Christian herald., January 18, 1884, Page 2, Image 2

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CHRI8TIAN HERALD
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fierceness of his countenance drive and thus fails to stoop down and
them from h*8 presence amid a lift up the most lowly, is_not the
thousand lashes to go and answer church and the ministry ordained
thetr own prayers with such assis­ by God for the salvation of the
tance as he may see disposed to give world. Wo believe the soul of one
them. A«, well may one pray for. . .man is as precious with God as the
God to give him his daily bread, soul of any other man. God is no
and the raiment he wears and then respector of persons. While the
’ sit idly down and wait for God to religion of the Bible may fully
send him bread and meat direct satisfy the demand of the really
from heaven prepared for his table, educated, the refined or cultured, it
or supply him direct from the seat is equally adapted to the poor and
of the universe with a ready made unlettered, and intended for their
— amt -of N ot h ing A w ay w ith spetr
unscriptural and supercilious non­ is not authorized to adopt methods
sense !
.
which will neglect or drive from it
More than eighteen hundred any class of fallen humanity that
years ago the Savior said: “Not may desire its social advantages or
every one that saith unto me, Lord, spiritual influences. But on the
Lord, shall enter into the kingdom contrary, it should send it s se rv a n ts
of heaven; but he that doeth the out into the highways and hedges,
will of my Father which is in and streets of the city and bring in
heaven,” and this is just as true to­ the poor, the maimed, the halt and
day as thep. There is therefore a the blind that the Lord’s house may
sense in which every man can an­ be filled and that all may partake
swer his own prayer, and he is ob­ of the spiritual feast. But how
ligated to the fullest extent of his often do we find it otherwise ! It is
. ability to do so. Hence if God’s a fact that the world is fast creep­
^children pray for the’conversion, of ing into the churches; and just in
, the people, they should work for it. the same proportion that this is
If they pray for the success of mis­ true, the purity and simplicity of
sions, they should be willing to sup­ apostolic Christianity as well'as the
port them with their money. If moral and spiritual power of the
they pray for the suppression of in­ church is driven out. We have be­
temperance, they are also obligated fore us a book, recently published
to work to that end. Otherwise, entitled “ A History of the Cross,”
all such praying is vain. To fail to the author of which James M. Sher­
---- supplement our prayers with active
wood, of Brooklyn, handles some of
work for the causer of Christ, is to these evils in a bold and practical
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follow the example of the hypocrites manner, We beg leave to copy a
of old of whom the Savior said, few paragraphs bearing on the
“ This people draweth nigh unto me question in hand. He says:
with'their mouth, and honoreth me
“ Not a few of our Christian
with their lips; but their heart is churches are fast coming to be run
far from me.” Hence, he asks, after a fashion borrowed from the
“ And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, theatre. The gospel preached, or
and do not the things which I say?” desired and sought by -the people, is
not the simple, grand old gospel
preached by Paul, Peter and John,
SAVING THE PEOPLE.
—preached by the Reformers in the
It would seem that many of the days of Huss, and Luther, and
Melancthon, and Zwingle,—preach­
present methods of the church and ed by the Puritans in old England
her ministry in preaching the gos- and in New England, and by the
pel are not specially adapted to the Huguenots in France, and the
salvation of the people. This is not Waldenses in the valleys of Peid-
as it should be. It was designed moat—preached by Hooker, and
Edwards, and Bellanny, and Hop-
by its Author that the gospel should king, and Davis, and Dwight, and
be the power of God unto the sal­ Grinin, and Richards, and Edmons,
vation of every one who believes and Lymon Beecher, and Albert
and obeys it'; hence it was com­ Barnes, and Finney and Moody.
manded to be preached to every But it is a gospel of man’s devices,
the main end and feature of which
creature. It is not only intended are to draw a full house, to attract
for the rich and the noble of earth, a fashionable, wealthy, respectable,
but the poor, the despised, the most cultured and above all, paying
humble, sinful and degraded may congregation.
