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Vol. 2-»
Poetry.
O Lord my God infuse this clod,
With thine own holy spirit,
Send light to me that I may see,
And joy with thee inherit.
Fill me with love from thee above,
My heart to overflowing;
That X by grace may run this race,
o And to thee, Lord, be sowing.
' -Acquaint me Lord with every word,
Thy con sei and thy pleasure.
That while I walk, of thee I’ll talk,
About this heavenly treasure.
And now to thee all glory be
On earth as it is in heaven*
Let all my ways make up thy praise,
As to me thou hast given.
Morgan Brown.
Woodburry, Ga.
Blasphemy Against The Holy
Ghost.
Cecil, Ga., May 29th, 1895.
Eld. S. Hassell:
Dear Brother:*—l now have a
mind and feeling to want to write
to you. I very much regret that
I did not meet with you when you
traveled through, and preached
for the churches in our country;
but, oweing to my much affliction
from a wound, I had not for
several months previous to your
coming been able to travel—not
even to my own church meetings.
At the time you preached at Cat
Creek, which was the time of my
own church meeting, I decided I
was able to go. I expected, alter
Saturday’s meeting, to have gone
back and met you at Cat Creek,
but the brethren of Unity per
suaded me to stay and try to meet
with you on Tuesday at our own
church, but I afterwards decided
1 could not so much travel.
Now I think, brother Hassell, that
your coming into our midst to see
how we do, and for our people to
hear from you and to be instruct
ed.and built up, and established in
a Gospel way,will prove a blessing
to all of us, and me in particular,
though I never met you, since I
have read your account of your
journey through, seeing how faith
ful and honest you have been
where you found anything like
briers or weeds that Lai come
up in the crop, you have faithfully
pointed out. This is not common
with our preachers that are ac
customed to travel away from
home, but it is certainly right.
And among the many things that
you discovered that the Baptists
have imbibed, when scripturely
measured, that are found to be
wrong, some of which you have
called our attention to, it is pos
sible that I am one of the men,
and if so I am more than willing
to have my mind disabused, or in
other words, converted. I have no
desire to persist in error. I never
expect to grow in the knowlege ol
the truth to that extent that I
would not be liable to error. In
reference to the sin or blasphemy
against the Holy Ghost, there were
fifteen years or more of the time I
have been serving as a teacher or
leader among the Primitive Bap
tists, when asked by the Baptist
what this particular scripture
ment, I would answer them I did
not know. I would at the same
time say that none of the redeem
ed people of God would ever com
mit this sin, and I would quit at
that. But some years back, while
traveling to meeting, there was a
passage of scripture that seemed
to engage my thoughts. The
scripture is this: ••If we sin wil
fully after that we have received
the knowledge of the truth, there
@ljc Jhltjriiit's fanner.
“THOU HAST GIVEN A BANNER TO THEM THAT FEAR THEE, THAT IT MAY BE DISPLAYED BECAUSE OF THE TRUTH.”— Psalms 60: 4.
remaineth no more sacrifice for
sin, but a certain, iea’-ful looking
for of judgement and fiery indig
nation which shall devour the
adversaries”(Heb.x. 26,27). While
my mind was exercised upon that
scripture, I was brought to see, as
I think, that the spiritually taught
people of God could transgress
the perfect law of liberty, 1 mean
the Gospel law, not the law of sin
and death, neither the law of
Moses, the law which is our rule
of life to govern the subjects of
the Gospel kingdom. So you may
see that I found out, while my
mind was thus exercised, that the
child of God who sins wilfully or
knowingly has to pay the debt in
the way of punishment. You may
not think I am right, but you see
the works of the- adversary shall
be destroyed, or the adversary
himseif. You know, my brother,
that the only kind of a God that
the child of God has that has sin
ned wilfully is the God that is a
consuming fire, and he will con
tinue to be such till the adversary
is burnt out, and then he changes
to them to be the same good, and
merciful, and lovely God that he
used to be when the child was
walking uprightly. Now I have
said this little about the scripture
so that you may understand why I
drifted off or got hold of the idea
myself that it was possible that it
was the child of God that blas
phemed against the Holy Ghost.
Now I confess to you that there is
the biggest kind of a chance for
me to be wrong, and I am not like
a heap of preachers that I re
member in the past that got wrong
and that were labored with a great
deal that could’nt be convinced;
they seemed to be in a condition
they did not want to be convinced.
I want all my works tried if it is
by fire;and whatever gets burnt up,
et it burn; nothing will burn, you
know, accept that which we get up
such as hay, wood, or stuble. I
want to be saved by a gospel sal
vation as well as the eternal salva
tion; and, as such, I am going to
ask you to do me the kind favor to
work on my own case and I prom
iseyou this I will do like a sick
person that has called in the doc
ter; the docter prescribes the med
icine that is necessary; it is then
the duty of the sick person to
take the medicine. So I will
anxiously listen to you if you will
undertake to disabuse my mind.
