Cause of Spiritual Decline
By F. M. W.
The Christian Herald of January 25 publishes a series of letters picturing the conditions of the Christian church in various localities. Some of these strike a hopeful note. Others tell all too plainly of the spiritual declination which is evidently settling down upon the great Christian church. One reader expresses his deep concern in the following words:— I am acquainted with a few of the churches here and several in neighboring villages. My acquaintance does not inspire me with great gladness of heart. Taking the members within reasonable distance, one or two miles, of each place of worship, the attendance is usually very small. The almost complete absence of children and young people from the morning and evening services is painfully evident. The preaching, in some particulars, is pleasing, but largely professional. It lacks evangelical teaching and subduing earnestness. Sin has scarcely any existence in these days. God has ceased to be angry with the wicked, because they are not to be found, save in the slums and heathen lands, and there, moral responsibility does not count. The doctrines of repentance, justifying faith, the new birth, the witness of the Spirit, and full salvation, are seldom if ever preached. I have heard many sermons and addresses, but never once, if I were an anxious soul seeking salvation, could I learn from any one or all of them, how I could find peace with God. If such hymns as “Rock of Ages,” “Jesus, Lover of My Soul,” or “Just as I Am,” were sung, I might have had a chance, but those hymns are being displaced by modern jingles. If, with few exceptions, the people do not come to church, may not the minister as a pastor take some of God’s saving messages to them in their homes or elsewhere? I fear this is not done. The clubs, the guilds, the brotherhoods, the leagues, the social functions, the committees, must be attended, with many other minor things. No time, and not much desire, is left for the proper work of a pastor. Membership of the church is a serious problem. Some are members because their parents were; some because they were baptized; some because they were confirmed; others because of worldly gain; others because it is respectable. The minister’s plea is, “We must keep up the membership,” forgetting the possibility of falling into sin by counting the people, and by sanctioning many of the devices to raise the necessary funds. When an ordinary physician discovers the disease, he knows the remedy. Will he apply it? It means trouble at the beginning. Will he make the sacrifice? No more unconverted men for the ministry or for office in the church. The ministry is not a profession, as is medicine or the law. No more fixtures for life, nor even for five years, except there be a fortnight Sunday interchange with another minister. More time with God and the Bible, and in visiting from house to house. “I seek not yours, but you! Give me souls or I die!” This sad lament is going up from many burdened hearts to-day. God has many true children in the great churches of the land. They see the low spiritual condition existing in their denominations, and long for a revival of spiritual power. To these the message of this generation is sent. If these faithful ones can but see, in the sad conditions around them, the fulfilment of the Scriptures of truth, and the signs of the times in which we are living, they will be led to look for relief to the only thing in which relief will be found, and that is the coming of the Lord. Let us hasten the call for the gathering of Israel.