The Primitive Church and the Perennial Revival
The Minneapolis Journal once published a somewhat startling report from the pen of a St. Paul assayist, who affirmed concerning the quality of some sand sent to him from Steel, N. Dak., that he found gold in it to the extent of $12,400 per ton. That assay purported to have come from a well-boring less than a mile south of the court-house at Steel. The gold-bearing stratum was announced as found at a depth of one hundred and eight feet, underlying a stratum of white pebbles, indicating that it was a deposit of an ancient creek bed. The newspaper article declared that a number of lots had been bought up in that vicinity, and there were those who trusted that they had secured for themselves a fortune by the purchase of a few feet of land. The article concluded thus: “The very richness of the assay inclines a good many to be skeptical as to whether the whole transaction is straight.” Well may men be skeptical concerning such a report. Mining projects and miners’ publications have despoiled not a few speculators.
And yet when a true find is made great fortunes are the easy result, and the men who, by a better scientific knowledge, stake out the best claims come away increased in goods. No pen or tongue can ever do justice to the mine of truth in God’s word! One of the richest pockets in all its wide extent exists in the second chapter of the book of Acts, the chapter that records the beginning of the primitive church. He would be a poor prospector indeed who could not stake out almost anywhere in its texts plats of truths covering a spiritual fortune of the first order. Take, for instance, the last seven verses; one finds them full of suggestions concerning the subject of this discourse — “ The Primitive Church and the Perennial Revival.” “They then that received his word were baptized: and there were added unto them in that day about three thousand souls. And they continued stedfastly in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread and the prayers. And fear came upon every soul: and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles. And all that believed were together, and had all things common; and they sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all, according as any man had need. And day by day, continuing stedfastly with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread at home, they took their food with gladness and singleness of heart, praising God, and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to them day by day those that were saved.” (A. R. V.)
Knowing the inexhaustible resources of this Scripture, we shall attempt to appropriate at this time only so much of it as pertains to our subject.
The Organization Was Divinely Ordained
Going back to the forty-first verse we discover the very beginning of that body which has been called “the church.” “Then they that received his word were baptized, and the same day there were added together (as the Greek reads) about three thousand souls.” That was the first organized body of baptized believers. The literal translation, “added together,” brings out the fact of organization.
The church, then, was Christ’s organisation.
In the preaching of his gospel, the selection of his apostles, the winning of his first disciples, and the gift of the Holy Spirit, he had laid the whole foundation for this very institution. And when he died on the cross it was that this institution might be perfected. Hence Paul writes to the Ephesians: “Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.” And of the same Christ the apostle wrote again: “He gave some to be apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints, unto the work of the ministering, unto the building up of the body of Christ.” In his Epistle to the Colossians he added: “And he is the head of the body, the church.”
These are days in which the churches are being much criticized; but men do well to distinguish between the churches of Christ’s ideal and the local organizations that may now wear his name. The latter are full of faults; many of them misrepresent their Lord; and yet the great underlying thought of the church is Christ’s thought. The critic of Christ’s church decries the Christ himself. The man or woman who says, “I see no need of associating myself with a church,” exhibits a poor appreciation of the institution of which Paul expressly says, “Christ gave himself,” the institution which he purchased by his own blood, planted in the earth by his own pierced hands, and loves to-day with all the wealth of his infinite heart! The very relation which Christ sustained to the apostles and disciples who made up this old First Church at Jerusalem makes it a sample for all successors.
His Spirit determined its fraternity.
“The Lord added to the church day by day those that were saved.” It must have seemed to the inhabitants of Jerusalem a novel thing — this organization of a fraternity that was no respecter of persons. The strangest sight that had ever greeted their eyes was that of a learned and honored scribe and a healed leper — the social outcast — striking hands; that of Joseph of Arimathea, the rich man, and John, the poverty-stricken fisherman, joining in intimate fellowship; that of Nicodemus, the scholar, and Peter, the unlearned, finding each for the other fraternity. They could scarce understand it all. And in truth there is but one explanation. John Watson, in “The Mind of the Master,” discloses that explanation: “Jesus realized that the tie which binds men together in life is not forged in the intellect, but in the heart... He believed it possible to bind men to their fellows on the one condition that they were first bound fast to him; he made himself the center of eleven men, each an independent unit; he sent through their hearts the electric flash of his love and they became one. It was an experiment on a small scale. It proved a principle that has no limits. Unity is possible wherever the current of love runs from Christ’s heart, through human hearts, and back to Christ again.”
