Dear Brother Beebe: With this I shall forward you a copy of the "Livingston Republican Extra" of March 3, 1840, containing a letter from my brother to Elder Ira Justin, dated Lakeville, February 24, 1840; and if you have the room you will confer a favor by giving it a place in the Signs of the Times. I would just remark that at the time the above-mentioned letter was written and was handed to Elder Justin, the church to which he belongs, in this place (and himself with the rest) were very zealously engaged in a Protracted Meeting held by the same Elder John Miller (of Geneva) that held the meeting here in 1838, mentioned in my brother's letter; and although after the close of the meeting in 1838, Elder Justin assured my brother that the same measure would never be used here again, yet at this last meeting the anxious seats were used with more zeal than ever, and so many were constrained to go forward and set on them, by being persuaded and urged until they could no longer with common civility refuse; and then were urged to get up and tell - what the Lord had done for them? No, - but what they had done and intended to do for the Lord! and Elder Justin said those were the best or happiest days he had ever seen. Now, why will the dear children of God, yea even some of the ministers of the blessed Jesus, stay in the ranks of the New School until they get so bewildered that they cannot tell the difference between the gospel Paul preached and the system of works preached by the New School?
I say, why do they stay there? Some tell us they do it for the sale of influence, i.e., by staying with them they have an influence over them that they would not have if they came out from them and were separate, and so by means of this influence they are enabled to preach the truth to them, and prevent them from going too far astray as they otherwise would. But do they in this matter reason correctly? Is their influence as great as they pretend? Do they not find themselves often led away, little by little, until they are led to adopt all the new measures in doctrine and practice, without being able to tell where or when they left the original ground of the gospel? Or, if they are enabled by divine grace to continue their opposition to the doctrine and practice of the New School, do they often find themselves obliged to take letters from churches to which they belong and go to some other place where their gift will be more profitable? Is it not a fact that in most cases where ministers, but remain in the fellowship of the New School, for the sake of influence, (as they call it) find where they are aware that their influence is all gone, and they have none either mong the Old or New School, and that the New School consider them no better than dead weights attached to their car, or "Jonas which ought to be thrown overboard" and they must either succumb to them or occasion is sought against them whereby they may be cast away? Why then, I say, will they stay in their ranks? Why will they not obey the injunction of the Apostle? "Come out from among them and be you separate, says the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing." 2 Cor. 6.17.
But I must stop, for I have already written much more than I intended; for I intended when I began to write no more than merely a request for you to publish my brother's letter in the Signs. You can do as you please with this scribble.
Clement West
Lakeville Feb 24, 1840
To Elder Ira Justin:
Dear Brother: It is with reluctance I attempt to address you at this time, as you appear to be zealously engaged in a protracted meeting, but when I call to mind the many happy seasons we have enjoyed together in trying to serve God, my mind naturally runs back to my earliest acquaintance with you, when my heart could not receive nor my head understand the doctrine of grace which you then taught; and you took unwearied pains to show me, as well as others, that salvation was whole of grace, and that divine sovereignty, eternal, personal and unconditional election, total depravity, particular atonement, &c. were bible doctrines, and it was your highest enjoyment to teach those doctrines, and that in direct opposition to the notions of my carnal heart. But when it pleased God, by his grace, to enlighten my mind and give me a view of that salvation which was finished and complete in Jesus before the world began, I was melted into contrition before him; he made me willing to trust in his victorious grace; and you come to this vicinity comforted me, your preaching strengthened me. You taught me that those, and those only, who had grace given them in Christ before the world began could be saved, and that the number was not only definite, but particular persons were heirs of eternal glory and included in the covenant of redemption with heavenly guaranty, and that it is not on account of their doings, or any other conditions whatever, except those, performed by the Son of God as surety for his bride; and when we were permitted to have a view of that plan of redemption which you taught me was well ordered in all things and sure. What peaceful hours we then enjoyed? How sweet is the memory still?
Suffice it to say, the temporal embarrassments and discouragements under which we labored for years, bound us more closely together, for we lived by the faith of the Son of God, and this kind of teaching was crowned and blessed of God to the ingathering of his chosen. The middle-aged, the youth, and some of our children gave evidence of life in Christ and were joyfully received. This gospel we pledged ourselves to defend, and when we found it was invaded by preachers of our own communion, we withstood them to the face, knowing that they were to be blamed. You doubtless, recollect that we went to Mendon to the first protracted meeting held by our denomination in this region of the country, and we tried to dissuade the minister from his unscriptural course, having a high esteem for him, and feeling that he had substituted his excited feelings for gospel rule, we told him that most of his preaching was contrary to his avowed sentiments.
