Severe Arraignment

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Feb 15, 1905

Severe Arraignment

Severe Arraignment.—In addressing the delegates to the Protestant Episcopal Convention recently held in San Francisco, Rev. B. M. Weeden said:

As a church we are called aristocratic, exclusive, and other abominable names. The poor won't come to us, and many of those well-to-do men and women who do affiliate with us neglect their duties. Even now, to-night, the Deaconess Home and Hospital, a project intended to be of incalculable benefit to the church, seems doomed to failure for the want of a few paltry dollars—a sum infinitely less than many of our people squander upon a ballroom's decorations for a single night, or upon the appointments of a single dinner.

This arraignment is simply one item of a very prominent sign of the times. The ministers of many churches might truthfully bring such charges against the worldly members of their flocks. It is also a fulfilment of prophecy; the apostle Paul tells us that "in the last days perilous times shall come" because of such a condition. He says that "men shall be lovers of their own selves," and that they shall be "heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof." And to this he adds, "From such turn away!" 2 Tim. 3:1-5.