Neglecting to Preach Against Sins
THE Christian Century, published in Chicago, one of the leading Disciple papers, had some good things to say, in a recent issue, in regard to the failure of our pulpits at the present time to decry against sins. One paragraph from the article says: “A sermon against sin is one thing; a sermon against sins is another. Sin is an abstraction; nobody commits it. But sins are concrete, personal, the kind you and I have. God does not call upon His prophet to show the people their sin; he is told to show the people their sins. He is not told to rebuke them, nor abuse them, nor denounce them, but just to show the sins of the people of God.”
There can be no question but that the Century is right in its diagnosis of the situation. There is not the ringing, clear denunciation of sin that characterizes power in presenting the gospel. As an illustration of this, a temperance campaign was being conducted in a certain Western town. There were enough of those who ought to have stood on the side of temperance, to carry the measure against the saloons by a big majority; but the pastors of the large churches seemed very indifferent to the movement. They could not be induced to attend any of the meetings; and when it came to taking part, in either a public or a private way, their influence was so neutral that it was really cast on the wrong side. This condition called forth an investigation, and something over three hundred individuals were found to be members of these large churches who had money invested in various ways and in various places in the big wine industries of the state. These pastors would not denounce the sin of intemperance, they would not attend the public meetings and throw their influence in favor of the cause, for in so doing they would have to denounce the sin that was practised by the members of their own church. The Bible says, “Sin is the transgression of the law.” But some of our great popular churches of this time have gone so far as to affirm openly that the ten-commandment law of the Old Testament has been abrogated; and when the claim is made that the very instrument for exposing sin has been abrogated, how is it possible to make sin appear in its exceeding sinful light? The gospel “is the power of God unto salvation.” “Thou shalt call His name Jesus: for He shall save His people from their sins.” But how can people be saved from sin when the minister is such a weakling that he lacks the courage to denounce sin? The reason why the people of this age think that they are so good and that the world is getting better and better, is that the standard of the church has kept getting lower and lower, until it is practically on a level with the world itself.