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 Conf Pam 12mo #696 
 
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 Richmond, Va. 
 
 COME WITH US. 
 
 SOLDIERS'^TRACT ASSOCIATION, r 1^0. 75. 
 
 It lias often been remarked by pious persons, that had 
 they been invited, they should have joined the Church 
 long before they did. Perhaps you have made the same 
 observation, and yet remain at?i distance from the follow- 
 ers of Christ. 
 
 •To prove the necessity of this union, I need only refer 
 you to the history of the Church of God in every age. Is 
 it a fact that God has always had a people? And is it 
 true, that this people have always been distinguished from 
 the world around them by-certain peculiar features in their 
 character and conduct 1 And did all the wise and good in 
 every age belong to this clasj of persons?' And, more 
 than this, did our Lord Jesus Christ and his apostles act 
 upon the same pTinciples, and join together in one body 
 those who believed and obeyed the jfospel? If so, then 
 what have you or I to say against such an institution? 
 Are we wiser and holier than Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abra- 
 ham, and many others who belonged to the patriarchal 
 Church? Do we understand the necessities of man's con- 
 dition better than Moses and the prophets^ or have we 
 more authority than Jesus Christ? If we find it difficult 
 to answer these questions, then let us own the force of 
 truth: let us confess the divine authority and perpetual 
 obligation of Christian communion, and "come out from 
 the ungodly, and be separate, and touch not the unclean 
 thing." 2 Corr vi. 17. 
 
 But one <^ the principal reasons why we wish you to 
 turn your attention to this subject, arises from the useful- 
 ness of Christian communion. You must allow that it is 
 a good thing to enjoy the favor of God. Let me assure 
 you that it is by no means unlikely that your neglect of a 
 closer union with his Church may be one reason why the 
 light of his countenance has not shone upon you. You 
 have sought him, perhaps, ,in the closet, and have not 
 found him. He has had something against you. You 
 h^-e neglected his institution. You have been identified 
 1 
 
2 Come icith us. 
 
 vj'iUx the world, and have not honored him by a bOld and 
 decided separation. Look at that passage, a part of which 
 we have quoted. He says, first, "Be ye separate;" »nd 
 then, <•! will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, 
 and ye shall be my sons and daui^hters, sailh the Lord Al- 
 mighty." You reverse this order. You expect him to 
 receive you first, and then you will separate yourselves. 
 JN'o wonder that you are disappointed. You and God are 
 directly at issue. Be not deceived: he will not alter his 
 word to please the taste of any man. 
 
 Observe, too, that if you thus separate yourselves, an<l 
 go among the people of God, you will become the pecu- 
 liar objects of pastoral care. God's ministers will watch 
 over you as fathers over their children, and will Iced you 
 as shepherds their sheep. The members of the Church 
 will treat you with brotherly affection. They will coun- 
 sel you in difficulty, comfort you in distress, edify you by 
 relations of their experience, sympathize with you in 
 trouble, bear all your burdens, and kneel by you in your 
 last moments, to commend your soul lo God. Is it nothing 
 to be thus associated with the excellent of the earth ? 
 Is it no privilege to meet them in holjibrolherhood ar.ound 
 the table of the Lord? Where else will you find such 
 society, such enjoyments? Travel the world over, make 
 the search, and you will return full of vexation and dis- 
 appointment, wondering at your own fully. You will 
 come back prepared and eau'er to acknowledge, that con- 
 tent and satisfacrton can alone be obtained in the peaceful 
 habitation of the Church, and in a well-principled and 
 'affectionate union with the followers of Christ. "Happy 
 art thou, O Israel: who is like unto thee, O people saved 
 by the Lord ?" Deut. xxxiii. 29. 
 
 A connection of this kind would be a great blessing to 
 you in the way of restraint from evil, and as aflbrdini:: you 
 opportunities of exercising your talents for usefulness. 
 You would thereby, also, i)articipate in those special visits 
 of mercy which Christ makes to his disciples, when they 
 are assembled in " his name." How often does be now 
 come into the midst of them and say, "Peace be unto 
 you," and breathe upon them the Holy. Ghost! John xx. 
 21, 22. If you are absent, like Thomas, you may exp^t 
 
Come with us. 3 
 
 not oftly to lose the blessing of your Saviour, but to re- 
 main in a state of deplorable unbelief. 
 
