The Money Power
Sixth LectureINTRODUCTORY.
Have noticed in our city churches, where there is a membership as high as a thousand or more, if a prayer-meeting is appointed there will be about a dozed present; but if an oyster supper is appointed there will be all of a thousand or more there. We are told that those who are the sons of God are led by the Spirit of God, therefore it is not a large proportion of Church members who show by this test that they are led of the Spirit of God or give evidence of being his children. The Holy Spirit always leads in the direction of spiritual things and the saving truth-those who have the Holy Spirit always have a heart for God's Word. They run toward the light. Their supreme pleasure is in the Word; they feast upon it and are sanctified by it. The Word of God will stand when heaven and earth shall pass away. Everybody in this city, and everywhere else will have to hear and be judged by the offensive Word that is preached in this series of lectures. It is a savor of life or of death according to its treat-
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ment by man. I would have no business to preach the gospel if I had not this assurance. I sometimes hear it said: "You think you are right and everybody else wrong." I have no business to preach unless I know that I am right and everybody else wrong who has another gospel. For without faith it is impossible to please God, and we must have faith in the truth if we expect to be saved. I have my opinions, but such are unimportant. I am here to preach the Word, about which people cannot honestly differ when they understand what is preached.
I will read from the Prophet Isaiah 55th chapter.
"1 Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy and eat; yea come, buy wine and milk without money and without price."
I am glad that that which is of the greatest value to humanity is the freest; and water is hence a beautiful type of salvation because it is free as well as life giving to the soul.
"2 Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? and your labour for that which satisfieth not? hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness.
"3 Incline your ear and come unto me : hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David.
"4 Behold, I have given him for a witness to the people, a leader and commander to the people.
"5 Behold, thou shalt call a nation that thou knowest not, and nations that knew not thee shall run unto thee because of the Lord thy God, and for the Holy One of Israel; for he hath glorified thee.228
"6 Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near
"7 Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him ; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon."How much money is spent to-day for a gospel that does not feed the soul. We are living in the time prophesied of when there shall be a famine not of bread and water but of hearing the Word of God.
Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word which proceedeth out of the mouth of God. To the soul the Word is necessary as bread is to the body.
God's Word faithfully preached is never in vain.
PRAYER.
Almighty God, our Father, in thy kind providence a few of us are gathered once more in this place to hear from thee out of thy Word. And we are thankful that thou hast promised the aid of thy Spirit to attend thy Word. Thou hast never disappointed those who put their trust in thee. We expect thy blessing; that thy truth may find lodgment in some hearts and bring forth fruit to the praise of thy name. Make this a season of profit to us all. We- are thankful that the great salvation which thou hast provided is free as the water we drink or the air we breathe. We are glad that it is beyond the reach of human monopolies, though men may seek to
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control it, and we have the invitation, "Come unto me all ye that labor, and I will give you rest"; "Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give shall never thirst." Now, Lord, grant thy blessings and help us to-drink at the everlasting fountains; and we will give thee the praise and glory for thy soul refreshing which all the gold of earth could not purchase but is thy free gift to us through Jesus Christ. Amen.
MONEY.In the 16th chapter of Luke and 9th verse we have these words:
"And I say unto you make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness, that when ye fail they may receive you into everlasting habitations."
In this passage the unjust steward is commended for his foresight in the use of his master's money while entrusted with it in providing for a future habitation, while those who have the riches God has entrusted them, instead of using it to lay up treasures in heaven, waste it on their lusts and fail of everlasting habitations. To make friends of the mammon of unrightousness is to use money as a power for good instead of evil.
Christ teaches in this that we should be wise in the use of the money with which God has entrusted us so as to make it a blessing instead of a curse, as it is almost universally made. Paul says, "The love of
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money is the root of all evil." And covetousness, which is idolatry, is the universal sin of our race. The almighty dollar has more power in our country than the Word of God. Money is a representative of all earthly good. It is the means by which we can accomplish the greatest earthly good and also lay up treasures in heaven. Money is talent for which we are all responsible. I believe that every man will have to give an account to God for every dollar of his money -- for the manner, he uses the riches with which he is entrusted. For that is part of the talent by which we have power to do good in this world. With our money we can feed the hungry, clothe the naked, provide for the temporal wants of our fellowman and in this way we can lay up treasures in heaven. And also with our money we can help to spread the gospel of salvation among men. And this ,is the most important use that we can make of our money. More needful is the bread of eternal life for the masses of this city, and everywhere, in our :times, than literal bread was ever useful in the time of famine.
