"Is Irreverence in Handling the Word of God a Sign of Religious Decadence?"
By F. M. W.
THIS is the question asked by the editor of the Lutheran in the issue of that paper for March 12, 1914. He quotes a Baptist minister as looking with "gravest apprehension" on the type of evangelism represented by some present-day revivalists. This Baptist clergyman is reported as saying: — Our day has produced a type of evangelist that, to say the least, is not ideal. As a rule they know little about theology or philosophy, and boast of their ignorance. They are slangy and unmannerly and impudent. Dignity is thrown to the winds, and every sense of seeming regard for religious propriety is offended. Coming to God is "hitting the sawdust trail." There are cities now awaiting the coming of a certain famous evangelist who cannot fill the engagements for two years yet to come. In the meantime there are ministers and laymen enough, with brain and heart enough, in those cities to shake them from center to circumference if they would but bestir themselves and get down to work. It is humiliating to the last degree. There are distressing reactions after the extraordinary and hippodramatic campaigns which lift great communities into a frenzy of religious fervor, but a work of grace that comes from a steady pressure upon society from the members of the churches will not be followed by the reactions. The Philadelphia Ledger also deplores this vulgar type of preaching. Speaking of the present-day evangelists, it says: — The evangelist offends the ears of cultivated people by his slang, his manners, and by words which come unwashed from the vernacular of the crowd. He is not the only offender against reverence and good taste. Many evangelists, and not a few preachers who imitate them, lower the standards of propriety by indulging in expressions more adapted to the barroom than the pulpit. The reason why some platform lecturers employ this grade of language is indicated by the Ledger: — Many folks unfortunately like that sort of thing, just as they prefer ragtime to the "Ninth Symphony" of Beethoven. Such speakers find ready listeners. They are surrounded by men and women who sound their praises and hang upon their every word. If this were not the case, they would be led to employ other than spectacular methods in presenting the gospel. Says the editor of the Lutheran: — When one recalls the preaching of such evangelists as Torrey and Moody, and sees how steady has been the deterioration, in both spirit and method, of the modern revival, and how increasingly spectacular and abnormal the means employed to bring it about, there is only one conclusion to be reached, and that is that the excusing by very many Christians of such irreverent, and at times profane, handling of the Word of God, is a sure sign of spiritual decadence. A preacher is on no less holy soil than was Moses when he heard the words at the burning bush: "Put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground." There is a divine sense and instinct in the reverent Christian that feels itself outraged when holy things are dealt with in an unholy way. . . . There are men and women who would feel themselves outraged were their dearest friends to step into their parlors with muddy shoes and soil their carpets, and9yet they will excuse a preacher who dips his tongue in irreverence and profanity and rolls the gospel over it as a sweet but defiled morsel. He addresses God with shocking familiarity, as if he had been his baseball companion from his youth. What is positively distressing is the loss of the sense of reverence among Christians, the sense of the divine fitness of things. It is the crying sin of the day. The truthfulness of this criticism we must acknowledge. This is an age of degeneracy, socially, politically, religiously. Too many in the great professed Christian church have but a form of godliness, their own lives denying the power which they profess. It is this large, indifferent, world-loving, godless class in the Christian church that applauds to the echo the theatrical style and methods of modern evangelists. We would not deny that some good is accomplished through such preaching. God may take the words of a sensational preacher and impress them upon the hearts of men. The apostle Paul recognized this of some who with unworthy motives and by unwise methods preached the gospel in his day: — "Some indeed preach Christ . . . of contention, not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my bonds: but the other of love, knowing that I am set for the defense of the gospel. What then? notwithstanding, every way, whether in pretense, or in truth, Christ is preached; and I therein do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice." Phil 1:15-18. Notwithstanding the motives which prompted such preaching, it was overruled of God to the extension of the gospel of his Son. But the question naturally arises, If on account of their earnestness and enthusiasm, and in spite of their vulgarity and sensational methods, God works through some evangelists for the accomplishment of some little good, how much more might they not accomplish by preaching the gospel in a sane, sensible, dignified manner, and with the same earnestness and enthusiasm which they now employ in their work? It is not for us to judge our fellows, nor is it for us to take them as our models. We have one model — the Lord Jesus Christ. The quiet dignity of his life, the quiet dignity of his personal labor, commends itself to our judgment. He had all classes with which to deal, the same as do his representatives today; but without show or ostentation, with pure, becoming, appropriate speech, with beautiful figures and illustrations drawn from the common experiences of the people, he unfolded the marvelous truth of God. Truth was presented in such a way that it carried power and conviction to move the multitudes. It is better to take Christ as our model today, both in preaching and in Christian living, than the example of those in any age who would improve upon his methods.
F. M. W.