The Church Dying of the Refinements.
By R. V. Lawrence
This age, with the Church, and especially the Methodist Church, is an age of refinement. It has passed through one of converting and sanctifying grace, but it has now reached the era of refinement. And, (I would write so plainly as to be understood,) the Church IS NOW DYING OF THE REFINEMENTS. Not however of genuine refinement—that does not kill. Sins refined and kept in the church are doing the mischief. You may, if you will look, see this sort of refinement in the ministry. It would hardly do for ministers to aspire to the pride of position and circumstantial pomp of government officials, and persons of high places in worldly honor. This would be too gross a departure from the example of the meek and lowly Jesus and his humble disciples. But this sin is refined. Under the name of refinement of manners, many, oh, how many of our preachers put on such a pompous and formal address in saluting those they meet, that the common people, who generally hear the gospel gladly, are forced away from them, while the upstart, petroleum aristocrats gather about them as if they were angels just down from the skies. How very few of our ministers have that honorable title among the masses—"he is the poor man's preacher." This kind of refinement is withering up the influence of the ministry now—it has already transformed large numbers of the ministers of Republican America into parlor fops, to the very great delight of as many sentimental boarding-school misses. This refinement has also secured a place in the language of the pulpit. To call the people together on the Sabbath and preach to them in Latin or Greek, all acknowledge would be a sin. But this sin is refined and kept in the pulpit. Professedly the preaching is done in the language of the people, but what with uncommon, high-sounding words, long sentences, and involved, interlaced sort of sentences, not more I think than one-fourth of the people get the meaning, and in the case of many whom I have heard, there is no meaning to be caught, for the words after going round and round, and round, run off into some different idea from that with which they started, and so the whole is spoiled. And yet this is refinement. After a man has been talking in this stilted way for an hour, you will see the special advocates and devotees of refinement drawing together, and lauding the preacher's "enunciation," "profundity," "refinement of language," etc., when common sense is sick, and the multitudes go away unfed. This is one of the refinements of which the church is now dying. A preacher not long since said, "It would not do for ministers to preach in these days in the style of Wesley, as given to us in his published sermons." It wouldn't? Indeed! It wouldn't do the Devil's work so well—it wouldn't put people to sleep so soon. But would it not be refreshing to the churches if our preachers would go forth in his spirit and with his simplicity of style, telling the story of the cross? It would be like a north-west wind after a July drouth. Under its influence the vineyard of the Lord would be green again. A company of young men, none of them Christians, were conversing one evening. The subject matter was the excellence of a Baptist minister who had lately died. "Oh," said one, "I did like to hear him preach, he spoke in such plain language; we could always understand him." There is many an empty seat in the churches that would be filled if it were not for the unintelligible refinement of pulpit language. Look up in the choir in many a church and you see the quartette, screaming opera tunes, refined by having hymn-books in their hands, and so sanctified to sing the praise of God, though they may sing in the theatre, or opera all the week, and have hearts that have never had the slightest touch of the grace of God. Yet this is refinement. The pew is also a refinement in the Methodist Church. It would not be agreeable for our wealthy, upper-crust Christians, to have plainly dressed, hard-working people, to sit by them in the churches; nor would it do to make public proclamation that the poor might stay away, especially when it is said in the Bible that in the house of God, "the rich and poor meet together;" such proclamation would be sinful; but the pew does it. The poor cannot rent, they will not allow their poverty to be advertised every Sunday by taking the poor seats; thus the church gets rid of them altogether. The pew is a refined winnowing machine, and it does its work well, as the hundreds of select congregations testify. Are our pewed Methodist churches crowded? Did you ever hear of such a thing? Methodism once had the masses, but the refining process has so thinned our congregations that we can hardly make that claim now. In the matter of dress we also have a sin refined in the church. The pagan world—the female part of it—had a simple way of dressing. Rings in the nose and ears, on the toes, ankles, wrists, and fingers; feathers, wild, unrefined eagle feathers in the hair; a very poor article of paint on the face, and many other crude decorations on the person. Of course this was wrong, vain, unchristian. Our Methodist ladies have refined very much on the aforesaid style. Rings in the noses are not tolerated; but the ears bear those of very refined workmanship, while the wrists and fingers are loaded with bracelets and rings far superior to any worn by the prettiest squaw of the most bloody Indian Chief. The common feathers of the Indian head-dress, are not tolerated