Sound Speech by Editor

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Feb 22, 1883

Sound Speech.

By Editor

We think that our readers will agree that the following paragraphs deserve the heading which we have given them. They are a portion of a letter addressed to a preacher; but all may read them with profit:—

In some of our churches, the divine knowledge of an apostle and the shining talents of an archangel cannot compensate for the lack of pliability, smooth speech, style, and the man-pleasing art. Do not take failure in the candidature of worldly churches with surprise or regret. The world knows its own, and the world's capital in such churches will have its own. Environed with difficulties; standing amid ruins, rejected by the great body of the professing church you may be, but still you should sink all personal and earthly considerations, encourage yourself in the Lord, and battle bravely for the great cause of all causes. God approves and rewards the men who “sigh and cry” for the abominations of Israel, and God condemns and punishes those who are “at ease in Zion.” Do not allow surrounding circumstances and relentless evils to give a somer coloring to your views. Look upward for light. There may be more faithful men than you suppose. Boastful apostles and conceited ecclesiastical demagogues, who flaunt their witty contempt for creeds and catechisms, glory in liberalism and show how Christians may be jolly, make the most noise and the greatest display.

Do not expect that preaching truth and righteousness will usually bring much pay. If you can by the closest economy “live by the gospel,” be satisfied. Bad men should not be asked to support the gospel, and you should not expect church members that are characterized by every word that defines a worldling and a formalist to pay you for condemning and troubling them. The churches want entertainment and amusement for themselves and for the world without. You are not the man for a lecture platform, club room, or play-house. More business is now done in church parlors than in the sanctuary. “The world” has money enough for its own pleasures but we must not beg it, nor try to win it by imitation amusements. Christ never expected the world to support his church. Actors, singers, and dancers are paid ten times as much as preachers. You are a “cheap preacher,” live cheap and be independent like John the Baptist. If he had lived on the court of Herod he could not have thus rebuked the sin of Herod, though he might have saved his head.

Keep out of the troubled and polluted politics of the world, as Christ, the apostles, and the early Christians did. You are called into another and a very different sphere. You have no instructions from Christ or the apostles for your guidance as a politician or an office-holder, simply because you are not expected to act in this sphere. You cannot reform the world, or enact the law of God and set up the Fifth Monarchy. You are not a legislator, judge, or executive of the world. The saints are in fellowship with a rejected Lord, and they cannot reign until he reigns. You cannot purify politics but it can pollute you. Bad men have controlling power and they will retain it until their “Prince” is dethroned. Do not worry about “our country.” Your “country is in Heaven.”—Rev. E. P. Marvin (Presbyterian).