Editorial by C. M. S.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Dec 21, 1911

Editorial

By C. M. S.

Up-to-Date Preaching

THE preaching that aims merely to be up to date in the estimation of the world is entirely out of date in the estimation of Him who bids us go into the world to do his work. The Christian's business is not to seek to please men in the position where they are, but to bring them into a position where they will be pleasing in the sight of Heaven; to make them so dissatisfied with themselves and the service of the world that they will find no peace to their souls until they find it in the forgiveness of their sins and the acceptance of their Saviour.

Satan is doing all he can to make one class satisfied with what they have outside of Christ; and the other class dissatisfied with everybody and everything, and disbelieving in all the plans and work of God. And it must be confessed that the popular preaching of the present day is doing little or nothing to alter the condition of either of these classes. The great wealthy world is well pleased where it is; popular preaching tickles and pleases and keeps it where it is. He is considered the “up-to-date” preacher who can meet his audience where it is and please and satisfy it there. He is the preacher who commands the high salary; and for that salary more than for hungry souls, too many are laboring to-day.

If Christ had preached as the up-to-date preacher does, there would have been no opposition to his work from Israel's rulers; nor would there have been any crucifixion—or any salvation. He would have pleased his hearers, and they would have made him king; but he would have lost all, and we would have perished in our sins. That is the very result that is following the popular preaching of the present day. Paul tells us in his second letter to Timothy: “The time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine.” The time now has come. But that gives us no excuse for teaching or preaching anything that is not sound doctrine.

The Christian preacher who is one in truth, has nothing else to preach, no matter of what class or classes his audiences are made up. There is no other commission than to “preach the gospel to every creature,” “preach the word.” Such preaching may not be considered by the world to be up to date; but it is the only preaching that counts in the salvation of souls; the only preaching that God has authorized men to do; the only preaching that helps to forward the cause of God and hinder the work of Satan.

A man may be rich in this world's goods and great in the eyes of his fellow men, and at the same time be poverty-stricken in the eyes of Heaven, and counted as among the very least in the final judgment of the supreme court of the universe. He may be clad in the most expensive and gorgeous apparel which this world can produce; but in the eyes of the all-seeing One be rated as “miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked.” God sees not as man sees, nor judges as man judges. When a fashionable, pleasure-loving, and appetite-indulging man or woman approves of the utterances of the minister of God, it is time for that minister to begin to make diligent inquiry, in the sanctuary of his own soul and face to face with God, as to whether he is the minister of God in fact or only in name. The approval of this world is almost certain to be synonymous with the disapproval of heaven.

Let the burden be for souls, not for salary or position or worldly approval. Let the question be, What would God have me to say and to do and to be? In that attitude God can bless and use. To serve the kingdom of Christ is of more importance than to win the approval of all the world. C. M. S.