The Gospel’s Call to Sinners
By Editor
THE Indianapolis Journal tells the following story illustrative of how far some professed Christians come from realizing what the gospel is for:— “A former minister of Indianapolis mixed with the common people, and from the highways and byways drew all classes—gamblers, topers, Magdalenes, among the rest—to hear his pulpit teachings. A worthy official, scandalized by this irruption of sinners into the sanctuary, could only gasp in horrified response to congratulations on the ‘drawing’ power of his pastor: ‘But think of the kind of people who come!’” When Jesus was on earth he gave as one evidence that he was the Messiah, the fact that “the poor have the gospel preached unto them.” And yet sometimes churches in which the prevailing spirit is that of the official referred to above, are called churches of Christ. THE Christian Advocate makes the following very just observation:— “It is amazing how readily some godly people are to employ evangelists without inquiry as to their antecedents. A good voice, a commanding presence, and large audacity seem to be sufficient endowment for a revivalist in many sections of our country. Last summer a horse-thief posed as an evangelist in certain towns of Indian Territory, and is reported to have ‘made many converts.’ In Missouri, a few weeks later, he was arrested for theft and convicted. He sawed and filed his way out of the prison, and hastening to Arkansas, assumed a new name, and began a new series of ‘revival meetings.’ Detectives traced him, and after what is described as ‘an earnest sermon’ he was again arrested. Nothing tends more directly to belittle the cause of Christ than the culpable thoughtlessness of Christians in engaging irresponsible parties as leaders in spiritual endeavor.” And if the churches had more spirituality, they would have a good deal less of this “culpable thoughtlessness.” If they cared more for righteousness than for “revivals,” they could not be so easily taken in by rascally revivalists. If they cared more for the law of God and less for the sentimentalism that now passes for the gospel, they would not be so ready to take up with horse-thief evangelists.