HERALD
OF THE
KINGDOM AND AGE TO COME.
RICHMOND, VA., MAY, 1851.
THE EDITOR AT FREE UNION.
According to appointment we visited Albemarle again during the past month. We arrived in Charlottesville on Wednesday the 16th, and on the next day were joined by Mr. Albert Anderson from Caroline. On Thursday evening arrived a conveyance from the mountain region sent by our friends there to carry us up to Free Union, about twelve miles from Charlottesville, where we were to meet the people on the four succeeding days, and lay before them the things concerning the Kingdom and the name of Jesus Christ. We departed from Charlottesville on Friday morning between seven and eight. The scenery is bold and interesting, but without attraction to him whose fate it happens to be to drive a dull horse amid rocks, and roads hub-deep in stiff, tenacious clay. Quite a soul-tranquillising preparation for a discourse on the Mysteries of the Kingdom, the fording of rivers whose waters flow into your carriage, and the toiling along the torrent-washed gullies called roads in the Old Dominion! Four hours and a half of this kind of pastime brought us to Free Union, a meeting house standing on the same rocky knoll as when we visited it three years, or so, before, where we found two persons awaiting our arrival. Could anything be more encouraging! We had come ninety-two miles from Richmond to enlighten the mountaineers of Virginia in the Gospel of the Kingdom, and after a previous notice of several weeks two individuals, a brother and his wife, had come four miles with open ears to listen to the truth. These made a totality of five persons in a cold brick house large enough to seat three hundred or more. Could any thing, we say, be more animating! What an audience to develop a flow of soul! Not even as many as listened to Noah when the flood came and swept the world away. We concluded, however, not to despair; but to wait a little longer and see if our number would be increased. It was wonderful! Nine persons besides ourselves from Charlottesville managed to get together at last. Energetic men, what would have been our “big meeting” on its first day, if you must have needs gone to see your piece of new ground, or to prove your yokes of oxen, or had yoked yourselves to wives upon that day! Are ye sure that your lands will yield their increase, and that your oxen will draw for the rest of their days, seeing that ye neglected to view and prove them for the two mortal hours ye were listening to our interpretation of the word? We trust that no such calamity may overtake you, and that you may not fall behind your more earth-moving neighbours in all necessary things, but that you may plough and sow in hope of that increase which comes from God, and yields a hundred fold with life eternal. —Matthew 19: 27-30.
Fatigued and dispirited we proceeded to the reading of the scriptures, uncertain whether we should do more than dismiss our company in hope of a more energizing state of things upon the morrow. Not to be able to speak, from whatever cause, is equivalent to having nothing to say. This was our feeling—a what’s-the-use sort of feeling. We hoped that bro. Anderson did not share with us in this depression; therefore, we thought we would just read, and making a few comments on the reading, invite him to take the stand. It is liking climbing Ben Lomond to speak to the people of this generation even under the most favorable circumstances of the times; for their heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing; how much more laborious and unpromising is the work to reason out of the scriptures in presence of empty benches, with only here and there a living creature soporifically sitting before your words. We find it difficult to begin, and sometimes, as in the instance before us, as difficult to leave off. We thought it might not be so with Mr. A., we therefore went forward mechanically, being consoled with the idea that if we could not overcome our inability, we could fall back upon him, and he would meet the emergency. But, though this feeling will invade the mind, it must be resisted and subdued. We do not know whether the number of saved is completed—whether the 144,000 is made up. If the kingdom and empire of our Lord demand this symbolical number of righteous men for the administration of its affairs, they must be angled for. It may be that two only are wanted to complete the number; and how can we tell if the two are to be found in an audience of six thousand, or of nine persons? We ought therefore to go to work with as good a heart in reasoning with the few as with the many; for after all, the many are only called; it is the few who are chosen. Many years ago we heard a lecture in a room of the Royal Exchange, to a congregation of two persons, on Natural Philosophy. This was at noon in the heart of the city of London, the commercial metropolis of the world; and we were one of the two. Yet the reverend gentleman went through the performance with indefatigable perseverance; and would doubtless have read to the bare walls had we not stepped in to hear him. We have never had so small an audience as this yet. But if we had, why should we not speak to two as well as he? The reward for turning men to righteousness is greater than the income to the reader of Gresham Lectures at the Royal Exchange. He read as a matter of form to make sure of Sir Thomas Gresham’s benefaction; but “they that turn many to righteousness shall shine as the stars for ever and ever.”—Daniel 12: 3; Matthew 13: 43. If we keep this before us the spirit will be willing, though the flesh be weak.
