Dear Sister in the Lord: Your good letter, breathing so much of the spirit of the Master, was received nearly a week ago. And as I take this early opportunity to reply to same, would ask the dear Father in heaven to assist me in saying the very things that you most need, and that will be most thoroughly to His glory.
I greatly rejoice with you dear Sister, in the many evidences your letter gives, that you have learned so thoroughly the lesson of submission to the Divine will. There are so many, even among the children of God, who will admit that the Lord can run the universe, or inspire a Bible, or hang the sun, moon and stars in their places, or design a perfect body, infinitely better than they ever could; but somehow they entertain the thought that they could have laid out their own experiences so much better than the Lord can. They might not put it in just such language, but that is what it amounts to.
People are so ready to criticize the work of the Almighty The scientist tells how the human body could get along without this organ or that one. The Theologian thinks we do not need the book of Jonah in the Bible, that the Word of God would have been better without it. And the Christian believes that we did not require this painful experience or that trying ordeal.
In each of these three cases it is a manifestation of the same thing; a lack of confidence in the wisdom of the Lord. However, we can readily understand why the scientist or unenlightened theologian does not have the necessary faith or confidence in God, but it does seem hard to understand why the consecrated Christian cannot believe "that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose." [PE490]
So I was made glad to note that the Lord's grace had enabled you to reach the place where even your afflictions cannot muffle the psalm of praise which ascends from your heart to the Father's throne, and I trust you may ever be found of Him in the attitude where you can say: "Thy will be done," as cheerfully when it means some loss as when it means added comfort. If job, away back in his day, with so much less light than we, without having been begotten of the Holy Spirit, etc., could show so much of that spirit of submission to the will of God, then how beautifully it should be manifest in our life.
If we could constantly remember that the most important thing today is not how great a number can be reached by the Gospel, nor how much ease and comfort we can get, nor even how much influence we can have; but how can we bear the largest amount of the fruits of the spirit. "Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit" John 15:8. "But the fruit of the spirit is love," etc. (Gal. 5:22,23.) So if we are living in harmony with this Scripture we will be glad to welcome any experiences, no matter how bitter they be, that will help us to bear that fruit.
But one may ask; I am bearing that fruit, then why does the Lord allow me to have so much trouble. "Every branch that beareth fruit He purgeth it, (prunes and cuts it) that it may bring forth more fruit" (John 15:2.) Ah, how well that agrees with the sentiments of our hearts; we arc not satisfied to bear a little fruit, but we want to bring forth more fruit, and then more fruit, and even then we want an increase in fruit bearing. So dear Sister, my prayer is that the dear Lord will continue to give you the experiences that will help you to develop more fruit, and as you look into your heart may it bring you rejoicing as you discern an increase there of fruitfulness.
With Christian Love to you and all the dear friends, I hope to ever be, an humble Servant of the King of Kings.
Benj. H. Barton.[PE491]
3850 Girard Ave.
Dear Sister in Christ: -it must be close to two years, since my last letter to you. In that interval the thought of writing you has often come to mind, but there always seemed to be some one in greater need of a letter than you, and in consequence you have been neglected. However, it is a privilege and a pleasure to at last find time to try and make amends for the delay. I received the postal you sent some time ago and appreciated both the message and the printed list of references.
The Lord has been wonderfully good to me, and I can express it in the words of Ezekiel, "Showers of blessings." The blessed drops have come so thick and fast that I almost think the word "shower" is too weak; possibly the hail-storm of Revelation is more like it. Believing it will interest you and at the same time prove edifying, I am going to give you an account of some of my experiences in the providences of the Lord during the last two years. The effect of these experiences has been to make Him more precious to me day by day.
A few days ago a strange gentleman in one of our meetings asked me if I had ever been converted. He was told that about eighteen years ago I had fully consecrated myself to the Lord. He inquired further: "But when did the Lord do His part?" to which I replied, "the Lord has been doing His part ever since." How marvelously He has loved me, showing it in so many thousands of ways! Of course He was doing exactly the same by every other one of His children, but it does not appear so marvelous to me that He should do for them, as it does to.think that notwithstanding my continued imperfections He deals so patiently and so graciously with me.
