We are for the kingdom of God, and for all that pertains to it, but not
for the _kingdom of the clergy_, either as manifested in the Papacy
or among Protestants; nor are we enlisted to get up a _new kingdom of
clergy_. We will never give our influence to establish any new kingdom
of clergy, or recognize any old one. The people of God are _free_. They
do not belong to the clergy. The congregations of the Lord are free,
and not to be manacled down into human confederations and their great
work ended in an insignificant sect. The day we agree to be banded
together into some kind of general confederation of congregations,
under a conference, convention, or we care not what you call it, we
become an insignificant sect, a denomination, a christian sect, and
will be nothing more forever. _Ichabod_ will be written on us. But that
day _will never come_. Mark that. We hope that none among us will ever
make the experiment, but if they do, they will simply land in faction,
to dwindle away and die.
But, we have come to a crisis, and, it is predicted, we will soon come
to nothing if we do not do something. We intend to _do something_ and
are _doing something_, but not forming ecclesiastical confederations
to bind burdens on the necks of the people, nor scheming to get
_clerical power_. We have come to no crisis. The few scheming men that
have so fully demonstrated their aim, have come to a _crisis_ and to
a _complete defeat_. But that will not produce any perceptible jar in
the movements of the hosts of Israel. That is a mere circumstance. The
Lord’s hosts are in motion and the work is going on. Why stand with a
human figment in view, when we have stupendous matters of fact before
our eyes? Look into the columns of our publications and see the reports
that come up every week from the Atlantic to the Pacific Oceans, and
from the North of the Dominion of Canada to the Gulf of Mexico, and
tell us what of the crisis? The men in the field at work have come to
no crisis and to no panic. The Lord of hosts is with them, and they are
not to be turned aside from their work.
Read the accounts of churches established every week, the houses for
worship built, the preachers coming over from the ranks of Babylon, as
well as private members, and the vast acquisition to their numbers from
the world, and then tell us what of the crisis! Go into the field and
_go to work_, every man, in faith and hope and love, and win souls to
Christ, and the Lord of hosts will be with you, and good brethren will
come up to the help of the Lord and support you. But if we continue
the schemes that are now confessedly _failures_, or devise new ones,
we will dry up the fountains of liberality till we can do nothing. The
children of God will give money to convert and _save sinners_, but they
will not give money to _build up a hierarchy_.