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EDITORIAL.
“And I say’unto you, make to your
selves friends of the mammon of un
righteousness; that when j*r fail, they
. may receive you into everlasting hab
itations. Luke xvi, 9. ,
Sistet Julia Pillyaw oi Tifton,
Ga., requests nay views on the a
bove text. And while I feel weak
and incompetent, I still fee] dis
posed to do the best I can in giv
ing such views as I have, hoping
if errnnious,"some brother or
sister will come to the rescue of
the truths involved.
This scripture, we must remem
ber, is in connection with the par
able of the unjust steward. Jesus
was talking to his disciples when
‘he gave this parable of the rich
man whose steward had wasted his
goods, whom he would cafl to ac
count, por permit him longer to
hold the place.
Hearing this, the Steward, too
lazy to dig, and too proud to beg,
svas in perplexity what to do; till
.-suddenly, (seemingly)he conclnd
jed to reduce the bills of his lord’s
creditors, aifl thereby gain their
under obli-
io when
was- put out of the
they would receive him into their
houses. .
And the lord commended th is-un
just steward; not for his injustice,
but-for his wise ingenuity in thus
providing foT his future. For said
Jesus, “the children of this world
are wiser in their generation than
the children of light. And I say
unto you, make Mo yourselves
friends of the mammon of un
righteousness, that when ye fail
they may receive you into everlast
ing habitations.”
It seems to me there is both a
literal and spiritual interpretation
of this parable, and I am inclined
to give the literal, then the spirit
ual.
The rich man here, otcourse an
swers to the Lord; while the stew
ard to the Jews as a nation; while
the goods committed, answered to
the oracles and covenants etc, in*
eluding all the special advantages
oyer the Gentiles.
But the Jews failed in this trust,
and made void the law of God by
their traditions; and being ignor
ant God’s righteousness, they
went about to establish their own,
not submitting themselves to God.
<hey had a zeal of God, but not
according to knowledge.-But their
■greater error was, they rested in
the letter of the law of God, or in
their literal, outward performance
in the service for spiritual life; and
thus in proportion they became ex
cessively self-righteous and arro
gant, never by faith looking l>e
youd these outward performances
to the blood of Jesus Christ for
eternal life.
So now with Jesus come in the
flesh, the time has come to take
away their stewardship—to make
an end of the legal, and bring in
the goSpel covenant; —-to cast the
Jews forth,and bring in all nations.
And thus through their fall sal
vation is come unto the Gentiles.
Thus the Jews with their natiour
ality destroyed; and with no
adaptation or disposition t© dig, or
till the soil, and too proud to beg,
were literally 7 ' cast forth and out
as dispersed, to find everlasting
habitations among all nations.
And their devotion to professed
principles, their high moral code,
their attainments and undertand
ing of commercial affairs, and
their wisercraftiness in accumula
ting large money has proven their
best friends in finding them favor
with, and bringing nations under
obligations to receive and retain
them in their houses or nationali
ties. .See their position as holding
the balance of money power to-day
f in almost every nation on the
globe. Thue the parable is literal
ly fulfilled,.
Now let us come to the spiritual
. interpretation. We must remem-
I >er he is not Jew who is one out
. wardly, but inwardly. And in
r which sense the mammon repre
r sents the law of God under the le
f gal dispensation; or rather while
personally alive to it, as still un
. der it; the wheat and oil answer
. ingto the fruits of obedience to
; that law; and which becomes un
-1 righteous in ascribing the merits
( of eternal life to deeds done there
. to. There is no eternal life in, or
by the law; it is a ministration of
, death; however not one jot or
tittle but must be fulfilled. There
, fore while the law itself is holy,yet
to depend on deeds of the law for
life, instead of the righteousness of
. God by faith, is an unrighteous act.
5 And since mammon of whatsoever
. sort js gain, we may name such de
pendence the “mammon of urn
s' righteousness.” Paul, when cop?-
verted and looking back, said, “the
L . commandment which was ordain
ed to 4 life”—a great gain, he then
. thought—“l found to be unto
death,” Rom vii, 10. Also what
J
5 things were gain to me, I counted
I loss for Christ.” Phil iii, 7. Eter
i nal life is the acme of all spiritual
) gain. And in assuming this, the
, gain, as accumulated by deeds of
j the law is so great an error that we
may well call it the gain, or spint-
I ual mammon of unrighteousness
Now I repeat that the law in
itself is not unrighteous, but holy,
L just and good; nor was obedience
( to to the law the eiror; for Jesus
[ in connection, and to enforce the
idea as involved, said “It is easier
for heaven and earth to pass, than
for one tittle of the law to fail.
