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Note and Comment

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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Mar 12, 1914

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 91, No. 11.

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Note and Comment

One Gospel for High and Low

A RECENT newspaper report tells of the manner in which President Wilson attended church during his recent vacation in Mississippi. One Sunday the President, without any previous announcement or arrangement, drove to a little country church where an aged minister, with an audience of about fifty persons, preached an old-fashioned gospel sermon. No allusion was made by the preacher to national affairs. The minister proceeded to give the simple gospel truth as if among the auditors was not the one who occupied the highest position in these United States. In this he certainly showed his good sense. Speaking of the incident, the Northwestern Christian Advocate remarks:—
Ministers so often err in supposing that men in the higher walks of life or those engaged in exceptional lines of intellectual pursuit should have the gospel presented to them from a slightly different angle than the body of their listeners. Such speakers fail signally in so discriminating, and the ones they are attempting to accommodate with their extra polish or added reason will be the first to inform them of the fact.
All men go to church for one and the same purpose, or should at least: they have become wearied with the wear of the week, their faith needs replenishing, and their spiritual vision sharpening. This is accomplished for the college professor, the governor, the President, in precisely the same fashion and by the use of the same gospel presentation as to the humblest listener.
There is only one place known to men here below where there is no high nor low, rich nor poor, learned nor ignorant, but all are equal, and equally dependent, and that is the house of God, in which they present themselves to hear him speak through his messenger. When this truth is apprehended and observed, we may look for a manifestation of power we have hitherto been strangers to, but long expected.