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How precious, bow divine, bow glorious, O bow
sweet the lovely, the dear Savior was to me. My
tuiud is lull, but i must close lest I weary your
patience. Ttie love of my soul to you my sister ;
give my love to all tbe saints with you.
Farewell, NANCY DUTTON.
Lawkencevillb, Ala., Nov. 10, 1860.
Brethren Editors -.—Being desirous of letting
tbe readers of your highly interesting paper know
something of the power and demonstration of the
goodness of God in bringing lost and ruined sin
tiers to a knowledge of that glorious and heavenly
truth, salvation by grace, in this portion of his
moral vineyard, is the prompting cause why I
should write anything for publication, knowing
mv inability so to do. But as bro. Patman said
in his communication not long since, the Old Bap
tists are not critics, but if their communications
are simple, they are ais.* edifying to those who are
brought to a knowledge of the truth aa 1 hope and
trust in Gud. It has been the ease with the au
thor, and here let mo slate to the brethren aud sis
ters that God has, as I hope, extended his good
ness and mercy to me, in bringing me from na
ture’s darkness into the glorious liberty of the Son
of God. I had been for a long time somewhat
concerned about getting religion, and thought like
the most of people, that I could get it of my own
free will. I had not thought of the declaration of
Scripture which says, “ Os his own will begat he
us,” noi did I much think salvation was by grace,
nor did I want it so at that time, for I wanted to
get religion myself, or at least do something as re
gards getting it. Still I read that the children of
God were horn, not of blood, nor of the will
of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
In short, 1 thought all such Scriptures meant some
thing else beyond the comprehension of mortals,
and would shudder at the idea of believing such
doctrine as the Old Baptists preached. But when
it pleased God to awaken me to a true sense ol
my sinful situation, it was then, and not until
then did I plead for mercy. Right here I gave up
the do and live religion, as some call it; when 1
was convinced it could afford me no relief. I now
plead for mercy in the wounds of a crucified Re
deemer. % I could read of heavenly promises to tbe
children of God, but none could I apply to myself,
only the woes pronounced against vio
lated the righteous law of God, which I felt to be
a violator of, and that time s past numbering. My
condition became miserable—l plead for mercy
night and day, until God was pleased to reveal
himself to me, the fairest amongst ten thousand,
and altogether lovely. Then I was able to see and
feel, and lealiza the glorious promises of God to
his children, and could say and feel that salvation
was of grace and not of works lest any man should
boast. It is the gift of God. Then J could say
Amen to the preaching of the gospel, when preach
eel in its purity, as it was at our Association, at
County Line church this year by a great many of
tbe brethren. Still I have had my doubts and
fe-ftrs that I was deceived, and no Christian, and
SOUTHERN BAPTIST MESSENGER.
if I joined the church, I would injure the cause.—
I finally resolved to talk to our dearly beloved and
esteemed bro. Htdms, about rt, which I did, and
he gave me strong consolation, and advised me to
join the church and be baptized, which I did, to
gether with a cousin of mipe the Ist Saturday in
Nov., and we were baptiz-d the next day by Eld.
M. W. Helms, who is our Pastor at County Line,
and who is a strong defence for the Old Baptists
in this portion of country. There are a great many
of the churches revived up here this year; some
additions hv baptism, as high as twenty-one.
Dear brethren, I will close at present, by sub
scrihing myself your unworthy sister, if one at all,
in hope of eternal life, which God, who caQnot lie,
promised before the world began.
S ALL IE E. HOLMES.
