p. 494 | CHURCH AMUSEMENTS by Archibald Brown

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, Cal. · Sep 22, 1890

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 16, No. 37.

CHURCH AMUSEMENTS.

By Archibald Brown

THE mission of amusement utterly fails to effect the desired end among the unsaved, but it works havoc among the young converts. Were it a success, it would be none the less wrong. Success belongs to God; faithfulness, to his instructions to me. But it is not. Test it even by this, and it is a contemptible failure. Let that be the method which is answered by fire, and the verdict will be, "The preaching of the word, that is the power."

Let us see the converts that have been won by amusements. Let the harlots and the drunkards to whom a dramatic entertainment has been God's first link in the chain of their conversion, stand forth. Let the careless and the scoffers who have cause to thank God that the church has relaxed her spirit of separation and met them half-way in their worldliness, speak and testify. Let the husbands, wives, and children that rejoice in a new and holy home through "Sunday-evening lectures on social questions," tell out their joy. Let the weary, heavy-laden souls that have found peace through a concert, no longer keep silence. Let the men and women who have found Christ through the reversal of apostolic methods, declare the same, and show the greatness of Paul's blunder when he said, "I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified." There is neither voice nor any to answer. The failure is on a par with the folly, and as huge as the sin. Out of thousands that I have personally conversed with, the mission of amusement has claimed no convert.

Now let the appeal be made to those who, repudiating every other method, have staked everything on the Book and the Holy Ghost. Let them be challenged to produce results. There is no need. Blazing sacrifices on every hand attest the answer by fire. Ten thousand times ten thousand voices are ready to declare that the plain preaching of the word was first and last the cause of their salvation.

But how about the other side of this matter? —what are the baneful effects? Are they also nil? I will here solemnly, as before the Lord, give my personal testimony. Though I have never seen a sinner saved, I have seen a number of backsliders manufactured by this new departure. Over and over again have young Christians, and sometimes Christians who are not young, come to me in tears, and asked me what they were to do, as they had lost all their peace and fallen into evil. Over and over again has the confession been made, "I began to go wrong by attending worldly amusements that Christians patronized."

"Come out," is the call for to-day. Sanctify yourselves. Put away the evil from among you. Cast down the world's altars and cut down her groves. Spurn her offered assistance. Decline her help, as your Master did the testimony of devils, "for he suffered them not to speak, for they knew him." Renounce all the policy of the age. Trample upon Saul's armor. Grasp the Book of God. Trust the Spirit who wrote its pages. Fight with this weapon only, and always. Cease to amuse, and seek to arouse. Shun the clap of a delighted audience, and listen to the sobs of a convicted one. Give up trying to please men who have only the thickness of their ribs between their souls and hell, and warn, and plead, and entreat, as those who feel the waters of eternity creeping upon them.

Let the church again confront the world; testify against it; meet it only behind the cross; and, like her Lord, she shall overcome, and with him share the victory."—Rev. Archibald Brown.