Note and Comment

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Oct 20, 1910

Spiritual Decadence of Pulpit Ministration

MANY thoughtful minds are viewing with concern the lessening of the moral tone of present-day preaching. A recent writer in the Chicago Interior notes this alarming tendency, and charges the responsibility to both the pew and the pulpit. Of the present-day minister he says:—

His congregation, as he understands it, demands of him something intellectually brilliant or sensationally captivating; and if he can't furnish it, he imagines his tenure of the pulpit will be short—he will have to give way to some fellow who can. Oftener, however, the minister regards this demand for a display of intellect as an opportunity instead of an imposition. If the secrets of all hearts were revealed, it would doubtless prove startling to discover what a big proportion of preachers look forward to Sunday morning service mainly as a chance to add to their reputation for eloquence, felicity, culture, erudition, and thinking power.

But in many instances the minister only expresses the feelings of those to whom he ministers, and the occupant of the pulpit only gives what he considers will be most acceptable to his congregation. The writer continues:—

Many a congregation seeking a minister asks for a brilliant man in preference to a godly man, and having obtained him, flatters him to his face and boasts of him to the community for his intellect, while apparently caring nothing about a Christian spirit in him. Such a congregation will advertise over all creation a minister who quotes the poets or refers familiarly to the sages, who sparkles with rhetoric or revels in orotund periods, yet endure with content the utter absence from his preaching of every positive moral note that could awaken a drowsing conscience or nerve a sluggish hand.

Undoubtedly the responsibility for much of the sensational preaching which is heard to-day is due equally to the ministers and their congregations. Too many churches are merely social, fashionable organizations, and require the utterances of the pulpit to meet their own carnal desires. But woe to the minister of the gospel who steps down from his high and holy calling to minister to this unhallowed spirit! Blind leaders of the blind indeed are too many who take upon themselves holy orders. Professing to stand as God's representatives, they fail to exemplify his character in their lives, or the principles of his gospel in their teaching. Upon these rests the double responsibility of forsaking the fountain of living water, and hewing out to themselves cisterns filled with the droppings of human reason. The need of the great church of God is a spirit of preaching which characterized such men as Paul, Luther, and the Wesleys,—a preaching which rebuked sin even in high places, and proclaimed the gospel of the Lord Jesus in its simplicity and power. Such preaching, and such only, will be fruitful in saving souls.