Final Appeal

We call, we invite you again, by every consideration in these premises. You that are near, associate with us; you that are at too great a distance, associate as we have done—Let not the paucity of your number in any given district, prove an insuperable discouragement. Remember him that has said, “if two of you shall agree onearth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my father which is in heaven: for where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” With such a promise as this for the attainment of every possible and promised good, there is no room for discouragement. Come on, then, “ye that fear the Lord keep not silence, and give him no rest till he make Jerusalem a joy and a praise in the earth.” Put on that noble resolution dictated by the prophet, saying, “for Zion’s sake will we not hold our peace, and for Jerusalem’s sake we will not rest until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness, and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth.”— Thus impressed, ye will find means to associate at such convenient distances, as to meet, at least, once a month, to beseech the Lord to put an end to our lamentable divisions; to heal and unite his people, that his church may resume her original constitutional unity and purity, and thus be exalted to the enjoyment of her promised prosperity, that the Jews may be speedily converted, and the fullness of the Gentiles brought in. Thus associated, you will be in a capacity to investigate the evil causes of our sad divisions; to consider and bewail their pernicious effects; and to mourn over them before the Lord, who hath said, “I will go and return to my place, till they acknowledge their offense and seek my face.” Alas! then, what reasonable prospect can we have of being delivered from those sad calamities, which have so long afflicted the church of God; while a party spirit, instead of bewailing, is every where justifying, the bitter principle of these pernicious evils; by insisting upon the right of rejecting those, however unexceptionable in other respects, who cannot see with them in matters of private opinion, of human inference, that are no where expressly revealed or enjoined in the word of God. Thus associated, will the friends of peace, the advocates for Christian unity, be in a capacity to connect in large circles, where several of those smaller societies may meet semi-annually at a convenient center, and thus avail themselves of their combined exertions for promoting the interests of the common cause. We hope that many of the Lord’s ministers in all places will volunteer in this service, forasmuch as they know, it is his favorite work, the very desire of his soul.