A now, my dear brother, did not we mutually agree, and repeatedly assure each other, that in our opinion, such meetings, with the doctrines and practices on which they depend for success, were without foundation in holy writ, and contrary to truth? And when we afterward constrained to consent to have such meetings held here, thinking to keep the truth uppermost and admit only of gospel practice have we not uniformly see the people overwhelmed with excitement and confusion, and ourselves outgeneraled and overcome? And you were called on to preach at a protracted meeting at Rush, and you discharged your duty like an able honest minister of Christ, were you not considered and treated as an opposer to the spirit of the meeting, it was a long time before your services were again solicited at such a meeting? And when you were sent to preach from the text "by grace are you saved" and in the discharge of your duty like an honest minister of Christ, you tried to show the people that they could not be saved by their own doings of works, but by the blood of Christ, did not the church request you, by their committee, to "depart from their coasts"? (although you had an appointment to preach again,) telling you that your sermon was a damper, and the very reading of your text chilled the feelings of the assembly?
And did you not come home and conclude that excitement which could not forbear the doctrine of grace was not of God? And have you not uniformly disapproved of the doctrine and measures used at protracted meetings? And did you not oppose and object to those measures, to wit, the anxious seats and anxious meetings at Elder Miller's protracted meeting, held in this place in 1839? And after that meeting closed did you not assure me that although those measures were used almost against your consent, such measures would never be used here again? And were you not disgusted with his doctrine, viz: that the only way that sinners could be reconciled to God was upon condition if serving him as well as they could, and as long as they lived, telling them it was much easier for them to pass the line of mercy and sin away the day of grace now than it was fifty years ago, &c. maintaining that their obedience was the procuring cause of the new birth, instead of evidence of it &c.
Bear with me, my brother, while I use plainness in stirring up your pure mind by way of remembrance. I ask, is it not a prominent feature of the doctrine of the New School Baptists, with whom you are in fellowship, "that the number of the saved is proportionate to the efforts of men and means, upon the same principle as men raise wheat, viz: the more they sow the more they expect to reap? And so with saving souls, the more ministers and preaching, the more souls saved, - gone to hell which might have been saved had christians done their duty"? And you have not opposed such notions as false, and agreed with me, that salvation is not of effort but of grace, and the Son quickened whom he will, and that obedience, faith and repentance and joy in the Holy Ghost are the evidence and fruit of that and not the procuring cause of it? And have you not encouraged me to assist and sustain you in that truth, and in opposing the errors above cited, which you saw were gaining ground in the denomination, and had been for years?
If this is so, my brother, then why have you excluded from your number ten or eleven of your brethren and sisters, whose highest pleasure it was to sustain you in the truth; those who have borne that heat and burden of the day with you, and whose ears were never deaf to you in your temporal embarrassments? You thought it best, you say, to go along with those errors in doctrine and practice, although you did not fellowship them?
But we did not judge. We dare not say by our actions that we are in fellowship with those errors when we are not. We plead and begged, with tears, that you would be guided by the covenant and articles of the church, and we assured you that we never would forsake you; and on that very ground, we are ever ready to renew our travel with you. I asked you if you had anything against us in faith or practice, and you said no if we would go along.
I ask now my brother, for you are still dear to my heart, how could you exclude your best earthly friend, whose heart you could always read, and whose mite was always shared with you, and for no other reason but his firmness in contending for the faith of Christ, which you had taught him to defend? And why did you reject from your pulpit those fathers in the gospel whose silver locks show the frosts of seventy winters; who have worn out their lives in proclaiming the very doctrines of grace which you love? Was it because they opposed the errors of which you so often complain? or was it because they were unpopular in the world, and also among the New School party?
If you were a New School man I should think it useless thus to write. But you are not. You are my friend and brother, one who did not receive your ministry from men, neither by man, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ; and since God has hid the mystery of his grace from wise and prudent, and revealed it unto babes, why should you lend your talents to sustain a system which is foreign from the truth? and why do you now, with your aversion to the new measures, lend your influence to sustain them and take hold and pull those into your anxious seats who tell you they do not wish to go? You will recollect when we went to a similar meeting in the woods, where the same doctrine and practice prevailed, you said in your candid opinion that the true God was not worshipped there. And now my brother, what is the matter? Have you courted a delusion till God has sent it? I hope not. Is the doctrine and practice which has stood the scrutiny of more than eighteen hundred years, proved wrong? It cannot be. Then why are parted asunder? We still love as brethren and have said to forgive each other's faults and I feel that you will forgive what is wrong in this letter, for depending on it, I have not written this without much prayer that we may yet be united in the truth.
Erastus West
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