They tell us that Gospel music needs a “new beat” to fit the tempo and taste of these degenerate days. The church that used to go to the jungle now brings the jungle to the church. We have backslidden all the way from hymns to “hootenannies.” It’s part of the same program that says Christians need this new phrase ology. But why not make the great music of the church beautiful? Some of the holiest men of the ages died young. Sanctity is not lim ited to old age. Many young people would respect sanctity if they ever saw another person who impressed them with his godliness. After all, God didn’t save us just to make us happy. He saved us to make us holy. We were predestinated to be con formed to the image of God’s Son. Paul’s ambition was to know Christ, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, that he might be made conformable (not comfortable) unto His death. It would be a fine thing if we were as afraid of unholiness as we are of holiness. The attitude today is, “How much like the world can one be and still be a Christian?” The reverse should be true. People are virtually asking, “How near to the precipice can I walk without going over?” Are we afraid that somebody will call us saintly? Preachers sometimes act very silly at civic clubs, as if to say, “I’m just like everybody else; I don’t want you to think I’m different.” Why shouldn’t people think we’re different ? I Peter 4:1-5 tells us some thing about that. “Don’t be surprised if they think you are queer,” a new translation puts it. This doesn’t mean we have to be a bunch of “odd balls,” or peculiar in the wrong sense of the word. You don’t have to go down the street wearing a big but ton that says, “I’m a Christian,” or carrying a Bible as big as the Los Angeles telephone directory. If we belong to a holy nation, as the New
Testament calls Christians, we are to show it in our countenance, our conversation, and our conduct. Some Christians have been advised by physchiatrists to quit reading the Bible and praying. They are told in stead to go to the movies, take a cocktail now and then, use a few curse words. The devil’s been giving the same advice from the beginning. It’s not new. Too many professing Christians would feel quite at home in Vanity Fair today. We must get cured of our facetiousness, flippancy and irreverence or we will be Ichabod memorials from which the glory has departed. John Bunyan said th a t many good messages have been laughed away in the restaurant after the service. I don’t care for the title reverend even though it indicates a degree of respect. Yet the preacher who hobnobs with his flock until they call him by his first name, may well be the life of the party, but the death of the product. If he jokes all week, he can’t stand in the pulpit on Sun day, reproving and rebuking and ex horting. His parishioners will soon get tired of him. He has to be ahead of them, not just one of them. The cause of Christ is harmed more by jokes than by all the infidels. The Gospel fares better on hostility than on frivolity. There is more hope for a man who opposes the truth than for a man who trifles with the truth. We need a new vision of the holi ness of God. It was after Isaiah saw the Lord that he said, “Woe is me!” Then later, he said, “Here am I; send me.” I hear sermons to young people endeavoring to get them to volunteer for missionary service. Sometimes we try to get people to say, “Here am I,” before they have said “Woe is me!” The order can never be reversed. We are often not aware of the sinfulness of sin be cause we have not appreciated the holiness of God. F. B. Meyer was visiting in a 15
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