If I had a million dollars at my command every cent of it would go to the spread of the gospel. My only business is to preach and publish God's useful truth here and wherever I am. I believe that there is no higher calling for us in the use of a talent, whatever it may be, but to spread the gospel in the earth for the want of which the multitudes will perish spiritually and eternally.
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God, under the Old Testament dispensation, provided for the support of his ministry, and for the expenses of his temple service. There was a treasury in the temple and it was opened for men to give to the religion which God had appointed, according to their disposition. The widow, who gave her two mites, is commended as having given more than all those who had cast into the treasury of their abundance, because the measure of value is by the heart of the giver and not the scale of dollars and cents as estimated by the corporations of this world. I am glad that the poor can give as much by the scale of value in God's Church as a Rockefeller, or any of the millionaires of the world. Our God is not poor; he is not dependent )on the riches of this world. The giving is for the benefit of the giver rather than the receiver, we are taught by the Word of God. In the Church of Jesus Christ there is a financial plan, but it differs from the Old Testament plan by the fact that there is no outward law to regulate the giving. We are not restricted to tithes or to forms and conditions imposed by the law of Moses. But the voluntary plan in giving which proceeds from the heart is what is of value in God's Church. On the day of Pentecost, when the Holy Ghost produced its effects upon the people and the law was written in their hearts, we find the giving was not regulated by any plan or outward system, although as many as had houses and lands sold them and brought the money and laid it at the Apostles' feet.
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It was a spontaneous move. There is no outward law requiring any such sacrifice, but when they had the love of God shed abroad in their hearts such was the spontaneous outburst of benevolence and Christian giving. And through the history of the Christian Church we find the same voluntary giving practised and taught by the Apostles.
In respect to the support of the gospel I will just read you what Paul says in the first Epistle to the Corinthians, 9th chapter.
"9 For it is written in the law of Moses, Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn. Doth God take care for oxen?
"10 Or saith he it altogether for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt, this is written: that he that plougheth should plough in hope; and he that thresheth in hope should be partaker of his hope.
"11 If we have sown unto you spiritual things, is it a great thing if we shall reap your carnal things?
"12 If others be partakers of this power over you, are not we rather? Nevertheless we have not used this power; but suffer all things, lest we should hinder the gospel of Christ.
"13 Do ye not know that they which minister about holy things live of the things of the temple? and they which wait at the altar are partakers with the altaar?
"14 Even so that the Lord ordained that they which preach the gospel should live of the gospel.
"15 But I have used none of these things, that it should be so done unto me: for it were better for me to die, than that any man should make my glorying void.
"16 For though I preach the gospel, I have nothing to glory of: for necessity is laid upon me; yea, woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel?"233
We find that it is God's plan under the new covenant that his ministry should be aided in their work so far as they have need. But we are taught that this aid is not in the shape of salaries or financial engagements, but voluntary offerings on the part of the Church are received for the benefit of the ministry. Paul chose to preach by example -- the self-sacrificing love which belongs to the Christian. So he chose not to be burdensome to the Church, not to ask or receive the aid to which he was entitled. Although we do read of his receiving aid, especially of the Macedonian Churches, whom he highly commends for their self-sacrificing love and benevolence. Yet, we find that the Apostle sought to relieve the Church of any burden for his own support. In Acts 20: 33, his farewell talk to the elders of Ephesus, he commends them to imitate his example, to avoid burdening the Church; that they should show self-sacrificing love for the Church, ready to lay down life as the Master did for us. Thus Paul taught self-sacrificing love in his giving, and he tells them it is better to give than to receive. Although that is generally applied by the preachers to the people, Paul applies it to the preachers themselves. Paul says that those who preach shall live by the preaching of the Word. In the gospel work it is only those who show that they are not after money but who seek the good of souls, and have the sacrificing spirit of the Master, who are worthy of the aid of the Church financially. Above all things
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else a hireling is to be condemned, one who makes money a condition or proposes to sell the gospel; and here we come to what the Scriptures say about the curse of money. We read in the 5th chapter of the second book of Kings, on the occasion of the visit of Naaman to be healed of leprosy, after Naaman was healed he came to the prophet and offered to reward him. The prophet refused to receive money, although pressed to do so.' He rejected the idea of receiving anything as compensation for the miracle of healing his body, a parallel to soul healing by the gospel. But Gehazi thought he would take advantage of the occasion, so he went and received the things that were offered by Naaman. When he came back the prophet said to him,
"Is it a time to receive money, to receive garments, to receive olive yards and vineyards, the leprosy of Naaman shall cleave to thee and to thy seed for ever, and he went out from his presence a leper as white as snow."
