With Perplexity

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Nov 3, 1898

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 24, No. 44.

“With Perplexity.”—“The great Protestant body (there are exceptional churches, of course) has shamefully deserted the masses in our cities,” says Mr. Alvan F. Sanborn, in The Independent. “More than that, certain ‘up-town churches’ are the very penetralia of aristocratic exclusiveness and fat-witted prejudice. The missions, with which a pathetic attempt has been made to cover the retreat, have unquestionably done good; they have relieved real distress, and there have been in them real conversions. They have as unquestionably done harm; they have been victimized by professional beggars, and there have been in them bogus conversions.” Mr. S. mentions “the churches, the Salvation Army, the charities, the Trade Unions, the social settlements,” as agencies at work for the uplifting of the “submerged truth.” And yet these do not solve the problem, nor has the writer any solution to give. In fact, his whole article is a fulfilment of our Lord’s prediction that in these days will be “distress of nations with perplexity.” The Bible presents the ultimate and glorious outcome. Now it is the duty of every Christian to make practical-every-day application of Gospel principles.