p. 20 | Pedlers of Heresy by A. J. S. Bourdeau

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Aug 19, 1909

“Pedlers of Heresy”

By A. J. S. Bourdeau

Our several thousand missionary workers who have laid their lives upon the altar of service, and are devoting their entire time to the circulation of literature containing the third angel’s message will read with peculiar interest the following paragraphs written by J. E. Love, a Baptist, and published in the Baptist Standard of June 17, 1909. Our workers will find no difficulty in reading the words “Seventh-day Adventist” and “the third angel’s message” into these paragraphs in the place of the words “Baptist” and “the Baptist creed,” which the members of that church are admonished to proclaim. Mr. Love says:—

“A few days ago as I was about to board a train in ——, a rather comely woman approached several of us at the car steps, and in a very pleasant but persistent manner, tried to sell us a publication which, if I mistake not, is set for the defense of Seventh-day Adventism. . . . If Christianity has been erroneously set forth for two thousand years, it is scarcely probable that these particular people have now found the truth and are able to set all the world right. . . .”

“But what suggestion is there in the incident cited above for our Baptist people? This: The rapid multiplication of religious fads, isms, doctrines, sects, confounding and confusing men who want a straight path of religion in which to walk, make a loud call to Baptist people to affirm and emphasize their distinctiveness. The Baptist creed is a very short one, and if set forth with clearness, will gain us great advantage at a time like this. No other people have so distinct and individual a note in their message for the world, and nowhere else can there be found so certain a corrective of the present tendency toward the multiplication of denominations and the subversion of sound doctrine. No age in which we have lived needs our message more than this, and we never had more to gain by clearly, faithfully, and with tender human compassion, preaching the truth as we hold it. The very bewilderment of men caused by the contradictions of religious teaching all about should appeal strongly to the spirit of Christ within us, and call forth a strong, steady note of doctrinal teaching. “But, again, the zeal of these pedlers of heresy in pressing their campaign everywhere contains a suggestion for Baptists. Those who hold the truth should not withhold it. Indeed, no one is under such obligation to dispense the

truth as the man who has the most of it, and zeal should be proportionate to doctrine. There is no New Testament example for the theory that the truth is simply to be proclaimed from the pulpit by a certain class who are charged with this responsibility. In one thing at least, those who follow the vocation of peddling religious fads can cite New Testament example, namely, for the personal and individual method which they pursue. Baptist people ought to carry their individualism a little further than they do, recognizing that men are not only saved one by one through the personal faith in Christ, but that they are also won one by one through the personal work of Christians. We need to talk our doctrines as well as to preach them. We ought to go to men and tell them about salvation, as well as invite them to go to our churches and hear about it. If Baptist people possessed zeal in personal work in a degree surpassing the people referred to as much as we surpass them in the amount of truth we hold, a new day would soon break for Baptist people.”

On the whole, this comment on our methods of circulating the printed page of truth ought to gratify our faithful house-to-house workers with our periodicals and books. We fear, however, that our Baptist brother has forgotten the early experiences of the Baptist people, when they were obliged, like all true reformers, to break away from “Christianity” as it had been “erroneously set forth for two thousand years.” All reformers, from Jesus Christ down, have been branded as “peddlers of heresy.” He himself “who went about doing good,” is our example as a colporteur. The Huguenots in France were called “carriers of bundles;” and the Waldenses were wont to introduce their publications from door to door as an incidental part of their work as venders of silks and other wares.

Luther engaged printers, established depositories, and directed hundreds of canvassers who sold his writings and copies of the Scriptures in France, Switzerland, Germany, and the Netherlands. A large depository established by him in Basel was called “The Evangelical Society of Book-hawkers.” He only is a true reformer who gives his life to the great work of calling men back from their wanderings, to the teachings of God’s Word. Thank God for the faithful canvassers.

A. J. S. BOURDEAU, Manager Periodical Department Review and Herald Publishing Assn.