Thus the displeasure of God was stamped upon making merchandise of the gospel, or of spiritual benefits which are absolutely free to humanity. And we find the same teaching in other instances, as in the case of Judas, who sold his Master for thirty pieces of silver, and under condemnation of his own conscience went out and hung himself. And what did he more than every one who sells the Word of God? Make merchandise of the gospel ! I was in that traffic once myself. I sold Jesus Christ
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for one thousand dollars a year, but I quit that business many years ago. Not that I intended or had any thought of it at the time, but it was the requirement of the organization to which I belonged, which was ruled and controlled by money. We find the disposition of Jesus in regard to money in God's house when lie took a scourge-the only instance in which Jesus Christ used literal force-and drove out the money changers. His indignation shows the sensitiveness of God and of Jesus Christ to the polluting contact of money traffic in the house of God, for the temple was a type of the Christian Church. And yet, how little is this example and teaching of Jesus Christ heeded in our times? Where, to-day, will we find traffic for money by entertainments and disgraceful begging surpassed outside the sectarian Church. Even gambling, shows, theatricals, comic performances, lottery and lustful devices, sexual attractions, et cetera, are resorts to replenish church treasuries ! Sanctuaries and pulpits resound with the voices of clerical auctioneers vending the word of God, pew holding spiritual benefits and church privileges for money! God is not poor that he, authorizes sensual traffic and disgraceful begging for money to support his cause on earth. While the essential truth has first claim to our purse above all other debts we owe, yet God does not want money that is not a free-will offering. If there is a willing mind it is accepted according to what a man hath and not what he hath236
not. We are not to give grudgingly or sparingly, but under the promptings of holy love, 2 Cor. 8, 9. We are to make sacrifices as free and as genuine as the martyrs who laid down their lives for Christ. So we are to sacrifice ourselves or possessions and our money for the cause of God and of truth. The prophet Micah in the 3rd chapter says:
"I am full of power by the Spirit of the Lord, and of might and of judgment to declare unto Jacob his transgressions, and Israel his sin."
We see what the Holy Spirit does, -- it leads God's ministers to cry out against the hireling business and expose church sin. Micah 3:9-12.
"9 Hear this, I pray you, ye heads of the house of Jacob, and princes of the house of Israel, that abhor judgment, and pervert all equity.
"10 They build up Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with iniquity.
"11 The heads thereof judge for reward, and the priests thereof teach for hire, and the prophets thereof divine for money: yet will they lean upon the Lord, and say, Is not the Lord among us? none evil can come upon us.
"12 Therefore shall Zion for your sake be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places of the forest."Thus before the gospel dispensation or the Spirit's effusion the Holy Ghost inspired denunciation of the revolting traffic in his word by his hireling ministry who vended justice and gospel teaching for money, and yet this iniquity prevails unrebuked in his
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Church to-day with all the light of this Holy Ghost age!
The Apostle Paul prophesies of this very time in the last words we have from him, the 4th chapter. of the second Epistle to Timothy, verses 2 to 4.
"2 Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.
"3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;
"4 And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables."The time will come when the Church will get so far away that they will hire their own preachers and control them with their money. Whether we are living in such times I need not say when you all well know of the universal reign of Mammon. There is no man on earth who ought to be more independent of the money power than God's ministers ! Instead of being slaves of money corporations like the hirelings of this world, God's ministers ought to come as our foreign ambassadors, independent representatives of heaven's high court, true messengers of God and his Son Jesus Christ. They ought to be the freest men that walk the earth, and yet it is a fact that God's ministry are in bondage financially to human systems.
