THE REMNANT IN A DECLINING CHURCH

And what could be more delightful, in this our day, than to be surprised by similar intelligence? Certainly, our own age seems greatly superior to that of Elijah; but there is much that is only exterior show, which can hardly be mistaken. If all that appears to be divine life were really such; and if all were evangelists who in modern times are preaching, not for the truth, but against it; if they were men of God, led and gifted by the Spirit of God, and bowed the knee in truth to the exalted Redeemer; if all the multitudes, who in every place crowd into the places of worship, really said in their hearts, “Come, let us return to the Lord!” If the thousands who, in Bible and missionary associations, labor in building the ark, all came into this ark themselves — nay, if even all with whom we are uniting for meetings of edification and prayer could be regarded as true worshippers, then might we indeed say something good of our times, though much would still remain to be wished for. But of what use is it to deceive ourselves? Things are far from being what their appearance would indicate. Also, many things which, from a distance, look beautiful, are found when more closely examined to be full of deformities, if not mere phantoms of what they seemed to be.

Yet, supposing we could regard all who have the show of piety as real Christians, how few would even these be, compared with the number of those all around us who openly show themselves to be unbelievers! The prevailing spirit of our times is that of infidelity and apostasy — a spirit of pretended illumination, but in reality, of the blindest presumption — a spirit of opposition to the plain word of God, and of arbitrary determination upon good and evil — a spirit of idolatrous exaltation of mere natural reason above the revealed wisdom of God. Among the great mass of nominal Christians, both of the learned and of the illiterate, it has long been taken for granted that the doctrine of our native corruption is a gloomy fancy, and that of salvation by the blood and righteousness of Christ an antiquated and bygone notion. It is held that the miserable tinsel of exterior decorum, the mere flimsy garniture of selfishness, is quite sufficient to satisfy God; and that a Divine Mediator is not at all necessary to the salvation of men. Many have long agreed that the dogmas of a few conceited philosophers, so called, are more to be trusted than the truth of God delivered by Christ and his apostles; and that such faith as that of Paul, Peter, or John, is insufferable in the present day as being absurd, mystical, and unworthy of any maturely instructed mind — yes, that it ought to be banished from the earth, even by persecution, if no other means will suffice.

Such is the prevailing spirit of our modern Christendom which, with some, is disguised by a Christian profession; while with others it has shamelessly cast off all disguise. It is found in every district, and in all ranks of society, and is taught in by far the greater part of our schools and nurseries. Millions of men baptized in the name of Christ he at the feet of this impious lying spirit. If you travel through the country, in whatever direction, you find it discovering itself in every company, at public tables, and in private families. Go from one church to another and you will almost everywhere find that this spirit of seduction is the preacher and expositor. Inspect a multitude of our modern hymn books and catechisms, and instead of the Spirit of God, this spirit of darkness in the garb of religion will confront you; yes, and in a very large number of our places of education this spirit is the Moloch to which our youth and children are sacrificed. Yes, my brethren, a review of the Christian world, in the present day, is enough to make every pious spirit shudder. The spirit of antichrist is prevailing in the world to such an extent as it has never done heretofore; and it is almost time to join in with the complaint of the psalmist, “Help, Lord! for the godly man ceaseth; for the faithful fail from the children of man!” Psalm 12:1.

Surely then many think far too favorable of the present time. But do not others think far too gloomily of them? We are willing to believe they do, and the experience which Elijah had, who thought that he only was left, and afterwards heard, to his surprise, that there were seven thousand in Israel who had not bowed the knee of Baal, may help to confirm us in this belief. Assuredly the Lord has many servants with whom we are unacquainted, he has hidden ones whom we may never hear of in this world; and many a country and many a city would perhaps long ago have been as Sodom and Gomorrah had not a small remnant of such been left in those places. “The kingdom of God cometh not with observation;” for, behold, “the kingdom of God is within you.” We do not sufficiently consider this, even as Elijah did not; and therefore we may be often mistaken with reference to this kingdom.

It is not unfrequently the case, my brethren, that we measure the temple of God with a very incorrect measuring line, and therefore deceive ourselves as to its breadth and extent. For instance we are apt to take it for granted that where there are no enlightened preachers there can be no true Christians. But we forget that God has promised, where the shepherds are corrupt, to take charge of the flock himself! Where has he made the regeneration of his chosen entirely dependent on human instrumentality? Lo! in the midst of the desert he often plants, with his own hands, the loveliest roses; and from the rudest thicket we often hear the sweetest notes of the nightingale. We are also apt to think that where nothing is heard of awakenings, no awakenings take place. But must there be always a sound when it rains, and cannot children be born to the Lord as dew from the womb of the morning — silently and secretly before daybreak, and while multitudes are asleep?