And then comes the sweetness and the satisfaction which results from the humility developed by the Father's leading. The thought came recently like this: [PE492]
During the night we see the stars scattered through the heavens, here one, there another, here a group, there the Milky Way, etc. So during this great night of sin we see the people of God like little stars in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Here is an isolated brother, twinkling like a star in his particular comer of the harvest field; there is a little group or constellation, as it were, out in Los Angeles. Some a little brighter, some not quite so bright, but all shining like stars. Then, at Brooklyn we can almost imagine we see the Milky Way. Bye and bye all these stars will be gathered together, and then it will not be night any longer, but all these stars when joined together, with the One who is the bright and Morning Star, will become the Sun of Righteousness which will turn the Night of Sin into the Morning of joy.
And then I recalled the ideas of many of the human race entertained as to what the stars were before the knowledge of astronomy had become so generally clear as it is today. Some believed that the stars were holes in the floor of heaven through which the light of heaven shined. Ah, that is the thing which will make stars of us; we must be holes through which the light of heaven will shine. But what is a hole? It is nothing but the substantial providence and help of God completely surrounding us. Thank God for the privilege of being a hole in the floor of heaven.
I was going to make this letter an experience meeting, but I had forgotten that there ought to be a little praise and prayer service first, but my oversight was overruled, and before it was realized the praise service was quite well advanced; so we will consider the former part of the letter as the opening exercises; now for the testimonies.
As expressed in the discourse on "The Covenants" given by me last year at the Toledo Convention, it took me a few months before I could see eye to eye with Brother Russell on the subject, but there were some other things in the writings of our dear brother, during the last two years, which took me considerably more than a year to see. You will note in that same discourse my care not to express myself upon the subject of the Mediator. It was most evident to me that those who were claiming that Brother Russell was denying the Ransom were taking a very wrong view of the Watch Tower; were in fact, ignoring the frequently reiterated thought, all the merit is in the blood of the Lord Jesus.
However, I determined to hold my judgment in suspense until the whole matter was clear beyond the peradventure of a doubt, praying at the same time that the Lord would grant me wisdom in arriving at a decision, and freedom from prejudice, etc., which I saw working havoc in the faith and spirit of some of my brethren.
But our unseen foe undoubtedly knew of the position I was in, and [PE493] evidently believed that the time was ripe for a special attack from every side. Some of the brethren who found that my mind was not fully made up along these lines felt impressed to say and do things toward me which the Evil One would have liked me to construe as un-Christianlike. The efforts to poison my mind against Brother Russell were multitudinous. All the best arguments against Brother Russell seemed to find their way in my direction, put in the most alluring and convincing forms. if there are any lines of argument to prove the Tower teaching wrong which have not come to my attention, I do not know what they can be.
But the heavenly Father gave me grace to remain patiently resigned through it all; He kept me from being influenced by sentiment; He preserved me from entertaining unkind feelings toward those who misunderstood my position; He enabled me to weigh, unprejudicedly the arguments on either side, and, after He had permitted me to be tested as to my loyalty to the Word of God, my love for the Brethren and my devotion to the Harvest work, He lifted the veil and showed me where the difficulty lay; where I had overlooked this passage of Scripture, and where I had failed to get the real force of some point in that verse. So, after the most precious trial of my life I can find most wonderful reason for rejoicing. I can see eye to eye with our dear Brother Russell, and in addition can feel that my faith is not only the result of taking his word for it, but it is a result of the most thorough testing of these matters in the light of the Word of God.
