By John Thiel, mp3

Scripture reading: Jeremiah 6:2 I have likened the daughter of Zion to a comely and delicate [woman]. 3 The shepherds with their flocks shall come unto her; they shall pitch [their] tents against her round about; they shall feed every one in his place.

God has a church on this earth, and in His church He exercises His authority, so that the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Anyone who despises the authority of God’s church, of the church that He authorizes and works through, actually despises the voice of Jesus Christ. Here Jesus speaks to Peter and He refers to Himself as the rock:

Matthew 16:18 And I say also unto thee, that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. 19 And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

So solemn and serious are the realities of God’s church on earth that if there is any despising of this body to whom He has given the keys of heaven, it would be despising the Lord Himself. As we consider that the gates of hell shall not prevail against this church, we come right down the line to our point in time of earth’s history, right now, and we ask the question, Does it mean that at this very moment God has His church?

Some have advanced the thought that, as we near the close of time, every child of God will act independently of any religious organization. But I have been instructed by the Lord that in this work there is no such thing as every man’s being independent. The stars of heaven are all under law, each influencing the other to do the will of God, yielding their common obedience to the law that controls their action. {9T 258.1}

Right down to this time God has His organisation, His body. The gates of hell have not been able to prevail against God’s church all down through the ages.

The Church in Unity

Oh read the prayer of Christ for unity, Keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are (John 17:11). The prayer of Christ is not only for those who are now His disciples, but for all those who shall believe on Christ through the words of His disciples, even to the end of the world. Jesus was just about to yield up His life to bring life and immortality to light. Christ, amid His sufferings, and being daily rejected of men, looks down the lines two thousand years to His church which would be in existence in the last days, before the close of this earth’s history. {1MR 355.1}

At that time He looked right down the line and He saw His church today, the church which would be in existence in the last days, before the close of this earth’s history.

The Lord has had a church from that day, through all the changing scenes of time to the present period, 1893. The Bible sets before us a model church. They are to be in unity with each other, and with God. When believers are united to Christ the living vine, the result is that they are one with Christ, full of sympathy and tenderness and love. When anyone is drawing apart from the organized body of God’s commandment-keeping people, when he begins to weigh the church in his human scales, and begins to pronounce judgment against them, then you may know that God is not leading him. He is on the wrong track. {1MR 355.2}

A model church – O to find it. Our purpose is to be able to recognize God’s church. If God does have such a church at this current time, and it is proven scripturally one hundred percent, O that we could recognize it. Ask yourself the question, If you saw God’s church today, would you be able to recognise it? Does not the Bible promote the representation of such a body of people? In Song of Solomon we find a description of all the confusion of the organisations of today, the very thing that confuses the minds of people:

Song of Solomon 6:8 There are threescore queens, and fourscore concubines, and virgins without number. 9 My dove, my undefiled is [but] one; she [is] the [only] one of her mother, she [is] the choice [one] of her that bare her. The daughters saw her, and blessed her; [yea], the queens and the concubines, and they praised her. 10 Who [is] she [that] looketh forth as the morning, fair as the moon, clear as the sun, [and] terrible as [an army] with banners?

Who is she? That was the question of our song, O tell me, Thou light and delight of my soul, where the flock of Thy pastures are feeding. Where are they? Who is she? The words of this hymn are taken from the following scripture:

Song of Solomon 1:7 Tell me, O thou whom my soul loveth, where thou feedest, where thou makest [thy flock] to rest at noon: for why should I be as one that turneth aside by the flocks of thy companions?

Then comes the answer:

Song of Solomon 1:8 If thou know not, O thou fairest among women, go thy way forth by the footsteps of the flock, and feed thy kids beside the shepherds’ tents.

Aren’t these the words of Jeremiah chap. 6? What were the shepherds going to do with this comely and delicate woman, the daughter of Zion? God invites them to go and take the flocks and to feed their kids besides the shepherds’ tents.

