GREAT CITIES--WHAT HINDERS THEIR
CONVERSION?
A SERMON
In behalf of the Christian Instruction Society
Delivered on Wednesday Evening, June 12, 1850
BY THE REV. PROFESSOR FINNEY
OF OBERLIN COLLEGE, UNITED STATES
I
don't know that it is necessary to use a new text; I have been requested to
dwell on “the obstacles presented by great cities to the spread of the Gospel”.
In so doing, I will consider--
I. THE GREAT
OBSTACLE, WHICH IS COMMON TO ALL PLACES AND ALL TIMES.
II. I SHALL CALL
ATTENTION TO SOME OBSTACLES WHICH ARE PECULIAR TO GREAT CITIES.
III. I SHALL STATE
THE CONDITIONS OF OVERCOMING THESE OBSTACLES.
If we were going
about any particular business, the first thing is, of course, to understand
what it is we are going about. What,
therefore, is the evil we aim to correct?
What is moral depravity? It is
important to understand this, because it is found everywhere. It is common to all humanity, to all times,
and to all places. Human nature is
substantially the same in every age and nation, in this respect. Although it outwardly manifests itself in
many ways, nevertheless, it always resolves itself into a simple unit. Unless people understand this, they will go
about matters in such a way that they will fail. I would like to expand on this single thought, but we must first
ask, “What is the difficulty to be overcome”?
Let me say, then,
that all sin may be said to resolve itself into this: a spirit of devotion to
self. It is generally believed, I
suppose, that our first parents, when they sinned, fell into a state of total
alienation from God. What was the
particular thing they did? They
withdrew their devotion from God in order to gratify themselves, in spite of
God’s authority. He told them they
could eat of every tree in the garden, except one. He planned to throw a restraint on them for the sake of subduing
their wills and developing and strengthening their virtue; but then they
withdrew their allegiance from God, and decided to become their own gods!
“And
the serpent said to the woman, "You will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it
your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and
evil.” (Gen 3:4-5) Upon hearing this, and seeing that the fruit
looked very delicious, Adam and Eve partook.
What was the great evil in all of this?
It was not just disobedience to God’s clear command, but it was sinning
simply for the sake of satisfying their own selfish desires. Instead of seeking the honor, and obeying
the commands of the Almighty, they withdrew themselves from God, and devoted
themselves to promoting of their own interests in spite of God. Now, this is the sin of all mankind, for
mankind withholds its allegiance from God, and devotes their lives to
satisfying their desires.
“Selfishness”
is a word that may express the decision to sin. It doesn’t matter what tendencies take control, sin is
selfishness, and it leads the mind into bondage. Sin consists in man’s giving himself up to himself, to his own
gratification, pleasure, and profit.
This develops itself in many ways.
For an individual, one tendency entices his will to seek its particular
gratification; another individual is influenced by another tendency. This gratification of different tendencies,
this devotion of the will and the being to pleasing self in one way or another,
is the great evil of the world. Now,
whatever makes strong and powerful appeals to these tendencies, are obstacles
to overcome. To overcome these obstacles,
man must be drawn and brought to God.
Our first parents established themselves as their own gods. Now, if they had repented and once again
consecrated themselves to God, yielding up their whole being to obey Him, and
seeking His interest and His glory; this would be a genuine return to God.
There
must develop within us that devotion to God that constitutes piety. We must forsake ourselves. Virtue, or holiness, resolves itself into a
unit as much as sin does, and the mind devoted to self, is a mind totally
depraved; while the mind devoted to God, seeking His glory, and yielding itself
up to be influenced by Him, is a pious mind.
Now, to convince men to stop living to and for themselves, and to live
for God, is to restore them to a position where they can be happy. A great many people seem to talk, as if in
all great cities, including this city, the people are very peculiar. Now, the peculiarity is not with the people,
but it is with the circumstances that develop their selfishness, which develops
one way in one city, and a different way in another city. The fact is, great cities are hotbeds of
those influences that make very strong appeals to people’s selfish tendencies,
yielding their mind up to things that constitute sin. The appetite for food or drink, when excessive, is not a
constitutional appetite, but it is the will seeking gratification. God forbids us to give ourselves up to obey
and seek the gratification of these tendencies, instead of bringing every one
of them under the will and glory of God.
