MACHINERY VERSUS SPONTANEITY.
By Editor
THERE is a growing tendency among Christians to do almost everything in moral, religious, and ecclesiastical matters by conventions, by associations, by committees, by unions, and by orders, in the same manner, if not in the same spirit, as the various trades-unions, orders, conventions, and political caucuses and combinations in regard to worldly things are carried on. And it has come to pass that there are so many associations, bands, and unions, subdivided into committees and classifications, that the church and its institutions and methods are almost obsolete. Scarcely anything is done or attempted, unless it is by convention, association, or committee, so that it is hardly thought practicable to get a sinner converted or a backslider reclaimed except by a committee. Young Men's Christian Associations have by consent been delegated to do the work which the church should do through her divinely appointed channels and agencies. Members of the churches in their individual capacity hardly dream of getting anybody converted. The recovery of a fallen woman is not sought except through some moral reform association, or through the Red Cross Society. The drunkard must be reached through some society or temperance organization or order. Otherwise he is allowed to drift and perish, or is likely thus to perish. What is the church for if not to do this work in her individual and collective capacity as divinely appointed thereto? Singing can hardly be conducted without a musical association and a choir; and even in prayer-meeting, without a hymn-book and a formal announcement of the hymn, singing is seldom attempted. Where is the old-time and scriptural spontaneity that used to melt and move hearts and hands and prompt to individual activity and labor in soul-saving? How the Methodists used to sing, even without hymn-books! How quickly they would learn to sing with the spirit and with the understanding! How quickly young converts would learn to pray with power, without a prayer-book! How zealous the early Methodists were in their individual efforts to get men converted, then to get them into class-meeting and into the church. For what end is the church but to save men; to use hospitality one to another; to help each other in business; to instruct, reprove, and exhort all we have intercourse with; to do good to all men of every possible sort, and as far as possible unto all men, not waiting for a convention or a committee; to sing in prayer-meeting, not waiting for the instrument? We are to keep our baptismal covenant vows and our church vows, and to do the work of the Lord and of the church either through committees or without mechanism or formality. "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." We want more spontaneity and not so much machinery and organization. More of the presence, power, and promptings of the Spirit, and less of stiff dignity and ecclesiasticism.—Dr. Reddy, in Northern Christian Advocate. [The above is especially pertinent at the present time, because a new order,—"The Soul-Winners' League,"—has just been started with headquarters at Peoria, Ill., where one thousand members have been obtained. It is to be composed of church-members of any denomination, the only condition for membership being that they shall labor to win souls. The evil of all this comes in the shape of causing people to think that this is not necessarily the work of the church. When leagues have to be started for the purpose of winning souls (presumably to Christ), what does the church amount to? But if the organization whose sole and special duty it is to win souls, cannot do the work, what hope can there be that it can be done by a self-appointed, separate organization?—Ed. Signs.]