Jeremiah 6:2  I have likened the daughter of Zion to a comely and delicate [woman]. 3 The shepherds with their flocks shall come unto her; they shall pitch [their] tents against her round about; they shall feed every one in his place.

A Delicate and Comely Woman

Let us now search for her, let us find this delicate and comely woman as the Scriptures convey her. What is the answer? “If thou know not, O thou fairest among women, go thy way forth by the footsteps of the flock.” Follow the footsteps of the flock. God identifies footsteps through His word. This woman will be as an army. We are looking for the army of the Lord.

Song of Solomon 6:10 Who [is] she [that] looketh forth as the morning, fair as the moon, clear as the sun, [and] terrible as [an army] with banners?

The Footsteps of Identification

Where in the Bible can we find the footsteps of this woman that is fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners? We find her in Revelation:

Revelation 12:1 And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars: 2 And she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered. 3 And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads. 4 And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born. 5 And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and [to] his throne. 6 And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred [and] threescore days.

Can we see the footprints? Here is the woman, the one to whom Jesus was born, the pure church that existed in the time of Jesus and which He continued to nurture by His ministry. Then Jesus was taken away to heaven, and the church, the woman, went through experiences that we can trace all the way through Revelation in the history of the seven churches and the seven seals, and right through to Revelation 14, where we see the church at the end of the seven churches, the Laodicean period, under the three angels’ messages. There we can trace this church right through the history until verse 13 and 14:

Revelation 12:13 And when the dragon saw that he was cast unto the earth, he persecuted the woman which brought forth the man [child]. 14 And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent.

A time, and times and half a time – This is the 1260 years of papal persecution.

Revelation 12:15 And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood. 

This is the flood of papal persecution.

Revelation 12:16 And the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth.

This is the story of the Reformation and the rise of the American nation as a protective agent together with the Protestant message.

Revelation 12:17 And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.

We have:

• The woman
• The seed
• And the remnant of her seed, which ultimately stands there in full display as His undefiled, comely and delicate woman.

From the beginning, faithful souls have constituted the church on earth. In every age the Lord has had His watchmen, who have borne a faithful testimony to the generation in which they lived. These sentinels gave the message of warning; and when they were called to lay off their armor, others took up the work. God brought these witnesses into covenant relation with Himself, uniting the church on earth with the church in heaven. He has sent forth His angels to minister to His church, and the gates of hell have not been able to prevail against His people. {AA 11.2}

During ages of spiritual darkness the church of God has been as a city set on a hill. From age to age, through successive generations, the pure doctrines of heaven have been unfolding within its borders. Enfeebled and defective as it may appear, the church is the one object upon which God bestows in a special sense His supreme regard. It is the theater of His grace, in which He delights to reveal His power to transform hearts. {AA 12.1}

Here we are in these times in which we live, when the woman has given birth to the seed and the remnant is about to finish the work. What is this remnant of her seed identified as having? They keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ;

Revelation 14:12 Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.

We are looking for this woman; this is the grand final display of a people who are God’s pure and unadulterated people. As I posed at the beginning, could you recognize this church if you saw her? Let us examine the features and the characteristics of that church so that we, in our individual search, can identify and recognize her. How did Jeremiah describe her? A comely and delicate woman. And in Song of Solomon she is spoken of as, My dove. What is the characteristic of a dove? They are very gentle, like a delicate woman. By God’s grace we will enter into a careful examination of His Word to be able to recognize this church. There are five aspects scripturally by which we may recognize it:

1) Doctrinally

2) Numerically

3) Financially

4) Experience

5) Character

When we come to seek to identify God’s remnant people we are looking for identification marks that God has identified in her.

Doctrinally

In Isaiah 8 we read what God’s church, His disciples, must doctrinally equate with. In other words, what does she teach?

