LAST-DAY PROFESSORS

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jan 13, 1887

LAST-DAY PROFESSORS.

IN describing the great majority of the professed Christians of the last days, the apostle said that they would be "lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof." 2 Tim. 3: 4, 5. And certainly no one can honestly deny that such is the condition of the "Christian world" to-day. This is forcibly set forth in the following extract from a recent sermon by Rev. Charles Miel, of San Francisco, which contains some wholesome truths; but the testimony of inspiration leaves us no ground for hope that the tide of iniquity will be turned till the Lord comes, clothed in the garments of vengeance, and miserably destroys all those who, instead of bringing forth the fruits of righteousness, have loved the wages of sin, and followed the ways of the world:—

"Among Protestant communions there is no lack of harsh and acrid criticism of the Jesuits and of their policy. And yet on every hand are Protestant clergy advocating, in the church fair, etc., the motto which is the keystone of Jesuitry, that the end justifies the means; yes, and deprecating the means in one breath while advocating them in another. The end is held to be the glory and the praise of God. What are the means? They are schemes for extracting gold and silver from the tailings of a worked-out Christian liberality. In a greater or less degree every church fair, concert, opera, ball, lunch, or what not, is a begging scheme. These schemes place the Creator, and the Redeemer, and the Sacrificer, before the world like some curb-stone cripple with placarded breast and tintinnabulating cup,—a beggar, whining and jingling for an alms.

"I believe if some of those who proudly claim to be the representatives of the crucified Son of God, and the stewards of his kingdom upon earth, would have the manhood and the honesty to preach (as did their Lord and Master) God's claims upon the soul and life, we should have less of church debts and more of Christian love and life; less of the church fair and more of the fair church; less of sour ferment and more of blessed peace; less of hypocrisy and more of truth; less of mammon and more of Christ, than we have to-day.

"No doubt most, if not all, who take part in these church fairs, etc., mean well. No doubt most, if not all, love God's work and are zealous in it, but their love and their zeal, I submit, are not according to godly knowledge or righteous judgment. Quite innocently, it may be, none the less surely, they are sowing, if not in their own hearts, then in the hearts of others, the seed of selfishness, and as is the sowing, such shall the harvest be."