In the “Life of Moody” one writer tells his experience in attending what is known as “The Moody Church.” At the midweek prayer-meeting he heard an unlettered man tell his happiness in Christ Jesus; he was followed by a young man who thanked God that the prayers of the people of that church, put up the week before in behalf of his sick mother, had prevailed, and that she had been restored to health. No sooner did he resign the floor than a reformed drunkard arose to relate how God had saved him from his cups; at once, on his having taken a seat, a beautiful, cultured woman testified, with radiant face, to having received the gift of the Holy Spirit for service; at the dying away of her voice, an ignorant but happy colored woman arose with her hallelujahs. The writer remarked: “I thought, although it is twenty-eight years since Moody was pastor of the church, his spirit dominates it still, and makes these people of diverse opinions, unequal social standing, and great variety of home life, one.” But the writer was mistaken. It was not Moody’s spirit that dominated there, but Christ’s, whose love cements men, and makes brethren of all them that share in it.
In a man’s home it is his right to choose his friends, and it is natural that the choice should be made upon a basis of mutual admiration. In society the same right obtains. But to insist upon carrying that principle into the church of Jesus Christ is to depart absolutely from the spirit of the primitive institution and bring death to the organized body by a fresh crucifixion of its Head. E. J. Hardy, in an extended article on *’ Social Ambition “once related how a Boston millionaire, who had begun life as a poor boy, gave a housewarming on entering his new mansion. He did not invite his own brother, a poor man. In the course of the evening a mutual friend said to the millionaire: “I don’t see your brother present. I hope he is not ill.” “No,” replied the fortune- favored man, “in society we must draw the line somewhere.” Thereupon Hardy commented in severe strictures upon that social ambition which destroys even natural affection. His comment was not without good occasion. However, has it not occurred to us that such a man acts in perfect consonance with the whole constitution of worldly society, acts, in fact, in accord with your conduct and mine in choosing our social friends, and that he is, therefore, in no respect as guilty as he who seeks to carry the same idea into the church of God? In society we are privileged to have what friends we will; but in the church of God every man saved by the blood is made our brother; c every woman cleansed in its crimson flood becomes our sister; and the relationship is as much superior to that which binds the members of a single house as God is superior to an earthly father, as grace is beyond flesh and blood. Such, at least, is suggested in this sample — the primitive church.
Descending again into this mine of Scripture we discover
The Condition of Church-Membership
“And the Lord added to them day by day those that were saved.”
Only the saved were privileged membership in the primitive church.
The kingdom of God and the organized body of believers called the church are not employed in Scripture as interchangeable terms, but it is everywhere made evident that the man who has not met the condition of membership in the former is also without that demanded by the latter. Some men seem to think that good morals are all that any church has the right to demand; but in conversation with Nicodemus, Christ declared the only condition of entrance into his kingdom, “Ye must be born again.” Later he makes clear his meaning by saying to Nicodemus: “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” Now to be born of the flesh makes one a member of an earthly house; but to be a member of the house of God one must be begotten of the Holy Ghost.
Birth, therefore, is fundamental in the family relationship, sanguine or spiritual. One’s children may be good or bad; they may grow up to honor him or bring him to dishonor; but they remain his children, and it can never be ordered otherwise; their birth in the flesh settles that forevermore; and the man or woman who is born of the Spirit belongs forever to the family of God. Their behavior may be such as to disinherit them, and to forfeit much of the fortune which their Father has kindly provided for them, but the family relationship remains unbroken. The one question therefore for every man who seeks a place in the church is formed already by the conduct of this primitive institution, “Is he begotten of the Spirit, born from above?” It may be profitable to ask many other questions. We interrogate men and women on their views of doctrine, their ideas of church government, their intentions of faithful service, their fidelity to the word, their custom of prayer, their disposition to personal work, etc., etc. All of these questions are legitimate; all of them are helpful; but all of them are asked in vain unless one can answer affirmatively the questions, *’ Are you saved? ““ Do you belong to the blood-bought throng?” “Are you conscious of having been brought by the grace of God into the company of the redeemed?” These points clearly settled, it remains for one to take only the divinely appointed steps of public profession — baptism and formal reception.
It is not unusual to meet with a new convert who is almost wholly ignorant of the word of God, who entertains the crudest ideas of what the church is and for what it stands. Yet, if only it is clear that the heart has been surrendered, that Christ has come into the life, the condition of church-membership is met, and there is laid upon the organized body of believers the obligation of taking this weak child and giving him the milk and meat of the word until he shall be strong. What the mother is to the infant, what the school is to the untutored, what the hospital is to the convalescent, that the church of God must be to the Spirit-born in evolving life, imparting wisdom, and aiding into the perfect strength that is in Christ.
The truly saved will covet church-membership.