We are apt to take it for granted, that where there is no opposition to the gospel, there must be a dearth of decided Christians. Certainly, the words still hold good, “I am not come to send peace, but the sword!” and this is commonly shown to be the case. Still there may be real Christians who, without living under the fear of man, go on in such a quiet, retired, and gentle way, as not to be so exposed to the rancor of the children of this world; and if the Lord say to Laban, “Take heed that thou speak not to Jacob either good or bad,” can Laban act otherwise? It is generally taken for granted that in certain connections, stations, and companies, for instance, in the courts of infidel or worldy-minded princes, a child of God cannot possibly be found; but do we not see, in the example of Joseph, an Obadiah, and a Daniel, that even this may be the case? Obadiah seems even to have possessed the confidence and regard of such a man as Ahab.

The state of Christianity is also frequently estimated by the religious meetings convened in any place, and by the numbers who attend them; but is this estimation always correct? May it not be possible that in a place where no such meetings are held, there still may be many children of God who are restrained from coming together only by timidity and reserve — for such things may be found even in true believer — and who are obliged to secrete themselves, like the seven thousand in Elijah’s days? And is it not a part of the providential guidance of many souls to be directed rather to secret and retired intercourse with God, than to much open conference with their brethren?

Hence it may follow that possibly in those places where no sympathy or activity exists for religious institutions, as for Missionary and Bible Societies, perhaps nothing is wanting but information respecting such institutions, for the excitement of such an interest; or some sincere servants of God may have still so much to do with their own spiritual concerns, that they hardly know how to turn their attention to public efforts of this kind. All this is possible.

But it may be asked, Can there be any ground for supposing a people of God to exist, where no works of pious writers are read; where there is no information found respecting the progress of the kingdom of God in the world; where scarcely an evangelical sermon or book is ever read or heard of? I answer, we are not sure that in such places there are no people of God. I know some whom you would all acknowledge to be holy persons were I to name them, who, nevertheless, read nothing in the world but their Bible and hymn book, and daily wipe their eyes for joy, that they are so rich with these two books, and think that in these they possess a library which, in their whole life, they will never be able to exhaust, and that they can find nothing so beautiful anywhere as in the Bible! Who can blame them? Now, there may be many such persons in the world who are very little known.

Moreover, we are apt to make the number of the faithful smaller than it is by defining too arbitrarily and narrowly the characteristics of a state of grace. We, for instance, lay down a certain process as always observed in the Holy Spirit’s work of conversion; whereas He is free as the wind that blows where it lists. Infinite wisdom is seen in an endless variety of processes in the visible creation; and, as uniformity is not its rule in the kingdom of nature, so neither is it in the kingdom of grace; but the same object is attained here also by variety. A gracious change of mind may be as truly wrought by one process as by another. If you have had long to sigh and groan in spirit before your sins were forgiven you, still grudge not at him whose way has been made to prosper more rapidly, and to whom the Lord has earlier shown his lovingkindness. “It is the Lord; let him do what seemeth him good.”

Or, if it be given you to gain spiritual strength more easily, while another is day and night troubled with “a thorn in the flesh,” and cast down again and again — is he, on that account, no child of God? And if you are active and zealous in awakening others, efficient in preaching, exhortation, etc., while others are not so, nor are able to be so, are you therefore to question the genuineness of their piety? We must never measure others by ourselves. If we seek more after the chief and essential matter, namely, the contrite spirit and the genuine love of Christ and of the brethren, we shall perhaps be led to number many as belonging to the flock of Christ, whom at present we are apt to overlook.

Elijah, as we find, received an express revelation concerning the faithful in Israel, and their number. The Lord unveiled to him the hidden church, and it may be supposed how great was the astonishment of this man of God, to learn that among the very people he had so severly accused, there were so many as seven thousand who had not bowed the knee unto Baal. He had regarded himself as the only light in the darkness of Samaria; and now behold! a whole firmament of chosen souls is disclosed to his view.