Ye lovers of Jesus, and beloved of him, however scattered in this cloudy and dark day, ye love the truth as it is in Jesus, (if our hearts deceive us not) so do we. Ye desire union in Christ, with all them that love him; so do we. Ye lament and bewail our sad divisions; so do we. Ye reject the doctrines and commandments of men that ye may keep the law of Christ; so do we. Ye believe the alone sufficiency of his word; so do we. Ye believe that the word itself ought to be our rule and not any human explication of it; so do we. Ye believe that no man has a right to judge, to exclude, or reject, his professing Christian brother; except in so far as he stands condemned, or rejected, by the express letter of the law: so do we. Ye believe that the great fundamental law of unity and love ought not to be violated to make way for exalting human opinions to an equality with express revelation, by making them articles of faith and, terms of communion—so do we. Ye sincere and impartial followers of Jesus, friends of truth and peace, we dare not, we cannot, think otherwise of you; it would be doing violence to your character; it would be inconsistent with your prayers and profession, so to do. We shall therefore have your hearty concurrence. But if any of our dear brethren, from whom we should expect better things, should through weakness or prejudice, be in any thing otherwise minded, than we have ventured to suppose, we charitably hope, that, in due time, God will reveal even this unto them: Only let such neither refuse to come to the light; nor yet through prejudice, reject it, when it shines upon them, Let them rather seriously consider what we have thus most seriously and respectfully submitted to their consideration, weigh every sentiment in the balance of the sanctuary, as in the sight of God, with earnest prayer for, and humble reliance upon his spirit; and not in the spirit of self-sufficiency and party zeal, and, in so doing, we rest assured, the consequence will be happy, both for their own, and the church’s peace. Let none imagine, that in so saying, we arrogate to ourselves a degree of intelligence superior to our brethren, much less superior to mistake—so far from this, our confidence is entirely founded upon the express scripture and matter of fact evidence, of the things referred to; which may nevertheless, through inattention, or prejudice, fail to produce their proper effect; as has been the case, with respect to some of the most evident truths, in a thousand instances. But charity thinketh no evil: and we are far from surmising, though we must speak, To warn even against possible evils, is certainly no breach of charity, as to be confident of the certainty of some things, is no just argument of presumption. We by no means claim the approbation of our brethren, as to anything we have suggested for promoting the sacred cause of Christian unity; farther than it carries its own evidence along with it: but we humbly claim a fair investigation of the subject; and solicit the assistance of our brethren for carrying into effect what we have thus weakly attempted. It is our consolation, in the mean time, that the desired event, as certain as it will be happy and glorious, admits of no dispute; however we may hesitate, or differ, about the proper means, of promoting it. All we shall venture to say as to this, is that we trust we have taken the proper ground, at least, if we have not, we despair of finding it elsewhere. For if holding fast in profession and practice whatever is expressly revealed and enjoined in the divine standard does not under the promised influence of the divine spirit, prove an adequate basis for promoting and maintaining unity, peace and purity, we utterly despair of attaining those invaluable privileges, by adopting the standard of any party. To advocate the cause of unity while espousing the interests of a party would appear as absurd, as for this country to take part with either of the belligerents in the present awful struggle, which has convulsed and is convulsing the nations, in order to maintain her neutrality and secure her peace. Nay, it would be adopting the very means, by which the bewildered church has, for hundreds of years past, been rending and dividing herself into fractions; for Christ’s sake and for the truth’s sake; though the first and foundation truth of our christianity is union with him, and the very next to it in order, union with each other in him—“that we receive each other, as Christ has also received us: to the glory of God.” “For this is his commandment that we believe in his son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment. And he that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him, and he in him, and hereby we know that he dwelleth in us, by the spirit which he hath given us”, even the spirit of faith, and of love, and of a sound mind. And surely this should suffice us. But how to love, and receive our brother; as we believe and hope Christ has received both him and us, and yet refuse to hold communion with him, is we confess, a mystery too deep for us. If this be the way that Christ hath received us, then woe is unto us, We do not here intend a professed brother trangressing the expressed letter of the law, and refusing to be reclaimed. Whatever may be our charity in such a case, we have not sufficient evidence that Christ hath received him, or that he hath received Christ as his teacher and Lord. To adopt means, then, apparently subversive of the very end proposed, means which the experience of ages has evinced successful only in overthrowing the visible interests of Christianity; in counteracting, as far as possible, the declared intention, the expressed command of its Divine Author; would appear in no wise a prudent measure for removing and preventing those evils. To maintain unity and purity has always been the plausible pretense of the compilers and abettors of human systems; and we believe in many instances their sincere intention: but have they at all answered the end? Confessedly, demonstrably, they have not, no, not even in the several parties which have most strictly adopted them, much less to the catholic professing body. Instead of her catholic constitutional unity and purity, what does the church present us with, at this day, but a catalog of sects and sectarian systems; each binding its respective party by the most sacred and solemn engagements, to continue as it is to the end of the world; at least this is confessedly the case with many of them. What a sorry substitute these, for Christian unity and love. On the other hand, what a mercy is it, that no human obligation that man can come under is valid against the truth. When the Lord the healer, descends upon his people, to give them a discovery of the nature and tendency of those artificial bonds, wherewith they have suffered themselves to be bound, in their dark and sleepy condition: they will no more be able to hold them in a state of sectarian bondage; than the withs and cords with which the Philistines bound Sampson were able to retain him their prisoner; or, than the bonds of anti-christ were, to hold in captivity the fathers of the reformation. May the Lord soon open the eyes of his people to see these things in their true light; and excite them to come up out of their wilderness condition, out of this Babel of confusion, leaning upon their beloved, and embracing each other in him; holding fast the unity of the spirit in the bonds of peace. This gracious unity and unanimity in Jesus would afford the best external evidence of their union with him; and of their conjoint interest in the Father’s love. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, saith he, if ye have love one to another. And “this is my commandment that ye love one another as I have loved you; that ye also love one another.” And again, “Holy Father, keep through thine own name, those whom thou hast given me that they may be one as we are,” even “all that shall believe in me—that they all may be one; as thou Father art in me and I in thee, that they also may be one in us; that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou gavest me; I have given them, that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in me; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.” May the Lord hasten it in his time. Farewell.

Peace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity. Amen.

THOS. CAMPBELL, Secretary.

THOS. ACHESON, Treasurer.