UNCERTAIN SOUNDS by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jul 9, 1894

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 20, No. 35.

UNCERTAIN SOUNDS.

By Editor

THE Advance of June 21 opens an editorial on “Prominence of Clergymen in Public Affairs,” in these words:—

It is a remarkable fact that in these days clergymen take a more active part in public affairs than any other class of men. We do not mean, of course, that they are specially prominent in politics, or that national policies are determined by them more than others, but we do mean that no other class of men take a livelier interest in whatever is going on, have more to say about it, or, on the whole, have more to do in shaping public opinion regarding it.

The article goes on to speak of their study of public and vital questions, their expression of opinion concerning them, their connection with various organizations, and declares that “we look in vain for such general prominence among lawyers or physicians or business men.” The Advance further says:—

There is unquestionably great advantage in this clerical prominence in public affairs. Leaders of thought are always needed, and the world is fortunate when those who shape its convictions are to so large a degree men trained in the word of God and influenced by the principles of Christ. . . . The Protestant clergy as a rule are men of broad outlook and unselfish lives, men who grasp the great problems of life with clear thinking and who inspire confidence by their practical wisdom. As a consequence, they have in these days great influence in public affairs; they are listened to with respect; their opinions have weight in shaping the life of the nation.

And, so far as prominence and influence are concerned, this is all true. But what is the influence? What is its effect on the vital religion of the day? Granted that the clergy are learned, able, influential, but how many are loyal to God’s word, to his law, to the gospel of Christ, which they are commissioned to preach? How many of the very ones who are so zealously demanding social reform and political reform are loyal to the principles of Christ,—to the simple principles so clearly expressed in the word of God?

It is through the influence of the clergy that our government is committed to the religious education of the Indian through the churches, largely through the Roman Catholic Church. It is indirectly, no doubt, through the influence of clergymen in public and political life that the Supreme Court, by a decision handed down February 29, 1892, to the extent of that decision rolled the progress of this government backward four centuries. It was through the influence of Protestant clergymen that in that same year this government was committed to the evils of religious legislation. And this is but the beginning.

This influence, the influence seemingly most sought now by many clergymen, is a curse to the church and the republic. The Sunday-sabbath question is a good illustration of this. Concerning this important question God’s word is plain; the example of Christ and holy men of old is prominently clear; the watermark of the apostasy may be seen all through the history of the Sunday movement, from its origin to the present time; reliable Protestant authorities place the responsibility of the “change” of the Sabbath upon the Church of Rome, or the apostasy, and that church takes the credit of the matter to herself. All these evidences are but the confirmation of the living prophecies of God’s word. Is it loyalty to Christ to trample underfoot the command which he gave, the institution he made and observed, and to persecute them who faithfully observe that institution? “If they do these things in the green tree, what shall be done in the dry?” Would to God that Protestant ministers would all turn to the gospel of Christ, and let God influence the people through his words uttered by them. See 1 Thess. 2: 13.

And what is the character of all these messages? There are thousands of voices and hundreds of antagonistic messages. Originality is the ambition of the age; and in the great “reform” conventions “everyone” “hath a doctrine, hath a tongue, hath a revelation, hath an interpretation.” The trumpets blown give no certain sound. Babel reigns among these great social reformers from the pulpit. The soap-bubble theories are pretty; the enchanting songs of the modern sirens are enticing; the atmosphere is soporific and soothing; but each day brings its added reality of dreaded and deadly ills, which belie all the false visions of the latter-day prophets of peace.

In the above from the Advance we have the very evil which the New York Observer (see elsewhere) and Dr. Barrett, chairman of the Congregational Union of England and Wales, are deprecating and denouncing as a source of danger to the church. But the church has already passed the danger line. She has already swung around the outer circles of the great maelstrom, which is sure to engulf her. The warning voices within and without are lost in the political and social babel which prevails. The word of God, the professed standard of creed and morals, is interpreted by “science falsely so called,” by political ambition, by the exigencies of the times, by the hoary traditions of an apostate church; and yet, out of all these, those who are longing for something better are blindly hoping that good will come. Millions are in the attitude expressed by the following doggerel:—

"When the bimeby time once gets in view, When the bimeby time gets roun', We'll hev free trade and tariff, too; Hard times won't trouble me or you, An' Sunday'll last the hull week through, When the bimeby time comes roun'." "When the bimeby time comes roun', Oh, I long to hear the soun'! So I'm sittin' an' a-mopin', An' a-gropin' an' a-hopin', Till the bimeby time comes roun'."

And millions will be disappointed. “God is not mocked; for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.” “If the blind lead the blind, shall they not both fall into the ditch?” More than “sincerity,” so termed, is needed; the times demand, the soon-coming judgment of God demands, the eternal verities of his word. If the appointed watchmen will not give God’s message, let the people turn from them and their theories, and search for themselves. The foolishness of God is “wiser than men.” “God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.” His word is a light and a lamp to the feet of the humble. The “more sure word of prophecy” is now shining “as a light in a dark place,” and men will do well if they take heed thereto. 2 Peter 1: 19, 20. If the clergy will not preach this word as it is in Jesus, let the people read it. Christ is talking to the people through it to-day. Who will follow his voice rather than the voices of political, traditional, or expediental theorizers. Christ crucified, Christ risen,—Christ’s love, Christ’s power,—is the message. Will you receive it? Will you give it?