• The Duty of Forbearance. The Gospel Publisher, March 13, 1840.
• Terms of Church Membership. The Church Advocate, June 2, 1851.
• "We Repudiate a Course of Virulent and Contemptuous Opposition," The Church Advocate, July 1, 1848.

ORBEARANCE is one of the fundamental principles upon which rests the strength and happiness of every Christian community.--But we are prone to forget the duty enjoined upon us by the Apostle to "forbearing one another in love."

      This duty supposes that causes of irritation and resentment really exist; and urges us to check the angry passions, to be slow to wrath, to exhibit a spirit of kindness, to put the most favorable construction upon the conduct of others, to study the things that make for peace, and to exhibit even under provocation a spirit of pure benevolence and active love.

      We practically forget the duty of forbearance, when, eager to accomplish our own purposes, we set at naught a brother who may not understand our object, or favor the measures by which we would accomplish it; as well as to manifest a disappointment to render evil for evil, or railing for railing. Love should be ruling principle of every action--love to God and love to man. Let this principle have its proper influence upon us, and we shall be meek, humble and forbearing. But if it be choked by passion, or overborne by revenge, then comes discord and every evil work.

      The duty of forbearance is universal.--The members of every individual family ought to be bound together by love. But there is no family to be found of any considerable number, in which may not be found a variety of taste, different tempers and different degrees of refinement. Yet with all this variety, there may exist the most delightful harmony. But how is it to be maintained? Not surely by magnifying every fault, and fostering feelings of jealousy and resentment. It must be by unfeigned good will, and mutual forbearance. A spirit of rivalry and resentment will introduce into any family perpetual discord.

      The community in which we dwell, may be regarded as a larger family, embracing a greater variety of characters, interests and tastes; and the danger that its members may come into collision is proportionally increased. Let a spirit of resentment and retaliation be cherished, and the state of society becomes absolutely barbarous. Private animosities lead to public strife. Man becomes the enemy of man. War is waged--bloodshed and carnage spread over the land. What heart-rendering pictures have the unrestrained passions of men exhibited, where, had the forbearance of the Gospel been practiced, the evil, would have been choked in its germ?

      In the church of Christ we surely ought to find the true spirit of forbearance. The members of this community profess to be governed by the law of God, and to make Christ their guide and pattern. The spirit of the church ought clearly to be that of meekness, love and kindness. But it is a melancholy truth, that the spirit of the world enters so deeply into the church, that even there may be found unholy jealousies, quick resentment, uncharitable judgment, bitter reproaches, selfishness and a worldly ambition.

      Efforts must be made to counteract a bad spirit, but they ought not to be put forth in a bad spirit. Such efforts instead of diminishing the evil, will only increase it.

      Error for example is to be corrected.--Then let truth be set forth in all its native majesty and loveliness. Let the instruction come from lips accustomed to the accents of kindness; and let its power be displayed in the character of its advocates. Our characters may be slandered, our influence counteracted, the truth of God reviled, and souls may be in danger. We must feel indignant and ought to express our abhorrence of such things. But we should be careful that we do not mistake the mere excitement of selfish passion for a zeal in the cause of Christ.--

      The air indeed may be loaded with calumny; but calumny on our part will not purify it. It was said by an old divine, that "it is a poor way to drive the devil out of other men's hearts, by admitting him into our own." The wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God. O that we might catch the spirit of our Master who when he was reviled, reviled not again, and when he suffered threatened not; and in all our efforts to counteract evil, adopt the motto, "Speaketh the truth in love."

--The Gospel Publisher, March 13, 1840.     

[The Church Advocate,March 1970, p. 49.]

N THIS subject there are different opinions. The principal ones we shall state and consider. They are the following, viz:

      1st. Subscription to Christian faith and practice.
      2ndly. Christian character.
      3rdly. Christian Baptism.
      4thly. Christian experience and Church covenanting.

      1st. Christian faith, and Christian morals, are both good and excellent things. But, neither the one, nor the other, nor both put together, will of themselves, entitle a person to Church membership. The force of education and habits will go far towards regulating and moulding both head and life, so that many will readily subscribe to Christian doctrine, and outwardly conform to Christian worship and morals, and at the same time, like Simon Magus, be "still in the gall of bitterness and the bonds of iniquity." Hell is full of orthodoxy. . . .

      2ndly. Christian character. Christian faith, experience and practice, enter into the composition of Christian character. But, then, in all cases of young converts, Christian conduct, from the nature of things, cannot be made a term of membership . . .

      3rdly. Baptism. Baptism is never said [in the Scriptures] to be the initiatory ordinance into the Church. The Apostles never preached it as such. There is no example for it in the New Testament. . . . Many have been baptized, and thus initiated, as it is said, into the Church, whose scandalous lives, subsequently, have fully demonstrated the fact, that they were no Christians . . .

