Birth of a Reformation; Or, The Life and Labors of Daniel S. Warner — John Shaqi
Birth of a Reformation; Or, The Life and Labors of Daniel S. WarnerByers, A. L. (Andrew L.)
Religion
Birth of a Reformation; Or, The Life and Labors of Daniel S. Warner
Byers, A. L. (Andrew L.)
Church of God (Anderson, Ind.) -- History; Warner, D. S. (Daniel Sidney), 1842-1895
But there were those, the humble ones, who were willing to let God
have his way. At the sound of the trumpet, which God was giving
through Brother Warner, thousands have rallied to the standard of
truth, and through them the truth has been and is being vindicated.
If God has his way all Christians will be led out of sects, all
justified believers will be led into sanctification, the church will
be perfectly organized and governed by the Holy Spirit, the whole
truth will be preached uncompromisingly, full salvation will be held
out to the world, and all will be led to cooperate and do their part.
This is the full measure of Christianity today, and is God's design
with his people. Here is true Christian unity. Such unity can come
only by absolute abandonment to God, for _he_ must be the one-making
agent. Men may attempt a unity through some Interchurch World
Movement or other plan, but no plan can represent the true Scriptural
unity unless God does the work himself. He must have the full right
of way in human hearts.
Brother Warner's mission was strictly that of a reformer. It was
his part to venture boldly with the truth God had given him, with
a willingness to run the gauntlet of persecutions that were sure
to greet him on the right and left. His severe denunciation of all
things sectarian was consistent with his pioneer position. There
first had to be an awakening, a breaking up of old conditions,
particularly of the recognition (into which the minds of people
generally had settled) of the sects as being the church of God. His
work was the initial, or birth, stage of the reform.
Following the initial stage has come the constructive, which
comprehends the reformation in the local sense, the sense in which
the Christian life and true ideal of the church must be exemplified
in the community as something more than theory, something that will
appeal as being better than what is represented in the sects. The
constructive stage calls not so much for continual denunciation of
sects as for manifesting those essential principles that characterize
the church in her unity and entirety. The responsibility is to make
good the claim, and this means much. Any tendency to establish
traditions, or to regard a past course as giving direction in all
respects for the future, or to become self-centered and manifest a
"we are it" spirit and bar the door of progress against the entrance
of further light and truth, or in any way to refuse fellowship
with any others who may be Christians, would itself be sectarian,
altogether unlike the true reformation, which, if it be final, must
necessarily be a _restoration_ and possess universal characteristics.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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