We have no confidence in men and theories that have no power except to
scatter, tear down and destroy. The time has come when the brethren
should put their mark upon all this description of men we care not
what their idol may be, who are simply prating, whining, complaining,
and murmuring among loving disciples gathered by the labors and
sacrifices of other men, but who never built up a church, healed a
difficulty, or promoted peace any place in their lives. Nothing is so
ridiculous as for such men to go grumbling round the country, finding
fault with everything, pulling down other men’s labor, and building up
nothing, all the while prating about _progression_ and _reformation_.
Tremendous progress, that miserable prating, whining, and grumbling
that never builds up anything but always pulls down, catches the
sheep and scatters them! Mighty _reformers_ they, who never reformed
anybody since God made them, who never built up a church or gave any
prosperity to the cause, any place, or did anything more than scatter
and devastate! Atheism has done this much, and will do it again. If men
have found any new light worth anything, and are themselves men of any
force, improvement will appear; fruits will follow their labors. But
nothing can be more manifest than that God did not send those men who
only spread desolation, who only pull down, scatter, and kill, we care
not what fine theories they propagate, nor how prettily they may talk.
We want men who will preach the Lord Jesus Christ, who will regard him,
adore him, and obey him, and not a set of self-willed men, who idolize
their own notions, and are determined to have them and propagate them,
if the Lord’s name is forgotten, and the fold scattered asunder. Mercy
and peace upon the Israel of God. Mark them who cause divisions and
contentions.