Note and Comment by Editor

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park, Washington, D. C. · Jul 11, 1912

Note and Comment

By Editor

Dangers Threatening Christianity

SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTISTS are sometimes charged with being alarmists by calling attention to the great spiritual decadence coming upon the great professed church of Christ. We are glad to note, however, from time to time, that these conditions are recognized by earnest men in other denominations. In the Episcopal address given at the General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, in session in Minneapolis, Bishop Earl Cranston expressed grave concern over the dangers now threatening the spiritual life of the church. He is reported by the Northwestern Christian Advocate of May 8, 1912, as saying:—

"A mad contagion of greed, worldliness, pride, and lust has invaded the churches and many thousands of all denominations have turned from their vows without compunction. 'Wherever rationalism has so despoiled the Bible that to many, both in pulpit and pew, it is left without inspiration and authority, so that expediency takes precedence of God's law in the home and even in church administration; wherever the offices of the Holy Spirit have been psychologically negatived and the manger of Bethlehem robbed of its divine child; wherever the cross of Calvary bleeds without atoning virtue, and there is no longer a fountain filled with blood in which sinners may find cleansing; wherever, indeed, there is no issue of damnable sin between God and the transgressor, it can be no marvel if there church discontent prevails. Nothing else would be possible.'"

Bishop Cranston calls attention to the many millions invested in church property, schools, hospitals, and asylums in home and foreign lands, etc., but deplores the fact that notwithstanding these great agencies the increase in membership for one year was less than two per cent:—

"It is then that we tremble for the church. The thing is incredible. The statistical paradox stares us out of countenance. It shames and humiliates us. Only tears of repentance become us. Our hearts should be bleeding in contrition. Among the causes found are these: The distinctive doctrines are not emphasized; Wesley preached the necessity of a new birth. Too much attention to definitions without preaching salvation. Too much attention to the scientific without preaching repentance. The system peculiar to the church is not being worked as formerly."

The same note of warning is raised by Dr. John F. Carson of Brooklyn, the retiring moderator of the Presbyterian General Assembly, in a sermon delivered in Louisville, Ky., May 16, 1912. According to the Washington Evening Star of May 16, Dr. Carson, like Bishop Cranston, deplores the very small gain made in the Presbyterian membership for the last year:—

"The comparatively small number of accessions to the church on confession of faith sounds a note of warning and appeal. The stated clerk of the General Assembly is authority for the statement that, 'of our 10,051 churches 3,739, or 37 per cent, reported no additions on confession of faith to their membership during the year 1911."

As a remedy for these conditions the following suggestions are offered:—

The prophetic call to the church is for deeper and more genuine Christian living; for more of the religious home life, with its family altar, its Bible and its psalm; for more religious training of the child in the knowledge of the Scriptures and in the love of God, for more emphasis upon the church as the center of religious worship, a more faithful attendance upon the public services of the sanctuary and upon the meetings for social prayer.

The evangelistic fire must be kindled in every church. After much talking about "the enthusiasm of humanity," "the service of man," "social ministry," and other freezing abstractions, we must come back to the Master's love of men. The church has become so overlaid, if not stifled, by a congeries of societies and gilds and movements that it is lost sight of, except when criticized for failure to support innumerable movements. Let churchmen, who in zeal and devotion are promoting so many movements, concentrate their thought and energy upon the churches with which they are connected and work through these churches, and the results will justify and reward the concentration of their interest and energy.

The spiritual function of the church must receive a new emphasis. Our danger to-day is not that we will neglect the social and practical side of Christianity, but that we will treat too lightly the spiritual and mystical. The living, beating heart of the church takes into its purpose and sympathy and ministry every need of man. But it must not be forgotten that in her service to man the church has a function peculiarly her own, and, unless she fills that function, it will not be fulfilled. That function is ministry to man's spiritual being. Back of all the unrest that disturbs our day, whether that unrest is revealed in the discontent of the poor or in the feverish quests of pleasure or of wealth on the part of the rich, is the soul's cry for God, whether men know it or not. The church must answer that cry by bringing Christ and his love to the knowledge of men.

But the real remedy is to find out God's message for our time, and give it.

In These Times

OTHERS than Seventh-day Adventists realize that these are stirring and important times. The two political conventions, one held and the other holding, are giving striking emphasis to the ominous conditions. The people are asking themselves what it all means, and whence will come the party and the leader that will be able to bring in again settled and peaceable conditions. And the world knows that what we experience here other nations are also experiencing. The Catholic journal America, edited by Jesuits, touches the situation and suggests what will be the organization and who will be the leader that will rescue the nation and the world from threatened perdition. We quote:—

"Even the careless observer realizes that we have reached a crisis in our history. A tremendous change is taking place among us. A new spirit is sweeping over us, and there is pestilence and death in its breathing. The very foundations of government, of law, of order, of social and family life, are undermined. The sense of authority is dying away. While the storm is raging, the pilots of the ship of state are wrangling in the wheelhouse, officers and crew answer by insubordination and mutiny, and the ship is driving on to a truly 'Titanic' doom. Old maps and charts, pointing out the safe and secure way, are being torn to shreds. Speed-maniacs are trying to control the levers of life in the frenzied race for power and pelf."

"The best antidotes for all these evils are the principles deeply embedded in the minds of the educated Catholic. He has in the vast armory at his command the weapons wherewith to fight. In science, in literature, in law, in the press, in the halls of Congress, in the professor's chair, on the judge's bench, he has the principles most needed to thwart the progress of false ideas, the checks necessary to block the advance of the destructive forces now sapping the protecting dikes and bulwarks of our national life."

"Fisher Ames said of Washington that he changed men's ideas of political greatness. An original and comprehensive eulogy! The educated Catholic can do much to change the false standards of progress, justice, politics, liberty, morality, professional and commercial ethics, now so shamelessly hawked about and advertised. It will not be enough for him to accept the prevailing conditions, and drift helplessly with the tide. He must mold men's minds and opinions, actively shape events. He must not be satisfied to bow to the unreasonable passion-inspired dictates of a tyrannous majority."

"But in the hour of need, when others will fail, when neither their systems nor their character will be able to save a dying state, anxious eyes will be turned to the ranks of our trained and educated men. If their training has not been an idle pastime, if their opportunities have not been wasted, they should be able to furnish the leader for the need and the hour."

We have "reached a crisis in our history." The world itself has reached a crisis in its history. The human race has reached a crisis in its history. In fact, we are now in the crisis of the ages, a time when mankind must decide just one question, and that is, whether to be loyal to God, his law, and his truth, or loyal to one who "opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshiped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God." There is no question but that the Roman Church will be able to put forward one whom she considers the "leader" that is demanded by the times and conditions. And there is no question but that "all the world" will "wonder after" and follow that "leader," save those who have accepted God's last message, and have thus been forewarned against following such a "leader." The fact that Rome herself senses the nature and importance of these times, and is laying her plans accordingly, ought to arouse every advocate of truth to do his utmost from this day on to spread abroad the principles of this saving truth. The seriousness of these times ought to fire the heart of every true Christian.