The elk-run church together with the messengers of churches and other brethren, consisting of the said church in a meeting for correspondence, held on the 6th, 7th, and eighth days of August 1841, would hereby salute with the expressions of love, the several churches whose messengers we are, the associations which have correspondent with us, together with all old school Baptist churches, associations and meetings:
Brethren: surrounded as the churches are, with the present darkness, it may be in the minds of some of you, to make the inquiry that was made of old: “Watchmen, one of the night? Watchmen, one of the night?” Isaiah 21.11-12. Shall we simply respond and say, “The morning comes and also the night?” Or shall we say, the morning has been and gone, and the night with all its darkness, its chilling damps, and its beasts of prey, howling and prowling around, has come too close to the scene in this world? That night with its gloom and discouragements, is present, we are aware, brethren, that you are painful experience will testify; but instead of giving up to the disconsolate conclusion that this is the determination of all the bright prospects of the church on earth, you would perhaps inquire further about the night. Well, “if you will inquire, inquire you; return, come.” Yes, brethren, here is a divine warrant for inquiring into all the parts of scriptural revelation; confining ourselves, however, always to what God has revealed, bearing in mind that secret things, things not written in his word, belong unto the Lord our God, Deuteronomy 20.29. But let not our inquiries be those of idle curiosity; let them be made with an earnest desire to know and obey the truth. If our requirements show us that at any point we have wandered from the way which the Lord has said shall be there, and shall be called the way of holiness, as being sanctified of God for his people to walk in, the text says, return; and let it be our endeavors to return. If in our inquiries we have discovered to us any part of revealed truth, or of ordained order and practice, of which we had been before ignorant, the direction is, come and let us obey, and come up to the standard both in doctrine and practice, according to the light given us, let who will stand back.
But it may be said that the light is not so favorable for inquiring and searching for the old paths, that the morning light would be more favorable to the inquiry, and therefore, that we had better postpone our inquiries in hopes that morning may return. If we were called to sleep in the night, this reasoning might answer, but being called to endure hardness as good soldiers, and being children of the light and of the day, how much soever we may be surrounded with darkness, we are required not to sleep as do others, but to watch and be sober, 1st Thessalonians 5.5-6. We therefore need a correct knowledge of our way at night as well as in the morning. Hence as we more need of knowledge of our way at night, so we are more disposed to inquire carefully concerning it. In the morning everything is bright and cheerful, and we are much inclined to rely on our own discernment to find out for us the way; or if we inquire it will be carelessly. But when night overtakes us on our journey, and we know that on either side is the enemy's border, in which snares and traps are made for our feet, with what care shall we inquire out the way, and seek waymarks that may be felt as well as seen; and how cautiously shall we keep in the way; not carelessly verging to the right or to the left. Brethren, is not such the race now set before us? Let us then run it with patience, looking unto Jesus, and constantly bearing in mind the injunctions, enquire; Return, come. May the Lord give us the spirit of inquiry, of watchfulness and obedience; That from our many wanderings, and fallings short, we may return, come.
But in reference to further inquiries concerning the night. From the declaration as it stands in the text, the morning comes and also the night, some may infer that the order of nature in this case is to be reversed, that the morning at night is to constitute today, instead of the evening in the morning. The legitimate conclusions of such would be that as it is now night, we have nothing else to expect but that the church and the Saints are to grope their way, in this dark and gloomy state, until the time be lost in eternity.
But on a considerate examination of this passage, we shall find no such conclusion warranted from it. It evidently was then night when the inquiry was made. Hence the address to the Watchmen, and the inquiry itself, Watchmen what of the night? And the answer was, the morning comes and also the night, as it reads in the translation. The most that can be made of this is that both are to be looked for; and that, as we would infer, both are to be expected in alternate succession as the burden of Dumah. Dumah signifies quietness or likeness. As the Inquirer calls to the prophet out of Seir, which is one of the names given to the land of Idumea, or Edom, Dumah is supposed to be a place in that country. Edom and Idumea are of the same signification and mean earthly. Hence Duma may well be supposed to denote the church in its present earthy state, the imports of the word pointing out the church:1st it is quiet or peaceable nature in itself considered and also its likeness or assimilation to the world in having to participate in all the commotions, judgments, that come upon the nations. This burden therefore of Duma is the burden of the church in its militant or earthly state. But again Seir in its connection and its import, deserves notice: the word signifies, Harry, or devil, or Tempest, and the inquiry being made out of Seir, Watchmen what of the night? May represents the church as thus inquiring out of the storms or tempests in which she is involved by the opposition of Satan and his legion of ministers of the anti-Christian party, transforming themselves as the ministers of Christ. Thus in according with the answer, the morning comes and also the night, we see the church has had her mourning seasons and also her night; when there is war in heaven, and the dragon and his angels fight, it is night with the church and a Tempest is upon her; But when Michael and his angels shall prevail and the dragon be cast out, then it is morning with the church. And what is, and has been, the experience of the church in having her alternate seasons of morning and night, is also the case with the saints in their individual experience. Sometimes when we have enjoyed a morning to our souls, we have thought that darkness had forever fled; And when night is upon us we conclude that morning will never return. In both cases we have heretofore found ourselves mistaken; and so the present night, as thick as in the gathering darkness around us, will give way and morning will again return.
