The idea advanced by Mr. Campbell, that a man may have an opinion and may hold it as private property, is scriptural. There are certain things, certain courses of life, that are not defined by God. That is, the way is not marked out by him and man is left to follow his own judgment. But these are cases in which one man's course of action does not necessarily affect that of others nor God's appointments. Teaching on this subject is given in the 14th chapter of the letter to the Romans. Things indifferent are treated of here. Meats offered to idols are indifferent to him who can eat without conscience toward the idol. But they must not be eaten if the weak consciences of others are led by this eating into idolatry. Others have an opinion that we may eat only herbs--others that we may eat meat. Some think it well to observe certain days for the worship of God, other than the appointed Lord's day. God permits this. God demands we shall worship according to his direction, at his appointed times, but he permits us to worship him as often as we think proper. But one must not impose this optional service or his faith in these matters on others, and none of these things must affect the consciences or life of others.

      "Hast thou faith, have it to thyself before God. Happy is he that condemneth not himself in the things which he alloweth, and he that doubteth is damned if he eat, because he eateth not of faith. And whatsoever is not of faith is sin."

      This means in things not commanded by God, a man [50] may even have faith, but he is to keep it to himself with God.

      He is not to teach it or hold or practice it in such a way as to impose it on others, or to so act on this faith about things, as to interfere with the consciences of others, or to lead others to do what they do not believe God has required. He that does a thing doubting if it is ordained by God, is condemned in doing it, for "whatsoever is not of faith is sin." Faith is the leading principle in all acceptable service to God. All service that lacks faith is sin. Faith cannot enter into service resting on the opinion or judgment of men. Hence all service, the command of men, is sin. Whoever induces one to do what his conscience doubts is of God, leads him into sin.

      "Destroy not him with thy meat, for whom Christ died." "When you so sin against the brethren and wound their weak consciences, (by leading them to do what they do not believe to be commanded) ye sin against Christ."

      Hence he says, Happy is the man who in doing the things that his faith approves, does not condemn himself in imposing it on others, so leading them to do what their faith does not approve.

      "Hast thou faith, have it to thyself before God." "It is good neither to eat flesh, nor drink wine, nor anything whereby thy brother stumbleth or is offended or is made weak."

      Not only must opinions be held as private property, but faith in matters permitted, but not required, by God, must be held to himself with God. It must not be imposed, on others or be so held as to disturb the peace and quiet of a church, much rather must opinions, that are not matters of faith, be held to one's self. No point is more clearly taught in the Bible, than that opinions cannot be made the basis of action or of service in the church.

      It is so far from true, that the reformation started by the Campbells proposed to tolerate all actions based on the [51] opinions of men, that exactly the opposite was the leading feature and purpose, to-wit: All practices based on opinions must be excluded from the service of God. The opinions themselves must be held as private property. They must not be taught, must not be acted on. The original "Declaration and Address" inaugurating the movement, said,

      "We form ourselves into a religious association for the sole purpose of promoting simple evangelical Christianity, free from all mixture of human opinions and inventions of men."

      So far from tolerating them and the practices based on them, their purpose and aim was to banish all the opinions and inventions of men from the teaching and service of the church, and A. Campbell thirty-five years afterward urged that

      "All the contentions and divisions of all the sects and parties in Christendom, are as certainly and indisputably the effects of opinionism in religion as the love of money is the root of all evil."

      He emphasized and italicised this sentence. It is not the right of any citizen of Christ's kingdom to propagate any opinion whatever, either in public assembly or private."

      "Moreover according to the decisions of that volume (the Bible) he that propagates an opinion and seeks to attach persons to it, or to himself on account of it, is a factionist in embryo, or in infancy or in manhood."

