PERSONAL RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE OF A PHYSICIAN; AND AN APPEAL IN BEHALF OF A
NEW DISPENSATION.
We know that in various ages of the world the Lord has revealed a knowledge
of Himself to man. In the Ten Commandments we have the laws of spiritual
life, in accordance with which we must live if we would enjoy spiritual
health, precisely as we must live in accordance with the laws of natural
life and health, if we would enjoy natural health.
We are dependent upon revelation for a knowledge of the laws of spiritual
health, and of the causes and methods for the cure of spiritual diseases;
but the Lord gives us, if we will keep His sayings, the ability, by careful
scientific study and investigation, to obtain a knowledge of the physical
laws of health, and the causes and methods of curing physical diseases. And
it is wonderful how the natural in all respects symbolizes or corresponds
to the spiritual.
To the Jewish Church the Lord revealed so much knowledge of Himself, and
how they should live if they would be prosperous and happy here and
hereafter, as that Church was prepared to receive; and He also promised to
manifest Himself in person. All Christians believe that He fulfilled His
promise when Jesus Christ appeared on earth; but He did not come in the
manner which the Jews at the time of His advent expected. He came, not as a
temporal ruler or prince; consequently they took Him for an impostor and
crucified Him. To His followers and disciples He promised to come again in
the clouds of heaven; but the clouds of heaven may not be the clouds of the
material earth, any more than the spiritual kingdom which He came to
establish was a natural kingdom; and it is possible that His second coming
may not be in the manner anticipated by the Christian Church at the time of
His second coming. He intimated as much when He inquired if He should find
faith on earth. Should Christians, then, not watch and pray, and heed the
signs of the times, lest they follow the example of the Jews, and reject
Him at His second coming? Should not clergymen, as well as physicians, be
led in freedom according to reason, and not blindly by prominent religious
professors, clergymen and writers, and creeds formulated in an age of
comparative darkness? Should the traditions and creeds of men be allowed to
make of none effect the Word of God? Do we not see all around us signs of a
most wonderful change going on in the world? Are these changes which we
behold from the Lord, or from man?
I was reared in the Baptist Church. My father was a deacon, and labored
faithfully to bring his children into the Church. I was taught that I must
be converted, or get religion, before being baptized or joining the Church.
What was meant by being converted I never fully comprehended, but I
inferred from the instruction I received that it meant a radical change in
one's feelings, the result of faith in the Lord's "atoning blood;" and that
when this change was effected, I should be able to tell an experience
similar to what I had heard others tell before joining the Church, which
sometimes seemed quite marvelous. I attended "protracted meetings" and
"revival meetings." And, one evening, I remember hoping and almost feeling
that I felt a little change, and I even thought of announcing my feelings
in the meeting; but caution prevailed, and I concluded to wait until the
next day and see if there really was any change in my feelings. When the
next day came, I could see no change, and consequently I made no
announcement. Thus, I grew up and continued, until I was over thirty years
of age, outside of the organized Church. I always respected religion, the
Bible, and religious teachers, but I never got converted.
I had many things during childhood and early youth to be thankful for. My
father and grandfather before him were accustomed to gather the family,
night and morning, and read, or have some member of the family read, a
chapter in the Bible, and then prayer was offered. Now, when this is done
regularly, and especially if the Bible is read, in course, with here and
there a few kindly remarks by the father or mother, no one can tell the
good impression which is made on the children; they learn to reverence the
Bible, and, what is of exceeding great moment, they hear it read through
and through several times before they reach manhood, and they become
comparatively familiar with the good and living precepts therein contained.
The Sabbath-school, once a week for an hour or two, is all very well; but,
in my estimation, it is very little, compared with daily family worship and
acknowledging the Lord, and asking a blessing. O, that all Christian men
and women could be aroused to the importance of such religious observances?
Some years ago, I went with my wife and a friend for a summer outing to the
Catskill Mountains, and spent a few days at the Mountain House. There were
a large number of guests there, of the various religious denominations.
Those religiously inclined had established the custom of meeting every
morning around a table, in a large room, when a chapter from the Bible was
read, followed by singing and prayer. There have been few, if any,
incidents of my whole life that I have more frequently thought of, or with
greater pleasure and delight, than of those large, non-sectarian, and, as
it were, family gatherings and simple services.
My mother died, as stated in the first part of this work, when I was ten
years old. After remaining a widower for three years, during which period
my grandparents, who lived with us, died and my only sister was married, my
father married a widow, the mother of several children, a good Christian
woman and a member of the Baptist Church.