But there is a little different view of this text, (the morning comes and also the night) which we wish to notice. The word in the original which is rendered in the translation, and also, mixed with equal propriety be translated, even as; and thus rendered here, the morning comes even as the night. The import of the answer would be wholly that of encouragement, that is, it's import is, that though the burden of Duma is, that there was, and there should be night seasons, yet that the morning should return as sure as there was night. Thus, brethren, we give upon the authority of the scriptures the assurance of the return again and again of mourning. Yes, brethren, Christ will not be ashamed nor slacked to avow to the world, and in the world, himself to be the husband, the protector and defender of the daughter, his undefiled among the gentiles, as he thus about himself in reference to the mother, the church among the Jews, that as certainly as that one stone was not left upon another in Jerusalem, and so certainly will Babylon sink like as a millstone in the depths of the sea, and that the whole mass of that wicked, the man of sin, shall be destroyed by the brightness of his [Christ’s] coming.
Yea, and further, we believe and assure you, brethren, debt as the disciples after their Lord had shown himself to them by many infallible proofs for 40 days, saw him taken up and the cloud received him out of their sight, he shall again come in like manner as they saw him go into heaven. Remember that this was a visible and personal being taken up from them into heaven, in like manner must he come again, acts 1.2-11. When he thus comes he will come without sin unto salvation, will come, to receive his disciples unto himself, yea they will be caught up to meet him in the air, and so will be forever with the Lord. Then indeed will it be that an eternal mourning will have burst upon the church; a morning never to be succeeded by night, nor to be overcast with clouds. Brethren, let us patiently wait the approach of morning, and in the meantime let us watch and be sober, and not sleep as do others. Let us obediently return or come as the pillar of fire leads the way, and thus avoid being scattered.
But, brethren, let us beware of turning from the pillar of fire to any ignis-fatuus, any meteor that may arise from the damps of our own brains. Such vain imaginations will only lead us into the swamps of error, and scatter us one from another.
Brethren, while the letters from the churches generally lament the state of coldness and darkness which so generally prevails, they seem to be generally awake to the importance of cultivating brotherly love; several of them urged the subject upon the meeting, not that indiscriminately thing called Christian love, or charity which professedly embraces everything going under the name of religion, but that love commended in the New Testament, which centers in God as he is revealed in Christ, as the fountain of all loveliness and all good, and in Christ Jesus as God's way of salvation, and which reflows out to the image of Christ, in whomsoever seen and to the cause of a precious Redeemer; but which draws back with pain, sorrow, and disgust, from Antichrist wherever beheld in any of its features. And dear brethren, we would do well to stir up our minds to a more fervent love of the brethren, and to seek to act under its influence in all our intercourse with them. Our meeting has been one which has caused our hearts to rejoice and which calls for thankfulness to God, on account of the presence also goodly a number of brethren, from a distance bringing with them encouraging and edifying communications from associations and distant churches; also on account of peace and harmony in our meeting, but more especially that our ministering brethren come to us in the fullness and blessing of the gospel of Christ, and had manifestly the assistance of the blessed spirit in administering the same among us. We would urge upon churches and associations to keep up this correspondence among the churches of our Lord and to extend it more and more, as we are permitted the privilege in the providence of our heavenly Father.
The Mount Pleasant church, Fairfax County, Virginia (near Fairfax courthouse) has invited a meeting of correspondence to be held with them commencing on the Friday before the 2nd Lord's day in August 1842; and we would dare by unite with them in the request that old school churches, associations, annual meetings, etcetera, would unite in the said meeting by messengers, and would address their brotherly communications thereunto.
In conclusion, we would express our sympathies with the Baltimore association, with the churches of which the brethren were pastors, and with their families on account of the death of elders Choat, Scott, and Croft.
Signed by the Order of the Meeting,
S. Trott, Moderator
RC Leachman, Clerk
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