Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1889-08-01

ogically denies its progressive chara cter
and that it fits one for Heaven.
On faith and asSurance-In that he
makes a full comprehension Of all that is
revealed concerning the object of faith
or the promises to it essential to its saw
| ing exercise. And in that he makes as
surance or absence of doubt so essential
to faith as that the latter can not exist
without the former. By this he adds q
| condition to salvation itself, and to the
ordinances, and to the office of the min
istry, unknown to the scriptures and to
our standard. (6ee in part his
published answers before refer
red to, and the Standard of
January, February, March and Septem-
| Der, 1888, and the testimony of various
ministers with whom he has held meet
ings } To show that this teaching is con-
trary to Baptist faith, we ask the privi
lege of reading article of our confess
sion, and article IS of the Philadelphia
| confession.
By so making assurance or the absence
of doubt, an essential to saying faith and
| prerequisite to baptism, he has so
| brought great confusion in our denomi-
nation and so caused a repetition of bap-
tism and ordination as is without a
| parallel in our UNCONVENTIONAL history,
which facts are of such notoriety that
minute specification is unnecessary.
On repentance-His ministry concern
ng this vital and fundamental doctrine
| fails in important particulars to conform
! to the holy scriptures and our confession
! of faith His definition that repentance
! is knowing God and turning from dead
| works. is a strange one to Baptist liter
AZURE. In our desire to avoid what might
| seem mere strife about words we would
not insist upon pressing this point of
definition but for its relation to what fol-
| lows. AS might be expected, however,
from such definition, he minifieS and
| depreciates this doctrine, which was the
! leading and one of the most important
themes in the preaching of the prophets ;,
of John the Baptist, of Christ himself
| and of the apostles. He justified his
failure to preach repentance by the map
| propriate illustration ''When physician
| wants patient to Yomit be doesn { tell
| him to yomit, but gives him
! an emetic and it vomits itself. -
| We submit that aside from the lack of
analogy in the illustration, which
shows physical effort not dependent
upon the will, the illustration would
equally justify failure TO preach faith
or any other duty. We here quote so
much of Art. s of our confession as re-
fers to repentance: ''We believe that
repentance is a sacred duty, and grace
wrought in our souls by the regeueTating
spirit of God, whereby, beng deeply
convinced of our guilt, danger and
helplessness, we turn to God with I'M
feigned contritiOn, confession and suppl
cation for mercy.
1t seems to us impossible to reconcile
this article of our faith with his definI-
ton or with the effects manifested by
those protesting repentance in many of
his meetings. In support of which state
ment we are ready to submit the testi-
mony of many pastors with whom he Ia
bored
The last phrase in the article quoted,
to-wit: ''Turning to God with supplica-
ton for mercy - and citing as a proof
text the prayer of the Publican, "God
be merciful to me a sinner. suggests
specification 6, on pra yer.
Bro. Martin usually not only reduces
his prayer service in protracted meetings
to a minimum startling to Baptist minis
tiers, and not only lays exceptionally
little stress on its Importance in his
preaching, but his teachings are against
the duty and privilege of sinners praying
for forgiveness and the privilege and
duty of Christians praying that sinners
may be forgiven. We refer for proof to
the positive testimony of ministers with
whom he has labored, and to several
issues of the Gospel Standard, which we
are prepared to read. ~.
To sum up, we do not charge that Bro.
Martin lacks mental ability, or elo-
quence, or magnetic power, or powers of
adaptation, or ready and captivating adj
dress, or bright conversational powers;
on the contrary we believe he possesses
all these in a high degree; nor do we
charge that he fails to preach some other
important doctrines with power and
clearness, because such charge could
not be sustained; but we do
claim that the possession of such
extraordinary faculties coupled with
with the fact that he breaches with I'M
usual force and lucidness some doctrines
important and dear 10 Baptist hearts,
and coupled with the further fact of
good moral character, makesss, his
heresies more dangerous. IndeedS wish-@c
out such combination they coigld rot
find hurtful acceptance Similar add
more iiIustrious cases are not uREnoRn
to our past history, written for oura "a
monition, and to whose lessonsESke
90 well to take heed. In short, weS6lo
charge that his preaching, aYen
when he breaches a particular. tentffs
so disregards the system of whfx6that
truth is part, and so ignores th5s1raSs:
portance of corelatIve parts sf the
same system, that it presents tFlea sys-
TEN as q deformed or malformed body
As, for instance, when the head is too
large for the other members, or when
one member says TO another, 81 have
no need of thee. - This method, if
there were no other faults, makes him
unsafe as a public teacher, however
gifted or conscientious, particularly when
he uses terms so out of their usual signiff-.
cation that ne must ever complain of be-
ing misunderstood. 1t will be observed
that the great errors embodied in his
teaching st Hillsboro, while conducting
theological course there, are not IN
Guided in these charges, though suscep-
tible of. abundant proof, because they
were in the main abandoned in