I have been connected with preacher's unions in the cities where I lived and have often heard them say that certain Bible truths need to be preached in
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the churches, which they were not free to proclaim. They all know that they are in bondage to the money power' so they cannot preach beyond the dead line of church finances. I remember once when there was a discussion of gospel needed for our times. I said they all had to preach inside the money line. Some said it was true. But one of them said he knew no money line and was as free to preach the whole truth as the eagle to soar from its mountain crag! I replied it might be true of some, for I know that the purpose and design of the denominational seminaries is to train their preachers inside of the money line, so that they do not know anything outside the line. They may be honest and faithful to all the light they have, but I know from experience that there is a money line. It is true to a certain extent that the more radical a man's utterances the more popular he will become, and the greater his success in any system. He will draw the crowd by his radical utterances. But when he goes beyond the limits of the financial system which he is serving, he will have to give place to another preacher.In regard to the hiring and dismissal of ministers, I have had much observation in years past. I have seen preacher after preacher fill a pulpit on trial until there were thirty or forty candidates tried before they could get a preacher to suit them, and then when the church gathered for consultation I would hear their comments on the different preachers. One preacher would perhaps be lacking in style, but
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an earnest and faithful minister, and the old-fashioned members would say, "He is the man for us. His preaching feeds the soul." But those who carried the purse would say, "He is not up to date, he has red hair, his wife is not stylish, he won't be a success at all." I heard two church officers conversing in regard to their pulpit which was vacant, whose salary was $1500. One said to the other, "Do you know that such a church pays a preacher only eight hundred dollars, and he is a splendid man. If we had only known it before we could have had him. He has a fine appearance, well dressed, black hair and eyes and up to date in every, way."
Thus they speak of preachers just as horse jockeys talk of horses. They trot them out, note their gait and gestures, dress and personal appearance, and value them according to the money they will bring in the market. Some $200, some $300, some $1000 and up to $10,000 a year ! How does that compare with what we find in the Holy Scriptures of God's ministry? Doubtless, there are in all denominations, men who can't be controlled by money, -- men of principle, men of conscience. But I know moneyed corporations in religion breed hirelings, and they are many times more numerous. now than the false prophets the denunciation of whom was the burden of all God's prophets of Bible times !
I call your attention again to the words which we have read in the 55th chapter of Isaiah: "Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters." This
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was spoken seven hundred years before Christ came and indicated the freeness of the gospel of salvation, and that the poor have equal chance with the rich in the Church of the New Testament and that the gospel is not a commodity to enrich a corporation but is free as water which is a Bible type of salvation because the beggar can drink as freely as the millionaire.
I never was in but one city where water for drinking purposes was sold for money-that was in a city of Texas during a drought. But by God's blessing human thirst seldom fails of its refreshing water supply for rich or poor. That which is of the greatest value to humanity is the freest. Water is there, fore a beautiful type of salvation. In our Lord's conversation with the woman at the well of Samaria he says,
"Whosoever drinketh of the water I shall give him shall never thirst. But it shall be a well of water in him springing up into everlasting life."
She first took the words literally, and wanted the water so as to save the necessity, of coming to draw again, but before he got through his instruction she discovered that he was the Christ, and she began to drink by faith and became the first missionary of Jesus Christ to that wicked city-a vile sinner saved by faith in him. She drank of the water he gave, and from her the well began to overflow for the thirsty population of her city.
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"Be ye astonished, 0 ye heavens at this, and be horribly afraid, be ye very desolate, saith the Lord. For my people have committed two evils, they have forsaken me the fountain of living water and hewed them out cisterns broken cisterns that can hold no water."- Jeremiah 2:12, 13.
We cannot mistake this lesson and the awful sin of idolatry here described. God is the fountain of living waters. There is no other way of salvation but to obtain it from God. The fountains which send forth streams to water the earth are free to all men. The beggar can drink as freely as the millionaire. And the only pure waters of life must come directly from God, and become polluted if they flow through other channels than God's faithful ministry.
