Principles versus Personalities
THE despatches of April 5 tell of more than fifty men who went to a hotel in Denver where a preacher by the name of Spurgeon was staying, and taking him from his room, placed him in an automobile, carried him twenty-four miles north of Denver, gave him $2.10, and told him to "hit the track." His offense was that he had "angered many persons in Denver through his attacks on the Catholic priesthood." Attacks might be made upon the priesthood or the ministry of almost any church. There are defective men in all religious organizations; but in defending the doctrines of Protestantism against Catholicism, we gain nothing by descending to personalities and seeking to point out corrupt characters that may be found in the papal church. The question should be lifted above all such personal combat, and placed upon the strong ground of the failure of the Catholic Church to teach the pure and simple gospel of Jesus Christ. That church holds out a false hope in leading men to believe that the church itself can save them. It keeps men from becoming acquainted with Christ and the divine Father of the Bible, by impressing it upon them that the Bible is unsafe in the hands of the common people. The good Book says that the common people heard Christ gladly, and the common people may just as gladly hear and understand His divine word. But when it comes to iniquities and hypocrisies in private life, there is no church that has a monopoly upon that sort of thing. The teaching of Protestantism should be of such a character as to lead the people to taste for themselves the joys of a personal knowledge of the divine Book. The positive teaching of the doctrines of the Bible, including the prophecies which present the clear evidences of Christ's soon coming, will do more to lead people away from false doctrines than all the personal thrusts that can be given by battling theologians.