In reading the third chapter of the Acts the things of the Kingdom began to come in upon our mind with a stimulating effect. The name of Jesus as a strong tower into which the righteous run, and are safe; the restitution of all things spoken of by all the prophets; and the covenant made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, threw the empty benches and the few hearers into the shade. We talked of some of the things suggested by these important topics, and, for two hours, conversationally beguiled the time to the edification of our friends, as we were glad to hear. Thus the end was better than the beginning, and became the earnest of better things to come.
After the discouragement of the day before, Saturday was quite propitious. Mr. Magruder joined us from Charlottesville, and several persons of standing and intelligence came out to hear. They listened with all attention to a discourse setting forth the restoration of the kingdom again to Israel—Acts 1: 6, in which restoration all nations shall be blessed, as the subject-matter of the gospel preached by Jesus, and by the apostles after his resurrection in his name. The meeting on Lord’s Day was numerously attended. Indeed too much so; for there appeared to be several who came merely for the fashion of the thing, supposing, it is probable, that we were holding a meeting on clerical principles. This, however, is a mistake. We hold none such. We call the people together to lay “the testimony of God” before them, and to reason with them concerning it. It is reasonable beings whom we invite to meet us. Men and women capable of thinking about something else than millinery and dry goods, crops and cattle, or fashions and the daughters of men, though they may be fair. These are the persons we wish to see. Sectarian gatherings will do for persons of a different stamp. Should they, however, mingle with their superiors they should study to be quiet, and to respect the customs of good society, which demand that the youth of both classes should not use their liberty to the annoyance of others; but be silent and not whisperers, and trampers to the disturbance of those who wish to hear. We wish mankind would devote themselves more than they do to the decorum and decency of civilized life. But too generally they are a swinish race, and incapable of a just estimation of the holy pearls of gospel truth.
On Monday we had a better congregation, though not so numerous. It was composed of people who evidently came to listen to what they heard with a view to understand it. We spoke on the Gospel of the Kingdom being the power of God to the salvation of those who believed it. Mr. Anderson dispensed the loaf in the morning, and addressed them on Sunday afternoon about an hour, so that in the four days we occupied ourselves for nine or ten hours in endeavouring to enlighten the public in the long forgotten gospel which God promised in the holy scriptures of the prophets; but with what success we may never know until the Lord appears in his kingdom. We are but sowers of the seed; we can neither make it grow, nor see it grow. It is God that gives the increase. A crop “was made” by some preachers a few years ago, and harvested at Free Union. The people round about call them “Campbellites,” but like all crops made and harvested by men, it suffered waste. They looked for much, and lo, it came to little; and when they brought it home God did blow upon it, and it died. Of thirty or more, some have left “the kingdom” and taken refuge among the Baptists; others have made a shipwreck of faith entirely; and the few that remain are they only who profess to believe the things we teach. Let these remember that the crown of life is a crown of righteousness, and promised to those only who perfect their belief of the truth by the works which follow. —James 2: 20-22.