Cisterns are made to hold water and to supply those who patronize the owner. But waters of cisterns must be procured second handed. It is private property. The water must be paid for and it is riot as pure as fountain water-and broken cisterns can hold no water. This is a striking figure of all human inventions in religion. What man gets up to provide salvation is a horrible imposture. This was the golden calf which Israel made in the wilderness to which they ascribed their deliverance from Egypt. The sin of it was that man made it to trust in for salvation.
Nothing in the Bible more fitly applies to all manmade churches. In all sectarian meetings, the church man has made is glorified for salvation. The design of every human organization is to convey the water of life to mankind. In every country and
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town the corporation has its ministers as its agents. The people are asked to pay for a house and salary of a preacher furnished by the corporation. Every foot of territory is explored by these religious bodies to find a good field for their operations, and they promise to supply the religion of their craft precisely as the Standard Oil or mining or mercantile corporations supply their products. There are a hundred Christian sects, so called, rival to each other, seeking to occupy every field where religion is wanted. There are leading corporations and smaller ones. Methodists, Baptists, Presbyterians, Catholics, Mormons and Advents are leading churches so called. And Campbellites in some parts of the country are strong. The people have got to join these rival cisterns, all of which are made by man to hold the waters of life !
Every Bible reader is a knave or a fool who says there is Bible authority for these religious cisterns man has invented. They all claim Christ, but to join Christ by faith does not join a man to one of them. To preach Christ alone without any priesthood, rituals, or organization, spoils the trade of them all and provokes their violent opposition. To preach Jesus alone will cause God's faithful preacher to be put out of every one of their synagogues, and provoke prosecution, imprisonment and death if persisted in. Jesus Christ himself would he kicked out of every one of them. A man is a fool and blind who says that Jesus Christ would be tolerated in any one of
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these religious bodies called his churches. Peter, second epistle, 2: 1 calls them truthfully damnable sects.
No reader of these lines dare raise his hand with the other on the Bible and solemnly swear that he believes Jesus Christ would be accepted by or would accept one of these existing denominations if he should visit in person a community where they are established ! I offer the challenge in God's name ! I fear God would strike such a perjurer dead for the horrible lie !
Every one of these organizations claiming to have the waters of life is precisely one of the cisterns described by Jeremiah 2: 12, 13. It was the builders of an earthly church that Peter and John faced, Acts 4th, who forbade the Apostles to preach that hated name. Peter says:
"This is the stone set at naught b you builders which is become the head of the corner. Neither is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven by which we can be saved. "
Builders of anything in religion are all of broken cisterns of idolatry. I am prepared to face the whole of them with the words of the prophet Jeremiah. A Baptist pastor in Edmonds, Okla., was asked for his pulpit for me to preach in. He replied, "I am trying to build up just what Johnson is tearing down." Therefore he could not let me in. What was he building? A Baptist cistern! Preaching Christ alone takes the water all out of the Bap-
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tist cistern, and when the water is gone, his religion is gone! In contrast with all these cisterns is God the fountain of living waters. The sinner has got to join nothing and pay nothing to have the waters of life ! Jesus says, "Come unto me," not to any priest or corporation of men. The sinner has to go to God for the waters of life, and gets it free as from no human church cistern.
God says all that men build in religion are broken cisterns which can hold no water, yet rebellious Israel persisted in all their history to build strange altars and adopt the idolatry of heathen nations and to give credit to the golden calf for their deliverance and salvation. In the days of Elijah there was the same great apostasy of Israel. They had built strange altars and adopted new religions. Elijah called the people to a public test of their gods. They prepared the strange altars as we read in first Kings 18th, and we read of their frantic efforts to obtain an answer from Baal, and of their miserable failure, while Elijah in holy contempt mocked their religious zeal. Then Elijah prepared God's altar for the old religion. He did not make the noise nor show as much religion as they did, but his simple prayer was answered by fire which consumed his sacrifice. Then the people cried, "`The Lord he is God; the Lord he is God. Then the law was executed in the slaughter of the false prophets who had seduced God's people from his religion to the strange altars and new religion. I want to know if there is not a like condition of the church in our times?
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The oldest of the so called Protestant Churches to-day is not over three hundred years old and many other altars of more recent date.