Isaiah 8:16 Bind up the testimony, seal the law among my disciples. 17 And I will wait upon the LORD, that hideth his face from the house of Jacob, and I will look for him. 18 Behold, I and the children whom the LORD hath given me [are] for signs and for wonders in Israel from the LORD of hosts, which dwelleth in mount Zion.

You will be able to discern her; she is there as signs and wonders.

Isaiah 8:20 To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, [it is] because [there is] no light in them.

Doctrinally the church must harmonise with the law of God and with all the testimonies of the previous faithful church. To the law and to the testimony. The church of God will be identifiable in the last days because they are the people who hold the true doctrine of the law and of the testimony so that they don’t deviate from it. They have the Sabbath as well as all the other commandments. Because of the terrible onslaught of Satan upon God’s church through the Dark Ages, there is a need of God’s recognisable church to do what is written here:

Isaiah 58:12 And [they that shall be] of thee (of God) shall build the old waste places: thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations; and thou shalt be called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in.

Doctrinally this church will be active in restoring all the things that have been deteriorating in the churches.

Characteristics of True Reformers.–Here are given the characteristics of those who shall be reformers, who will bear the banner of the third angel’s message, those who avow themselves God’s commandment-keeping people, and who honor God, and are earnestly engaged, in the sight of all the universe, in building up the old waste places. {4BC 1151.7}

What are they doing? They are active; they are building up doctrines that have been left to go waste.

Who is it that calls them, The repairers of the breach, The restorers of paths to dwell in? It is God. Their names are registered in heaven as reformers, restorers, as raising the foundations of many generations (RH Oct. 13, 1891). {Ibid.}

…the law of God is the foundation of all enduring reform {PK 678.2}

God’s law is very broad. How does this church, which is identified as living by every word that proceeds out of God’s mouth, relate to the word? What kind of characteristic will the church display in regards to doctrine?

Isaiah 66:2 For all those [things] hath mine hand made, and all those [things] have been, saith the LORD: but to this [man] will I look, [even] to [him that is] poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word.

Here is a characteristic that we would look for in God’s church: people who are fastidious in regards to the law and the doctrines, standing on the old platforms and repairing them, and trembling at every word that proceeds out of God’s mouth.

1 Timothy 3:15 But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.

Doctrinally we can expect God’s church to be the pillar and the ground of truth. This shows in a nutshell the doctrinal identification of God’s church.

Numerically

How many people are in God’s pure church today, in the church He calls His own?

Jeremiah 3:14 Turn, O backsliding children, saith the LORD; for I am married unto you: and I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion: 15 And I will give you pastors according to mine heart, which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding.

Here are the pastors that we identified in the previous section, and the numbers in their companies are very small – one of a city, two of a family. In the following scripture is another revelation of the number of people we can expect to find in God’s church in the last days. Amos talks of a church that is fallen and how the faithful ones must continue. This is what has always happened through history, a church falls and another takes its place, which is the seed, the faithful seed.

Amos 5:2 The virgin of Israel is fallen; she shall no more rise: she is forsaken upon her land; [there is] none to raise her up. 3 For thus saith the Lord GOD; The city that went out [by] a thousand shall leave an hundred, and that which went forth [by] an hundred shall leave ten, to the house of Israel.

They started big, and they become small. Numerically they are small. After she was shown that the whole word was going in the wrong direction, Sr. White asked the angel:

I asked the angel if there were none left. He bade me look in an opposite direction, and I saw a little company traveling a narrow pathway. All seemed to be firmly united, bound together by the truth, in bundles, or companies. … This little company looked careworn, as if they had passed through severe trials and conflicts. {EW 88.3}

Here is a little company, a remnant. And the question is asked, Why so few? This is a very important question and there is a very important answer:

I have tried in the fear of God to set before His people their danger and their sins, and have endeavored, to the best of my feeble powers, to arouse them. I have stated startling things, which, if they had believed, would have caused them distress and terror, and led them to zeal in repenting of their sins and iniquities. I have stated before them that, from what was shown me, but a small number of those now professing to believe the truth would eventually be saved–not because they could not be saved, but because they would not be saved in God’s own appointed way. {2T 445.2}

God works through the authority of His word and the church that stands on that word. This is why numerically we have such a small company, because many would not be saved in God’s own appointed way. It is not because they couldn’t be. They could be part of a big church, which they could comprise, but they would not. God’s church could be big if people submitted themselves to God’s ways, but they choose not to do this.

