The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1883-01-15
THE BATTLE CALL TO DUTY.
Sermon by Rev. ID. ID. Read at the
North Baptist Church.
The Doctrine for Which the Baptist Church
Stands-An Invocation to the Mem
bership to Go Forth to Battle.

Text: "But We shall pass before your brethren
armed, all the mighty men of valor, and help
then until the Lord have given your brethren
rest. as he hath given You, and they also have
possessed the land which the Lord your God
giveth them then We shall return unto the land
of your possession. and enjoy it," Joshua, i:
xiv, XIV.
After a historical examination of the passage
Mr.. Read said:
have been quoted in your hearing suggest sew
eral lessons Briefly, they are the following;
fled with the possession of eastern Pales-
tine refused to accompany and assist their
brethren IN the conquest of western Pales-
tinel II is reasonable to presume that such
manifest lack of interest and such marked
dimnutIon OF their numbers would exercise, as
Moses anticipated, a dispiriting and discouraging
effect upon those whose posses siOns were yet to
be won by warfare. More than this Such dis
play OF selfishness and Indifference to the well
fare of their brethren would ne also an exhibit
tion of the coolest ingratitude. For all Israel
had aided the two tribes and the half tribe in
securing their inheritance in the promised land
But, in addition to the preceding, Moses
had assured the possessors of the land of
Gllead that, in they refused TO go over
Jordan and aid Israel in dispossessing the
TO execute the revealed will of Je-
hovah, and so would sin against God
as well as against their brethren. Keeping their
promise to 70 with their brethren to battle, they
should ba guiltless before the Lord and before
israel But II ye will not do so, behold, We have
slnned against the Lord, and be sure your sin
will find you out" Yet another lesson is evil
dent. 1t is that the establishment and prosperity
OF the nation were to be paramount to that OF a
part OF the nation; in other words, the whole
was not to be sacrificed for part. The stabil-
ity and permanence OF part was not to be Sc
cured at the expense of the loss of these to the
whole. Minor part and major part were alike
dependent upon each other, aud alike bound by
one law, and alike Included within one covenant
OF promise and blessing. Neither should prosper
at the expense of the other, but both should con-
serve their common interests and promote their
general welfare. Or, to State the thought differ
emily, Israel was to be a nation, not the frae
ments of nation. common country, a com
mon brotherhood and o common worship were to
make Israel one. The great lesson Of all, how
ever, Is that
ISRAEL WAS REPRESENTATIVE.
That Is to say, Israel represented great prin.
ciple and great purpose. The principle was
that of menothesm, or the doctrine of one God.
II was Numerically opposed to polythesm, or
the doctrine of many Geds. Among BALL sur
rounding peoples from her cradle upon the
plains of MesOpOtamia, amid the gods and god
esses Of Egypt, standing upon her sacred hills by
the highway of heather and pagan nations,
Israel, however unstable, none the less q
constant witness for that principle, aud, finally,
so closely Interviewer was that principle with
her social, political and religious life that she
would sacrifice the latter before she would sur
render the former. From that fundamental
axlOms, postulates, propositions and code of
laws of which have not now time to speak,
These all exercised a directing influence upon
individual life, and were largely instrumental IN
moulding the genius of the nation. For centu"
rics Israel stood alone among the nations as the
wOrshper OF one God, and Him she declared to
be spiritual and Lord of lords and King of kings
the only Most High and Most Holy. For Him
she demanded the most Implicit obedience, not
only of her own sons and the sOjOurners among
them, but of all men every here.
The purpose was that OF the establishment OF
the kingdom OF God on earth. The execution of
that purpose limited at in the promise to Eve, in
voved the fall of ADAM the training of Abra-
ham, Isaac and Jacoe in the true faith; the So
journ in Egypt, the exodus, the education of the
nation in the wilderness, aud now the subjuga-
ton and occupancy of Palestine.
The promised land must be possessed in order
that Israel may become the conservator OF the
worship of the one God, the preserver OF the
canon of the Old Testament Scriptures, and at
one and the same time the John the Baptist, pre-
pairing the way for the coming OF the Messiah,
and the Herod who should reject Him aud seek
to destroy Him. Judaism was planted in Pales-
tine that 1t might serve as a protecting sheath
to the tender blade of Christianity until the lat
ter had grown to sufficient size and strength to
endure the heats of persecution, and the storms
OF malice, and the frosts and SHOWS of unbelief.
Solomon's Temple, in the construction of which
"there was neither hammer nor ak nor any tool Of
iron heard in the house while it was in building,
was bnt type of the temple OF God which was
erected in the thirty years of stiffness in the
Galilean villageand was regretted in the solemn
sieDoa OF the Judean sepulchre and glcrified
and exalted upon the Mount of Ascension and
also of the kingdom of God, which cometh not
with observation All these later events
anu epochs In the establishment of that king
dom depended npon all those which had pre-
eeded them. The crossing of Jordan the sub
jugatiOn OF Canaan by the lsraelites were neces-
sary prelminares to other advances, all of
which were to further the accomplishment Of
the Divine purpose. Hence it was not without
reason that Joshua, acting in accordance with
his instructions. remn ded the tribes settled upon
the east of Jordan of their obligation to aid
their brethren in possessing and settling upon
the other side
Proving unfaithtu to their covenant, they
might, as Moses feared, destroy all this PEG
pie" But they were faithful and, fully armed
for war went over Jordan ami returned not un-
I'll their brethren were established in the prom
ised land; SO they were "gnitless before the
Lord. and before Israel" as Moses declared they
should be If they helped their brethren, and
with them sought to execute the purpose of
God.
Looking back over the past. we agree with
TennysoD:
"Yet doubt not through the ages one increas
ing purpose runs,
And the thoughts of men widened with the
process of the suns"
THE DUTY OF BAPTIsTs.
desire now to suggest a parallel. 1t is be-
tween the Israelites and the Baptists. The latter
no less than the former represent principle
and purpose. Addressing Baptists, need only
outline these. The distinctive principle which
charact srizes us as a church may be thus stated:
The kindom OF Christ is per se spiritual, and :he
subjects of 1t are those only who have been re-
newed by The Holy Spirit, and SO have voluntar
lily become obedient to the truth. AS corroaries
to the preceding, they hold the following: That
believers In Christ are the only persons eptitled
to admission to the Christian church and partic
ipatiOn in its privileges; that baptism and the
Lords supper are sacred symbolic rites, ex-
pressing truth by forms of action, and hence are
to be preserved in their apostolic purity, simpci
ty nd order OF sequence From these prolific
grew the great doctrine of soul liberty of which
the Baptists have ever been the most consistent
champions. Froude, in his life of John Bunyan
does not hesitate to affirm that "the Baptists are
the most thoroughgoing aud consistent OF all the
Protestant sects."
OF the origin of Baptists have not time to
speak save TO observe that Sir Isaac Newton re-
marked: "The Baptists are the only body of
Christians that has not symbolized with the
church Of Rome"