Democratic enquirer. [volume] (M'arthur, Vinton County, Ohio) 1867-1873, 1873-01-15
THE SECT. BABEL.

The great Babel Of sectaIianism
that has been built up in our land
has caused fearful confounding Of
the Christian tongue. The Ian
guage and terms of the Bible have
been changed and subverted'-
Strange words have been devised
by which to express opinions and
proctices peculiar to this tall Tower
and this new way by which to as
cend to heaven. You can scarcely
attend an experience meeting or
listen to sermon without being
painfully impressed with this con
fusion of tongues. The plain, sim
pie story of the cross, the pure Ian
guage of Canaan, has been changed
into the terms of sect and creed and
contending faction. For the church
of Christ you hear Methodist, or
Presbyterian, or Disciple church.
At the camp-meeting or in the
classroom you hear men glory in
being ''born Methodist" ''living a
Methodist" "dying a Methodist"
'hoping to go to heaven a Metho-
dist" Other denominations talk in
the same way, and some of our own
church are not a whit less sectarlan
in all their notions and sympathies.
What sad confounding and confu-
sion of the Christian tongue, of the
simple story of the cross! When
will men be content to glory simply
in being called of Christ to be his
humble followers, and in being sim
ply brethren and companions with
other souls washed at the same
crimson fount and saved by the
same crucifed Jesus? Surely after
lapse of eighteen hundred years
we ought no longer defy the teach
ing of Christ by our divisions, and
persist in our carnality by being of
Paul, Apollos, and Cephas. "ls
Christ divided? Was Paul crucified
for you?" Did Wesley die for men,
and was redemption unfinished till
Luther had expired? 1t seems to
us that if Wesley and Luther and
Judson and others could look down
from heaven and see the sectarian
boasting Of their names and their
teachings, they would feel like re-
minding men once more that Christ
is the Founder, the Head, the
Leader of the church, and that
names, titles, and honors belong to
him, and not to erring, sinful men,
Why factions and sects should wish
to found systems and write creeds,
after having this perfect code and
canon of Scripture, we cannot imag-
inc. Why they should confound
the simplicity of faith with 1.-The
words which mans wisdom teach
eth" while there lies before them a
Bible written in the swords which
the Holy Ghost teacheth," is not
easily explained, especially with
these words before us: IF any
man teach otherwise, and consent
not to wholesome words, even the
words of our Lord Jesus Christ,
he is proud, knowing
nothing, but doting about questions
and strifes of words" etc, and, "Ot
these things put them in remem-
brance, charging them before the
Lord that they strive not about
words to no profit, but the subvert-
ing of the hearers"
Alas, how this tall Babel of sect
ism has destroyed the simple Ian
guage of Scripture teaching and
Scripture confessions This simple
avowal, Il believe that Jesus Christ
is the Son of Cod" is changed, is
enlarged into a system of divinity
and drawn out into complex and in
explicible "articles of faith" The
simple truth upon which the peni-
tent soul could at once take easy
and firm hold has been dogmatized
and mystifed till doctors OF. divinity
themselves dispute its meaning,
and wrangle over the definitions of
their own indefnable tenets. But,
thanks be to God, the builders of
this sect-Babel can no longer un-
derstand each others words. Work
upon the great Tower is therefore
ceasing, and the people are return
ing to the one Book, the one Mas
ter-builder, the one language, the