What does the Bible say? "There is no other name given under heaven among men whereby we must be saved, but Jesus Christ." Yet what a multiplicity of religious names and new religions, not one of which is found in the Bible, and if all were brought to the test not one of them but would have to put fires of their own kindling under their altars. Although their organizations have the praise of salvation, not one of them ever saved a soul. For no one was ever saved by modern inventions or any different means than saved souls in Bible times.
And yet these corporations take the credit of man's salvation. I often hear people in denominational meetings giving credit to the organizations man has made for their salvation, and yet they are all modern affairs, new religions, strange altars set up by man and not revealed in the Scriptures as any part of God's plan. It is well for the preachers of these strange altars that Elijah is not now on earth who slew the prophets of Baal.
What are the facts we see in the sectarian world? The water of life, which God made free, free as the air we breathe, as the water we drink, is made a monopoly by human organizations ! What are these organizations for but to convey the water of life to mankind for their money? This is the avowed business occupation of every one of them. Every so-
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called church parades its religion, Christ and the souls of men for merchandise before the world, and claims to convey the waters of life for the people's money! Who made these churches? Who authorized them? Whatsoever is not of God must necessarily be of the devil. We find in the world outside everything which has value is monopolized by corporations. Corporations are made to buy up every material property of value to mankind for their money speculation. The mines are bought up by corporations, and oil wells and all the temporal interests which belong to humanity, are monopolized and controlled by the rich, and the people who want the benefits which God has provided in nature must get these benefits through the corporations. And there is great complaint in our times against these corporations and monopolies. There is unquestionably great oppression, although these corporations may be incident to the providence of God, as a channel by which man's necessities are supplied. I don't say that they are not necessary to provide public benefits but I notice the fact of general complaint against these middle men who are making a monopoly of what God designed to be for the benefit of humanity.We are obliged to admit that organizations are necessary to secure temporal property, but the question before us now is as to the many corporations which make a monopoly of the religion of Jesus Christ, so that salvation is made a commodity for
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traffic. In a community where there are no religious privileges, these corporations will send , their agents and tell the people that if they will join the corporation and contribute money enough to build a house and pay their preacher they will furnish them the benefits of the gospel ! Where is the difference between a money corporation furnishing the gospel of Jesus Christ for a money consideration, and those who furnish oil and these worldly products to enrich their corporations ?
Where is the difference? No one who hears me can say that God is the author of such traffic or houses of merchandise to dispense the benefits of the Christian religion ! Can infidel clubs of the ungodly world be more sinful? To make Jesus an article of merchandise as Judas did, and souls property for the ownership of corporations for their money value as cattle of stock men O don't complain of Rockefeller's tainted money, or the Standard Oil, or Morgan and the mine owners and the factory corporations of this world. Their business is legitimate if they are oppressive. Money is made to buy up all such natural values. But when you come to religious trusts and combines for the ownership of souls, and the spiritual religion and Church of Jesus Christ, and they assume to buy up the territory of earth and build their temples as oil wells or mines on grounds they purchase, and compel the people to get gospel benefits they provide for money, and exclude God's ministers from their pul-
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pits, and Christians from their meetings who will not become tributary to their finances, you have the very climax of this world's wickedness. Rockefeller and Morgan will shine in heaven before such Judas and Simon Magus trafficers in the gospel.
Then when by the preaching of the gospel of Christ outside these organizations in the vicinity of their sectarian houses I gather their members out of them to Christ alone they are exasperated and accuse me of stealing their members and destroying the church! Such is the brazen impudence of those who are engaged in the traffic of these corporations which are enriched not out of oil or mineral products to which money entitles them, but out of souls which are the price of the blood of God's Son, which cannot be measured by the scale of corruptible gold or dollars and cents.
And then the ministry of the different denominations are owned and claimed as their property ! I know when I was sent to the seminary by the Presbyterians my pastor said to me, "We don't want to educate you and have you preach for the Congregationalists. We don't want to make a Presbyterian gun for the Congregationalists to shoot with." Thus the proprietorship of God's ministry was actually claimed. I bless God that in his infinite mercy he opened my eyes when my neck was under the yoke of these corporations. I lost pulpit after pulpit because I preached and enforced discipline against church sins. I endeavored to clear my conscience.