I have always been thankful that I had a step-mother. No own mother could
have been more kind, or have exercised a stronger influence for good over a
son than she strove to exercise over me. She entered our home when I was
thirteen years of age, when I needed a mother's influence and care perhaps
as much as at any period of my life after I had ceased to draw my
nourishment from my mother's breasts. Tears come into my eyes as I recall
the pleasant, useful, and happy evenings and Sunday afternoons which I
spent with her, when we happened to be alone in the house, reading and
conversing about the interesting stories in the Bible and other religious
books and papers that she thought would interest me. She may have had
faults, yet I was about to say I do not remember one; but, unfortunately,
she had one--she was a smoker of tobacco. Years before she had been
troubled with "water brash," and a physician who, without much question,
was himself a smoker, advised her to smoke; so she commenced smoking. He
did not tell her to stop smoking as soon as she felt relief, as any
intelligent physician should have done, if he was so unwise as to make such
a prescription; but it is a question whether she ever experienced any
permanent relief; for she was a bright, intelligent woman, and would have
been likely to stop smoking of her own accord if she had been cured. In my
estimation the physician who made the prescription was much more to be
blamed than she was for the habit which followed. But seventy years ago
very little was known as to the fearful slavery and diseases and mortality
which result from the use of tobacco, compared with what is known to-day.
The sin of ignorance cannot be pleaded in extenuation of such habits
to-day, as it could then.
As to intoxicating drinks, I remember hearing my grandfather, when he was
over eighty years old, after taking a drink of cider-brandy, exclaim: "A
good gift of God, if taken with faith and prayer."
Fortunately, or providentially, I would say, the temperance reformation
commenced soon after, and my father and other prominent members and the
clergymen of the Baptist and Congregational churches in our town took an
active part in the new movement. My father signed the pledge not to drink
intoxicating drinks, and I followed his example; and I thank the Lord that
I did so, for it gave me the strength and courage to say, "No, I thank you,
I never drink," when invited and tempted to drink intoxicating drinks. No
intoxicating drinks have been publicly sold in that town (Ashfield, Mass.)
for many years. During a recent visit there I found that, within the past
three years, there have been 61 deaths in the town, of whom 15 only were
under 50 years of age, whereas 20 were over 80 years, of whom 4 were over
90 years of age. What do you think of that, Christian brother?
I remember very well the first ideas I had of God when a boy, which I
derived from the preaching and praying of ministers. It was that God and
our Lord Jesus Christ were two distinct Beings. We had for a time a
venerable gray-headed old man who preached one Sabbath, and a young man who
preached the next. I thought the old man represented God the Father and the
young man represented Jesus Christ.
When I arrived at manhood and came in contact with men of different
religious views, and read some of their writings, the doctrine of the
Trinity became more and more a mystery to me. At one time I was slightly
inclined to Unitarianism, but I could not reconcile their doctrines with
the Bible. Yet the Trinitarians seemed to teach distinctly that there are
either two Gods, possessing different attributes, or that Jesus Christ was
not God. It does not make any difference what we say with our lips; the
question is, What do we "think in our hearts"? When I heard a bishop of one
of the prevailing denominations stand up in his pulpit, as I have, and
represent Jesus Christ as standing with one hand upon the throne of
Jehovah, and the other hand resting upon the sinner's head, pleading with
the Father to forgive him for his (Christ's) sake, was there not in the
mind of that bishop a distinct idea of two Beings, possessing different
feelings and passions? Now, were both of them Gods, or was one of them not
God? And when I heard prayers so frequently terminated by the phrase,
"Forgive us for Christ's sake," the question naturally arose, to whom were
such prayers addressed? If there are any intelligent rational ideas
connected with the phrase in the mind of the one using it, has not his
prayer unquestionably been addressed to some God outside of the Lord Jesus
Christ? Who is that God? Can Christian men safely reject the express
teaching of our Lord Himself when on earth, when He declared: "I and my
Father are One;" "Whose hath seen me, hath seen the Father"? and the
apostle's teaching, that "God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto
Himself"? Is there any other way to the Father at this day except through
the person of the Lord Jesus Christ--God manifest in the flesh? Is He not
the "Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last"?
Why, then, pray to an unknown God? In the Old Testament, we are told that
"I, Jehovah, am your Savior, and beside me there is no Savior," and in the
New Testament we are told that in Jesus Christ dwelt all the fullness of
the Godhead bodily. He is "Immanuel--God with us." Let us, then, worship
Him--One God in One Divine Person.
The doctrine of election and predestination early troubled me. I could not
reconcile it with the loving kindness which the Sacred Scriptures proclaim
as characteristic of our Heavenly Father.