Financially

Here is a statement in regards to the financial condition of God’s church. If you are looking for God’s church, what would you expect?

Zephaniah 3:12 I will also leave in the midst of thee an afflicted and poor people, and they shall trust in the name of the LORD. 13 The remnant of Israel shall not do iniquity, nor speak lies; neither shall a deceitful tongue be found in their mouth: for they shall feed and lie down, and none shall make [them] afraid.

The sheep are safe, but they are a poor and afflicted people. In the time of the disciples, were they rich? They were initially rich but they became poor for the sake of spreading the gospel. The poor fishermen and the tax collectors all gathered together and they were a poor people. Then came the rich men like Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, and they became poor because they poured all their finances into the church. And after that, there came the terrible persecution. Poor and afflicted – this is the picture of God’s church right through to the end.

Experience

What kind of experience do we see God’s church making? In Zephaniah 3 we read that the church is poor and afflicted. Affliction is an experience. The following scripture contains more of this experience:

Zechariah 13:9 And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It [is] my people: and they shall say, The LORD [is] my God. 

Here are a people who are God’s church, but what is their experience?

• Purging
• Refining
• Testing
• Heat

It is only a third, a small number of people, because the rest of them are all fallen (v.8). In the time of the judgment when Jesus goes into the most holy place, this is the experience of God’s faithful people because they accept this message:

Malachi 3:1 Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith the LORD of hosts.

What is the identification of being saved in God’s appointed way?

Malachi 3:2 But who may abide the day of his coming (to His temple)? and who shall stand when he appeareth? for he [is] like a refiner’s fire, and like fullers’ soap: 3 And he shall sit [as] a refiner and purifier of silver: and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the LORD an offering in righteousness.

The experience of God’s true church is the experience of a people going through the rigours of purification. They are a people who are being severely tested, and the heat of purification is in their experience. They are not comfortably sitting on their lees in the churches; no. They come to church to be refreshed because they are going through such a testing experience. That is God’s people. God will say of them, You are My people; and they will say, ‘The Lord is my God; I submit myself to His work in the authority of His church.’

This detail is delineated in the following statement which helps us to actually visualize this pure church:

I was shown the people of God, and saw them mightily shaken. Some, with strong faith and agonizing cries, were pleading with God. {1T 179.3}

Here are the true people, people with strong faith and agonizing cries who are pleading with God.

Their countenances were pale, and marked with deep anxiety, expressive of their internal struggle. {Ibid.}

Have you ever had an anxiety attack? You will have anxiety attacks, because the message will throw you into anxiety.

Firmness and great earnestness were expressed in their countenances, while large drops of perspiration fell from their foreheads. Now and then their faces would light up with the marks of God’s approbation, and again the same solemn, earnest, anxious look would settle upon them. {Ibid.}

Why is this going on?

Evil angels crowded around them, pressing their darkness upon them, to shut out Jesus from their view, that their eyes might be drawn to the darkness that surrounded them, and they distrust God and next murmur against Him. Their only safety was in keeping their eyes directed upward. Angels of God had charge over His people, and as the poisonous atmosphere from the evil angels was pressed around these anxious ones, the heavenly angels were continually wafting their wings over them, to scatter the thick darkness. {1T 180.1}

Some, I saw, did not participate in this work of agonizing and pleading. They seemed indifferent and careless. They were not resisting the darkness around them, and it shut them in like a thick cloud. The angels of God left these, and I saw them hastening to the assistance of those who were struggling with all their energies to resist the evil angels, and trying to help themselves by calling upon God with perseverance. But the angels left those who made no effort to help themselves, and I lost sight of them. {1T 180.2}

Can you identify this church by her experience?