But the error—the unrighteouness
, in question was their ascribing of
j spiritual gain, or eternal life, to
, the literal performances of these
j legal deeds, Hence, they failed of
the law of righteousness because
they sought it not by faith ; but as
r it were, by the deeds of the law.
For they stumbled at the stum
, blingstone.
But now we are commanded to
I ,
make to ourselves friends of this
. mammon of unrighteousness. This
. command pre-supposes enmity.
, How are we to make friends of
this erronious idea?—of this un
' righteous position and assumption
before the holy law of God as that
we may gain eternal life by obedi
ence to the law? Let us consider:
While yet under the law, how firm--
Iv we believed we could and
i ■
must do good, and thereby bring
the Lord under obligations to save
* us. But alas! when the word of
our Lord came that we had wasted
j
Hisrgoods and must be cast out, or
.when the commandment came, sin
revived and we died, realizing the
exceeding sinfulness of <in, thee,
we realized our utter failure and
confessed the justice of being cast
fortn a ruined ahd undone sinnet.
Then despairing, we
made friends of the mammon of un
righteousness, in that we, like the
prodigal sou in a like parable,
said I will go to my Father and
tell him all—confess we have fail
ed as to the law, and are nothing
but poor, empty-handed, undeserv
ing, starving, lost sinners. And
the very fact of our being just such
sinners—though condemned as
unrighteous by the law—becomes,
as it Were, our best friends in in
ducing the Father to forgive, re
ceive, feed and clothe us, while re
joicing over us. And thus the
very things that was our ruin m
the legal house, becomes our most
friendly warrant of saver here,and
only as such, could we —by faith.,
receive Christ as the end of the law.
And when we go to the church
—as it were, the old creditors of
our Lord—and relate this past ex
perience ;the fact that we had failed
of the law, and become poor, lost,
and out-cast sinners, that must
have pernshed but for the grace
given such in Christ Jesus, finds us
more favor, and brings under great
er obligations to receive us into
their house than anything else.
And thus friends are abiding; even
to-day. I still rejoice that I was
found a failure and a sinner, for
Jesus CAME TO SAVE JUST SUCH.
Not that I love sin; I hate it and
long to be free from it. Jesus did
not commend the injustice of the
steward; neither does he allow us
to take delight in sin. But since
‘the wisdom of the steward was
commended, in that he, while in a
position to do so, taken vantage
.of his
'vrde for his future comfort, sb
we, who have found ourselyes po
luted with sin are commanded of
Jesus as found sinners, to make,
and draw from these wells of con
solation to remember the
whence drawn —the worm-wood
and the gall;—that had we never
been lost in the wilderness of
Sinai, we never had been found by
Jesus—‘that had we never lied un
der the law, we had never been
made alive in Christ; —had we
never been sinners, we had. never
been saved in Jesus, Thus ouff
once enemies are become frieads
and comfprters. —S.
t Conflicts m the Ministry.
CHAPTER IV.
In the spring of 1833, I felt im
pressed and was solicited to
Georgia. I had a brother who was
a member of the little ißiver
Association that claimed to be
Primitive Baptist, but were very
irregular in their.practice.
Through the solicitation of my
brother I came to Georgia and
visited the churches of the Little
River association, and found
many sound Baptists wham I
loved, but I soon found
that they had alien .bap
tisms among them, fellowship
secret societies and received ex
cluded persons from the Old
Baptists on confession of faith.
I visited the Towaliga association.
and found many things unpleasant
but many dear children of God
were there who fully endorsed me.
They told me that they were all
the true Baptists in the state anfi;
the rest were Too-seeders. I fe-'
turned to the bounds of the Little
River and spent sometime there.
Elder J. G. Evans had been
moderator for about twenty years
and was sound in the faith except
on instrumentality. IJlder Evans
and I were together a great deal
and I loved him dearly as a meek
humbel minister of Christ. I
told him I was not satisfied with
the practice of their Baptist that
:it was something now to me. One
night an Elder and I preached at.
one of their churches and he came
down and called up mourners to
see who would make a start for
heaven that night.
