BRUSH-HEAP METHODS by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jun 11, 1894

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 20, No. 31.

BRUSH-HEAP METHODS.

By Editor

"Rusticus," a well-known Presbyterian writer, says many good things, which are widely copied. In a recent number of the Occident he likens the "industrial army" movement to "human brush heaps," that as brush heaps may be moved by hitching to a few of the larger branches of each heap, so the great masses of purposeless, thoughtless men are moved by the few demagogues, or politicians. And then "Rusticus" truly says:—

"There is something inexpressibly sad in this brush-heap idea of humanity. How degrading it is to that manhood on which is the impress of the image of God! The divinely minted soul . . . has become a mere plaything in the hands of the selfish, the unscrupulous, the atheistic, and the vile. What can be done for our social brush heaps? The best thing to be done, if it were possible, is to trim from the branches all the twigs and petty side shoots by which they are weakly or viciously intertangled, to make each man so far independent that he will move only when he sees a good and sufficient reason for moving, whether in concert with others or alone, in other words, to educate every human soul up to the idea of its personal responsibility and accountability. This is what the gospel aims to do, and is doing." (Italics ours.)

Yes, this is what the gospel will do if it is preached and men will let it; but because it cannot be done immediately, "Rusticus" wants to do as the Roman Catholic Church did, convert them by wholesale. He says:—

"If men are in brush heaps, we must try to get hold of someone through whom we can move the heap. Why should not the church learn wisdom from the politicians? Why should she not go for the representative men in the different cliques and classes into which society is divided? If she can draw them, she can draw the multitudes whom they influence and control. We cannot develop the manhood of the masses until we can bring them under better leadership. And the most efficient way of doing that is to convert their leaders."

But all this is the wisdom of the world, which is foolishness with God. The world is no better than the aggregate of individual righteousness received through the gospel. Men are led by demagogues and politicians because demagogues and politicians pander to their selfish lusts and propensities. The church may nominally convert these leaders by the promise of power, and these leaders will bring with them, by political and selfish methods, the unconverted; but Christ will have no part in it. It is by just such brush-heap methods that Sunday laws have ever flourished, and corrupt churches builded, and Church and State united, but the gospel of Christ takes hold of the individual, and converts him, in principle and action; and the aggregate of such units form the church of the living God. The brush-heap methods will ever bring brush-heap results, whether in or out of the church of God.