"Eternal vigilance has been styled the price of civil
'liberty;'" and to "search the Scriptures daily," to "prove all things
and hold fast that which is good," is the grand safeguard of religious
truth and ecclesiastical purity. No new enterprise of Christian
benevolence has ever been achieved, no reformation of established
institutions or doctrines ever been accomplished in the church of
Christ, without discussion and controversy either oral or written;
because error when assailed by the truth, will always make more or less
resistance. The life of the greatest moral hero of the sixteenth
century, to whom Christianity is so hugely indebted, was almost
entirely expended in controversial efforts; and even the mild and
peace-loving Melancthon, though he advised his aged mother not to
trouble herself about religious controversies, himself felt it his duty
to devote much of his time, his learning, and his talents to the
vindication of the truth against its enemies. [Note 1] We are commanded
"earnestly to contend for the faith once, delivered to the saints," and
by inference for those regulations, which tend to secure that faith. We
are taught to pray for the unity of the disciples of Christ, "that they
may be one as He and the Father are one," and consequently to oppose
such regulations as tend to sever the bonds of union among God's people,
and cause divisions in the household of Christ.
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