p. 41 | Easy Conversion by Ellet Joseph Waggoner

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jan 15, 1885

Easy Conversion.

By Ellet Joseph Waggoner

MUCH ado has been made over the announcement that Mr. M. K. Schermerhorn, one of the most prominent of Unitarian preachers, has been admitted into the Episcopal Church, and has taken orders therein, and "the church" has been congratulated upon so valuable an accession. According to Mr. Schermerhorn's own statement, however, his "conversion" does not seem to have been prompted wholly by unselfish motives. He says:—

"As to Unitarianism, I will say that it has been a constant disappointment to me, though I always tried to make the best of it. I have seen the Unitarian cause steadily declining. Out of fifteen societies in the New York and Hudson River Conferences, for instance, six have died outright during the past twelve years. No new ones have been started, and those remaining are, with three or four exceptions, just alive, and that is all. The same is more or less true all over America and England, too. In short, I lost all hope for any permanent growth of Unitarianism long before I left Newport, and this, in part, was what (providentially, as I now feel) caused me to turn my studies and thoughts in the direction of the older churches and faith."

Even in politics such an avowal as that would not be considered a credit to any man. Much has been said, especially during the last campaign, about standing up for a principle, even though the party be in the minority; but here we find a clergyman openly announcing that he has left the church of which he was long a champion, solely because he had no hope that it would ever rival other denominations, and people do not think that there is anything out of the way in his course. Well, why should they? Isn't popularity getting to be the standard of orthodoxy? Of late the discussion between Catholics and Protestants has waxed hot, as to whether Catholicism has really made the progress that is claimed for it, as though its character were to be judged by its ability to gain converts. One of the most common objections we hear against the Sabbath of the Lord is, "Oh, there is only a mere handful of people that keep it, anyway." And the argument upon which Sunday advocates are willing to rest their cause is that "everybody keeps Sunday."

When people can pass from one church to another, or from the world to the church, so easily, what is to hinder the whole world from being "converted"? and then the millennium will be ushered in. It is natural for men to love to be on the winning side; and as soon as the church can demonstrate that she is the strongest power in the world, people without number will feel "providentially" directed to join her communion. E. J. W.