Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1874-02-27

the Living God. Let us nobly rejoice in
the prosperity of all the churches in our
CITY and land ,andwhatever others may Go OF
say, let us show unto them more excel
lent way. Let not the schism be laid at
our door. but let all the members nave love,
one for another. Let all thine enemies
perish, o Lord, all systems, schools, par
| ties. which have hindered men fromseelng
| the largeness and freedom and glory OF thy
kingdom; but let all them that love thee,
| in whatever earthly mists they may be at
present involved, be as the Sun when he
| goeth forth it his strength.
| THE pERPETUIrY OF THE CHURCH.
| On Monday night, DR.. Pratt preached
from the text-"The gates OF he'll shall not
prevail against it, He said, this promise
| of Christ is unanimously regarded by 10
manists and Professionals as promise OF
| the perpetuity of the church. This church
| is claimed by Romanists to be an external
organization under the Pope, and the Eng
| fish Church holds the same doctrine, with
1.-THE execution of Pope. PrOtestants
claim that the church whose perpetuity is
promised. is the Invisible church composed
| of believers, and not a Visible Church. Ihe
apostolic churches themselve departed
| from the truth. as is evident from the
warnings and reproof OF the apostles, ana
MANY Of them persisted. From the 9th to
| the 10th century no body Of men could be
pointed out, whom the great body OF Chris
! tians now living would not pronounce Ell
roneous, on more or fewer points OF doc
trine. History shows that there is no Sc
| curity against the apostacy of any partic-
| ular visible church. The whole visible
church may apostatize. 1t had done SO in
| the Jewish Church, when Elijah complain
ed that he was ''left alone" and the Lord
| rebuked him, and said there were Z 1000 men
| who had not bowed the knee to Baal. The
| visible Jewish church had gone after idols
| but the spiritual church was preserved
| among 1000 unknown and unorganlzed
| men. The whole visible Christian church
apostatized at the time of the Arian apos-
! tacy, and the Pope sanctioned this aposta-
| cy, as did the Emperor Constantine, and
| as did the bishops in the proportion OF A.
| to l. And the Romanists and RltuallSts
| of this day settle this matter by asserting
| that, notwithstanding the apostacy OF tho
| visible church, the church slone forth Ill
| the banished Athanasius, in Hilary and
others-thus adopting the Protestant doc
| trine, that it is the spiritual church that is
| maintained.
CONCLUSION.
| In concluding these discourses desire
| to relieve the minds and feelings OF some
| OF you from sort Of irritation which seems
to exist towards those who adopt anothel
view, and who occasionally, IN very bad
! taste. with very bad manners, and with
total want of Christian kindness, assert
| that you and others who belong to the
| great body of the Reformed Protestant
| Church have no valid claim to be a church
of Christ: Now if you are thoroughly
grounded in the scripture doctrine of the
Church. there is no need for irritation OF
feeling Oh your part.
Suppose that sect of astronomers dating
it's origin away back to the time when the
| inquisitors imprisoned Calico in Florence.
should maintain that the sun revolves
around the earth and not the earth around
the sun, and should be perpetually finging
this scientific heresy at those who know
the truth, would the true astronomers
of the present day suffer their tempers to
be ruffiAd on account Of this amiable delu-
sion ?
Or again, suppose that on some little
island there should arise sect of ethnol-
ogists who should claim that they only be-
long to the Caucasian race, and, bringing
genealogical table which they profess to
have kept from the time of the flood, should
challenge us white men to prove by a sim
liar record that we are, like them, the true
descendants of Japhet. | suppose that we
should hardly permit the exclusive claims
they would thus set up to irritate us very
much, as long as we could look III glass
and see that we are white, although We
could not trace our relationship TO Japhei
by written record. Just 80 in regard to
the Church. We look in the glass of scrip
ture and see reflected from 1t all the marks
of a true church in our faces and we need
not be troubled OF irritated at tie exclu-
sive claims of others.
At the close of DR.. Pratt'8 sermon the
hymn was sung
s'On the Rock of Ages founded,
What can shake thy sure repoge
With Salvation's walls surrounded,
Thou may'st smile at all thy foes"
The services closed with prayer by Rev.
VIM. E. Baker in which he prayed that
God would permit none of His own to be
led away by sectarianism, OF mere external
forms, from the all important truths of the
gospel.
DEATH OF FIREMAN.-.|ames p.
Grove, an efficient member Of Augusta
FIFE Company. died on Friday last, and
was buried at Thornrose Cemetery Satur-
day afternoon. Augusta Fire Company,
! under Sd commander, Jos. Scherer, and
the Hook and Ladder Company, under
Capt. Harrison, paraded at the funeral,
the whole being under the command of
Chief Engineer, J. III. Waters. A series of
resolutions Of regret prepared by Messrs.
| S<I,n