      4thly. Christian experience and Church covenanting. Christian experience or salvation from sin, brings men into the general Church, and Church covenanting introduces them into a particular or local Church. A few texts will set this in a clear light. In Acts 2:47 it is said, "The Lord added to the Church daily such as were saved." In the common English version [King James Version] it reads, "such as should be saved;" but the correct rendering of the text is, "such as were saved." Mark, then, "The Lord added to the Church." But who did he add? Not such as subscribed to a creed--nor such as had established a good Christian character--nor such as were baptized; but "such as were saved." To be saved, is to be justified, regenerated and adopted. This great salvation sinners realized "daily," and hence, "daily they were added to the Church." This text, therefore, clearly shows, that salvation, or Christian experience, entitles men to membership in the general Church.

      But how are they to be added to an individual or local Church? We answer, by covenant, or by mutual agreement between converts and the Church. When persons get converted, it becomes their duty to apply for church-membership where they reside; or if any remove from the bounds of one Church to another, they should have their membership transferred: in all such cases, application must be made for membership--and if the Church authorities entertain it favorably, then by mutual agreement, between the Church and the person or persons applying, a covenant is entered into, which fixes and ratifies the membership. Thus it was among the primitive Christians, as the following texts will show:

      Acts 5:14. "And believers were the more added to the Lord, multitudes both of men and women."

      "And of the rest durst no man join himself to them."

      Acts 17:4. "Some of them believed, and consorted with Paul and Silas; and of the devout Greeks a great multitude, and of the chief women not a few."

      Acts 9:26-28. "And when Saul was come to Jerusalem, he assayed to join himself to the disciples but they were all afraid of him, and believed not that he was a disciple. But Barnabas took him, and brought him to the apostles, and declared unto them how he had seen the Lord in the way and that he had spoken to him, and how he had preached boldly at Damascus in the name of Jesus. And he was with them coming in and going out at Jerusalem."

--The Church Advocate, June 2, 1851.      

[The Church Advocate, April 1970, p. 49.]

      The following is taken from John Winebrenner's reply to "Brother H. B.'s Second Letter," appearing in The Church Advocate, July 1, 1848. H. B. opposed church members uniting with an organization that went under the name, "Sons of Temperance." Winebrenner's reply noted, among other things . . .

E are opposed to War and Slavery. Yet we believe there are Christian soldiers and Christian slave holders. Though, therefore, we go with all our might for the abolition of War and Slavery, yet we cannot feel free to unchristianize and condemn every body who is a warrior or a slave holder.

      We are greatly opposed to bigotry and sectarianism. Yet we believe there are a great many good men who have a good deal of bigotry and sectarianism about them. Hence we are utterly opposed to Romish inquisition, persecution, intoleration and proscription.--Bigotry and persecution are no part of the religion of Jesus.

      When Millerism and Millerite lectures came along, a few years ago, some said hear them, others said, cast them off, but we said, let them alone. Not until they became factious and proscriptive did any one ever hear us say aught against them.

      We say again, what we have often said before, we do not approve of every thing belonging to and practiced among the Sons of Temperance. But of all the useless, silly, and foolish things among them, there are none so inexcusable and unchristian as the rash and rabid proscription, by the anti-Sons, of almost every body who will not enter into a clamorous crusade against them. Yet so it is. Some men still strain at gnats and swallow camels. Others again are still trying to take motes out of their brethren's eyes, whilst they carry beams in their own eyes. On the whole, it is always a bad sign to find men beset with a criticizing, fault-finding and caviling spirit. Faulty ones ought to be restored in the spirit of meekness. If that cannot be done then let them be disciplined; and if there is no law by which which they can be rightfully disciplined, then they should be borne with as long as God bears with them. "Be ye merciful as your heavenly Father is merciful."

      There were evidently many faulty ones, and many wrong things in the primitive churches; yet no one ever took occasion, on that account, to withdraw from the church, or to cause schisms contrary to the doctrine of Christ. There was no such thing as withdrawing from the church in primitive times. And those who caused divisions were forthwith marked and avoided. Thus it ought to be yet. Christian men ought to study to be quiet--to mind their own business, and to do nothing rashly. It is better to let Satan alone, than to go about, to devour, like he does.

      Here then is the ground we stand on. Here we have always stood, in relation to mooted questions. It is altogether proper to oppose wrong things, and to contend for right ones, provided we take the proper way for it. Much depends on this. Ultraism never does any good. Contend earnestly, but lawfully and rationally. We disapprove of perpetual croaking about small matters, because it foments discontent and hurtful agitations; and we repudiate a course of virulent and contemptuous opposition to any man, or cause, or measure; because it is unreasonable and unscriptural. "Charity suffereth long, and is kind."

--The Church Advocate, July 1, 1848      

[The Church Advocate, September 1970, p. 49.]

      The electronic version of From the Pen of John Winebrenner, ed. Jack Parthemore, has been transcribed from a copies of The Church Advocate, 134 (March 1970), p. 49; (April 1970), p. 49; 135 (September 1970), p. 49. The date of the first publication of each of these three articles is given at the end of the reprint on the editorial pages of The Church Advocate. Thanks to Jean Leathers, Archivist of the Churches of God Historical Society, for providing copies of these articles.

      Addenda and corrigenda are earnestly solicited.

Ernie Stefanik
Derry, PA

Created 21 September 1997.
Updated 16 July 2003.