Making the Church Popular
We may set it down as a fact that no church in which the pure gospel is faithfully preached, the standard of conduct held up to the Bible teaching, and discipline maintained therewith, will be a “popular” church; at any rate not until the majority of mankind become Christians. Such a church will be a powerful one, but not “popular.” It can gain popularity by filling its pulpits with preachers who preach nearly everything but Christ and him crucified; by lowering the standard of living, and by relaxing its discipline so that only the grosser forms of sin come under its censure. It was not contemplated by our Lord that his church, set as an expounder and example of righteousness in a world lying in the wicked one, should be popular. “If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. . . . If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you.” And may we not add that the nearer the church is like Jesus, the more will the world hate and persecute it? We are called to be a “separate” and “peculiar people,” and are forbidden conformity with the world. This being true, it follows that all attempts to adjust the church to the liking of the world must be at the expense of its true character and divine mission. The world has its code and its spirit, and these are not in harmony with those of the church as our Lord instituted it.—Pittsburg Christian Advocate.