706 over the hearts of the people; and upon the other hand beholding the judgments of God that have swept, and are still sweeping hundreds and thousands of onr [our] race, (and I fear unprepared) down to the shades of death. With this solemn and alarming fact before me, I am led to exclaim, "O that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night," &c.
I think that it is high time for a christian world to awake out of sleep, and cry mightily to that God, day and night, whose anger we have justly incurred. Are not these things a sufficient stimulant to arouse the faculties, and call forth the energies of every man, woman, and child, that possesses feelings of sympathy for their fellows, or that is in any degree endeared to the budding cause of our glorious Lord? I leave an intelligent community to answer this important question, with a confession, that this is what has caused me to overlook my own inability, and expose my weakness to a learned world: but, trusting in that God, who has said that these things are hid from the wise and prudent and revealed unto babes, I step forth into the field to tell you what the Lord is doing, and what you must do, to enjoy the smiles of your Savior in these last days.
The time has at last arrived when the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, has set his hand again, the second time, to recover the remnants of his people, which have been left from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, &c., and from the islands of the sea, and with them to bring in the fulness [fullness] of the Gentiles, and establish that covenant with them, which was promised when their sins should be taken away. See Romans 11:25, 26, and 27, and also, Jeremiah 31:31, 32, and 33. This covenant has never been established with the house of Israel, nor with the house of Judah, for it requires two parties to make a covenant, and those two parties must be agreed, or, no covenant can be made.
Christ, in the days of his flesh, proposed to make a covenant with them, but they rejected him and his proposals, and in consequence thereof, they were broken off, and no covenant was made with them at that time. But their unbelief has not rendered the promise of God of none effect: no, for there was another day limited in David, which was the day of his power; and then his people, Israel, should be a willing people;-and he would write his law in their hearts, and print them in their thoughts; their sins and their iniquities he would remember no more.
Thus after this chosen family had rejected Christ and his proposals, the heralds of salvation said to them "lo we turn unto the Gentiles," and the Gentiles received the covenant, and were grafted in from whence the chosen family were broken off: but the Gentiles have not continued in the goodness of God, but have departed from the faith that was once delivered to the saints, and have broken the covenant in which their fathers were established: (see Isaiah 24:5,) and have become high minded, and have not feared; therefore, but few of them will be gathered with the chosen family. Has not the pride, high-mindedness, and unbelief of the Gentiles, provoked the Holy One of Israel to withdraw his Holy Spirit from them, and send forth his judgments to scourge them for their wickedness? This is certainly the case.
Christ said to his disciples, (Mark 16:17, and 18,) that these signs should follow them that believe: in my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; they shall take up servants, and if they drink any deadly thing it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover: and also, in connexion [connection] with this, read 1st Corinthians 12th chapter. By the foregoing testimonies, we may look at the christian world and see the apostacy [apostasy] there has been from the apostolic platform; and who can look at this and not exclaim, in the language of Isaiah, "the earth is defiled under the inhabitants thereof, because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinances, and broken the everlasting covenant."
The plain fact is this, the power of God begins to fall upon the nations, and the light of the latter day glory begins to break forth through the dark atmosphere of sectarian wickedness, and their iniquity rolls up into view, and the nations of the Gentiles are like the waves of the sea, casting up mire and dirt, or, all in commotion, and they are hastily preparing to act the part allotted them, when the Lord rebukes the nations; when he shall rule them with a rod of iron, and break them in pieces like a potters vessel. The Lord declared to his servants, some eighteen months since, that he was then withdrawing his spirit from the earth; and we can see that such is the fact, for not only the churches are dwindling away, but there are no conversions, or, but very few; and this is not all, the governments of the earth are thrown into confusion and division; and DESTRUCTION, to the eye of the spiritual beholder, seems to be written by the finger of an invisible hand, in large capitals,
(page 706) |