QUERY | AdventAI

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Nov 25, 1889

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 15, No. 45.

QUERY.

To-day is Sunday. Another week has rolled around and the weekly day of rest and devotion is here. Thousands of pulpits will be occupied by thousands of ministers, and hundreds of thousands of people will sit in the churches as auditors and worshipers. It would be interesting to know how much good would be done if each church attender could listen to the pure and undefiled preaching of the gospel. A few of the preachers will preach the gospel, but the great majority of them will go through the day's services as a sort of perfunctory duty, seizing upon the occasion, perhaps, to make a cheap display of learning. The great difficulty with the whole church is with the ministers. They complain about their congregations, but the latter would be all right if the ministers ministered to the wants of the people. One pastor talks intellectually; another attempts to be funny, and another rails and scolds at things which he sees and hears about him. In one way and another most of them manage to keep far away from the great truths of the religion which they profess to expound. This may sound like a sweeping judgment, but it is true, and it is the cause of small congregations and indifference upon the part of the people who do attend. If the preachers of Aspen would speak more to the hearts of the people, if they would subordinate history and intellectuality to the spirit of the gospel; if they would put aside wit and substitute earnestness, the churches would not hold the people who would flock to hear them. The man who walks forth at night and looks in awe upon the stars does not attend church to listen to a display of learning or wit, and if the church does not fill the need that he feels in his heart he will seldom occupy a seat in its edifice.—Aspen Daily Times.