It was just wonderful when the due time came, how the Lord has opened up so many of these passages. For instance, one of the texts which appeared so out of harmony with the position taken in the Watch Tower, was Heb. 7:27, "Who needeth not daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifice, first for his own people, and then for the people's; for this he did once, when he offered up himself." It just flashed through my mind like this: The position of the opponents of Brother Russell is just the contrary of this. They say: "This he didn't do at all. He didn't offer any sacrifice first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people." If Paul says he did it, then he did. However, we could not think that when he offered a sacrifice for his own sins that this was in an individual sense, as he was without sin, but it could only be as Brother Russell suggests; His own sin would be the sins of the members of His Body, the Church. Paul's argument was: The Jewish high priests have to offer their sacrifices over and over again (daily, that would be continually), but the Lord did the work of greater sacrificing so thoroughly that it didn't have to be repeated, it was sufficiently complete to last forever. This is true, whether we are talking of the Lord personally, or [PE494] of the Church.
Then too, the thought is brought out so beautifully, as to how the sacrifice of the Church is counted in as part of the sufferings of Christ. As Paul says: Phil. 3:10: "That I may know the fellowship of His sufferings." Heb. 9:7 says, "But into the second (Most Holy) went the High Priest alone, once every year," etc. Now, we all know that on the day of Atonement the High Priest went into the Most Holy twice; once with the blood of the bullock, and once more with the blood of the goat, and yet these two entrances were united as parts of one act. I am hoping.to give a lengthy discourse at the coming convention presenting the results of this long period of study.
How good our Lord is to us all; He not only gives us the light, but always prepares us for every new measure of light before He sends it to us. I think these experiences may have made a little bigger hole of me so that a little more light can shine through.
Please remember me to all the dear brethren and sisters in Los Angeles. I think of so many whom I previously met on previous visits, and I wonder if there are any among them who have permitted any roots of distrust, or roots of weariness, or any other roots of spiritual weeds to find encouragement to grow in their gardens. I have heard some things concerning some whom I dearly love in the Lord, which have pained my heart, but am trusting that the reports were exaggerated. The way is so short now that we cannot afford to be discouraged. We all knew there were trials coming, but many forgot that they would not have been trials if there was nothing to try them, or, if they always came in the way that we anticipated. How thankful we ought to be to feel that in the goodness of the Lord we have been assisted by Him to weather this much of the storm, but there are still severer experiences before many of us, and therefore it will be necessary for us to extract from past and present trials such a measure of the proper character, if we are to come off final victors.
Only the last few days I have had a couple of interviews with brethren I have always thought a great deal of, and in fact I still think much of them, and love them dearly in the Lord, but it has pained my heart to find that they have not only taken a stand against Brother Russell, but that it has put them in a position where they cannot even see the point of your remark, when you say something intended to show that Brother Russell is not teaching the things which they claim he is.
But there is also another lesson; if the Adversary can get us to thinking and talking so much about these troubles that we will entirely neglect the consideration of the things that will help us grow in grace and to develop the fruits of the Holy Spirit he will have partly succeeded [PE495] in turning our attention from the things most essential in making our calling and election sure. Sometimes we find a Brother who has come into the light of Truth. But it appears that the idea of the destruction of the wicked has appealed to him so strongly that he has never gone much further in his thought and speech. When a pilgrim comes around he wants to spend all the time talking about "hell," telling of the arguments he has had on that subject, or describing the awfulness of this sermon in which that was a prominent feature, etc. I can readily perceive that the Adversary has kept him from making progress by fixing his mind too firmly on one thing; so in like manner, if he can get us to talk and think so much upon the troubles in the Church that we will neglect the other things, it will be thoroughly agreeable to him, but hurtful to the one so influenced.
Will remain home until time for the Chatauqua convention, when I will start on another little.trip, but some special matters will make it necessary for me to come home again for a short time in the month of September. Well, I must conclude. Trust this finds you rejoicing in the things of the Lord, and full of consecrated peace as you realize that your salvation is now so near.
With Christian greeting to you, I remain, Yours in the grace that never fails.
BENJ. H. BARTON