Watchful Pilgrims
Mennonite buggy and farm near Bridgewater, in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley.
Like his Mennonite neighbours and friends, Abraham Blosser kept dairy cows, a team of horses, a coop of laying hens and a few pigs at his farm three miles north of Bridgewater during the 1870s and 80s. But unlike many of his fellow believers in the Shenandoah Valley, Abraham Blosser's thoughts did not revolve around his farm and livestock. Even though some thought him unusual or "off on a cloud somewhere" he showed no interest in talking about the hog price as soon as the Lord's Day meeting let out.
Instead, Abraham Blosser put his thoughts in writing. He prayed much. Serious things came to mind, and the more he read and heard the more urgently he sensed his call from God to warn those around him of dangerous times ahead. In a little shed below his farm buildings, he set up a printshop. He engaged a young man from town, David Taylor, as his typesetter, and beginning in 1881 he published a little newspaper he called The Watchful Pilgrim. A paper he described, in the first issue, as "devoted to the interest of the Mennonite Church, to the exposition of Gospel Truth, and the promotion of practical piety among all classes."
Abraham Blosser reprinted, and translated to English, a number of older writings he felt would benefit his neighbours in the valley. But he also wrote a large number of articles himself. Along with my father's books and papers that I brought with me from Canada, a month ago, I found a little work by him entitled:
The Seven Churches in Asia, as its title reads in translation, tells the story of Jesus' Church from its beginning to Abraham Blosser's time. In the seven churches of Asia he saw the various stages of the Christian Church's development, concluding with the Laodicaean age he believed, without a doubt, applied to his own time. Describing this age he wrote:
The time of the Laodicaean church began when we Christians no longer got persecuted. When we no longer had to gather for meetings in caves or other hidden places, but when all of us could worship God and read our Bibles however or wherever we wished.
Oh, how richly we have been supplied with all things! Not only with what is necessary for life, but far more. We are surrounded with luxury and on top of that we have musical instruments and all manner of entertainment to keep ourselves from getting bored while our Bibles collect dust off to the side.
We live in a time like none has seen before now, a time of all manner of wonderful discoveries. With the greatest of speed we can now travel from one place to the next, from one country to another. Everything the heart desires, it seems, we manage to obtain. And according to the predictions of the worldly-wise, this time of progress and discovery has only barely begun! Philosophers, chemists, scientists and other educated people make new discoveries every day. Everything works together for scientific progress and to make it even easier to make money. But through all this the spirit of Laodicaea takes overhand more and more: “I am rich and have need of nothing.”
Satan has gotten professing Christians to think they no longer need to hold back. They no longer need to curb the desires of the flesh, but are free to run along with the crowd, grabbing everything they can of this world’s things, while still holding on to their good reputation in Christ. They no longer crucify the flesh, they no longer live separated from the world, as in the Philadelphian time. And because they have given themselves free rein, they make their earthly dwellings as comfortable, as beautiful as they can, adorning them with all manner of useless ornamentation. In this way their minds get diverted from the giver of all good gifts, while they have gotten lazy and luke-warm. Sure, they go to church. They pray loudly, and give much money, but they do it to be heard and seen by men. They dress in the latest fashions and build enormous, costly churches, but their worship is in vain. They have slacked off. They are split up into many sects and fellowships, every one of which gives freedom for the flesh in one area or the other, so all can find room to live for themselves within the church.
Open communions now take place, something our Lord never did or taught. Satan has brought this about under cover of Christian love, pulling everything down to the level of the world. Satan no longer comes as a roaring lion, but with the Bible in his hand, as an angel of light, getting everyone to believe things are going just fine, and that our progressive, proud and worldly Christianity is the most enlightened the world has ever seen. There is more loud preaching and praying than ever before, all of which strengthens the idea that “we are rich, we have need of nothing.”
In his little book, Abraham Blosser described what the Lord does with Laodicaean Christians: "He spits them out of his mouth. That is not like a brick-layer lays aside a cracked brick he might pick up and use at a later time. What one spits out, one never takes back, and so it is with God."
"The coming of the Son of Man," Abraham continued, "will be like lighting, suddenly and without warning. Like it was in the time of Noah, so will it be when he comes again. Right before the flood everything looked really good, a time of prosperity and worldly happiness. That is why nobody listened to Noah. The same thing happened before the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. The people couldn’t believe destruction would fall upon them so quickly. And the same took place before the destruction of Jerusalem, even though many prophecies had been fulfilled and many had already lost their lives."
With earnest words, Abraham Blosser warned us, the generations that follow him, not to go to sleep in our prosperity and ease. Not to get side-tracked by what isn't important, so we may welcome Jesus when he comes. But his little book is far more than a warning. It ends on the joyful note of God's promises to those that persist in doing good and overcome.
Nearly 120 years have passed since Abraham Blosser died and his writing, publishing work in the Shenandoah Valley came to an end. His grandchildren sold off the printshop equipment. No memory of his cows, his horses or his chickens -- or any of his neighbours' livestock -- remains. Who knows, or cares, what people got for their pigs 120 years ago? But what Abraham Blosser lived for, and what he did, still speaks to us.
He lived for eternity, not for today. And in so doing he helped us live as watchful pilgrims in our time.
Peter
Rocky Cape Christian Community
19509 Bass Highway
Detention River, Tasmania 7321
Australia
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