by our Methodist belles: that would be sinful, but they have fine plumes and top-nots, and wings on the head (to help them cut the pigeon-wing perhaps) and all so refined! As to paint for the face, our women have a very superior article to that used by the heathen. They had naught but clay or ochre, but our modern, Christian cosmetic preparations are very refined. Then as to dress, we have in the church, and at the communion rails, the costliest silks, satins, laces, embroideries, diamonds, pearls, and gold and silver ornaments, though they may be unpaid for, or though to pay for them the treasury of the Lord is robbed. The female portion of the Methodist Church now carries in foolish superfluities of dress and adornment, enough to feed a large part of the poor of the land, to build homes for widows and orphans, to send the gospel to those who are now perishing for lack of knowledge, and to provide decent clothing for hundreds of poor in our own towns and villages, who fain would go to the house of God but for their rags, and because no one searches them out to encourage them to attend the house of prayer. And yet this I believe goes for refinement. The Scripture given by Paul, "I will that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shame-facedness and sobriety, not with broidered hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array"—the most of our Methodist ladies laugh at, and many of our Doctors of Divinity set aside as of no account. Notable Doctors of Divinity! when they can doctor the divinity given through St. Paul! But these are days of refinement. You see many sins in the church now, that our modern Christians are refining into graces. In addition to this there is in the church now, a refined stoicism that shuts off all expression of religious emotion or peace or joy. If the Lord blesses you, or blesses a dear friend in the house of God, or if you hear a truth from the sacred desk that79you approbate, you must give no sign thereof—no tear, no hearty "Amen," no expression of praise to God; that would be vulgar—show a want of refinement. Mrs. Exquisite, whose father was a rumseller, or rag-picker, but is herself a very fine lady, would become very nervous—may be would have to go out, and might give up her pew if you manifest any emotion. The stillness of death must reign, in these refined days, in the house of God, broken only by the refined tones of the minister, and the operatic quartette in the gallery. If you should be in Wall street when the news comes of the fall of Richmond, or the surrender of Lee, you might shout and sing "Praise God" with a bounding heart, and the papers would herald it all over the land, as a very proper thing, but if in the house of God you should in a suppressed tone say "Amen," or "Praise God," you would be marked by the would-be aristocrats who are creeping into our church as "vulgar," "not refined," "very common kind of people." And that what little responding may be necessary in a refined church may be done "decently and in order," we are soon to have a ritual for the pews, so that the silver-tongued Methodists may intone the Amens at the right time. All this is false refinement, the refinement of which the church is dying. But there is a refinement that I hope to see shedding its graces all through the church. There is One who sits upon the human heart as a "refiner of silver" and purifies the same from all unholy passions; throws the grace of perfect love over all the actions of the life; and creates in the soul a relish for things pure, and heavenly—in short, adorning the whole body, spirit, and soul with the "beauty of holiness." The etiquette of this refinement is as graceful as love, as sincere as honesty. It softens the manners of the uneducated and lends attraction to the educated that they never found in the schools. A heart cleansed by the blood of Jesus, and refined in the fires of the Holy Ghost, is in a state of the very highest order of refinement. This is a genuine refinement. What if one has education, and according to the judgment of the world polished manners, but a sinful heart, is this refinement? It is what passes for it. I know such a man, one who praises much of his refinement in the church, and can find but very little good society in the church—poor man! and yet a dozen times a day if he is provoked that many times, he will get angry, every feature of his face being disfigured with his unholy flame. And this is refinement! refinement when the heart is the seat of such a low passion as anger! I have almost blushed with shame, to hear a Methodist lady, in bad grammar, and with a sentimental whine, speak of refinement—refinement in the church, and then in a little while see her fling her head haughtily at some fancied insult, showing a heart full of the same pride that made the Devil too filthy to remain in Heaven. Are you not, dear Earnest Christian, sick of this style of refinement? Have you not seen very common pine wood so nicely veneered as to look like mahogany? or so nicely gilded as to look like gold? So we have in the Methodist church at this time, some very showy furniture, that looks like mahogany, or gold, of the most refined pattern, but much of it is very common wood, thinly veneered or gilded with the accomplishments, while the heart is yet full of infirmities that are counted vulgar in Heaven. Dear reader, let us possess ourselves of genuine refinement, which is Christian holiness, then we will be fit for the society of the good on earth, and the angels in glory.