p. 10 | Note and Comment

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Apr 16, 1914

Note and Comment

The Danger of Worldliness

A Lenten message to the Lutheran churches has just been issued by the presidents of the synods and the president of the general conference of that denomination. This was published in the Lutheran of Feb. 19, 1914. Among some of the great dangers threatening the Christian church at the present time there is emphasized the great danger of worldliness. We quote the following statement and appeal:—

We must confess, as pastors and people, that we are exposed to the danger of worldliness. We are living in an age of material prosperity and progress such as history knows not of. Men have become intoxicated with the glare and glitter of wealth, and stand aghast before the babel of human achievement in the world of industry and science. This has bred a spirit of self-sufficiency and smothered the spirit of dependence upon God. The worship of God has given way to the worship of man. This spirit has powerfully influenced the life of the church. Both pastors and people are in danger of being conformed to the fashion of this world. Pride is taking the place of self-denial; indulgence, the place of discipline; and Belial, the place of Christ. There is no clear line of demarcation between many professed followers of Christ and pure worldlings. The church is being tempted to make an alliance between God and mammon, and her members have ceased to be a "peculiar people." Social customs and standards destructive of spiritual life are adopted or patterned after, and soul-destroying pleasures are eating like a canker into the vitals of the Christian life. The church often seems more concerned to please men than to save them, and is adopting the spirit and ways of the world. It is a compromising rather than a conquering church. The Scriptures are being betrayed and the gospel surrendered in the very citadels where the bulwarks are supposed to be thrown around them. Like a weak and foolish Samson, the church is toying with Delilah, and its strength is passing from it.