The bee., 1902-06-12
Editor darlington Bee:

NY Dear Slr;-In a report OF ou
recent meeting in Darlington, pub
lished in your issue of May 20, fine
certain structures and misrepresent
atIons to which l wish to offer {
word of kindly dissent and eXplana
ton.
most earnestly deny:
1st. That 1 am "a strong support
er of my doctrine" | have no doc.
trine apart from the doctrines OF
Christ and His apostles, and they
are no more mine than they are the
doctrines of any and all who accept
and teach them.
End. l deny that L am "a tireless
fighter of other denominations. y
The scribe who makes this charge
knows that the use of the phrase,
'other denominations, implies that
1 belong to and try to build up one
of the denominations and this is
not true.
Our constant protest has been
against the unscripturalness and
sinfulness of denominationalism /;
and no matter what else may be
said of us, all can see that we cannot
consistently seek the removal of de-
nominationalism while we at the
same time admit that we are adding
another denomination. Our position
on this whole matter is both clear
and reasonable, but your scribe, who
heard me but once, has never given
our plea a fair, impartial hearing,
and what is trne of him is also true
of many others-they refuse to give
fair hearing, ,:but do not hesitate to
cal us fighters and narrow.
Tnls is what 1 taught:
The word of God provides for and
endorses but one church and only
one, and that is the church of Christ
itself, and to this church all have
the right to belong if they will.
Not only so, the word of God does
not, in any Sense, provide for and
endorse the divisions in the church
known as denominations, with di-
visive and conflicting creeds, con-
fessions of faith and different stan
dards of doctrine, No matter who
may belong TO them and support
them, and no matter how liberal,
pious and earnest they may be, and
no matter how satisfied they may
be, it is still true that the present
divided state of divisions into de-
nominations is contrary to the plain,
full letter and spirit of Gods word.
Will your scribe undertake to show
that Gods word provides for the
present condition of divisions,
creeds, conflicting denominations ?
He should be able to do so or cease
to indiscriminately condemn me for
making a faithful, patient effort to
point out these defects and also to
point out the clear way of solution.
No one can intelligently read John
17:2O-23; Cor. 1: 10; S:1-9; Eph.
A: 1-13, and still conscientlously say
that it is right and proper to haYe
these denominations, creeds, etc.
viii my honest reader turn to
these passages now, and then answer
before God this question:
When a man points out that divi-
sions, denominations, creeds, con-
fessiOns of faith, human names, etc.,
are useless, unscrfptural, and there
fore sinful, and when he opens his
Bible and shows that God, Christ,
the Holy Spirit and the apostles all
abundantly teach that we should all
be one, that we can be one, and
shows US plainly how this can be
accomplished; 1 say, when a man
does all this over and over, day after
day, proving it all by the plainest
and fullest teaching of the blessed
Bible, is it right for some one who
has heard me but one time to pub
lish to hundreds of people who did
not hear me that am a fighter, and
that my course is contrary to Chris
tian brotherhood ?"
This charge against me will not
deceive those who heard me faith
fully, and it is certainly not fair to
put me in false light before those
who did not hear me. Remember
ing now that what 1 did was to point
out that our present divided condi-
tion is not only not supported in
Gods word, but also that the word
most positively and fully warns us
against these very things. Further
more, showed that God has plain
ly taught us to be one in Christ and
that we should all be members of
the one body, the church of which
Christ is the head. Eph. 4: 10, and
:23. Christ's body is the church.
Col. / Is and "a.
L insisted that we can and should
all be members of this one body
without being members of divisions,
etc., which are so contrary to Gods
will and are so hurtful to His cause.