The doctrine of justification by faith alone, "without the deeds of the
law," as the old hymn read, was not a doctrine which appealed to my reason,
but it was a very consoling doctrine. Every young man who has been
carefully reared by religious parents, and under the influences of a
church, expects to be converted and get religion some time before he dies,
and to join a church. But if he enjoys good health and the prospect of
living for many years, especially if he is taught that, by merely believing
or having faith at any time in the "atoning blood of Christ," he can escape
the consequences of his evil deeds, there is great danger of
procrastination.
A clergyman once said to me: "If a man repents and gets converted one hour
before his death, the worse he has been or lived, the happier he will be."
It seems to me better to be guided by the Word of the Lord, and to believe
that the evil doer shall not go unpunished. The Lord came into the world to
save men from sin and from the penalty only so far as they co-operate with
Him. Sin is the cause, the penalty is the effect; and effect follows cause
as a normal and necessary consequence.
The young, as well as the old, should be taught the great truth, that every
thought we harbor, and every word we speak, and every act we do, aid in
building up our spiritual organism, and will tell on our eternal destiny,
just as the natural food and drink we use, and the exercise we take, will
tell on the future health of our material bodies, for good or evil; and
there is no avoiding it. If a man or woman, young or old, would be right in
the future, he must do right in the present. No one should forget that,
even if we reach heaven, the mansion which we will occupy there will depend
on our lives here--every one will unite with those like Himself. No one can
tell the immense harm which has been done to our race, by teaching that
either by faith alone, or through the influence or efforts of the clergy,
men can be saved from the penalties or consequences which are sure to
follow an evil life. The "willing and obedient" shall eat the good of the
land. Our blessed Lord tells us: "If ye keep my commandments, ye shall
abide in my love" (John xv: 10). Thus beautiful, symmetrical, spiritual
organisms are built up, not by "sowing wild oats" during youth, and
disobeying the divine commandments during the subsequent period of life. It
is well for all, young or old, to remember the Word: "Be not deceived; God
is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." (Gal.
vi: 7.) At this day we need practical doctrines, which shall unite religion
and life, or faith and charity, and such alone will command the respect of
non-churchgoers.
While a young man my attention was early called to the doctrines of the
Universalists, but their doctrines did not seem to me to accord with the
Sacred Scriptures; nor did I think that all men could be equally happy
hereafter, when there is such a vast difference in their conduct and lives
here. Genuine happiness is the result of right willing and doing; in other
words, of keeping the commandments. I have no doubt but the Lord desires
that all men should thus live and be happy; but we know that all men are
not willing. Having created them free agents, God does not compel them here
to love the Lord and their neighbor, which loves manifestly constitute
heaven; what reason, then, have we to think He will compel them to do it
hereafter? If a man deliberately leads an evil life here, growing ever
stronger and more confirmed in that life, until he has made evil his good
and rejoices in it, what reason have we to suppose or assume that he will
change when he enters the next life? I am willing to leave him in the hands
of the Lord--he has passed from my sight. I well remember the remarks of my
grandmother when she was eighty-six years of age, a few days after the
death of her husband, my grandfather. She said: "I do not fear to die, for
I feel that God will do me no injustice." Within a few days she departed in
peace.
The Millerite excitement commenced when I was a young man. When I was about
twenty years old I was traveling in central Massachusetts. One night there
was a meeting of Millerites in the neighborhood where I was stopping, and I
attended the meeting. The speaker was very zealous and earnest in his
remarks. There was a comet with quite a long tail then visible, and he
seemed to think that that comet, with its tail, might sweep across the
track of our earth and work its destruction, which he anticipated. I
remember very well my reflections on leaving that meeting. A few days
before I had stood upon the side of a hill near the track, and had seen for
the first time a railroad train on its way from Boston to Worcester. I said
to myself: "Now we have railroads, steamboats, friction matches, temperance
societies, Sunday-schools, the Bible translated into various languages,
which but a few years ago were unknown. This great continent, from being a
wilderness, inhabited by a comparatively few wild Indians, has been
discovered and is being developed and cultivated by civilized and Christian
people, and gradually being made capable of containing and sustaining
hundreds of millions of inhabitants." With all these facts before me, I
said to myself, "It looks a great deal more as though the world is just
beginning to live; in fact, that a new era is dawning, than it does that
the world is going to be destroyed." From that night the Millerite doctrine
never troubled me any more, for I felt that I beheld, in all the wonderful
inventions being made and changes going on in the world, the dawning light
of a better day for the inhabitants of our earth.