All the troubles and divisions that have ever originated among the Baptists and have caused the dear little lambs of the fold to go astray, have been introduced by preachers.  Some have even gotten ashamed of the old doctrine of grace and have assayed to lift us up out of the old ruts, and put us on a high plane of prosperity.  They have removed the old stakes and have set up new ones, and can now laugh to scorn anyone who would hold to the old fogy idea of grace in the salvation of sinners.  And Paul, knowing that this time would come, said to Timothy, "Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner; but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God; who hath saved us," etc. (II Tim. 1:8,9).

It is evident from the above that Paul knew the time would come when men would be ashamed of the true doctrine of grace, and would even be ashamed of him as a prisoner of the Lord because of his old fogy ways of preaching the old time-honored doctrine of grace.  Therefore he would exhort Timothy not to be ashamed of it, but to heed it, and not only take heed to it but continue in it, for in doing this he would save himself from the reproaches of the world, and from the lash of a guilty conscience, and from the false signs, ways and doctrines of the world which only tend to feed the carnal mind and puff up the flesh with the idea that God is dependent upon us and our efforts to save sinners, which is as foreign from God's truth as the heavens are from the earth.

Oh! how needful that a minister take heed and continue in the doctrine of the Bible in order to his own good, well-being and enjoyment in this world; for to depart from the doctrine of the Bible destroys his usefulness in the church, and must forever separate him from his brethren, and cast him out to live a lonely, desolate life for all time, unless he can be induced to lay down his unscriptural trash and come back to the true doctrine of the Bible.  Therefore, like Paul, we would admonish all our brethren to take heed to themselves and to the doctrine, and continue in them, for there is much at stake.  You not only save yourself, but you save the poor, weak, trembling ones who hear you from being ensnared in the traps of false theories, and led away from the simplicity of the gospel of Jesus.  You save them from having their happiness in the church destroyed here in time and from thereby being made merchandise of by Satan and his emissaries.    ---Elder T. S. Dalton   The Life and Labors of a Poor Sinner, 1912