Harbinger, Dec. 1, '64. Page. Page. 288, 399 Richard Jones 220 144 Matilda Murphy 220 74, 326 Susannah Nicholson 220 144, 290 Mary Harrison 256 39, 289 Bro. Hart . 256 . 39, 288, 326 39, 364, 428 144 . 399 .429 Harbinger, Jan. 1, '64. EXTERNAL ORDINANCES. 5 THE British Millennial Barbinger. JANUARY, 1864. EXTERNAL ORDINANCES. THERE are no merely outward ordi- tates of infinite wisdom, and originate nances in the Christian religion, if the terms of the proposition be strictly considered; and therefore we shall be at some pains to examine the subject with both the light of reason and Scripture for our guides. in the highest possible authority. The offender cannot by any means escape the consequences of his acts of disobedience. We have only to refer you to the statutes and ordinances of the law on Mount Sinai, to shew the nature of the obedience required, and the punishment threatened against all the violators of its divine appointments. 66 'Every transgression and disobedience will meet with a just retribution." But what is meant by the word "ex 66 What, then, is an ordinance? It is a rule established by authority-a permanent rule of action-an established rite or ceremony. In no instance, either in society or religion, is it ever strictly considered as a useless or unmeaning thing; but as a matter originating internal ?"—an external ordinance ?" the state, or established by authority External signifies outward, exterior; as or custom, and to be observed out of the external surface of a body, opposed respect for the authority that ordained to the internal. it. Thus all laws in relation to the mode of selecting officers for the state, their introduction into office, their pay, and the obedience due to them, are made matters of special ordinance. All laws regulating the rights and privileges of citizenship, marriage, divorce, and property are guaranteed by law, Now it is certain that, neither under and must be obeyed to the letter; not the law nor under the gospel, did God one of them is to be neglected or dis-ever ordain any outward institutions, obeyed, without incurring the displea- as opposed to inward; nor did he ever sure of the state, and subjecting the offender to certain disabilities and punishment. It is equally so in regard to all ordinances proceeding from divine authority; only with this difference in their favour, that they demand and are deserving a large amount of respect, and a stricter obedience, as they are the dic A In ecclesiastical matters it refers to "rites and ceremonies" "visible forms," as established, not by Christ and his Apostles, but by councils and conventions, which take to themselves the authority of altering the Divine ordinances "somewhat!" give authority to uninspired men to alter, change, or modify, much less to abolish, any of his ordinances-not even to the regulating the fringe on the vestments of the high priests, the bells which hung upon their garments, or the taches and tenons of the Tabernacle. There were no unmeaning “rites and ceremonies" proceeding from Di 6 EXTERNAL ORDINANCES. vine authority under the law, and those ordained by "the fathers" only made void "God's commandments by their traditions." Take for example circumcision, the diverse immersions, the Sabbath, the Passover, sacrifice--were these outward ordinances? Had they no inward significancy and life? Were they bodies without souls; "rites and ceremonies" without any moral? Or were they dead customs, which might or might not be observed, "non-essential?" Far otherwise! The man who neglected circumcision broke a covenant, and was cut off from the people. He who neglected" the Sabbath" was sorely punished. One was even stoned to death for picking up sticks on this hallowed day-the Jewish Sabbath. The case of Uzziah, for his trespass in touching the Ark with unpriestly hands, and was stricken to death, is a solemn warning to those who deal in unessentials in religion; and also Nadab and Abihu, who were destroyed for of fering strange fire on the altar. Now if these things were so under the law, what shall we say of the same principle, as it obtains under the Gospel? If the things spoken by angels were steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience met with a just retribution, how shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation, which first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by those (the Apostles) who heard him?" The law was but the shadow of good things to come, of which the gospel is the substance the one is the image of the truth, the other is the truth itself the one is a fleshly, the other a spiritual institution. There is not a statute or ordinance of the gospel that is merely outward; but all are designed and adapted to reach our spiritual nature. This was their chief characteristic. The very words of Christ are spirit and life"-spiritual and life-giving, designed to give life to the spirit of man. 66 Harbinger, Jan. 1, '64. So deeply does this feature pervade the Christian religion, that it is called by Paul to the Corinthians, “spirit," in contradistinction to the law, which he denominates "letter” — the law which kills. Under the gospel, the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus is not written on tables of stone, but on the fleshly tables of the heart; it lies imbedded among the warm and living affections of the soul, written there by the finger of God. No service that does not proceed from a renewed life is acceptable to God. He must be worshipped "in spirit and in truth"not in spirit only, but in truth; not in truth only, but also in spirit. Can it, then, be supposed that any ordinances proceeding from the Messiah, with special reference to the spi ritual wants of our nature, can fail in this particular? To judge so would be to impeach the wisdom and goodness of the only Lawgiver who can save and can destroy. It would prove, indeed, that Christianity was a failure, and its ordinances no better than dead fruit hung on the tree of life, or the automaton motions of a wooden man. The very fact that there are but few ordinances in the gospel, indicates the necessity for their observance, and the importance to be attached to them. There may be many wheels in a watch, and an intricate machinery, but it has only one main spring; and all this would be of no value without the hands upon its face to indicate the time. The hands, you say, are of little value by themselves considered! True; but on the face of the watch they are indispensable,-so far as the notation of time is concerned, the most essential part of the watch,-without them it would be of no value whatever as a time-piece. We have a thousand statutes in the state; there is but one in regard to the act of naturalization. So we have but one Lord's day, one Baptism (in English, immersion), one Supper. The very fewness of the ordinances of the gospel, 1 |