Now as I may have you in the
dark. In the first place, I am at a
loss to understand how the unre
generate could sin against the
Holy Ghost. I can understand
how the non-elect or unregenerate
sinned against God inAdam. Again
I am at a loss to know how the
non-elect could make their case
any worse since Adam transgress
ed the law. It some way looks like
that before the non-elect blasphem
ed the Holy Ghost, there was
a chance for them, and not until
they had blasphemed against the
Holy Ghost was their chance a
hopeless one. Perhaps I have
said all that is necessary in order
to show to you the several points
upon which I am difficulted. Now
as I believe that you are as well
posted as anyone among all our
ministers in understanding the
Bible, I hope you will feel free
to let me hear from you. Use all
plainness in talking to me about
this matter that you may think
necessary, and you will not lessen
my love for, or my fellowship or
confidence in you. Now I dont
wish for you to think that I have
DEVOTEDTO THE CAUSE OF CHRIST
VALDOSTA, GA., JULY 1, 1895.
written this in the way of offering
an argument in order that I might
vindicate my idea;l only intended
to explain to you how came my
mind to get hold of such an idea.
Now, in conclusion, if it is your
choice, you can answer me back
through the PiLgßiM’s Banner, as
it might be beneficial to others.
It will make no difference if
others know that I have asked you
to disabuse my mind on this sub
ject, and that you have responded
to my request. I will close for
this time.
T. W. Staj.iings
Reply to Elder T. W. Stallings.
But for two reasons I would an
swer brother Stallings privately,
and not in one of our periodicals.
The first is, his suggestion and ap
parent preference, for the sake of
others, that I should reply in the
Pilgrim’s Banner; and the second
is the rare, gentle, baautiful, lov
ing, self-sacrificing, Christ-like
spirit of humility that shines all
through his letter, and that is far
more important for every
child of God than the knowledge
of all mysteries. 0 that I and
every subject of grace might be at
all times animated by this blessed,
spirit! Then would unbroken
peace,loved and fellowship abound
in the dear Zion of our God. I de
sire to call the universal and earn
est attention of Primitive Baptists
to the loving and lovely spirit ex
hibited in the letter of our beloved
brother, and to exhort them to a
manifestation of the same spirit to
wards afl persons,
members of the body of Christ, at
all times and all places. If no
other good results from the publi
cation of this correspondence, the
readers will certainly be benfited
by the views thus offered them of
the blessed operation of the spirit
of Christ. I no longer wonder that
brother Stallings is’ called the
“Peace-maker” among the Prim
itive Baptists in his section of
Georgia. If all the dear brethren
among whom I have traveled of
lata years had been equally hum
ble and equally desirous of having
all the weeds and briers rooted out
of their crops by the mattock of
eternal truth(lsa. vii. 25,) I would
lave been spared many painful
heart-thrusts, and there would be
much less confusion and division a
mong Old School or Primitive Bap
tists than exists at present in
some sections.of our country. Er
ror and persistance in error can do
no real good to any human being;
and I believe that the most of new
things iir religion since the first
century of the Christian Era are
errors.
I am far from wishing to set up
my poor, unwisp, and sinful self
as an infallible judge or standard
of divine truth. I deeply realize
that,' in and of myself, I can do
nothing, and less than nothing,
and vanity; and that, especially
in spiritual things, if I see at all,
I see very imperfectly. But I be
lieve that, unless I am wretchedly
deceived, I long to know and love
and do the truth; and, in arriving
at an imperfect but approximate
knowledge of the true meaning of
any Scripture, it seems clear to
me that the context and the gen
eral teaching of the Scriptures
will perfectly accord with the
light of the Spirit on the subject,
and that the general belief of
the people of- God in former ages
and at present in regard to the
meaning of a text is rarely errone
ous, for the mind of the Lord is
with His people (1. li. 16; John
xvi. 13-15; 1 John li. 27).
