Ben Franklin On The "Herald Of Truth"
Brother Benjamin Franklin had some things to say in his day and time on such arrangements as the "Herald of Truth." The title of this article might be just a wee bit deceiving, but it seems as if we should be allowed to use that much deception in view of these recent deceiving writings of E. R. Harper and in order to attract your attention. Although Brother Franklin was not acquainted with the yet to be born "Herald of Truth," he wrote in such a way as to make the present day readers wonder if he was not referring to it prophetically and specifically. Had radio been a luxury of the time, I suspect Brother Franklin would have found it necessary to call a few men like Isaac Errett and James Pendleton down. Listen to him: "If the original church is a model, we have no precept, or example of any arrangement for a great center, where the money is to come from the churches into a treasury, and be at the disposal of a few men. We saw a man once who had a large sugar-orchard, on an extended hillside, the trees standing remarkably thick. He tried to plan guttering poles, split in two, and extending tributaries from the trees into the main trunk, and thus bring the water all into one vessel at the lower side of the orchard, without the labor of gathering and hauling. This would have served his purpose very well, if it had not cost more than it would be worth. But in the original church there was no 'plan' like this to extract money from the pockets of the people, and make the churches tributaries, and some kind of machinery convey the money into one common treasury, and arrange it for a few men to appropriate the money of the whole people. In the first congregations they had no great moneyed centers for avaricious men to wrangle over. The appropriations were made by the individual congregations, and not boards at a distance. The congregations that gave the money could also appropriate it.....we go back to the original churches for a model we find no account of any action but congregational and individual. Congregations acted, in their capacity, as congregations; and individuals, in their capacity, as individuals. A number of churches, in a body, never acted. We have not a trace of such action in the Bible, or any other writing of the first and second centuries. The whole idea of any such action is lost the moment we regard the first church as a model."
The idea of concentration of funds and work was effectively dealt with by the capable Franklin: "The enemy does not aggregate his forces, nor mass his armies, but scatters them throughout the world, and stations one here and another there. We cannot aggregate our forces, mass our armies, and move on the enemy in a body, and disband his armies, scatter his hosts, and capture them. Instead of this, when our King made the first grand move on the enemy, the Lord's army was 'all scattered abroad.' The wisdom of this world would have thought that a very unwise move — the first thing to scatter all the soldiers abroad. But this was necessary, for the work to be done was 'all scattered abroad.' The Lord's Hosts, when all scattered abroad, 'went everywhere preaching the word.' That was cooperation in missionary work; 'associated effort' in the work of the Lord; that was the Lord's way of doing the work . . . . The Lord invented a plan, or a way, to do the work, and such a one as the wisdom of man never thought of, and never would have thought of. Among all the missionary movements schemed by men, who ever heard of one that started out by scattering the operators all abroad? There was no concentration, aggregation, or confederation of the soldiers; no massing of the armies; no great officers, with fine salaries, at the head of the army, deciding who should go into it, and who not; what their pay should be, or fingering the money. They were all, except the apostles scattered abroad, and went everywhere preaching the word." (Quotes from "The Simplicity of the Divine Economy" a sermon by Ben Franklin from the book "The Gospel Preacher," Vol. II)
It might be considered rough by some of us to parallel the "Herald of Truth" to every angle of Brother Franklin's object of attack. But where the " Herald of Truth " does not parallel with what Brother Franklin had in mind we can only say — give it time. Brethren, can you think that the "Herald of Truth" will be content to operate without progressing in its advocacy of centralization of funds and work, and confederation of congregations? Give it time and you will experience the greatest manifestation of functional and organizational corruption of God's plan this side of the Roman apostasy. No, let's not give it time — we have our weapon — the sword of the Spirit. Let's kill the "Herald of Truth" with the Word and save the Highland Church and free the brotherhood of all such digressive moves.