We have to be thankful that even still the church is sometimes refreshed by such pleasing discoveries. Often, on the very spot where we expected to find only thorns and briers, we find a cultivation like the garden of the Lord, and sweeter flowers than are wont to bloom in the more frequented parts of christendom. Thus lately, in a village in France, in the cottage of a notorious fortune-teller, was discovered a goodly group of the lambs of Christ’s flock, transformed into that character from its very opposite. So likewise there was very recently found, in one of the most dissipated cities in the world, a spiritual plantation of Divine grace, which we should never have looked for in such a moral desert; and yet it had secretly flourished there for several years, known only to the heavenly Husbandman, who planted and kept it. In another quarter, with which you yourselves are acquainted, where the voice of preaching had long been entirely silent, there was found a considerable company of thriving children of grace, secretly sprung up without any apparently efficient means, of whom the church might be ready to say, “Whence came they? and who hath begotten me these?” And, in another place, we unexpectedly beheld, through the intervention of a pious emperor, three hundred saints, of whom almost no one knew anything, lately coming forth from the prisons of malefactors — three hundred who had not bowed the knee to Baal, and who, for that very reason, had lain in irons without the emperor’s knowledge. God sometimes shows us (it was a happiness I frequently enjoyed in my former parish) some old mariner in the midst of a rude and ungovernable crew, who has grown grey in the midst of the most brutal associates; but behold, he is steering toward Jerusalem, and his guiding star is the star of Bethlehem; or some rough bargeman or sailor who has grown up in the seat of the scorners; but lo! through his rude exterior glistens the pure brightness of a genuine Christian character, and beneath his rough leather doublet beats a heart moored by that anchor, which enters into that which is within the veil.

And again, as has frequently happened to us, we enter a house to preach repentance to some whom we suppose to be spiritually dead, and we are sweetly surprised by the greeting Christian smile of one or more in the family, betraying a secret acquaintance with the peace of God, and perhaps more deep experience in Christ than we ourselves possess. Such discoveries serve to shame our timidity, to strengthen our faith, and enlarge our hearts; they also teach us to be more prudent and gentle in judging of others, and to take a brighter and more hopeful survey of the world at large. Since I found among yourselves such retired blossoms of faith, my whole parish has appeared to me in another light; and when I am walking through it, I feel like one who is passing through the shaft of a mine, where one stroke of the mattock to the right or the left may possibly discover to him a new vain of precious metal.

Yes, however low may be the present state of the church, we have reason to conclude that it is not so poor and destitute of persons influenced by Divine grace as we are ready to imagine. I believe that if it pleased God to lift the veil, we might be surprised with the discovery of such numbers as would seem like a resurrection scene. We doubt not but the Prince of the host has still many an ambush of reserve in this world, and that he needs only to sound the trumpet, as he will do in due time, according to Zech. 10:8, and then we shall be surprised at beholding troops of Christians about us, as Elisha’s servant was surprised at beholding troops of angels covering the mount of Dothan, 2 Kings 6:17. How often has it happened that in a church where for many years the word of God had been seldom heard, and of which it was a matter of doubt whether such a church contained in it one real believer, a single occasional discourse, delivered from its pulpit by a stranger, has proved the signal for calling forth all at once numbers of timid sheep from their state of concealment! And may not such occurrences give us reason to hope that there are yet many more of the Lord’s “hidden ones,” with whom we are unacquainted?

How surprised shall we be in eternity when the veil shall be removed to find there, from quarters where we least looked for them, among the multitide whom no man can number, standing before the throne many who were never known as the Lord’s people in this world; whom circumstances, or local situation, or their outward defects and infirmities, or their retiring humility and modesty, had concealed from our view! And not only in eternity, but also in this world, such a joyfully surprising disclosure of the hidden church awaits us — and who knows how near its time may be — that the prophetic language, in Cant. 6:10, will resound as then fulfilled, “Who is she that looketh forth as the morning, fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners?”

Excerpt from Elijah the Tishbite by F.W. Krummacher

Some time ago there was a remarkable conversion in the Transvaal of a certain medical man, a brilliant scientist, an omnivorous reader, and a man of high standing in his profession. For many years he was Medical Superintendent of a Government hospital. He was a professed atheist. He could not understand why his wife — otherwise sane and reasonable — persisted in believing and devoutly reading the Bible, which science, in his judgment, had proved to be a collection of myths and legends. It irritated and annoyed him, and he frequently told her so. One evening while she was reading the Bible to their little son he entered the room, and to her great astonishment confronted her with the question, “Why do you never read that book to me?” Immediately she acceded to his wishes, and read one of the Gospels to him. He could not get enough of it. When she ceased reading, he would exclaim; “Go on, I don’t know that Book!” From that time onwards she frequently read the Bible, and especially the Gospels, to him. At length she had the joy of seeing her husband changed from an atheist to a firm and humble believer in Jesus Christ.

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