As I have tried to show, in the
; Gospel Messenger for Feb., 1894
> it a new a monstrous, and a ruin
ous thilg to apply everything
said in t|e Scriptures to the trm
people of God, and thus to abolish
. the distinction made by the grace
-of God, £nd between the belovedj
blessed, <lect, redeemed, regenerat
ed, peniient, believing, lov
• ing and Saved, on the one hand,
and the hated, cursed, non-elect,
unredeemed, unregenerate, im
penitent*unbelieving, hating and
lost, on the other hand-—between
the Publican and the Pharisee—
the wheat and the tares—the sheep
and the goats-—the vessels of mer
cy and g'e vessels of wrath. As
we can J<W)k only on the outward
life, and cannot read the heart, we
can not now distinguish, with per
fect certainty, between these oppo
site characters that come under our
personal onservation; and some
times it requires very close atten
tion to the connection and to the
general teaching of the Scriptures
to distinguish between these char
acters as alluded to in the Inspired
Volume, j
So far is I have been able to
learn, nearly all the true people of
God in ages have believed,
and nearly all at present do believe,
that the children of God are kept
by divine'grace from blaspheming
the Holy Ghost—from committing
the dreadful sin that never will be
forgiven. And if we carefully ex
amine the connection in Math.xii.
22-37, and Mark iii. 24-30 (see al
so Luke xii.. 10), it seems clear
that none but. the proud, bitter,
scoffing malignant, determined,
vs ■Gllriet,
such as and Scribes,
are alludaUp as committing or as
near comifittihg the unpardonable
sin of Waspheming the Hcly
Gnost Christ had just healed a
poor blin4, and dumb demoniac,
and. had,|h so doing, exhibited
such divide mercy and power that
all the pggple were satisfied that
He Son of David, the
Messiah God, the Hope and
Consolatffljof Israel; but the car
nal, selfisfc jealous, ambitious, re
ligious rulfts of the Jews, as they
had already done in the case of
John the paptist(Math. xi. 18)
work of tO Divine Spirit in Christ
to Satan; ins declaring Christ to
be the ip wnation, not of God,
but of the )evil, the instrument
and repre ©ntative, not of the
Kingdom* of Light, but of the
Kingdom ’ Darkness, and the Ho
ly Ghost i Christ to be an un
clean or icked spirit. We see,
from mnection, that those
guilty of tlis sin were not good
trees bearilg good fruit, but cor
rupt trees fearing evil fruit; had
evil heartslhat brought forth evil
things-; we® not for, but against;
were, a geniration of vipers, filled
with the peison of their fathers,
; the Old S ?psnt, utterly hating
- truth, hold >ss, and God[Math, xii.
30-35]. Ad it was not any other
sin, not sh in general, of which
they were | lilty on this occasion,
but it Wi THE SPECIAL SIN OF
SPEAKING A VINST THE HOLYGHOST J
thb only leaning of the word
BLASPHEMY 6 SPEAKING against —
it does not lean evil conduct, but
it means e’l 1 speech. Neither the
real meaning of the word, nor any
thing whawer in the connection,
gives us th< slightest right to gen
eralize this In, and apply it to all
forms of sii Blasphemy against
the Holy 'Ghost is speaking
against the Holy Ghost, nothing
less andjm Jung more; and it is
mournf 1 evidence of a seared
reprobate mind, giv
en up by thlLord to everlasting ob
duracy, and unbelief,
, and doomed to endless perdition.
• (1. Tim. iv. 2; Rom. i. 28; 2 Tim.
: iii. 8; Math. xii. 32; Mark. iii. 29).
1 Christ does not say that the com
mission of this specific sin makes
the condition of the blasphemer
worse than it already is; but He
plainly intimates that it manifests
that condition to be as bad as it
can be, a condition of utter and
everlasting ruin. Iwould not dare
to add to, and thereby virtually
deny, the language of the Divine
Redeemer, by saying this most aw
ful sin can be expiated by any
thing that the guilty wretch can
do or can suffer in this world or
in eternity. Not the faintest in
timation of such an addition ap
pears in any of the contexts in the
inspired history; we must rever
ently and submissively leave theun
pardoned and unpardonable sinner
where his Righteous Judge,the Son
of God, leaves him. Instead of re
quiring the indwelling, it requires
the absence of the Spirit of God
for a man to commit this never-to
be-forgiven sin of calumniating,
reviling, vilifying the Holy Ghost
—the sin of calling Him an un
clean or unholy spirit. In both
the Old and New Testiment times,
not the regenerated people of God,
but the stiff "necked and uncircum
cised in heart and ears resisted
the Holy Ghost in the prophets
and m Christ, persecuting and
killing thpse in whom the Holy
Spirit dwelt( Acts. vii. 51,2; Neh.
ix. 29, 30); and though, as in the
case ,of Saul of Tarsus, a man
might resist the Holy Ghost in
other men, and seek to murder
flKem, and yet afterwards be regen
erated and repent and be forgiven,
it is the solemn declaration of
God manifest in the flesh that no
MAN CAN HATE AND MOCK AND SLAN-
der the Holy Spirit, and ever
AFTERWARDS OBTAIN FORGIVNESS.