My attention was then turned to the company I had seen, who were mightily shaken. I was shown those whom I had before seen weeping and praying in agony of spirit. The company of guardian angels around them had been doubled, and they were clothed with an armor from their head to their feet. They moved in exact order, like a company of soldiers. {1T 181.3}

Have you ever been told, You are all like tin soldiers?

Their countenances expressed the severe conflict which they had endured, the agonizing struggle they had passed through. Yet their features, marked with severe internal anguish, now shone with the light and glory of heaven. They had obtained the victory, and it called forth from them the deepest gratitude, and holy, sacred joy. {Ibid.}

The numbers of this company had lessened. {1T 182.1}

Numerically it decreases.

Some had been shaken out and left by the way. The careless and indifferent, who did not join with those who prized victory and salvation enough to perseveringly plead and agonize for it, did not obtain it, and they were left behind in darkness, and their places were immediately filled by others taking hold of the truth and coming into the ranks. Evil angels still pressed around them, but could have no power over them. {Ibid.}

I heard those clothed with the armor speak forth the truth with great power. {1T 182.2}

Can you identify her? This is the experience of God’s church in the last days, the one He calls, My dove, My undefiled, terrible as an army with banners.

Character

What is the character of these people like in this experience? What kind of people are in that church? As we look back at the experience of the disciples in the early church, we realise how they were often bewildered; they came through disappointments. Among them there was also conflict, but they were still Christ’s church. In 1844 there was a similar experience of disappointment among God’s people. Adventists at this time believed that the prophecy in Daniel 8:14 marked the year in which Jesus would return to purge the earth by fire. They had completely failed to comprehend that the cleansing of the sanctuary in Dan 8:14 was not referring to the earth but in fact to the heavenly sanctuary. The characteristic of those people was that, when they were severely disappointed, when everything seemed to fall down around them, they displayed the character of those who were before them. Remember Daniel. His whole world crumbled. Israel was destroyed by Babylon; he was taken captive by the Babylonians; he became a prisoner, and he continued to trust in God. The worst and severest experiences were his and his friends’, yet they continued to rely upon God. What a testimony. God’s true church is like that. Although Daniel had lived in Babylon for so many years, he still prayed to God for the forgiveness of the sins of his people, that they might turn from their iniquities. Despite being exiled to Babylon for so many years, Daniel continues to pray steadfastly. The prayer of Daniel reveals the character and steadfastness of God’s church in the negative experiences. This is what God’s church is all about.

Daniel 9:3 And I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes: 4 And I prayed unto the LORD my God, and made my confession, and said, O Lord, the great and dreadful God, keeping the covenant and mercy to them that love him, and to them that keep his commandments; 5 We have sinned, and have committed iniquity, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even by departing from thy precepts and from thy judgments: 6 Neither have we hearkened unto thy servants the prophets, which spake in thy name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land. 7 O Lord, righteousness [belongeth] unto thee, but unto us confusion of faces, as at this day; to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and unto all Israel, [that are] near, and [that are] far off, through all the countries whither thou hast driven them, because of their trespass that they have trespassed against thee.

Here is Daniel, a man of God who has remained faithful to God’s church, and what is he doing? He is praying to God for mercy, as every member of God’s church will do. And as Daniel prays he includes himself in the sins of others. He is accountable together with them. This is the character of God’s church. With that attitude predominating you would therefore expect in the church that there is something to confess, there is something there which is not perfect. That is the character of God’s church today. It is comprised of faulty personalities, and as that is the character of the church, the people are striving, praying and seeking God.

God’s church is a collective of people who are very faulty, but they are seeking to fulfill the prayer of Christ.