What are some of
the difficulties in the way of subduing our selfishness? Hardly any of these difficulties are
peculiar to great cities, in the sense that they don’t exist in other places,
for these difficulties exist in most places; but the problem is that certain
forms of temptation exist in a multiplied form in great cities. Great cities expose men to the most
aggravated forms of temptation. Don’t
think that I am saying that these things don’t exist in other places: but they
really exist to a greater degree in great cities.
This subject must
be divided for the sake condensing it into a single sermon, because a month
wouldn’t be enough time to go into detail and make it take hold of your
mind. I will, therefore, just name the
things, and show what the difficulties are, and who are guilty of these things.
For the sake of classification and condensation, I can consider these
aggravated forms of temptation under three different headings.
1.
The temptations that are peculiar to the Church.
2.
Temptations that are peculiar to the world, as distinct from the Church.
3.
Temptations that are common to both.
I’m
not saying that this classification is so distinct they don’t blend into each
other; but I have divided things up this way simply to shorten the message.
1. Temptations
that are peculiar to the Church of Christ.
Here,
after all, is to be found the great evil, and it pains me to begin here, but if
I don’t begin here, I may fail to touch the very core of the problem. What I have to say on this subject may fall
far short of hitting the nail on the head, because I am a stranger in London
and England. Therefore, I will speak
about those things I’ve observed in the great cities of America. Now, I have spent time in all the great
cities of America, and I presume that, more or less, these things will be found
in all the great cities of Christendom.
First,
then, I’ll, mention the temptations peculiar to the Church of Christ; and most
important of all, to the ministers of the Church. For, after all, if the difficulties did not affect the pulpits
and the ministers who occupy them; that is, if the ministers were left
unshackled and unbiased, they would, after all, lead the hosts of God’s elect
to overcome these difficulties in every great town throughout all Christendom. I don’t mean that the temptations of ministers
are the only things in the way, but because Satan knows very well that the root
of the matter lies in them, if he can pervert and corrupt that source, if he
can do anything to produce an unfaithful ministry, he can do the rest quite
easily. Therefore it is his policy, one
way or another, to render the pulpit powerless; and just as far as he succeeds
in doing this, he gains his end. Here
are temptations too numerous to mention, so I will briefly discuss a few of them.
And, first,
ministers in great cities are more severely tempted than in other places to
seek popularity with worldly men. Such
men exist more in great cities than anywhere else. One of the great temptations that is often successful is seeking
popularity with worldly men. Everyone
can see, when a man yields to this, he has placed shackles around his own
spirit. He has tied his own heart if he
allows himself to do this. The fact is,
the pulpit becomes muzzled, and the minister, as far as his influence is concerned,
is about ruined. In order to obtain
popularity with the worldly great, the ministers of great cities are tempted to
aim at excellence in scholarship and oratory, and to let these, and a multitude
of other things, get dominion over their minds. They are tempted to aim at getting the worldly great connected
with their Churches and congregations.
Now,
what is the influence of this on the minister?
Why, of course, he comes into such relations with these men, that he
will compromise without being aware of the extent that he does it. He will denounce sin in the abstract from
the pulpit, but no one’s sin in particular.
In great cities, ministers are tempted to be vehement in denouncing sin,
but no specific sin. They don’t mention
the character of the sin they are reproving.
It is nobody, and no sin in particular.
They take care, however, to imply that they aren’t talking about anybody
in their own congregation. They don’t
want to give anybody that impression! I
know that often there are influences of this kind so powerfully exerted on
them, that it should lead Christians to pray for their ministers a thousand
times more than they do. If they knew
the policy of the devil, who wants to bribe to silence the minister, and make
him afraid to do his duty, afraid to rebuke the wickedness in high places; the
Church would lie on her face, if she has any piety. Ministers in great cities are tempted to avoid giving offence to
worldly men, even to worldly professing Christians. In fact, some ministers lose their social position with their
brethren, because they do not keep “good” congregations. Worldly professing Christians are generally
found to be rich, luxurious, great, and intelligent. They not only endanger his loss of character, but also destroy
his usefulness. Such temptations are
very great.
