The Present Peril by Adelaide D. Wellman

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Feb 3, 1914

The Present Peril

By Adelaide D. Wellman

WHILE discerning men are dismayed at the world's outlook as it pertains to industrial and governmental matters, and various material aspects of life, yet not the direst evils that threaten are material.

A writer of more than human ken has declared that the transcendent danger of this age is lack of spiritual power in the church.

The salt that preserves the world is the religious element. But "if the salt have lost his savor"—if Christians have lost the transforming power of vital godliness out of their lives—then verily are the times perilous.

Note what is said: "Men . . . having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof," "shall be . . . covetous, . . . incontinent, . . . lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God." 2 Tim. 3: 1-5.

Is the nominal Christianity of this time marked by covetousness?—The fact is so apparent as to render the statement of it superfluous.

Is incontinence prevalent in the church?—The divorce courts furnish an emphatically affirmative answer.

Is love of pleasure more evident than love of God, on the part of church-members?—Even those who fain would refute the charge, are compelled to acknowledge it.

These are but a few of the indictments brought against the present-day church by the greatest apostle the church ever had—aye, through him, by the Head of the church. And unless our "righteousness shall exceed the righteousness" of popular Christianity, we have yet to learn what real Christianity is—what that power of godliness is whose lack is the world's most serious menace.

ADELAIDE D. WELLMAN.