THE SECULARIZATION OF THE CHURCH.
By Editor
THE New York Observer of the 7th ultimo has a thoughtful though tardy article on the "Secularization of the Pulpit." Referring to a sermon on that subject, it says:— No diligent student of contemporary sermons can question the timeliness of such a message. One of the most serious sources of danger to the efficiency and usefulness of the pulpit of our day is, beyond any doubt, the tendency to secularize it by giving undue prominence to the discussion of social problems. . . . The pulpit which talks of theories when it should talk of the facts of revelation is to that extent weakened in its influence, as well as secularized by so dwelling upon remedies which, after all, are of this world, as to shut out of thought and vision the remedy offered from the world above. The panaceas of social reform aim so vigorously at external amelioration as often to lose sight altogether of the great truth that "the improvement of the soul is the soul of all improvement." Changing a man's environment and bringing about altered conditions of life do not by any means involve the changing of the man. The ills of this world cannot be banished by material devices. The spiritual panaceas of the gospel goes deeper and deals more thoroughly. Christianity seeks to destroy the roots of the evils which afflict humanity. Social reform only attempts to cut the branches and wither the leaves. Who can question which is the better way? But the secularization of the pulpit means the secularization of the church. Such truths as the above ought to have been uttered, nay, thundered, twoscore of years ago by the watchmen in Israel. The matter has gone too far now for the church to recover. She is already committed to social and political theories which are sapping her very life. "Christian Socialism" and "pure politics" are good things, but they are the legitimate fruits of a vitalized Christianity, and not the object sought. They are resultant, not objective. The church as a church, or the pulpit as the messenger of Christ, is not to seek to guide, to mould, or to shape the social reform or politics of the State. She has ever meddled with it to the loss of purity and power on her part, and the loss of respect for religion on the part of the world. As an illustration of the church in politics—in social reform—take her position for the few years past on the Sunday-law question. She has, through her various representatives, petitioned, argued, cajoled, flattered, lobbied,546threatened, and sold herself to fraud and falsehood to obtain secular power to do what she ought absolutely and solely to have depended upon the power of Christ and the preaching of his gospel to do. What has it accomplished? How many sinners or Sunday “desecrators” have been converted? How many are keeping Sunday better? True, there are a few more Sunday laws. Legislators—politicians—are frequently more or less amenable and susceptible to superstition and “influence” from whatever source. And the “influence” of the church has been felt in the politics of our nation; but, oh, to what cost to both the Church and the State! Had the pulpit pursued its legitimate calling this would not have been. The Observer well says:— The one solution of all problems, social and spiritual, the one secret of the regeneration and readjustment of society, is to be found in the cross of Jesus Christ. Preachers of the gospel impoverish their teaching and minimize their power to help when they dwell on the glittering generalities of a philanthropy shining with the afterglow of Christianity, instead of pointing to the cross as the one lever by which individuals can be raised to a holier and therefore a happier life, and the one force which can wipe out of existence the sins which cripple and fetter the progress of the human race towards the goal of redemption. And we may add that they utterly lose their power when they turn from the supernatural all-power of the gospel of Christ, and confess it insufficient, by accepting of the secular power of civil law. Let the true minister of the gospel lift up Christ as the Saviour of the world, who saves us and washes us from our sins in his own blood.