Ministers
in great cities are tempted to please, rather than disturb their worldly
listeners. The thing they should do is
aim at disturbing every listener who is living in sin, and make them as unhappy
as possible in their sin, and thus hunting it out of them. Instead of aiming to please them, they
should try to make them anything but pleased with themselves. They shape things to please, when they ought
to aim at creating agony in their minds, agony too great to be endured without
submitting to God.
Another
great evil is the lack of union among ministers in these respects. One feels he must not stir up this matter,
because others don’t. He says, “If I
offend so and so, he will go to that other Church, where he will be received
immediately”. Now, if all would unite
to hunt down such men, it would be different.
Many say, If I could only have the co-operation of my brethren, if every
Church would agree to spare no pains to arouse everyone to a sense of their
danger, especially the worldly great and luxurious, then I could stand; but I
can’t do it alone. Another temptation
of ministers in great cities is that even professing Christians are often
extremely fussy. They want particular
ministers. They have itching ears. Even professing Christians want such
teachers that will not probe them too deeply, or hunt them out of their
sins. They want ministers to please
them, and to please the ungodly who belong to their rank in society. I have often known professing Christians
regretting that their ministers said anything to offend such and such a wealthy
individual. They might possibly voice
their objection to him for this, but more likely, they will go and talk against
him behind his back, and thus cripple his influence. Thus, his own Church will not say, “God speed” to him; they will
not say, “We will stand by you”.
No! They throw out hints about
being “too personal”, and all this, which ties his hands, and completely
discourages his heart. There are multitudes
of things like this happening in great cities.
Ministers in great
cities are tempted to neglect the needs of the masses of the people, both in
and out of the pulpit. I have observed
in our country, that there is a great deficiency in this respect. The sermons are framed, not so much to meet
the needs of the people, but only those certain individuals in the higher walks
of society, and advanced education.
They aim to please such people, instead of coming down to the common
people, and suiting their pulpit instructions to them. I know for a fact that sermons directed to
the masses, are more efficient, even more acceptable to the educated and higher
classes of society then any other type of sermon. The fact is, that senators, and other great men, would be more affected
by sermons addressed to the commonest people in the congregation, or even to
children, than by some fancy educated efforts to amuse and please
themselves. Yet, in great cities,
ministers, both in and out of the pulpit are tempted and generally yield to the
temptation to neglect to sympathize with, adapt themselves to, and aim at the
salvation of the masses. They would
rather aim at a few individuals, and aim in such a way that they rarely hit
even them. Flattery often causes them
to compromise; their listeners often flatter them, and then they don’t like to
deal faithfully with them. Dining with
such people is one of many ways that ministers are often drawn into such
relationships with people in high places that they neither can, nor dare, after
that, be faithful with their congregations.
It is easy to see that these things have a direct influence on the
minister, and are a serious evil, a worm at the root, at the very vitals, which
must be overcome.
Another difficulty
that everyone, who has thoroughly investigated the subject knows is that a minister
is tempted to be vague in his statements.
He compromises in this way; he denounces sin, but he doesn’t denounce
the particular sin of his particular hearers.
There is a great temptation to neglect to make people feel that he is
talking about them. The temptation is
to compromise by denouncing sin in general; but while he does this, he may
preach about other people’s sins, and the congregation may go with him. He may thunder from the pulpit against
certain people's sins, and the congregation may join with him. The wickedest man on earth will denounce
lying, and every kind of injustice and wickedness, and everybody’s practice and
sin, except his own. But if a minister
denounces sin in the abstract and does not make you feel that “I mean you”, he
fails. What is accomplished, after all?
Why, you might fill this city and the world with such ministers, and do
little, almost no good. I must not
dwell on this. There are enough examples,
painful as they are, to fill a volume, instead of occupying the few moments I
am able to devote to them in this sermon.
2. The
difficulties presented by the members of the Churches.
These,
are also far too numerous to be detailed in one sermon. First, they are strongly tempted to secure
to their churches the attendance of ungodly, but wealthy men. I have often noticed, that if our people
were preparing to build a church, or chapel, as you call it here, they were
tempted to have an undue regard for wealthy and influential men. They build chapels in places that will agree
with the influential. They employ a
minister of such a character as will suit them. They must have a popular man, but, unfortunately, he is popular
in the bad sense of the term. There are
many popular men, but in very different ways.
