Enthusiasm Necessary

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jun 15, 1916

Enthusiasm Necessary

We have all heard of the question which was raised as to why people enjoy attending the theater more than going to church, and of the answer given,—that the actors play their rôle as if the drama were real, while the preachers preach as if what they were saying was a part of a play on the stage.

An exchange presents to us a new feature of the question. At a ministerial meeting held in New York not long ago, one of the doctors of divinity was presenting a lecture concerning his new interpretation of the faith, and his views of the Bible as a very “human book.” When he had finished, he was asked why, having such views as he and others present held, they did not have such success as certain great evangelists have. The reply was that such revivalists succeed because they throw so much enthusiasm into what they say.

It is not at all difficult to understand why many popular preachers cannot show this enthusiasm. Having discarded many portions of the Bible through higher criticism, and given up numerous of the fundamental doctrines of primitive Christianity, such as the divinity of Christ, the atonement, and the resurrection, it is difficult for them really to feel in their own souls or to arouse in their hearers any sense of importance attaching to the message which they present.