Is it not possible to rescue the people from the pernicious and
blinding influences of speculative theories and theorists, and induce
them to receive the simple faith of Christ, become his disciples, love
him and serve him? Have the leaders of the people, in these times, as
they did in the days of the Lord’s pilgrimage on earth, stolen away
the key of knowledge, and fastened them down with such an impenetrable
spell of thick darkness that they are unwilling to be rescued from
this servile slavery to human speculation to the rejection of the sun
of righteousness? Or is the world so lost, the mind of the people so
bewitched, the delusions around us so enchanting, that it is impossible
to attract the attention of the people, arrest their affections or
impress their hearts, by the love of God to man, by the sufferings of
Christ, by all the divine sanctions of the blood of the everlasting
covenant, by the glories of heaven, or the terrors of hell, to turn to
the Lord and follow him who loved us and gave himself for us? Is the
public mind so distracted, and are the people so confused and lost to
all that God has said and done, that they can not be induced to love
Christ better than all human theories, regard him and feel the force of
all his love to our lost and ruined world? Are the people so set upon
gnawing the bone of contention, keeping up sectarian feuds; disputing
upon the lifeless, soulless and profitless controversies thrust upon
them, that they will neither hear the Lord nor be interested in the
word of his grace? Must the public mind be wholly occupied with the
useless distinctions between the views of men, the useless comparisons
of doctrines and commandments of men, the comparative merits of
different human systems, and an eternal train of customs unknown to
the primitive church, thus bewildering the people and blinding their
minds that they may neither see the Lord nor regard his authority? Is
it impossible to bring the authority of the Almighty again to bear upon
the world, to lift up the Lord before the people, that he may draw
all men unto him, convert them to the Lord and place them under him?
Is it impossible to rescue the people from the blinding influences of
these times—from being merely followers of men, and believing human
theories, which have no power to save, in the place of believing
the great truth, that Christ died for our sins, according to the
Scriptures—that he was buried, and that he rose from the dead? Is it
impossible to interest the public mind with the things of God—with the
revelation from God to man, with the religion of Christ itself? Is the
love of God gone from the world? Has the Holy Spirit of God abandoned
the church? Is the human race mad, insane and ruined, so that all
pleadings and entreaties to turn to God must fail? Must the holy
religion of Christ be set aside for the silly disputes of these times?
Shall that holy religion that saved such vast multitudes in the days
of the apostles, fired the hearts of the missionaries of the cross and
supported the holy martyrs in passing through all the cruel scourgings,
tortures and privations for the name of the Lord, be contemned,
despised and rejected by the people of our day? O, that God would
enable us to _arouse_ the people of this generation from the awful
stupor and deep slumbers of carnal security to prepare to meet God!