COME OUT! by A. J. B.

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Sep 10, 1901

“COME OUT!”

By A. J. B.

The call of God to His chosen people has ever been, “Come out.” If it were good for them to remain in “Babylon the great,” He would never have called them out. These are days when it is popular to be a nominal Christian. The names of many of the worst criminals and greatest sinners—those who dress well and sin legally—are on the church rolls.

The popular church of to-day, be it Catholic or Protestant so-called, is a faithless church. The majority of its members have no faith in God, nor in the religion which they outwardly profess. Lacking this faith, church-members do not feel like giving of their means for the support of an institution in which they have no real faith. Accordingly, when pressed for means, the church leaders are obliged to resort to entertainments and various other schemes, to secure money. All this is because these adherents of the popular church are, as Paul says, “lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof.” 2 Tim. 3:4, 5.

It will not take very many illustrations from popular church life itself, to prove the truth of the foregoing statements. For instance, the following clipping taken from the columns of a Chicago newspaper recently received at this Office, is but one of scores that might be cited: “An international beauty show, composed of young men dressed to represent girls from various parts of the world, will be the feature of the North Shore Congregational Church entertainment at the St. Paul railway depot, Thursday night. There will be living pictures also, consisting of representations of the Gibson girls. Twenty young women of Buena Park, led by Mrs. Henry A. Allen, will take the parts. Other features, such as Oriental booths, are billed, but it is the beauty show that is attracting the most attention. “Arrayed in the costumes of the country which

they are supposed to represent, the young men will sit on a platform. The beauty from the Isle of Guam, it is said, will be represented in all the airiness of her native costume. Clothed in the regulation tights of their calling, French danseuses will have their place in the exhibition. Turkish and Egyptian dancing girls also will be there.”

Immediately following this, may be found a detailed description of “a county fair with real cattle, red lemonade,” etc., to be given “at Rogers Park, under the auspices of the St. Jerome Roman Catholic Church on August 22, 23, and 24.” The promoters of this fair were to have “the privilege of guessing as follows: Politicians on the weight of hogs only, women on lambs, and members of Masonic organization on goats.”

Statistics gathered by Rev. William Bayard Hale, of Middleboro, Mass., and published in that reputable magazine, the Forum, show that in just one year his “record of entertainments given by religious societies in the United States” included “more than five hundred of these occasions,” which, as he says, “is, of course, the merest fraction of the whole number given during the year, and yet . . . furnishes a fair index of the remarkable labors of American religious organizations in this direction.” Continuing, he states that “it is with a feeling of wonder touched with awe, that a student turns the page of this chronicle of a year’s activity by the churches; that he discovers with what increasing ardor the institution, founded not to be ministered unto but to minister, is giving itself to the duty of providing fun at a minimum cost; with what unexampled philanthropy it is placing within the reach of the humblest and poorest of Christian people, the Female Minstrel, the Dog Show, the Dance of the Wood-Nymphs, the Brownie Drill, and kindred joys.” Coming, as they do, from such a source, no one can safely dispute the veracity of these statements.

Among the many church amusements in vogue among the various denominations, may be mentioned poverty sociables, wishbone parties, progressive whist parties, hay-seed parties, baby-rattle and spoon drills, yule-tide markets, weigh socials, “What Is It?” marches, in which “the young ladies wear their hair over their faces, and masks on the back of their heads,” poker parties, dude drills, husking bees, boxing matches, feats of legerdemain, songs and dances, girls in fleshings, Trilby parties, foot socials, ankle auctions, Tom-Thumb weddings, and mock marriages.

It would be unfair to say that there are no cries of protest raised against this drift of things, even in the popular churches. Many honest pastors have tried to stem this tide of church desecration. In the words of Rev. E. P. Marvin, of Lockport, N. Y., “the Church has gone into the amusement business. In the days of primitive simplicity, it was thought that the world and Satan had a monopoly in that line. This, however, is ‘an age of progress,’ and the Church has entered the market, and is in competition with these great caterers. The discovery has been made that the Church, in order to hold its young people to its altars, must provide for the natural craving for amusements. . . . Judging from the new order of things, Jesus is not equal to the occasion: a little amusement must be thrown in. In order to keep the people from the theater and opera, our churches must be made into semi-theaters and semi-operas. The royal ordinance of preaching retires before the popular ordinance of entertainment. Pagan, papal, and patriotic holidays furnish convenient seasons for these unblest practices. . . . What shall we say of the Church of God peddling out small wares and fun to the world, or getting up a variety show of Mother Goose, a Fan Flirtation, a Donkey Social, or a Punch and Judy Show to replenish her treasury? How belittling to the Church, how dishonoring to God, how contemptible in the eyes of the world! Said an infidel to me: ‘I think your God must be in great need of money, by the tricks the churches practice to get it for Him.’ Among such church rubbish it would be hard, indeed, to find even the form of godliness, to say nothing of its power.”

Need more be said to prove that the popular churches of the day have, to an alarming extent, identified themselves with the world, with that “Babylon the great” concerning which John, in vision, heard a voice from heaven saying: “Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues”? Is it not against these that Paul gives the warning: “From such turn away”? Speaking of these last days, Jesus said: “When the Son of man cometh, shall He find faith on the earth?” Luke 18:8. The only church that will have faith when He comes will be the one composed of those who “keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus,” who have heeded the threefold message of Revelation 14, and God’s call to “come out.” A. J. B.