CONFORMED OR TRANSFORMED.
By S.
The success of worldly enterprises has often led the professed followers of Christ to pattern some part of their work after the methods which made that worldly work a success. We have seen it of late in the introduction of modified, theatrical performances in the church. Pastors who have compared the size of their audiences with the throngs which patronize the theater have introduced “attractions” to increase their attendance. The theater has its “attractions,” and they draw the masses. The worried pastor reasons that they will do the same for the church. They have been added to the church service, and the pews have had more occupants. It is safe to say, however, that the additional occupants come to see the curious and spectacular. They get what they come for, and probably depart satisfied. But they who come to hear the voice of God through one set to utter it, what do they get?—A theatrical performance. Refusing to go to the theater, the theater came to them—came into the sacred edifice where they had met God, and expected to meet Him again and again. They would not enter the playhouse; so the playhouse came into the church, displacing the Word, disorganizing the service, and lowering the respect of both saint and sinner for the house, the pastor, and the pastor’s influence. Thus what is gained in numbers is lost in real heart work, in real, positive influence for good. The church which resorts to such means will soon find that it must add new “attractions” as the theater does, or see its audiences dwindling away. Such a course is in direct opposition to the counsel of the Spirit: “Be not conformed to this world; but ‘be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, ‘that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God.” Rom. 12:2. Conformity to the world will never win the world; for it never has. Conformity to the world is a yielding to the ways of the world, forming our ways, words, and actions in harmony with the ways and words and actions of the world. It is not our winning the world; it is our yielding to the world. They who come to a church in response to its “attractions,” come for the attractions, not for salvation, not to hear the word,—come because they recognize themselves in that church, not because they recognize God in its members or its pastor. They go to the theater to be pleased, amused; they will go to such a church for the same purpose. It is the business of the theater to please people, to cater to the cravings of unregenerate appetites, to make men and women satisfied with themselves. It is the business of the church to teach truth, however unpleasant it may be to the natural heart; to make men and women so dissatisfied with themselves that they will seek the satisfaction there is in Christ and the knowledge of sins forgiven. It is the business of the church to do God’s work, and that is not and never has been seeking the pleasures of the world. Here, then, are two institutions, each doing a definite work. The theater can not accomplish its purpose by teaching the Word of God and by influencing its patrons to lead lives of unselfishness. That never has been pleasing to human nature. It accomplishes its end, however, and that by its own means. It is not reasonable to suppose that these same means can be used to accomplish an object entirely different even if employed in an edifice hitherto sacred. The church can not accomplish its object in the earth by using means designed for the very purpose of thwarting that work, which are antagonistic to that work, and promote only the service of self. Conformity with that which works evil is, in the end, conformity with the evil itself; and that is what is bound to be when we use the instruments of the world in attempting to do the Lord’s work. “Be ‘not conformed to this world; but be ye transformed ‘by the renewing of your mind.” That means a transformation out of self and into Christ. It is accomplished through the renewing of the mind, not by conformity with the world. There is salvation in heeding this admonition, or command, of the Lord. There is death, everlasting death, in refusing to do it. Therefore, “be not conformed” but “transformed.” The great drift to-day is toward conformity; it is the dominant spirit of the times.