      Oh no, the reformation as started and carried out by the Campbells and their compeers, for fifty years, looked to the casting out of every opinion and invention and device of man, and the restoring the teachings of the Bible, free from all opinions, holding only the services plainly taught therein, so ordained by God, excluding everything based on human authority or opinion as a basis of union. They proposed to permit only matters of faith and not of opinion. There can be no mistake about this. But the reformation and teachings of the Campbells are nothing unless they are the plain teachings of the word of God. [52]

      We find that this purpose and aim is in full accord with the word of God. From the beginning the constant warning was:

      "You shall not do whatsoever is right in your own eyes." "What things soever I command you, observe to do it; thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it." Again, "If a prophet shall speak a word in my name which I have not commanded him, or shall speak in the name of other gods, even that prophet shall die." Deuteronomy xviii: 20.

      To speak something, to teach something as service to God or to introduce or maintain something as service to God, that God has not commanded, is placed upon an equality and condemned as equally sinful, with speaking in the name of other gods. This is idolatry, as heinous an offense as can be committed against God. He who commanded a thing to be done, as service to God, that God had not commanded, sinned a sin unto death.

      All the examples of God's dealings with man, under the Patriarchal and Jewish dispensations, point unerringly to the truth that every act of service, introduced by human wisdom, was regarded as sin and was condemned by God and punished directly, or the practice was condemned and left to work the ruin of those following the judgment of men.

      In Eden, Eve acted on her own opinion, instead of being led by God, and shipwrecked the world. Cain thought the first fruits of the soil a suitable offering, but God rejected both him and his offering, and he became a murderer and a vagabond.

      Abel followed the law of God without interposing his own opinion and though slain, yet he lives and speaks in warning to the people of all ages, and of all kindred and countries, warning them, that it is salvation to turn from and reject human opinions and to walk in God's [53] appointments, even though it brings death. Even when man's inventions bring present prosperity and triumph, it still is ruin, sure and eternal, to use them in religious service.

      Cain and Abel plainly teach that an humble walk in God's ways, free from the introduction of man's opinions, even though it brings death, is infinitely preferable to following the opinion of men, though it brings present success and gives earthly power.

      Abraham followed God, "not knowing whither he went," exercising no opinion of his own, and God blessed him as "the friend of God" and the "father of the faithful." Abraham did act on his own opinion sometimes, but the act always met with the punishment of God, and brought evil upon him and his family after him. Such was his descent into Egypt, and the denial of his wife.

      The Israelites, when the judges appointed by God "took bribes and perverted judgment," asked for a king as they thought it would be better for them. They did not intend to reject God, but added what, in their opinion, would be best for them. And if best for God's people, best for God's honor. They superseded the appointments of God with an order based on the opinions or judgment of men. But God testified: "They have rejected me that I should not rule over them." And through Hosea he testified, in this, "thou hast destroyed thyself."

      Saul twice interposed his opinion in carrying out the commands of God. 1 Sam. xiii: 8. "The Israelites were gathered together for battle." Saul tarried seven days waiting for Samuel to come and offer, the sacrifices. He delayed and the army was becoming demoralized--and deserting him, and Saul said bring hither a burnt offering to me, and peace offerings. And he offered the burnt offering. [54]

      "As soon as he made an end of offering the burnt offering, Samuel came * * * and said to Saul, thou hast done foolishly; thou hast not kept the commandment of the Lord thy God, which he commanded thee: for now would the Lord have established thy kingdom upon Israel, forever. But now thy kingdom shall not continue, the Lord has sought him a man after his own heart, and the Lord hath commanded him to be captain over his people, because thou hast not kept the commandment of the Lord."

      Here zeal of God in a way not commanded by God, is rejection of the commandments of the Lord, and shows he whose zeal so leads him, is not after the Lord's own heart.

      Again, Saul was sent to destroy the Amalekites. The command was, "slay all, man and beast, old and young." Spare none. Saul thought it would more promote the honor of God to carry the fatlings back to Israel and sacrifice them to God. The motive in acting on this opinion, was to bring honor to God. Yet he said to him "because thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, he has rejected thee from being king."

      To act on our opinions in serving the Lord, even for the purpose of honoring God, is to reject his word. It is a sin so grievous as to result in God rejecting him who does it.

      David, at the suggestion of Saul, attempted to go to battle in Saul's armor. God did not permit him to use it. David said:

      "Thou comest to me with a sword and a spear and a shield; but I come to thee in the name of the Lord God, whose armies thou hast defied * * * and all this assembly shall know that the Lord saveth not with the sword and spear"--not with the inventions of men.

