THREE GREAT MOVEMENTS of the SPIRIT of GOD.
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First, no true believer can ever cease to thank God for that mighty work of the Spirit in the early part of the sixteenth century by which we have gained an open Bible in a language to be understood, and the general knowledge of gospel truths by which the soul is saved and established in its individual relationships with God. The peace and religious liberty we enjoy today, we owe, under the good hand of God, to that noble band of reformers who in the face of deadly opposition, proclaimed the truths which in many cases cost them suffering, persecution, and a martyr's death.
We must not, however, make the Reformation the measure of divine truth. The movement, in the hands of men, essentially took a reforming character. It left believers associated together in reformed churches, but it in nowise attempted to gather believers after the pattern of the primitive Church. Indeed the question of the true nature and character of the Church was never directly raised by the Reformers. The Church was not in any true sense separated from the world; on the contrary, the reformation placed the Church, in general, under subjection to the State in order to free it from subjection to the Pope. The movement did not give Christ His place, in heaven, as the Head of the Church which is His body, nor did it give the Holy Spirit His place on earth as dwelling in and with believers as the House of God. National churches were instituted and, as it has been truly said, "Churches finding their limits in the circumference of the countries inhabited by those of whom they formed part, is that which the Word of God makes not the least allusion to. Such Churches cannot either in fact or in affection be the Bride of Christ. They are necessarily in relation with the country wherein they are formed. The unity of the body of Christ is lost to them."
With the nationalisation of Churches there speedily set in the decay of vital power. The name and doctrines of Christianity were still adhered to as a creed, to which the natural man could subscribe, but only a few names left in the book of life (Rev. 3: 5). The great reformation movement has resulted in a vast number that profess Christ with comparatively few that have life in Christ. The movement which, in the power of God, commenced so brightly soon degenerated in the hands of men, into a system of orthodox profession of which the Lord has to say, "Thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead." At the dawn of the eighteenth century this lifeless profession had reached its deepest depths of darkness and decline. "Natural theology without a single distinctive doctrine of Christianity, cold morality, or barren orthodoxy, formed the staple teaching both in church and chapel.
Sermons everywhere were little better than miserable moral essays utterly devoid of anything likely to awaken, convert, or save souls." But when all was at the worst there was amongst English speaking races, in the early part of the eighteenth century a second great movement of the Spirit of God, who wrought in mighty saving power. Evangelists were raised up to proclaim the glad tidings. Whitfield, Wesley, Grimshaw, Berridge and very many other earnest and devoted servants of the Lord went throughout the land warning sinners of judgment to come, arousing consciences to a sense of need, and bringing relief and salvation to thousands upon thousands through the preaching of Christ and Him crucified. We may truly thank God for this devoted band of preachers without shutting our eyes to the weakness of the movement in the hands of men. It is manifest that at its best it did not go beyond a gospel that aims to meet the need of man.
It stopped short of that fuller gospel preached by the Apostle Paul that, entirely setting aside man in the flesh, links the believer with Christ in the glory, thus constituting the Christian a heavenly man. It brought blessing to the sinner, but left him in the world with the idea of making it a better and a brighter place. The result has been that worldliness, ecclesiastical and political, has become a prominent characteristic of the evangelical movement. In the sincere desire to reach the masses, every endeavour has been made to popularise the truth and make it more or less attractive to the natural mind. Every effort has been made to impress the natural man by the aid of music and other human means. Hence the levity, and often even vulgarity, that so largely disfigures this movement in the present day. Moreover, another great weakness of the movement is its individualism. Its great aim and end is the blessing of individuals; it presents no true conception of the Church whether in its formation, its present administration or its future glory. All these essential truths of Christianity are entirely outside the scope of the Evangelical movement. Souls are truly converted, for which we may thank God, but the movement as such leaves the converted souls in the various religious systems of men.
Coming now to the early part of the nineteenth century we find a third movement of the Spirit of God. Between 1829 and 1830 a few devoted Christians in Dublin seceded from the established Church and met together, at first in a private way, to remember the Lord in the breaking of bread and for prayer and study of the Word. Very shortly, in different parts of the United Kingdom, others separated from the National Church and independent bodies, and met together in a similar way in simple faith in God without any human leadership. Taking the Scriptures as their only and sufficient authority and in dependence upon the guidance of the Holy Spirit, they speedily learned the great truths concerning "Christ and the Church" which had been lost to the Lord's people from the days of the apostles They realized that Christ is the Head of the Church, and that all believers are members of one Body on earth united to the Head in heaven, and to one another, by the Holy Spirit. Having thus discovered the great central truth of the dispensation, at once every other truth received a fuller and deeper meaning. The gospel was seen and preached in its fulness. The prophetic Scriptures were opened up more fully and the coming of the Lord was seen to be the immediate hope of the Church. In connection with the revival of these truths there was a corresponding life of "good works" and separation from every form of worldliness.
It is, however, of the first importance to see the distinctive character of this movement. It was essentially a separative movement. Hitherto the true people of God had been held captive in the great religious systems of men whether Papal, National, or Nonconformist. Though converted they remained in these religious systems. Now, for the first time, large numbers were set free from the bondage of these man-made systems. The reason of this separating action of tbe Spirit of God is clear. The moment had at last come when God, in His mercy, was about to revive the truth concerning Christ and His Church. Anyone instructed, according to Scripture, will at once see that it was impossible to remain in connection with the systems of men, and, at the same time, hold and practice the truths concerning the Church whether viewed as the body of Christ or the House of God. It was indeed as with Israel of old; when the moment came to rebuild the House of God, it became an absolute necessity to set free a remnant of Israel from the mass of the nation in captivity, and bring them back to the Land, the true ground for God's people in that day.
Moreover, as with Israel of old the adversary attacked, both by subtlety and open hostility, the little remnant that sought to build the House of the Lord, so the enemy set to work to mar the testimony of those who were once more seeking to walk according to the principles of the House of God. Alas! he has so far succeeded that this little remnant of God's people, who were once united in the truth, have by numerous divisions, been scattered and broken up into various companies. What then we may ask has been
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