Some are popular for their usefulness to the poor; others for getting
the support of the rich, to which they are tempted at every step. Now, all this grieves the Spirit of God, and
makes their efforts ineffective. Such
men never accomplish their end; they sacrifice everything for the sake of
bringing in worldly men, and fixing up an appropriate place of worship, then
getting a mighty scholar, a mighty orator, or a mighty anything else, except a
mighty good man. They arrange everything
in such a way so it won’t displease or offend, but it will please and comfort
rich men, whether good or bad. I have
often been asked whether a revival effort should be made in the great cities of
our country, when all the ministers and the Churches are afraid to consent,
because, if they were to do so, many of their rich men would be offended. Ministers and Churches are afraid to
introduce any searching measures to secure the salvation of the world around them. They claim that things must be done with caution,
lest they disturb such men in their congregations, who, by exercising their
worldly influence, are the greatest curses the Church can have.
One of the
greatest difficulties, blocking the promotion of religion in great cities, is
the effect of competition in business; the Church trying to compete with
worldly men in business. Worldly men
have worldly motives, worldly rules, and worldly business maxims. They transact business in a certain
way. Now, professing Christians think
they can’t compete with them without similar dealings, and therefore fall, one
after another, into a state of mind in which they are not useful, a state of
perfect bondage to the world, by trying to compete with worldly men in the
business of their city. I have known
many who were rendered weak and inefficient, and became stumbling-blocks, by
falling under this temptation! These
individuals have lost their strength and influence as Christians. But I can’t go into details as to how this
happens because it would carry me too far out of my way. But who does not know that the business
operations of our cities are hotbeds of temptations in this respect?
I
have heard Christians in great cities say,
“We must give up our attempts to compete with these men in business, or
we must ruin our souls”. One of the
first merchants in New York said to me, “I must abandon my business, or ruin my
soul”. Now, it appears to everyone that
this is true. They are sure to lose
their efficient piety. But, it can be
easily shown that this logic is wrong.
Even from a commercial point of view, if they carried out Gospel
principles in their business transactions, they would gain the confidence of
everybody; so much so, that the people would say, “Go to that man, because he
won’t cheat us. He always has one price
for his articles, a fair and honorable price, and nothing more. He never covers matters up, but is honest
and straightforward”. This is an
excellent policy, after all, even from a commercial and business point of
view. But the difficulty is to make
Christians believe this. Now, let
anyone try this, until his neighbors know, and it becomes known throughout the
city, that he will not take advantage of anyone. He may be trusted; he tells the truth. Let this be known throughout the city, and let me ask how many
clerks will that man need in less than five years to do his business? Who would go to a man who was likely to
cheat him, when there was one he could go to, who he knows will be honest? People are tempted to think, that if someone
is honest, they can’t compete with worldly men. It is wrong, an error fatal to piety, and constitutes one of the
principal difficulties in the way of promoting religion in great cities. In business transactions, members of Christian
Churches become snared; by their example, they often place a fearful stumbling-block
in the way of the world. They allow
themselves to be carried along contrary to their convictions of duty, and contrary
to the spontaneous declarations of their consciences, contrary to the express injunctions
of the Bible; and so, they frequent places, and allow themselves to do things,
merely because public sentiment, and the customs of society, seems to demand
it. Now, whatever causes a cloud to get
between the Christian’s heart and God, whatever shuts out from his soul the
direct light of God’s countenance, is fatal to the interests of the Church and
of religion. These influences that
cloud the soul, and get between God and it, are so common in great cities, that
the Church is crippled, the salt loses its savor, the light of the world
becomes darkness, and how gross that darkness is!
I would expand
this point and talk about the things that grieve the Spirit of God if I wasn’t
going to preach on quenching and grieving the Spirit this Friday night.
