Dead Professors by Independent

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jul 16, 1885

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 11, No. 27.

Dead Professors.

By Independent

THERE have been dead professors in the church of God in all ages, as well as in the church at Sardis, where there were many who had "a name to live, and were dead." The Scriptures abound in suggestions and teachings with reference to this class. Our Lord told of the branches in him which bore no fruit, but were dead; of the barren fig-tree, upon which three years of patient labor and culture were expended without avail. The tares in the field of wheat teach the same lesson. The plant which "my heavenly Father hath not planted," is another case. The foolish virgins are also in point. James tells us of those who have "faith without works," which faith is a "dead faith;" and it follows that the professor with a dead faith is a dead professor. Paul, in his letter to Timothy, cites some women who "live in pleasure," and declared them to be dead while they lived.

These citations from the Scriptures might be multiplied; but surely these are enough to convince us that dead profession is not an unheard of thing in the living church. The conditions or characteristics of our age are such as to make dead profession easy. Wealth, worldliness, and pleasure-seeking are rife on every hand; and there is much of them in the church.

It is not, of course, our province to judge another man's servant, except in so far as one may do so upon the warrant of that scripture which teaches us that we may judge men by their fruits. That, by this rule, even charitably applied, there are many dead professors in our churches, we think few would deny.

Should our Lord come in person to the pulpit from which our readers or ourselves are wont to receive instruction, and himself declare that, among our number, there were many who had a name to live, but were dead, there would be some heart-searching going on among the living members; for we doubt whether the dead ones would take the words to themselves. But the passage in which these solemn words about dead professors occurs implies that there is a kind of death which is relative; for the Master warns such to repent, lest he come as a thief and take them unawares. Supposing, however, that this word is addressed to us, will it not be well for us to say, with our hearts opened towards him, "Lord, is it I?" nor rest until we are sure that the designation does not belong to us. We can think of nothing more terrible than to have a name to live, and yet be dead; professing a hope of eternal life, and perhaps indulging it, only to be cut off, and cast into the fire as fruitless, dead, and withered branches.

Apart from the dreadful fate that awaits the dead professor, there are serious consequences attending the church and the world by reason of their presence in the church. And this is especially so if the deadness is partially covered by a leafy profession. In the first place, they are cumberers of the ground, occupying a place and privileges which others might have. They absorb a great portion of the strength of the church's life. This may not appear to be so at first thought; but it is undoubtedly so. If it is needful to prune even those branches that are fruit-bearing, that there may be more fruit, and less wasted energy of life, how much more is it to cut off the branch which sucks the sap of the vine, bears no fruit, and is a useless absorber of life? Every one who knows anything about farm life knows that a good farmer cuts away, every year, not only the dead branches which appear in the fruit trees, but all those fruitless branches which are called suckers or the mere superfluous growth of wood; for every branch which bears no fruit hinders the fruit-bearing power of the bearing branches. Certain it is that the dead professors in the churches hinder the fruitfulness of the church to a mournful and distressing extent. They are a body of death about the living members, which it is impossible to shake off. They create an inertia which the living members are not able to overcome.

Who has not noticed the depressing and disastrous effects produced by the great inert mass of dead professors, in those times when the living members are seeking to revive the drooping life of a church? How discouraging it is to pastor and living members to come, week after week, to prayer-meeting, and meet a handful of members, when three or four times the number present are at home or out in the world seeking pleasure. They are a millstone about the neck of the church, and well-nigh drown it in the sea of discouragement. They are moreover a disfigurement to the church. Who has not been pained by seeing a lot of dead branches in a living tree, and longed to mount into it and cut them away? Again, they discredit religion, both by their false testimony, as well as by the fact that they make it difficult for the world to understand why a church, with several hundred members, has so little spiritual power in the community, does so little spiritual work, and produces so little spiritual fruit. Their presence in the congregation is a deceit and a sham. They appear to be worshipers, but they are so only in pretense and in form. Like the modern artificial flowers, they have color, but no fragrance; form, but no life. A near inspection shows that they are but shams. Beautiful they may be, but they are of no account whatever. They are the work of man and not of God.

There are several things, in view of the vast number of dead professors in the churches, which it seems to us is imperatively necessary to be done. First, a steadfast effort to strengthen the things which remain, that is that the spiritual members of the church draw yet more closely together and present themselves in yet more complete consecration to God and his work. Secondly, that this condition of dead formalism shall be dealt with lovingly but vigorously from the pulpit and by every living member, seeking to reclaim and restore the dead, or seemingly dead. Thirdly, if these two measures fail, then begin a thorough work of purging the church of dead professors. Clear the church roll and the church of the cumberers. It is not meet that the church should longer be made an asylum for dead professors of religion, who discourage and weaken the energies of the living, give forth a false testimony, and in every practical way discredit christianity. "If a man will not work neither shall he eat;" and we would add, if a man will not have life and bear fruit, remove him from among the living and pluck him up out of the vineyard of the Lord. Where and in what church will this good work begin?