im and come under the law of mar One of the crying evils of our portant under any circumstances, riage, and are freed from the law of times is the laxity of sentiment that the teaching of our brother- marriage.” _There is- nb mistaking^ imrh’-'rTnivtrtirwr *hr- regard-to thr- -hood on -t h is siUqee-t, - should-be- w+- the import of this- language. It marriage obligation, and the con derstood, but that importance is clearly asserts tliat the law of sequent frequency of divorce and greatly magnified by the appear Christ is silent on the marriage remarriage. This evil has been ance and teaching-of the articles relation,.and that men are free and commented upon ami deeply de- under review, and while I greatly bound, as Abe. Jaw .of the State ÏJor(jdçT>yJneIT’oFTIie" \u)rTd?wTiô ‘regR*F" the“"fiecessT^T”Salt do^Tw" frees and binds them, which is bad contemplated its results only as less than to oppose such teaching enough, or worse still, as they are they affected the stability of men’s, with all my strength and power. free and bound by their own wills ; social relations, and the welfare of 1 must lie allowed to respectfully for Paul is quoted entirely out of society. To what extent its evils protest against the application of connection, “ Let him do what he would have reached by this time, such expressions as “foolish Gala will he sinneth not.” If it were dad it not been for the saving salt tians,” “ teachers ” (?) “ does greatly true, that the most important rela of the law of Christ, and its en err not knowing the Scriptures,” tion of this world was completely forcement upon the hearts and con “is not sufficiently instructed in ignored by our Savior in bis law, victions of men by his servants, it the kingdom of God,” tec., to such it would be a reproach against his men as those from whom I have wis+lom-aud law, from which they is impossible to tell.. Certain am I, that with ati that they have done; quoted, "“and, Indeed, ~to all our could never recover, and the in to stay the evil, it is yet of fcar> writers ami teachers^ If necessary fidel would have a weapon indeed It 1 could ffrrnish a long list from the fully alarming proportion It is entirely foreign to all the facts destroys the sanctity of the mar Campbells onward. . I,n my humble in the case. The lan (uage of Jesus riage vows and obligations Men judgment Bro. Adams has entirely already quoted regulates the mar and women; lightly and flippantly, misapprehended the basis, seat, or riage relation, for all men and all take upon themselves these obliga ground- of difference Itetween the time. Read 1 Cor. 7 ; Eph. 5 : 22- tions, and repeat the vows, calcu law of Moses and the law of Christ 33 ; and 1 Peter 3: 1 -7, and see lating that if they find them dis- in his articles ; he has scarcely, if how clear and emphatic is tire law tasteful or unpleasant they can at all, touched upon the reasons for in the true tabernacle or church of dissolve them, and try again. It the doing away of one and the God for the marriage relation. That destroys the home, brings great and bringing in of the other. lie has marriage is a divine, and not a irreparable evils and sufferings entirely mistaken the nature of human institution, is so clearly upon innocent children. It paves Christian freedom. He teaches taught in the Scriptures, that it is the way for scenes of violence and that the Mosaic dispensation was regarded by all Christians as a ro- bloodshed, as witness the shooting all law, while Christianity is all matic truth. That God should to death of A. D. Richardson, by grace, that the one was all flesh, have instituted this relation, and the real husband of the woman, and the other all spirit, that the then left it to the powers that be who had sought and obtained in laws of the one were all carnal or to regulate is clearly absurd. He fleshly commandments, and the has, in his law, regulated the rela Indiana a divorce from him because she preferred Mr. R to him. And laws of the other all spiritual prin tions which men have established, see how evils multiply, themselves. ciples, that the laws of the one as governor and governed, master H. W. Beecher desecrated and were written on paper-wliileaTI and slave. How much more then trailed in the dust, the banner of the laws of the other are written in would he regulate what he had Christianity by perfarnwny the the mind and heart. Making the himself instituted. He says, “ We marriage ceremony between these last first and the first last, I shall may engage in all these earthly try to show his misapprehension things ” as godly men or Christians, two, while one of them lay upon and mistake by developing the and if “ the perfect laws of liberty ” his death bed. When men of the world notice, write against; ami teaching of the Scriptures upon control our hearts in all things I deplore these things, where should these points. I shall affirm ami can truly say with Paul “ Let him try to prove that God has, in * all do what he will he sinneth not.” the Christian be fltlnd* ? What ages and in all his dealings with How can “ the perfect law of should lie bis attitude toward them? Certainly he should not advocate men, demanded the heart and mind, liberty ” control men’s hearts, un positions which would make the ami that he has written his law in less in their lives they obey it ? If the mind ami heart, in the Patri they should follow the teaching I matter almost infinitely worse, by archal and Mosaic dispensations, as destroying one of the greatest safe am opposing, and thus entirely well as in the Christan. In the ignore arid dis» egard’ one of its guards that God has placed around this institution, in giving nien the 11th chapter of Hebrews Paul most important moral laws and law of the Gospel regulating it. gives a long list of godly men, be obligations, in their life and con Bro. Adams may say that he means ginning with Abel, who acted by duct, it would I xj worse than useless that only godly men are free from faith. .As faith works through to talk about that law coritroling this law, and that ungodly men love, (Gal. 5; 6), and cleanses the Original Contributions. v* ' . ■ ■ : Æ ' ‘ . v , ■” .¡‘.¿J ■ ’ heart (Acts 15.: 9,) it will be ap parent at once that the law of God was in their minds ami hearts, and that the law of love was'-in twee from man’s creation, or in both Patriarchal and Jewish dispensa- tionsT Read the 4th, 5th aiuf 6th chapters of Deut., while I note 4th and 6th, “ Keep, therefore, and do them, for this is your wisdom and your understanding,” verse 9 : “Only take heed to^thyself and . I forget the things which thine eyes have seen, and les“t they depart from thy heartverse 29 : “ But if from thence thou shalt seek the Evjro Uly UuHTJm’U STiait “ nTid’TiliIT*™ if thou seek him with all thy heart and with all thy soul. 5 : 27, “ Oh that there w&tf1 such a heart in j them, that they would fear me and keep all my commandments al ways.” 6: 5-7, “And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart and with all thy soul ami with all thy might; and these words which I command thee this day^shaTT he in thine heai t, and .. ~ tt thou shalt teach them diligently to j*:. thy children.” 11: 1, “Therefore, thou shalt love-the Lord tliy God, and- keep his charge and his statutes and his judgments and bis commandments al way.” 30: 6, “And the Lord thy God toll cir cumcise thine heart and the heart of thy seed, to love the Lord thy # God with all thine heart, and with I all thy soul that thou mayest live.’’ Lev. 19: 18,“ But thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself, I am the Lord.” These quotations demonstrates that God demanded men’s hearts and. minds in the law of Moses; that the Jews were under the law of love ; that that law consisted of statutes and commandments; that the measure of love was the keep ing of the commandments; that under the law of Moses the true or real circumcision was that of the heart, as Paul so truly declares, I and that the law of Moses so far from consisting entirely of carnal and fleshly commandments, was also highly spiritual. It could not have been otherwise, coming as it did from God. They also clearly show that God puts Ins laws into men’s minds and hearts, by having them written and providing direct ly and explicitly that they shall I mj taught to others, by those who re- , ceive them by inspiration (as did Moses and the apostles) or those who learn them from their writ / ings, as we, in this day, must do. ” If there is any difference between ' ■ - ■