Our heart is enlarged and our spirit is stirred within us, when we look
at the great opening before us. The Lord has not raised us up, put into
our hands such immense power, and made us such a great people, without
an object. He has a great work for the Reformers of the nineteenth
century. We, as a people, are set for the defence of the gospel. We
occupy the only ground upon which man can stand and successfully do
battle with unbelievers, with schismatics of every sort, and maintain
the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. We are the only people
who occupy the proper ground for the evangelization and salvation of
the world. We have cut ourselves loose from every thing but Christ.
We present him to the world and defend him, both in his divinity and
humanity, as the ineffably glorious person in whom dwells the fullness
of the Godhead bodily. We believe in him, in all he ever said or did,
in his religion, beginning, middle and ending, and nothing else. We
will defend him and all he ever said and did. We will defend his word,
his doctrine, the whole of it. Our work is not to defend our views, our
doctrines, or ourselves, but to defend our Master and his doctrine. Our
work is pre-eminently the following:
_First._ To convert the world to Christ, put men under him as their
Leader, Savior and everlasting trust, to follow him for evermore.
_Second._ To collect from Babylon—spiritual Babylon—the wandering,
bewildered and confused children of God, bring them back to their one
shepherd, one fold, and unite them in one body under Christ, their only
living head, that their name may be one, that they may be one, as he
and his Father are one.
_Third._ To defend the faith once delivered to the saints, maintain it
and spread it throughout the world.
_Fourth._ To inculcate piety, humanity, works of righteousness—in one
word, implicit submission to Jesus the Lord in all things.
This is our work, and this, the Lord being our helper, _we will do_.
We are pledged to Jesus, the Christ, to do this, for his glory and
our good, and, by the grace of God, we will do it. We are not our
own; we are the Lord’s. The work we are in is not our own; it is the
Lord’s. The Lord our Righteousness is our King. It is his will—his
bidding that we do this work. _He has commanded and the work must be
done._ Brethren, see to it that the armor is in order, that it is on,
properly adjusted, and every man at his post. Keep your eyes upon our
Commander-in-Chief. Whatever he requires do it. No matter where he
calls you to go, go at his bidding. He will bring us off conquerors,
and more than conquerors. Go not in your own strength, nor in your own
name, and rely not upon your own wisdom. Go in the strength, in the
name and wisdom of the Lord. “O, Lord of hosts, blessed is the man that
trusteth in thee!”