A Book of Gems, or, Choice selections from the writings of Benjamin FranklinFranklin, Benjamin
Religion
A Book of Gems, or, Choice selections from the writings of Benjamin Franklin
Franklin, Benjamin
Churches of Christ
“If one died for all, then we are all dead.” I. Cor. v. 14. This
includes infants and idiots. Christ then died for all. “As in Adam all
die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.” The same “all” that
die in Adam shall be made alive in or by Christ. Christ, then, died for
all,—all that die in Adam,—and will make the same “all” alive, or
raise them from the dead. He, then, in dying for all, died for infants
and idiots, and secured for them resurrection from the dead, and they
need to prepare them for the world to come.
They can receive no gospel, and need none; they can not repent, and
need no repentance; they can not pray or commune, and need no prayer
or communion; they need no religion, and are simply not subjects of
religion. They need no church. The gospel, repentance and remission of
sins, the church and all that is in it, is for pardoned persons—those
washed from their sins—the redeemed by the blood of Christ, and not
for those who never sinned, had no guilt, and needed no pardon—those
who have no faith and know not the Savior.
OUR AUTHORITATIVE RELIGION.
We have not time to elaborate it now, but we can state, that there is
one religion that is the _supreme and absolute authority_—that is
simply the religion of Christ. There is nothing but human authority
in any other. That religion presents a heaven and a hell, the one
as certain as the other. It is not to be tampered with, nor trifled
with. It offers life and threatens death. It has justification and
condemnation, its rewards and punishments. It has God in it, Christ and
the Holy Spirit, prophets, apostles and martyrs. Men submit when they
come to it, and yield to it, in doing which they submit and yield to
its Divine Author. The secrets of men will be judged by Jesus Christ
according to the gospel. If we expect to enter the everlasting city, we
must listen to the Bible.
REFLECTIONS FOR DANCERS.
While we were in Carlisle, Kentucky, in May, we learned that Bro.
Reynolds, who was engaged in an interesting meeting a few miles off,
had announced that he would preach on _dancing_ on a morning. As we
had no appointment for preaching that morning, Bro. Jones proposed to
take us to the place to hear Bro. Reynolds. On arriving we found a good
audience in attendance, and Bro. Reynolds prepared for his work. He
pressed us to address the people, but we declined on the ground that he
had announced his subject, the people had come to hear him, and that we
were interested in the matter and desired to hear him. He then entered
upon his work.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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