The neglect to cultivate tender consideration and forbearance for one another has caused dissension, distrust, faultfinding, and general disunion. God . . . calls upon us to put away this great sin and to strive to answer the prayer of Christ that His disciples may be one as He is one with the Father. . . . It is the special work of Satan to cause dissension, . . . that the world should be deprived of the most powerful testimony Christians can give it that God has sent His Son to bring into harmony turbulent, proud, envious, jealous, bigoted minds. . . . {OHC 237.3}

What is the character of the members of the church? Turbulent, proud, envious, jealous, bigoted minds. That is what has been revealed. And God is happy to encompass this company and show to the world that with such a company He can demonstrate His power so that this company can stand united. Satan does not want this to happen. It is his special work to cause dissention. Then when this dissension has taken place, all that we have to do is to put away this great sin and strive to answer the prayer of Christ. This is the on-going activity in God’s church – to put away the sins that are the problems. This is the experience that they are going through.

The truth of God is not designed merely to deal with errors and vices. . . . The truth is designed to sanctify the receiver, to fashion and mold the entire man, externally as well as internally, by abasing pride and disposing his heart to be kind and amiable and condescending. Yes, the religion of Christ is a system of the truest politeness, and its triumphs are complete when a world may look on a people professing godliness with a united front, believers showing habitual tenderness of feeling and kindness of deportment and sincere regard for the reputation of each other. {OHC 237.4}

This is when the church is triumphant. This is what we are involved in, and that is what God’s true church is to be identified by. There will be faultiness in the church, but the truth is designed to sanctify the receiver and to refashion him so that he will esteem others better than himself and have a sincere regard for the reputation of others in the church. It is a people who are prepared to put up with each other’s turbulence, bigoted mindedness, etc. That is not easy, is it? Of course not. It is the power of God that can make that work. The people of the world know that this is impossible; they can see what is going on in Parliament with the bigoted behaviour of every one against each other; they can see what the world is like. They are trying so hard to unite and they fall apart all the time. But here is a church that doesn’t fall apart, that stands to witness by the character of its humility. Yet it is not a church that doesn’t have its problems.

The church of Christ on earth will be imperfect, but God does not destroy His church because of its imperfection. {TM 46.1}

The character of the church is one of accepting the progressive changes that must take places within her.

Although there are evils existing in the church, and will be until the end of the world, the church in these last days is to be the light of the world that is polluted and demoralized by sin. The church, enfeebled and defective, needing to be reproved, warned, and counseled, is the only object upon earth upon which Christ bestows His supreme regard. {TM 49.1}

This church is not perfect.

Some people seem to think that upon entering the church they will have their expectations fulfilled, and meet only with those who are pure and perfect. {TM 47.1}

Don’t be deceived, she says. The characteristic of the church is not that they are perfect, but that they are striving to conquer their imperfections through the Lord Jesus Christ, and they press together to achieve it and thus answer His prayer.

If you were to meet God’s church today you would meet a ministry and a people, according to Isaiah chap. 8 & 58, fighting for truth and doctrine and commandment-keeping, and conscientiously applying themselves (Titus 2:14) to live according to every word spoken by God. You would see a people small in number, poor in worldly goods, tossed by experience and learning to control their imperfect characters, yet they would be respecting and cheering each other along, as it says in Hebrew chap. 10, not forsaking the assembling of themselves together and seeking to provoke each other to love and good works. This is God’s church.

It is a company so thoroughly organised that when you see them they are like an army of soldiers, obeying God’s directions down through the line of command. God is the Great General, and He passes on His command down the line. Has Jesus answered us well in His word in reference to the question of Song of Solomon? ‘I am tired of wondering and being tossed about, I am sick of all these confusions; I want to know where your people dwell and live.’ We can discern and we can follow, because the religion of Christ is a system of the truest politeness, and its triumphs will be complete when the world may look upon a people professing godliness with a united front, believers showing habitual tenderness of feeling and kindness of deportment, and sincere regard for the reputation of each other.

Amen.

[March 10, 2007]