November 1927
700
T h e
K i n g ' s
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It should be ' remembered, however, that when one seeks to get his hearers in a blank state of mind, and then surrounded with persons of emotional type, he is leading them to give up the proper use of their own faculties, wrecking their nerves and unbalancing them mentally. These are the very laws upon which evil powers, bent upon counterfeiting the Holy Spirit, operate. We can join the Psychiatrists in opposing such devil ish and unscriptural practices. At the same time we may watch with interest the results of this “new evangelism,” based on the old idea that environment and education can determine experience. Com ing Out of Babylon T HE Moody Church Herald tells of a brother who, because of the extremely unscriptural views of the pastor, ceased to attend the church of which he was a member. Sunday- after Sunday question marks were placed against the truths that the parishioner deemed essential. He decided to remain at home to read and meditate upon his Bible for himself. Some time elapsed, and he felt impressed to return to the old church and;see if any change had occurred. That morning the minister was at his worst, ridiculing, de nouncing, evading things that are sacred. When the benediction was pronounced, the visitor hurried toward an exit. One of the deacons rushed up to him, grabbed him by the hand and said cordially, “Good morning,-Jim —glad to see you out.” “Yes,” replied Jim—“and I’m glad to get out!” There are undoubtedly situations of this kind which are intolerable to those who love the Lord and believe His Word, and there is nothing that can be done except to get out and go to a church where the Word of God is hon ored. As Mr. Moody used to put it: “You wouldn’t try to put a lot of chicks under a dead hen.” When a modernist pastor has influenced his people to the extent of carrying with him a large proportion of the ruling officers of the church and Sunday school, so that those who hold orthodox views are no longer free to “contend for the faith once delivered to. the saints,” what can they do but “ come out from among them and be separate”? On the other hand, there are times when it is plainly the Christian’s duty to go quietly ahead sowing the good seed, knowing that the harvest-time is sure to follow seed time. It is not easy to do this when one knows that a pas tor is not in accord. It requires a great deal of prayer. It means that tact must be used;so as not to antagonize unnecessarily. It means that at all times the spirit of Christ must be manifested, no matter how severe may be the rebukes that one receives. Why should an enlightened Christian resign the field to those who would sow the seeds of doubt, so long as God has left a door of opportunity open to him to bear testimony and t.hus save some from the traps of error? Right here let us say that ma.ny bad mistakes have been made under the guise of a “coming out of Babylon.” There are leaders who seem to live on the faults and fail ures of others. If they'can lay hold of a sentence uttered by a minister whom they do not like, they will pitch into him and publish his statement, putting upon it their own constructions and prejudicing the minds of thousands of people against the minister. It matters not that God may have been richly blessing the man’s work; they will keep on picking his statements to pieces' until they make people believe that the man is a wolf in sheep’s clothing; that the
Our D izzy Old World
ping, until, under nervous strain, they have gone into trances and mumbled strange things. Hundreds have been led -to believe that such demonstrations were of the Holy Spirit, whereas many of the leaders know exactly how to work any crowd up to such a pitch, purely in the energy of the flesh. There is no doubt that this type of evangelism, weak ening as it is to the nervous system, helps to fill lunatic asylums. Christian workers might do well to give some study to this new-fangled subject of “Psychiatry.” They would come to know something of the serious results of playing upon the emotions of people in the pure energy of the flesh. They would undoubtedly get some new light upon the spiritual laws with which theology deals. However, the Psychiatrist makes the mistake of judg ing all evangelism on the basis of this superficial mob- psychology variety. The preaching of the Word of God in the power of the Holy Spirit does not lead to insanity. We would not say that it never stirs the emotions. You cannot disturb the consciences of men in regard to the quality of life they are living, without reaching the emo tions. Such a disturbance, however, is not evil in its effects. It is incidental to a needed reorganization of the whole personality, and leads to a healthy condition of mind and heart. It is analogous to the pain which attends the setting of a bone that is out of joint. ' The whole objective of the Scriptural evangelist is to get men to intelligently and actively renounce sin and choose the right. The God of love desires to make a man into a free, intelligent sovereign in his own sphere—a thinking, rational, renewed creation in the divine image. A people who are quiet in spirit, in heart, in mind, are in the best condition to receive the truth and be born of God. There are, however, some people who must be given a jolt, even as the physician sometimes has to break a bone over again in order to straighten it. It is the preacher’s task to jar men loose from their sins, to make them face their problems, and to save them from the abyss toward which they are heading.
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