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


council: q
We, the undersigned @aas4hg been
called and invited by the First Baptiss
church of Waco to act as council toad
wise with them in the case of Rev M. 7
Martin, deem it sufficient to sbaEe that
we have heard the evidence in this case
(wheu unavoidablY absent during pre-
sentation of part of the evidence we af-
forwards carefully examined that paTt) ,
and that the trial was fair, the spirit
good, and in our judgment the decision
of the church was wise.
S. B. MCJUNKIN,
Pastor Second Baptist Church, Waco
JOHN BATEMAN,
Pastor East Waco Baptist Church
REPORT OF THE DEACONs PREFERRING
CHARGES AGAINST REV. NJ. 7. MARTIN =.
WACO. TEX, July Il, 1883.
To the First Baptist Church, Waco, Dear
Brethren and Sisters:
BY order of the church, in regular
conference, assembled Sunday after
noon, July IA, we were instructed to
prepare and prefer such charges against
our brother Rev. NJ. T. Martin, con-
corning his departure from the Baptist
faith and polity as the facts in the case
may warrant.
In obedience to our Instructions we
discharge the duty imposed on su rs well
as we can in the time allotted.
Allow us, first of all, 10 promise that
the duty is a most painful one, which
we would fain escape If consistent with
the interests of the church and our OBJ
legations to it.
AS this duty is so unpleasant, permit
US, even if it be unnecessary, to disclaim
any bias, prejudice or unkind feeling per-
sonallY in the matter. Between us and
Bro. Martin we are conscious of no
ground or occasion whatever of personal
i'll feeling. We give him our solemn as
surance of good viii.
With this disclaimer, and solely from a
sense of duty, we prefer the following
CHARGE:
Rev. Nj. 7. Martin, member and or
dalned minister OF this church, has at
various places and times since his con-
nection with this church and RESPONSE
bilitv to it, taught doctrines contrary
to our acknowledged standards of faith
and polity, thereby causing division
and trouble in our denomination e.
We further charge that after the pastor
had privately and kindly called his at
tention to these matters and admonished
him more than once to be more careful
and circumspect in his publications and
pulpit utterances; and when the trouble
and confusion, excited by his ministerial
course and practices, had assumed such
proportions that the elders and deacOns
of the church invited him TO private and
fraternal conference concerning these
matters, and when assembled in such
conference, he being voluntarily present
and participating, they did, by, long
and painstaking labor. seek earnestly
10 find some safe ground of ad-
justment, and did kindly admonish him
and implore him to benefit by the lessons
of the past, yet, since that time the
trouble and confusion following his min
isterial labors and excited by them have
increased rather than diminished. And
we regret further to charge shat some of
his statements in the fraternal confer
ence, a partial result of which was pub
llshed for his benefit in the form of an
swers to direct questions, and referring
to what he mad taught in various places,
have not been confirmed but refuted
rather by the testimony of many pastors
with whom he labored and which testi-
mony he invoked.
And we further charge that even in so
short tine IN some places where his
doctrines have been received and his
spirit imbibed, the effect has been detri-
mental to prayer meetings, Sunday
schools, mission work, and other de-
nominational activities.
In order to facilitate any defense he
may desire to make to the foregoing
general charge is particularized where
necessary in the following
SpECrFICATIOSS.
On egeneration-Article of the
confession of faith adopted by this church
reads as follows: eve believe that in
order to be saved sinners must be regen-
Grated or born again; that regeneration
consists in giving holy disposition to the
mind; that it is effected in a manner
above our comprehension, by the power
of the Holy Spirit, in connection with di-
vine truth, so as to secure our voluntary
obedience to the gospel: and its proper
evidence appears in the holy fruits of
repentance, and faith, and newness of
life -
This article Bro. Martin violates in
that he teaches two new births instead
of one. A birth or regeneration by the
spirit and a later birth or regeneration by
the word, thus contrary to all Baptist
Interpretation Notwithstanding re-
generation not from feshly birth but
from a previous generation of the Spirit,
thereby making regeneration TO consist
not as this article affirms Gin giving
holy disposition to the mind but in
the belief Of the truth, and making it
the effect not of the Holy
Spirit but of truth believed. And
that this departure from the form
of sound words has not been harmless
we expect to prove by adequate testimo-
ny. We specify that he has so taught in
the Gospel Standard, monthly, owned
and edited by h i'm and others, and pub
lished formerly in Waco, now in Atlanta,
Ga. He has also taught it in the Texas
Baptist and Herald and from the pulpit
at Hillsboro and other places
If it be claimed that he repudiated this
teaching in the published answers educed
by the fraternal conference aforemen-
toned, then it will be shown that It has
been practically reaffirmed since that
time.
On santihcatiou-Baptist teaching on
this important doctrine is embodied in
article 10 OF the confession adopted by
this church, aud articleI3 of the Phil
adelph;a confession, which we now read.
In the Gospel Standard of June, 1889, is
an editorial over his initials which OPP
poses these articles, in that it makes
qualification precede conversion and
faith, confounds it with regeneration,