Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1873-05-22

THE PROPAGATION OF THE GOSPEL.

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THE PROPAGATION OF THE GOSPEL.
The spread of the gospel may be set down
amongst the miraculous. Naturally, men do
not like the gospel. They hate it. This is
true of all men, in all countries and at all
times. Still the gospel of Jesus Christ has
survived all the opposition which has been
waged against it, and spread and fourished
under circumstances that would have exter.
minated any and everything else. Impedi-
ments have been thrown in the way Of the
spread of the gospel by foes without, and by
professed friends from within; but neither
open foes nor traitorous friends have been
able, in any perceptible degree, to impede its
progress. This is q convincing proof of its
divine origin. Had the gospel been Of man,
it would long since have been numbered with
the things that once we're, but now are not.
Although the gospel is of divine origin,
and is kept in existence by the Intervention
of God, still it is propagated amongst men by
the use of instrumentalities. God does not
come to individuals, and by direct and ir-
resistible exercise of his almighty power
quicken them into life, justify them, adopt
them into his family and purge and purify
them from all their sins, and make them fit
for heaven. In each and every one of these
particulars, secondary instrumentalities are
used, and ordinarily, without the use of these
instrumentalities, no change takes place either
in the state or condition of the sinner.
In the spreading of the gospel, God acts as
he does in almost every thing else. We say,
with eminent propriety, that God opens his
hand and supplies the wants Of every thing
that liveth. He does not supply the wants Of
every living creature, without an effort on the
part of any and all his creatures. Man is re.
quired to use industry and economy. He
plants and cultivates, but the increase is at
last wholly of God. In his great wisdom
and infinite goodness, God permits man to be
a co-laborer with himself. In similar way
the gospel is propagated. Paul plants and
Apollos waters, but God gives the increase.
Neither Paul nor Apollos, by themselves, can
effect anything; and without Paul and Apol-
los, God, in his wisdom, does not propose to ef-
feet thing.
The gospel is propagated by the use of hu-
man instrumentalities. God, in his great
goodness, permits man to be a co-laborer with
himself in this great work. This is the reason
that Christians are required to contribute of
their substance to the spread of the gospel in
lands where it is not; and to the sustaining of
it in those lands in which it has already been
planted. Sometimes men say the gospel is
free-without money and without price and,
therefore, all this cry from the pulpit and re-
ligious press for money is uncalled for. Some
even 90 farther than this. They say that
the contributions made by Christians are
desired only, or mainly, to support a certain
class of society in ease and idleness. This
is a dangerous position. Sunshine, rain and
air, are as free as the gospel. So is the pro-
ductve principle of the earth. These cost US
nothing. We cannot buy them-we cannot
sell them. Is this any reason why the farmer
should cease to plant and cultivate? No one
ever came to such a suicidal conclusion.
The gospel is free. Our redemption costs us
nothing. The salvation four immortal souls
is worth more than all the gold and silver in
the world. Were we possessed Of all the
world, we could not pay the ransom price of
our polluted souls. All this is Bible-taug ht
truth, and yet we must labor with God for
the salvation of q ruined world. We must
plant, we must cultivate; we must contribute
of our substance we must devote the ener-
gies of our minds and of our bodies to the
propagation of the gospel, as if the whole sue
cess depended upon our individual effort, and
we must do all we do as if the success of all
that we do depended upon God.