The unforgiven are the impenitent,
and the impenitent are those who
are destitute of the Spirit of God
(Isa. Iv. 7; Acts ii. 13-38; Zech, xii
10; Jude. 16-19). Jesus atoned for
all the sins of His people, and gives
them repentance and forgivness foi
them all, and cleanses them from
them allflsa. liii; Luke. xxiv. 47;
John, i. 29; Eph. i. 7; Acts. v. 31;
1 John. i. 7; Rev. i. s]. The idea
that the children of God can com
mit the unpardonable sin and
then must atone for such sin by
their own sufferings, involves, to
my mind, a denial of the faith
fulness and power of God to keep
His people; a denial of the suffi
ciency of the atonement of Christ;
and a denial of even the necessity
of His atonement, for, if the suf
ferings of sinners in this world or
in eternity can atone for their
sins, there was no need of Christ’s
dying for sin, and the whole hu
man race will finally be saved, not
by the atonement of Christ but by
their own sufferings. Os course,
our dear brethren do not believe
these apparently certain conse
quences of their idea of the un
pardonable sin; they do not at all
mean to depart from the vital,
central doctrine of the Christian
religion—salvation by grace alone,
justificatson by faith alone, re
demption by the blood of Jesus
alone; and they do not mean to
fall into the Roman Catholic her
esy of Penance and Purgatory—the
the doctrine that sins committed
after regeneration can be expiated
only by involuntary or voluntary
punishment or suffering, such as
providential afflictions, or fasting,
watching, abstinence from pleas
ure or business, repeating forms of
prayer and creeds, wearing hair,
shirts, whipping oneself, alms to
the poor, gifts to the church, pil
grimages, exile, and perpetual re-
i. tirement to a monastery. And yet
i. the idea into which our brethren
. have unintentionally drifted seems
- to me to be of this nature.
s The children of God not only
r can, but do sin even Knowingly as
■, ter their regeneration, as both the
j experience of believers and the
’ scriptures abundantly testify; but
i it cannot be proved that any
i where in the Scriptures such sins
are called blasphemy or speaking
evil of the Holy Ghost ;• and unless
the sins after as well as before
regeneration were atoned for and
made an end of by Christ, His
work and sacrifice will be of no
avail to us, we shall be condemned
at.the last day by His infinitely
holy law, and we shall sink down
under the weight of our sins into
everlasting woe. The only real,
efficacious, divinely appointed and
and accepted sacrifice for sin
mentioned in all the
Scriptures is the atoning death of
Christ.
As will be seen in our dear
brother’s letter, the cause of his
referring the unpardonable sin to
the children of God is his under
standing of Heb. x. 62, 27. But
the most spiritual, the most intel
ligent, and' the best informed ser
vants of God in all ages, who have
explained this passage, maintain
that the Apostle here speaks, not
of the regenerated children of God,
but only of His merely professing
people, who, after professing to be
lieve and trust in Christ, re
nounce that profession, and go
back to the law for justification.
The wheb* scope of Apostles’
argument in the Epistle to the
Hebrews, the parts of the 10th
chapter preceding and following
this passage and the general
teaching of the scriptures prove
this view to be correct. In the
26th verse Paul uses the first per
sonal pronoun “we” to avoid the
appearance of personal severity
to those whom he addresses, and
to show that God is no respector
of persons—to emphasize the
great fundamental doctrine of the
epistle and of Christianity, that
there is no salvation for any hu
man being out of Christ. The
“sin” to which the Apostle alludes
is, as shown by the 23rd verse, a
renounciation of the profession of
Christ, a falling away from the
doctrine of salvation by grace
(Heb. vi. 6; Gal. v. 4.), the work
of “an evil heart of unbelief, in
departing from the living God”
(Heb. x. 39). And the Apostle
solemnly declares that to one who
renounces Christ there is no more
sacrifice for sin, hut an unpurged
conscience fearfully looking for
the righteous judgment of God
(see Rom. i. 32, iii. 19), and a
fiery indignation(not a looking for
fiery indignation, but fiery indig
nation itself—the word rendered
“indignation” is in the nominative
case, the subject of remaineth”)
which shall devour, not the sins
but the sinners who have thus
shown themselves to be the proud,
scornful, spiteful, contempteous
adversaries of God, richly deserv
ing, not only the temporal death
justly inflicted upon a presump
tions violator of law given by
Moses, but much sorer punish
ment, even everlasting vengeance
and destruction, eternal perdition,
for giving himself up freely to
Satan, and treating with the ut
most contempt the blessed medi
ation of the glorious Son of God,
and the precious blood with which
He was consecrated to His eternal
priesthood, and the Holy and
(Continued on 4th page.)
No. 13.