I became disgusted with such
but did not know where to go to
find the true Baptist Elder Evans
and 1 went to one of his churches
and I spoke against the doctrine
of instrumentalities and an Elder
replied by quoting a number of
Scripturs where the preaching
saved children of God from a dis
obedient life and erroneous doc
trines. After meeting I told Elder
Evans that I would not go amoung
them any longer for we were not
the sama family,and I would stand
alone. Elder Evans remarked that
he regretted to see there was a
difference for he had confidence in
me and believe I was called of the
Lord. I went to see the Modera
tor of the Marrietta Old School
Baptist association to see if he was
sound in the faith; but upon
examination I found him to be
an Eternal actual vital
unionist “or „non-resurectionist“
which was worse than I had left in
the Little River Association. I left
him feeling that I was a stranger
in a strange land,, not knowing
what to do. I got me a little coun
try school near Elder Evans, and
one night a Mr. Hembree came to
see me, and told me that he want-
e j me to go to his mother-in-laws
and spend the night that, he wanted
to talk to me, I readily agreed
and when I went I met his wife
who had withdrawn from the non
resurection Baptists, he told me
his experience, his mother in law
told hers, and then I called on his
sister-in-law to tell hers, but she
said she had no experience,that de
liverence came to her in a dream
and she never had any confidence
in dreams; after she had related her
experience, I told her that she
was a Christian, and that was the
way the Lord delivered her, for he
often delievers his people in
dreams. She seemed to be filled
with praise to God and said it was
the happiest night of her life, for
she could never claim a hope before'
but Mr, H told me he wanted me
to preach at his house that week
which I did. The night I spoke
there I dreamed that his little’
daughter told me her experience
and I wai so impressed with my
dream that I went back on the
next Saturday, and she remark
ed that it was the first preaching
she ever enjoyed. She told me a’
sweet experience which gave me
much comfort. Mr H told me
about the Baptists being entan
gled in the non-resurrection doc
trine in that country, but told me
where I could find some sound
Baptists. I went and had a joy
ful mooting, indeed. I sent after
my letter and joined a church in
the Yellow River association, and
when I joined, I told the brethren
that I wanted them to keep that
Non-resurrection orEternal actual
vital union, doctrine out of our
pulpit, which they agreed to do. I
then took a tour through the
Yellow Rivor association, and
when I started, an Elder in Atlanta
I* - . * 1
told m© not to preach the resurrec
tion in this association; btt none
of these things moved me. I
went to the Ocmulgee Association,
.and tried to preach the. salvation
.of poor lost sinners of Adam’s
apostate race. On Monday an
Elder remarked that God was not
.going to come here and tako this
;old basin and make a new one of
it—not resurreect us and change
these vile bodies. In a short
time an Elder come to me and
said, “Brother Hanks, I Want you
to quit preaching the resurrecti'Xi
for it is causing trouble and tike
resurrection is nothing no way” I
replied; “Brother H to take away
the resurrection and I have n.
hope and when . the Old Baptists
stop me from preaching Ohrist and
the resurrection they stop my ton
gue.” It seemed like our church
would bo dropped for holding to
the resurrection so firmly,but there
were three Elders who did not
fail to contend for the salvation
of the sinner viz:
Elders Cook, Gullege and Jack
son.
They were dear men to me. The
Marrietta and Yellow River associa
tion gotten rd of (hit unsound
element and has been prospering
since.
Elder Evans of the Little River
association came to me one day
and said,“ Brother Hanks I have
been reading the Bible carefully
and you are right. The preach
ing of the gospel is for the' living
and not for the dead.” He began
preaching that the Spirit did the
quickening independent of means
Elder Ball followed him at a Dis
tirct meeting and said, “Brother
Evans is preaching that Hanks
doctrine, and it, will cansd divis-
ion among us.” Here the trouble
and Elder joined-the Marri-'
etta association by experience and
baptism; and the Baptists, that
stood with him followed and are
now precious Baptists indeed, re
cognized by the Baptist family.
Whenever Baptists or any of
God’s children get wrong, it is bet
ter to do like brother Evans, go
back and get right. We should
visit the Lord’s people if they are
in error, for we never know what
we tan accomplish by it. But we
should not endorse the error
The man who> contends earnestly
for the faith, shall suffer the re
proaches of the enemy. But
God’s grace is sufficient for you.