Brethren Editors —According to promise I
continue the subject on teaching. It is worthy of
remark that teachers sometimes teach their own
children, but by far the greater number is the chil
dren of others, not so with our heavenly Teacher,
lie only teaches Ilis own children, the pupils are
all brothers and sisters, hence, it seems so unnatur
al that they should ever so far forget their duties
to each other and the great obligation they owe to
their Teacher as to fall out and strive with each
othei, but then they are still in the flesh, and some
times become carnally minded, that is death to our
spiritual enjoyment. When we have the mind of
Christ and crucify the old man with his affections
and lusts, there is no cause for the entrance of any
thing that mars our peace or produces confusion ;
our peace is always in proportion as we have Ills
mind. As the children of God have one common ob
ject in view, and are all actuated, when in their
right mind, from one spirit, peace is the result, but
when one is moved by the dictates of selfish influ
ences and passions under their control, and another
moved by ihe spiritual promptings, there is confu
sion, for the flesh and spirit can never harmonize,
they are contrary the one to the other; there is a
perpetual warfare, both striving for the pre-eminence:
if one for the moment should conquer, war is again
declared and prosecuted with renewed energy, neith
er will ever yield while life lasts, and to talk about
this old body becoming so sanctified as that, it will
obey the Spirit, do its bidding while in this mortal
state, is to say the least of it, but to deny the Scrip
tures. I will not deny but that our bodies some
times become, or rather seem to become, very re
ligious. We flatter ourselves that we shall now
lay by our armour, hostilities having ended, and
we desu-e a furlough, but mistaken soul, the body
has only granted a truce in order that it may re
cruit its munitions of war, and marshal anew its
host, and while we unsuspecting of danger, and
unprepared for defence, are resting in fancied se
curity, we are attacked in front and rear, our sword,
shield and helmet are not at command, and if the
Captain of our salvation does not then make His
appearance, we feel that we must surrender at dis
cretion. But He beholds us and is near enough
to vanquish the host of hell, He fights our battles
for us, gives us our armour, teaches us the art of
warfare; with these, when we are in His service,
one can chase a thousand, and two put ten thou
sand to flight. We never could overcome thus far
but for His teaching, but He has never yet taught
us to war upon our brethren. He has command
ed that we fight the aliens, the uncircu incised Phil
istines; we are to wage on exterminating warfare,
to destroy ail, both small and great. No compro
mise, no quarter is allowed, no entangling alliances
are to he made, when’ our enemies are made to bite
the dust we must not stay our hands and pity, but
still cry, “ The sword of the Lord and o* Gideon.”
But the flesh argues that it looks so unkind to deal
thus severe, and there can be no haim in sparing
some of the choicest young men and maidens, and
that if they should get too umuly, why then we
can make them “ hewers of wood and drawers of
water,” arid then some of the spoils look so nice
that surely God would not object, especially as we
intend to offer them in sacrifice to Him. This is
the device of the devil, a snare, and if we listen, in
roads are made, our peace is destroyed, our lan
guage is corrupted, we marry among the uncir
cumcised, we soon learn to worship their gods, be
come corrupted by such unholy alliances, and in
turn God’s wrath and anger is poured out upon
us. We now cannot stand before our enemies,
they now lead us into captivity, we groan under
our task masters, look and cry unto God, again
have to put away our unlawful wives, the Lord, be
cause we are His chosen people, hears oui cry,
comes to our relief, makes us valiant in the fight.
Be not deceived, “Evil communications coriupt
good manners,” it is impossible to escape corrup
tions when we wed it. But the weapons of our
warfare are not carnal but spiritual, hence, in their
use our carnal natures are not to be exhibited, neith
er our Captain left it discretionary with us
whether we will fight or riot, hut He has summon
ed us to the war, and we are cowards if we desert.
Nor has he left us to manufacture our own arms,
they are all ready, and always in the armory of
heaven. In this warfare there is order, no break
ing ranks, no fighting, but according to His direc
tion. But He has taught us as thoroughly the
art of war as of peace. His teaching upon both
subjects is equally binding and equally efficient.—
Divided we present to our enemies an easy prey,
united we are “ Fair as the moon,- clear as the sun,
and terrible as an army with banners.” Our ene
mies cannot stand before us, they are routed.—
But whenever we imagine that we can dispense
with the teaching of our Captain and fight on our
own resources, and forour own self-aggrandizement
m order that fame may be spread abroad without
having the good of His kingdom at heart, then we
shall meet with an inglorious defeat, for no man
is to be crowned except he strive lawfully. His
word is to be our text book in war; by no other
tactics can we succeed carrying out its teaching.
Under the leadership of our Captain we are invin
cible, unconquerable, when we depart from that we
are as weak as other men, and liable to be captur
ed as prisoners of war. I will not notice at length
our arms and their uses, for it would occupy too
much space.
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