      There was more strength in the sling and stones of God's approval, than in the armor and sword of Saul. "And David smote the Philistine and slew him, but there was no sword in the hand of David."

      Elijah, the prophet, commanded Naaman, the leper, to dip himself seven times in the river Jordan and he should be healed--he thought the waters of Abana and Parphar [55] better than all the waters of Judea and in this opinion turned away in a rage. But it was only when he turned from his opinion, ceased to act upon it, and "dipped himself in Jordan seven times, according to the word of the man of God, that his flesh came again as the flesh of a little child, and he was clean." We might furnish many examples from the Old Testament, of man's interjecting his opinions into the service of God. In every one the service was vitiated, and rejected by God.

      In the New Testament, Christ begins by purging out all the additions of man. He condemned the traditions of men, the practices based on human opinion as nullifying the commands of God, and teaches that so simple a matter as the washing of the hands before eating, as a religious service, resting on human opinion, is a sin, that those who introduce or practice the things resting on human opinion, do not serve from the heart, and the practice itself vitiates the whole service of God, and must be rooted up because not planted by God. Those who introduce and those who practice things resting on human opinion, "are blind leaders of the blind, both of which shall fall into the ditch."

      Every institution and organism of earth, save those ordained by God, rests on the opinion of men and will be engulfed in the destroying vortex of ruin.

      "If any man defile the temple of God," by building therein the wood, hay, stubble, based on man's opinion, "him will God destroy."

      This disposition to introduce into the service of God things based on human opinion or judgment, has been the besetting sin of humanity from the beginning. It has been the fatal rock on which man has wrecked his faith and forfeited the favor of God. It is yet. Men become infidels by starting out to introduce their opinions into the service of God. It is done first with a view of adding interest [56] and efficacy to that service. They are gradually trained to rely more and more upon their own opinions and wisdom, and less and less upon the instruction and wisdom of God, until they erect their own judgment and opinions into the standard of right, and whatever in the word of God, does not conform to this standard of their own, they reject. Whenever men reject the word of God or any part of it, because it does not agree with their conceptions of what is right, they are, in all essential elements, infidels, as much so as those who reject the whole Bible. When a man tests the Bible and its truth or any part of it, by his own judgment or opinion of what is right, instead of these by that, he has rejected it as the word of God, and the rule of faith for man. This is the essence of rationalism; and rationalism is infidelity. The adoption of societies, organs, pastors and festivals or any and every practice based on man's judgment, into the service of God, is a school that leads and trains the mind to rely upon human judgment in religious service and finally to substitute it for the word of God. It thus tends to infidelity. In this school, of expediency, of adopting aids and helps or orders and institutions in religious service based on human judgment, persons take their first lessons that often land them in a rejection of the Bible as the word of God. The man who substitutes the things approved by "sanctified common sense," for the approved appointments of God, will supersede the revelation of God with inspired genius. This is the tendency, all do not follow to the end. We think nothing pertaining to humanity more certain than this.

      The besetting sin of the human family has been, and is, the disposition to rely upon our own judgment in serving God and to substitute human judgment for the word of God, and the practices based on human judgment and opinion, for the ways approved of by God. The Holy Spirit, in Hebrews, [57] admonishes, by the great cloud of witnesses referred to, to lay aside every weight and the sin that doth so easily beset. The disposition to follow what seems to us good, rather than the commands of God, is the besetting sin to be laid aside. Then, in addition to many other Scriptures teaching the sinfulness of introducing practices based on the opinions of men, into the service of God, the Bible closes with the warning, "If any man shall add unto the things written in this book, God shall add upon him the plagues that are written in this book."

      Then, not only the end and aim of the reformation by the Campbells, but more and higher, the end and aim of God in all his dealings with man, in all ages and dispensations, have been to train man to accept his law, as the rule of his life, free from the opinions, judgments and traditions of men, and that he should worship and serve God in his own institutions and ways, excluding all devices and inventions of men.

[CUFO 50-58]