Eleven from one church in the
Towaliga Association while hunt
ing for the old Baptist, came to
us that fall by experience anc
baptism. Sister Newbron whom
I met and who was a member at
Sandy Creek in the Towaliga,
when I was through there came
to one of my appointments the next
spring and ask me how to get with
true old Baptists; and 1 told her
to go to Smyrna in the Ocmul
gee Association, and join by ex
perience and baptism which she
did. The Mr. Hembree, of
whom I spake having learned in
the spring of 1884 that I was con
templating a tour in Georgia,
north Alabama and Tennssee:
came one night toNorcross where I
was staying and gatherd the breth
»*en together for the purpose ot
joining the church. He said that
I had been so much comfort to him
that he could not bear for me to
leave without joining while I was
here he told a sweet experience
and we joyfully received him at ah
old brothers house. I started on
my tour and had many evidences
that my tour was of the Lord. I
found many dear saints in North
Alabama, but they “could only
see men as trees walking.” They,
needed to be indoctrinated. I
spoke at one place to a large con-
igpegation and after I was through- ’
the old pastor said he had many >
friends and neighbors whom he x
wanted saved. He called on his
brethren te sing, and see if they
would make a start for heaven by
comeing and giving him their
hand and their heart. I f e lt (
miserably discouraged. They only .
had the name of Baptist to take
’away their reproach.l had two pul
pit discussions on that tour with
their preachers who were holding
armhiiai doctrine. They rejected f
me at their District meeting be
cause I denounced human means
•in the salvation of sinners. A little
band invited me to preach at a
school house which I did to some
lovers of truth. Some enemy re
norted me as a two-seeder in one
section and I was reported as be
ing a Missionary sent there for a
a salary of one hundred dollars per t
month and was rejected from some
of their pulpits on that account.
I could see that my blessed. Savior
was persecuted and he patiently
endured it which teaches me toen
ckira hardness as a good soldier
of Christ.
On a tour in September I was
taken down with typhoid fever
from which I have never recoverd.
When I was first taken I was suf
fering intensely one night (I was
unconscious from the first) and T
thought an angel came to me and
called me Joseph. He said “Joseph
thy sufferings will soon be over” A
again I saw my head separated
from myjbody and my spirit united
my head and body which was told
me thatmy head representedChnst
and my body the church, hence in.
the reserection the head and body
will be brought together and we
shall then be complete in Him
“Heirs of God and joint heirs
with Christ.” Again I saw all my
bones oh the oank of the river in
a scattered condition.
“All rpy bones are .out of joint”
says David. I thought they had to
be brought together before I coulj
be restored to health. I thoughts
conditidte of the elect on earth, but ♦.
in the resurrection they will all
be brought together from the grave
in a spiritual body to bask in
the smiles of Jesus forever. |
One night they awoke the family
thinking I was passing away to g !
see me fall asleep in Jesus. I 7
lay there speachlesS, but could
hear them saying “He will soon
he gone” I felt like an object ex
pended in the air and had almost
breathed my last. I saw my
coffin by my bedside, and a con- b
voy of angels ready to escort me
to the glory land which lay before
me, lighted with the glory of God
and the lamb. I saw things in
this third heaven that I cannot |
describe. I lay there rejoicing
in spirit and thinking what a hapy 7
exchange it will be to leave this
world of sin and sorrow to praise
God eternally in that heaven of fl
sweet repose. Jesus stood by my
bedside and said he would leave
it to my choice whether I lived
or get well. It will be so sweet
to depart and be with Jesns but I , |
would like to be spared a little
longer to preach Jesus,but I dread
my suffering if I should live.
Jesus said“l will give you grace
to bear your sufferings”
I chose to get well and they
said that I sang a hymn, led in
prayer and took a text and preach- <
ed for nearly an honr. I lay there
sang,prayed and preached till my
mind was restored.
When I came to my self I wak
filled with praise to God and was
uttering these expressions: “Bless
the Lord oh my soul” Oh that men
would praise the Lord etc. < 3
The Lord has been so good to me 3
my whole being was filled with
love and praise to God. I wen t
about forty days filled with light
and did not think I should
ever doubt again or have any more
trouble! I thought I would kiss
the rod that smote and say, “Thy 41
will be done” But soon I was in -2
the vally of