While of these primitive disciples it is said, “The Lord added to them day by day those that were saved,” we are not to suppose a coercion. The Lord added them, not by any outward force, but by the inner craving for fellowship. By this we may “ know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren.” The converts of the twentieth century respond to the same test to which those of the first were subjected. The little country church in which the writer was converted was far from being a model institution. Though possessed of much wealth, it paid its pastor a salary of four hundred dollars per annum; to missions it gave a mere pittance; and, as already suggested in the previous chapter, it never expected a soul to be saved out of season. Many of the brethren chewed or smoked — some of the sisters did the same — and not a few of them regarded it no sin to keep their demijohns. The church was also quite often disturbed by internal dissensions, and neighborhood tattling was among its sins. Yet when Christ came into the convert’s life and heart a new-born love for all these brethren was found as he listened to them at prayer or joined with them in the service of song. He believed them to be God’s people, and to him they were exceeding precious. In all the blessed years which have rolled by since those days, few hours have seemed more sweet in experience or more precious in memory, than that in which the pastor of the village church gave his hand, and, as the writer believes, with the heart welcomed him into the fellowship of the organized body, made up of those who had their faults, even conspicuous faults, and yet who were doubtless, in the mighty majority, God’s men and God’s women.
Organization divinely ordained, and a membership regenerated by the Holy Ghost, makes easily possible In this primitive church accessions occurred every day. “And the Lord added unto them day by day those that were saved.” A thousand pities that the present-day church has so far departed from its divinely appointed sample! To come into the experience of this primitive institution would be to excite the suspicions of devout men and women. When, years ago, the Grace Temple Church, Philadelphia, enjoyed a long period of time wherein it received an average of seven accessions a week — a soul a day — it became the subject of much comment by press and people and pastors, not all of which was favorable. This work was spoken of as “spasmodic,” “sensational.” People called in question the methods of its pastor, prophesied its eventual collapse, etc. When a friend had heard of the experience of the Third Baptist Church of Owensboro, Ky., into the membership of which Dr. Fred Hale had welcomed eight hundred and six in three years and a half, he remarked: “Well, I don’t know, I wonder if they are all genuine converts?-’ To-day the success attending Mark Matthews’ work in Seattle excites the suspicion of certain wise men. Oh, to have come upon such deadness that even good people no longer look for many to be saved! Oh, to have fallen upon a period when the church that is fruitless half receives our commendation and the pastor is put forth on many public occasions to deliver addresses on “Christian Culture “; while the exceptional institution that is fruitful is made the subject of our suspicions and of our criticism! Oh, to have been inveigled into an attitude that opposes the very methods of the institution whose members received their education at the feet of Jesus, and whose organization was effected by none other than the Holy Ghost himself. Into that institution three thousand went in one day. That the growth was rapid after that day is evident from the fact that when the Jews laid hands on some of the apostles and put them in hold it is said: “Howbeit many of them which heard the word believed; and the number of the men was about five thousand.”
When on one occasion our Methodist brethren appointed a wise and judicious commission to investigate the causes of the decline which had characterized two successive years, the commission found reason for its existence, and its findings were words of wisdom containing clarion calls to greater expectation from the Lord, and greater fidelity to him and his word! Some time ago a correspondent in one of our Baptist papers said: “We do not give an hour as formerly to the reading of the letters from the churches, but print a brief digest of them, and put that into the hands of all present. The figures as reported are not inspiring reading. They do not lift up their voice and cry aloud. It would be well if they did. A net gain of about thirty-four in an association of five thousand five hundred church-members; and if all the church rolls were thoroughly revised, the net decrease would no doubt run up into the hundreds — this is not aggressive Christianity. And the fact that other denominations are making like reports is small comfort. Another association, comprising several of our largest churches, confesses to a net loss of one hundred and thirty for the year.” And then the writer remarked: “The best token apparent is the deep solicitude felt by the pastors and their trusted helpers.” Solicitude! The word is too weak. Sorrow, we should feel; bitterness, we should know; agony of spirit! Importunate prayer should characterize us, better appointments should enlist our thought until the whole condition is changed, and this sample church of the first century finds worthy successors in the churches of the twentieth century.
The spirit of conquest was in the church of the first century. Why should not the same spirit characterize the church of the twentieth century? Oh, to witness the hour when the local institution wearing His great name, and now paralyzed in its powers, struggling oft with the solitary question of how to raise enough money, from within and without, by means fair and foul, to pay its current expenses — comes into a Pentecost, and has added to its membership day by day those that are saved!
Thompson tells us that at the close of the Prussian war of 1866 the triumphant army of Prussia came to Berlin for a reception of welcome. As each regiment approached the city gate from the Thiergarten it was halted by a choir demanding by what right it would enter the city. The regiment replied in a song, reciting the battles it had fought, the victories it had won. Then came a welcome from the choir, “Enter into the city.” And so the next came up reciting its deeds; and another and another, eachchallenged and welcomed. They marched up the Linden between the rows of captured cannon, with the banners they had borne and the banners they had taken, and they saluted the statue of grand old Frederick — the creator of Prussia.
Beloved, when at last we shall come into the presence of the Creator of the universe, and of that Christ who died for us, what we shall be able to recite by way of victories won in his name will depend upon what we did yesterday, what we are doing to-day, and what we shall do to-morrow as individuals and as churches. God grant us to be faithful that we may be fruitful!