 And now "how long half ye between two opinions? 
 If the Lord be God, follow him." 1 Kings xviii. 21. Aa 
 undecided i-tale i-; an uncomfortable state. You cannot 
 serve two masters ; and you often feel that you cannot. 
 'J he struirgle which goes on in your breast is an evidence 
 to you that you are attempting an impossibility, he- 
 nouhce at < nee the service of sin. Come forih boldly on 
 the "Lords side;" and this one step will gJ"eatly relieve 
 your mindj and prepare it to receive the blessings of the 
 gospel. 
 
 Perhaps you say that wu are not fit to join the Chr"s- 
 tian Church. Where do you expect to get bet er?. Im 
 the world? In communion with sinners? In neglect of 
 God's commandments and institutions? Most preposter- 
 ous! Instead of becoming better, you are getting worse 
 «very day. The habit of delay is becoming permanent; 
 the Holy Spirit is grieved ; and, by and by, you will have 
 lost your good impressions altogether. But what fitness 
 does God require of you? It is certain you cannot be 
 anything else than a sinner. If Jesus Christ will not re- 
 fuse o receive you because you are a sinner, neither will 
 the ( hristian Church. Do you feel that you are a sinner? 
 Do you hate sin? Have you forsaken it? Do you wish 
 to be delivered from it? Then, "thou art the man." 
 You are as fit as ever you will be until you come to Christ. 
 And one of the best means of conducting you to the Sa- 
 viour is converse with Christian people. You are j^st 
 the person whom the ministers and leade.s of the Church 
 ivould delight to instruct. 
 
 Do not say that you must first settle this point of secu- 
 lar business, or consult thai worldly relative. Do not tell 
 us that you must wait until some change shall occur in 
 your earthly employment or circumstances, or until some 
 mightier impulse of the Holy Spirit constrain you to the 
 act. My dear friend, this is not a matter to be trifled 
 with Your soul is concerned in it. You do not suppose 
 that we should have addressed you about Church commu- 
 nion, did we not suppose that your eternal interests were 
 nearly related to the question. Not, it is true, to the 
 
4 Come with us. 
 
 question whether you belong to this or that Christian 
 Chiuxh; but to the question, whether you have forsaken 
 the world, taken up the cross, ami followed Christ, or 
 whether you are now mixed up with the mass of the un- 
 godly, and therefore living apart from Christ's disciples, 
 of whom he says, '-Ye are not of t'le world." John xv. 
 19. Do not evade this inquiry. All that we seek is your 
 sahTition. Determine to arrive at the truth, though it 
 may be painful, and you will be well repaid. remem- 
 ber, I beseech you, that the "friendsliip of the world is 
 enmity with God: whosoever, therefore, will be a friend 
 of the world is the enemy of God." James iv. 4. "If 
 any man love the world, the Iqv^ of the Father is not in 
 him." 1 John ii. 15. You are not actuated, I hope, by 
 the fear of man. Hemember, "the fear of man bringeth 
 a snare" — Prov. xxix. 25— a dreadful snare — a snare 
 which entanglcth the soul, and holds it in the bondage of 
 sin and death. Be not afraid of human reproach, or dis- 
 pleasure, or shame; but "fear Him who, after he hath" 
 killed, hath power to cast into hell." Luke xii. 5. 
 
 If you remain distinct from Christ's followers, and do 
 nothing by open confession and manly exertion, to spread 
 the cause of Christ in the world, will it not be to you, in 
 old age, and on your deatli-bed, a source of deep regret 
 and unavailing sorrow? Will you not be ready to say, 
 " O fool that I was, to take up with silly excuses and weak 
 pretences, so as to prefer the smile of the world to thgt 
 of God! () wretched man! I have lost a life; I have 
 doae nothing for the benefit of souls; I stood aloof when 
 I ought .to have come up to the 'help of the Lord a!?ainst- 
 thc mighty.^' O inflxtuated sinner! I now desire to go 
 among the 'blest in heaven; but 1 have shunned commu- 
 nion with them on earth." • 
 
 My dear friends, if you do not wish to be filled with such 
 anxieties when you are about to enter the presence of God, 
 then fling away every remaining objection: go upon your 
 knees, and acknowledge your past neglects: choose a> 
 once the society of the pious: accept the invitation which 
 we now give you, and say with those of whom Zechariah 
 prophesied, " We will go with you, for we have heard 
 that God is with you." viii. 23. 
 
 
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