An appointment was out for a discourse at Charlottesville also on Monday night. Mr. Magruder is indefatigable in cutting out work for his brethren. We wish all our friends were as energetic and devoted as he. He is not only unwearied in heaping work upon others, but he is ready also to lend a hand himself; so that he is a most agreeable fellow-laborer. He does not sit himself down at ease under his own vine and figtree evading the burden and heat of the day, and bestowing only good wishes on the truth. He has assured himself that what we are advocating is the truth, and holds himself responsible to it, and the Lord of the truth for his conduct respecting it. He dare not wrap it up in a napkin and make no effort for its extension. He does what he can himself, and helps others to do more according to his ability. If darkness cover the land, and gross darkness the people in Charlottesville, it will be no fault of his. Would to God that all who profess to believe elsewhere would do likewise; there would then be cooperation indeed, and some present encouragement in the defence and propagation of the truth.
In regard to Monday night, however, we thought we had worked enough for that day to entitle us to rest from our labors till the morrow. We had ridden sixteen miles on horseback over mountain roads, and spoken two hours and a half at Free Union, so that we felt no scruples of conscience in relieving ourselves at the expense of bro. Anderson. Ever ready to help in time of need, he did not decline the by no means agreeable task of filling the appointment of another. We adjourned at the time fixed to the Lyceum Hall, where an extraordinary, if not a discerning, few, had congregated to hear the editor. Happily Mr. Anderson was unacquainted with their individualities, so that he was enabled not only to begin, but to persevere to the end of an hour’s discourse without dismay. He hewed his way through with as much courage and earnestness as though the room had been full of the town’s elite. He did his part well; and we congratulated ourselves that we had found so efficient a substitute. But we were not always so favored. On Tuesday evening we had a respectable company; but on Thursday night a few drops of rain fell from the clouds, which as effectually kept the people at home as if it had rained snares, fire, and brimstone. We went to the Hall, but the aspect of things sunk our spirits to zero, and congealed our souls within us for the night. We regretted the unpropitiousness of the weather, hoped it would fair off by the morrow, and dismissed the assembled few until Friday night. Friday came, and the night also, and with it an improved condition of affairs. But O the times, the times in which we live! In the towns and cities of this land the people seem to have no ear for “the testimony of God.” Some will come together and hear with great attention; express themselves in terms of satisfaction and even of delight. But the word has no abiding place in their hearts. It is like a tale that is told—it is heard with pleasure, but speedily forgot. The following notice appeared in the Jeffersonian on Thursday, but though commendatory it was insufficient to neutralize the apprehension of rain.
“Dr. Thomas, from Richmond, has been delivering a series of Lectures in the Lyceum Hall in this place during the last week, and will continue them at the same place tonight and tomorrow night. Dr. T. is an intelligent gentleman, and the subjects of his lectures are novel and interesting. The Dr., we believe, undertakes to prove from the Divine Record, that a Republican Government can never exist in Europe. We hope time will show that he is mistaken, but we shall not enter the lists of controversy with so distinguished a champion as Dr. T., who has devoted a large portion of his life in studying the Scriptures with reference to this and other similar subjects.”
Yes, we feel strong in testimony and argument upon this topic. Republican Government in Europe and America is an exceptional state of things in the universe of God. It is particularly so in modern Europe. France at the present time is only in a transition state. Even now she is no longer the republic of the revolution. That was Democratic and social, and the sister republic of the Roman. But both these have passed away, eclipsed and extinguished by the republican imperiality of Napoleon. His chair is but a meteor in the heavens, whose constitution is monarchical by divine appointment. Great events are at hand to change the face of the world. The days of the independence of the European kingdoms are numbered; for their vassalage to the Autocrat is fast approaching. Imperial despotism, and not republican liberty, equality, and fraternity, awaits them all: and serfs to Russia will their kings remain (Britain of all the Roman World excepted) until Christ the Woman’s Seed, shall bruise its Autocrat under his feet, and subjugate the fragments of his dominion to his own will. A divine monarchy, not a democratic republic, will be the order of things in Europe. A Jewish kingdom, styled the Kingdom of God, will rule over all the heavens, then become the kingdoms of Jehovah and of his Christ. Surely our courteous and patriotic friend of the Jeffersonian would prefer this to the establishment there even of a facsimile of our Model Republic itself. A monarchy under a king from heaven is the best government for the world. And such mankind is destined to receive.