A new dispensation really has
come and drink of the water of life
crept in—a dispensation of showy,
freely. That church or that minis­ costly, and luxurious edifices, with
try, therefore, which lives and works all modern improvements, in the
on an intellectual or social plane way of operatic music, and esthetic
too high for the common people, culture, and social festivities, in
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eluding church entertainments, con­
certs, festivals, dancing entertain-
ments, and evenln oto tnst^
‘ annex theatre ’ for amateur thea­
tricals '—a new dispensation in the
matter of preaching, under which
doctrine, sturdy common sense, loy­
alty to convictionsand settled opin­
ions, plain, practical, faithful ex­
position of the Word, have given
place to a most lamentable extent,
to mere culture, learning, fastidious
tastes, fine sentiment, and highly
wrought sensational methods.”
These are vigorous paragraphs,
frrrtwhowithth^pTrsrnt'crmdition
of the churches before him, can
doubt their truthfulness ? Does
not this account largely for the
failure of the churches to reach the
masses ? Where is the simplicity
of pure Christianity ? and where is
the practical feature in such work /
The worldlyinindedness and per­
verted tastes of the people loudly
call for such sensational methods,,
and the ministry seeks to supply
the demand. Our author, speaking
of the large number of ignorant and
degraded in our large cities, and of
the ministerial education adapted
to the wants of this class, continues:
“ One thing is certain. The pres­
ent tnethods of education fail to give
us a class of ministers adapted to
reach and work successfully among
the lower and ignorant classes in
our cities and other great centers
of population. The church as such
has now no hold on them ; the gos­
pel is exerting no more direct in­
fluence on them than if they lived
in the heart of heathenism.”
Again he says:
“ The lesson taught by these facts
is too obvious and important to be
ignored. The law of litness in the
spiritual as in the natural world, is
one which God a ways honors. We
can not set it at naught and suc­
ceed. ‘ The poor ye have with you
always,’ saith the Master. There
is a world of practical truth in these
words. But are not his ministers
being educated for the rich, the
learned, the refined and the cultur­
ed, those high in the social scale—
educated mainly with reference to
the pulpit, the stately sanctuary,
and the surroundings and attrac­
tions of an eligible ‘ settlement ?’
There is such a thing as educating
ministers away from. the common
people— educating them with refer­
ence to a class, and not towards and
for our common humanity; educat­
ing them into effeminacy, and over-
fastidious tastes, and scholarly
methods and habits, and into the
love of ease and literary pursuits—
with little real earnestness of pur­
pose, and robustness of character,
little genuine sympathy with man
as man, lost, ruined, and going down
todeath in an almost unbroken mass.
And this is just what we have been
doing for a whole generation f’
We conclude that the only reme­
dy is to be found in a complete re­
turn to primitive Christianity, in
form, in spirit and in simplicity.
Let the churches seek only to ele­
vate and to save the people, and let
the ministers follow only the ex­
ample of the great Apostle to the *
Gentiles, who confessed not with
tlesh and blood, but become obed-
ient to the heavenly vision, and
hence was determined to know
nothing save Jesus Christ and him
crucified.
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THOUGHTS ON THE BIBLE.
The reason why the people have
so much trouble to understand the
Bible is because they are all the
time trying to reconcile the Bible
to »their views, instead of trying to
reconcile their viows to the Bible.
Many people make a kind of a tool
of the Bible, They use it as if it
was given simply to prove their
peculiar views or doctrines. They
never seem to get the "idea that
what it contains is “ for doctrine,’
and that its author requires us to
lay aside our doctrines and theories
and humbly take it as the man of
our counsel, and learn the blessed
lessons he has recorded therein.
No one can understand the Bible
unless he has a humble and teach­
able spirit. The proud heart is
sealed against its truths. And just
in proportion as our natures are
made like unto Christ’s nature and
lifted up out of sin, just in the same
proportion will we be able to un­
derstand and appreciate the grand
truths of the Bible. The sentiment
of our heart at all times should be
“ Speak Lord thy servant hearth.”
Some church members are great
sticklers for "a thus saith the Lord,”
for every thing that is done in
church work, and yet these same
people will turn their backs upon
the church and worship of the
Lord’s house, sometimes on account
of the smallest provocation. We
have known them to entirely aban­
don the church just because the
great mass of the members saw fit
to introduce an organ. Now we
would like to ask these persons
where they find any Scripture for
leaving the church of Christ? Come,
brethren, turn to chapter and verse
and give us a thus saith the Lord
for your conduct in forsaking the
Lord’s people and house, even if .
there is an organ or something else
there that you do not like.
When the Savior came to the
world he found that for centuries
,