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And when I applied the Word to sins in the church I gave offense and was advised to preach to sinners outside. I was accused by those who paid their, money for my support, of abusing them in the pulpit. I never used personalities, but I preached the Bible standard of Christian living which gave offense. I found that if I remained inside of any denomination I would have to compromise the truth and violate conscience and wear the devil's yoke instead of the yoke of Jesus Christ. I couldn't preach as I have for nearly forty years outside of sects if I had any other yoke but Christ's. His yoke is easy and his burden is light. No one can say that I am wrong in rejecting all human yokes in religion and taking the yoke of Christ alone, outside all corporations of this world that are controlled by money.
My hearers, these are matters of grave importance. Those who have a conscience cannot uphold the traffic of corporations in the gospel and the souls of men. And yet, at the same time, we understand that it is God's plan that his gospel should be supported, and that there can be no more righteous use for money than the spread of God's truth over the earth than is needed in these times. God's Word outside of human monopolies is what is needed today; a gospel that requires no other name but Jesus Christ alone and no other support but the freewill offerings of love outside all constraint of man's laws and organizations.
I want to speak in closing of my own experience.
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There are those who are ready to ask, "Well, how do you get your support?" I had a large family, seven children, and was just as needful of a salary as any one. But I remember when I began to go against the requirements of the organization in, the Presbyterian Church they warned me. They said, "Your family will starve." "You will have to quit the ministry." I replied, "What has bread 'and butter to do with the gospel of Jesus Christ? If I see my wife and children starve, and I starve with them, I cannot afford to compromise the gospel for my support." I said that over forty years ago. I ventured my all on Jesus Christ, and instead of making a failure, notwithstanding my weakness and frailty as a mere man, I have cause for rejoicing and thanksgiving that the truth which I am preaching here has spread itself all over the United States and Canada. It is not a new gospel. In reading history I have been rejoiced to find that the purest of all the Christian martyrs were of the same faith that I am preaching.
The Euchites, the Paulicians, the Pricillianists, the Vaudois, the Albigenses, the Orleanists, W`'ickliffites, and millions of others before the modern Quakers, held that Jesus could save without ordinances. And all evangelical Christians have believed in our completeness for heaven by his blood alone and the Spirit's power without any priest or work of man.
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GOSPEL FINANCES:
God's Church machinery is run by love and the Holy Spirit as it is wholly a spiritual house. It is God's plan that his gospel should be. supported by the free will offering of his people. He condemns the hireling business, and those who preach for filthy lucre. He forbids their support and would far sooner have his children patronize saloons than houses of gospel merchandise. Corporations in which Christ and souls are the stock in trade are classed with Judas Iscariot by the gospel standard of morals. Paul teaches in 1 Corinthians 9th chapter the obligations of the church to support those gospel laborers whose ministrations are worthy of their aid. Jesus teaches those he sends forth to take neither purse nor script but to trust God who rewards his servants.
In my own personal experience I have found God's word true regarding finances. I have never known what source my supplies were 'coming from during over forty years outside a salary system. I repudiated salaries three years before I left the denominations.
I have found God better than any set of trustees I ever trusted. I will relate two instances of my experience which were among the common lessons by which I was taught to trust God. I believe God does always provide for those -who are in their proper temporal calling, the same as in the gospel ministry.
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While I was in my first pastorate, young in the ministry, in the Congregational Church of Elkhorn, Wis., we had built a house of worship and I did not want to burden our church in its temporal straits; my family were in need of bedding and clothing. Our three little ones were shivering with cold in calico dresses. We felt constrained to ask God for aid, and not the church. That morning after this prayer we received by mail eight dollars from another state sent by those unknown to us, partly to pay freight on a box of goods sent us. When the box came we found it filled with bedding abundant, and garments to fit every member of my family. We as a family had a melting time of thanksgiving to God. Another time I had forty dollars taxes and interest due oil Tuesday the next week and I knew of no way to get it, with other household necessities then required. The next Sabbath appointment for preaching was forty miles distant and I had never received more than five dollars from that church except once fifteen dollars, and other times nothing. This was when I was outside sectarian systems. We looked above to our great Provider. I went as usual to my appointment at that church, also undenominational. I saw that the brethren were privately conversing about some matters. They asked me to remain over Monday. They had hinted that I needed an overcoat, since I was wearing an old shawl at the time. But I preferred my family to have it instead of an overcoat. I stayed over Monday and they gave
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me not only an overcoat, but forty-three dollars cast and food and raiment for my family. I wondered how they thought of this move. They said to me that one of the brethren had been a Wesley an member, and when his former Wesleyan preacher called on him, being offended at his leaving the sect, and knowing me personally, he asked the brother, "How does your preacher get his support?" The brother answered, "Why, lie trusts the Lord for his support." "Well," said the Wesleyan preacher, "why don't the Lord give him an overcoat instead of that shabby old shawl?" This tart criticism of the Wesleyan preacher stirred up that church and got me an overcoat and forty-three dollars besides. So God who makes the wrath of men to praise him provides overcoats, taxes and interest money for those who trust him. So in forty years outside of human organizations God has not only provided for my living, but for the publishing of a paper which has circulated in every state and territory of this country and Canada. And now he provides for the publication of this book loaded with his messages for these times. God is a better, financier than Rockefeller or Carnegie, for they waste their wealth on universities and churches which make fools and hypocrites, while God in spite of the devil and mammon trusts, forces out just enough fiends to aid and not spoil his preachers and publishers, who are fighting the money powers of false religion and all unrighteousness I have only touched my forty years' experience
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as a witness that genuine faith has never been disappointed. I don't know where supplies are coming from, but they come. We were once in the past reduced to cornmeal and water, but had enough of that, and found it good living. I knew I would have to go against the current with my convictions of duty. It is not the kind of gospel that pleases the rich. God, who feeds the ravens and cloths the grasses of the fields, has proved his word true in my experience.
I have called your attention to God's order of finances for the church. If a man is truly called of God to do any kind of work, and is faithful to his calling he will be provided for, if otherwise he is willing to suffer. and God's true ministers are always satisfied with what God does for them. They don't require a great deal of this world's goods. They are wiling to share their experiences with their Master, and if needful they are willing to go to prison or to burn at the stake for God's truth. Every true minister of God has laid his life on the altar. He don't make any conditions. All he seeks is God's approval and a clear conscience before men.
Such is the teaching of God's Word. Making merchandise of the gospel is the curse of our times! I would have the free use of all the pulpits of this city to-day if it was not for the finances of corporations. I want to say that no saloon-keeper is so guilty in comparison with the corporation which obstructs the liberty of God's Word so that it cannot
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come to all the people. "He that turns his ear away from hearing the law his prayer shall be abomination." To cut off the liberty of that Word is the worst of all crimes ! Yet it is committed by all religious denominations !
In gospel meetings run by these religious bodies under mammon control, a Christian brother or sister moved by the Holy Spirit begins honestly to quote God's Word against church sin, and for Bible holiness, the pastor, for fear some paying members will be offended, springs to his feet and cries out: "Say, brother or sister, be short, tell how you feel, we want no exhortations. We do the preaching here." So the offending member has to sit down, and obey man rather than God. That little Protestant pope is just as vile a usurper and anti Christ, as any pope of Rome. Thank God, Christians are freed from such domination. "Whom the Son makes free is free indeed." May we ever stand fast in the liberty with which Christ makes us free, and never allow man to come in between us and God. While in nonessentials we tolerate each other's conscience, may we be kept from compromising truth to please man, or in any way to become tributary to religious corporations which claim the ownership of Christ, his ministry, and the souls of men; and may we ever seek the waters of life direct from the fountain head and not filtered second-handed through cisterns men have built.
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PRAYER.
Almighty God, our Father, we are thankful to thee for the glorious lessons of thy Word, that thy salvation is free. That it is impossible for any corporation of this world to monopolize it, and that we can come directly to the fountain head for life and salvation. 0, God keep us clear from the contamination of carnal religion or its polluting systems of merchandise in God's holy temple, and help us ever to drink the water of life which flows to us from Jesus Christ thy Son to whom alone and forever we will ascribe the glory of man's salvation. Amen.
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