Another obstacle
in the way, is that Christians are tempted to believe that the conversion of
great cities is impossible. I have
rarely entered a great city since I have been in the ministry, where ministers
and Christians thought that great cities, and especially their great city,
could be converted. I have been told,
that I don’t understand the peculiar difficulties of great cities. I’m not saying that difficulties don’t
exist. The difficulties are great; but
they can be overcome. They should not
discourage the Church, but lead it to discern what great efforts must be made,
and how much they must depend on God.
Is anything too hard for God?
Why, yes; they respond. They
say, “If God should open the windows of heaven, it couldn’t happen”. This is the language of their hearts. This has been repeatedly said in London, by
one after another. But one of the great
difficulties is, your unbelief limits God, so that He cannot do His many mighty
works because of your unbelief. All
other matters are only difficulties to the degree that they produce this result
and crush their faith in God. They
don't believe God's arm will be made bare, or that Christ is able to take
captive the masses around them, and subject them to His dominion. The extent of this unbelief is
frightening. The ministers and pastors
say it can’t be done. They don't say it
right out in their sermons, but they talk as if such things were impossible. Now, is this always going to be true? Is the Church always going to believe that
great cities, because of the many intense forms of temptations that exist
there, will never be converted? Can’t
we remove this unbelief of the Church, and produce a confidence in the Church
that it can be done? If we can do this,
then the great difficulty is overcome.
But there are many other things, almost numberless, which serve to
constantly grieve the Spirit, and as a result, it suppresses and kills the
faith of the people of God.
Let me say again,
once this spirit has gotten a foothold and is indulged in, it naturally
aggravates itself. For example, if
ministers and Churches have the impression that great cities can’t be expected
to be moved, they won’t work in such a manner as can be expected to make them
move. On the contrary, year after year
they will continue to establish and strengthen themselves in their unbelief;
for, once they say, “It can’t be done”, their energies are crippled, and it
won’t be done. And the fact that it’s
not being done, makes them say even more emphatically, “It can’t be done”. Thus the evil, instead of correcting, aggravates
and perpetuates itself. This is true to
such an alarming extent in many of our great cities, that I can clearly see
great masses of professing Christians despair of the conversion of these great
cities, and, therefore, they must naturally despair of the conversion of the
world. The worldly influences that have
been brought to bear on them have produced these disastrous results.
What
are the obstacles in the way of the conversion of the ungodly?
1.
The business habits of the Church (it’s a curious retributive law of God’s
kingdom). The business habits of the
ungodly draw much of the Church astray.
They fall into these ungodly habits.
Their selfishness has taken effect to some extent, and what is the
result? The Church is now a snare to
them. They snared the Church, and now the worldly business habits of the Church
snare them. As far as experience goes,
there is no stumbling-block as powerful as this. Many people are engaged in business practices that the ungodly
know are purely selfish. If professing
Christians act in this way, what will their clerks say? Who does not know that the ungodly in the
employment of such men are stumbled by their conduct?
2.
The self-indulgent habits of the Church, into which they are drawn by the
worldly influences that they are subjected to, usually have a reactionary
tendency on the people. The displayed unbelief
and cowardice of the Church are great evils in the great cities. Professing Christians are sapped of their
strength in great cities, they are afraid to be faithful; they cower down
before the ungodly and their influence.
This is the great stumbling-block.
It is as I said before, that, by a natural retributive law of the
government of God, that if the world lays a snare for the Church, just as far
as they succeed in ensnaring the Church, they will ensnare themselves. They bring down their violent dealings on
their own head; it is easy to see that this is the natural action of
things. But I must notice only a few
things that are common to all groups of people.
First, for
example, the temptations of alcohol, drugs, sex, and gambling are everywhere. The appeals that are made everywhere you
turn, to the weaknesses of our human nature, all the ingenuity of modern man,
earth and hell seems to have been ransacked in order to develop to the utmost
these temptations, to draw us out, and to compel our will to yield itself up to
them. As you walk the streets, these
things are everywhere. They meet your
eye and strike your ear. Everything
seems to have been molded, as it were, by some infernal agency. Temptations are presented alike to old and
young, both sexes, and all classes of society.
As you go around the city you sense that there are bands with trumpets
before the taverns, getting the people to stop and hear the music--getting them
to do this, and then, of course, they want something to drink. All sorts of things are concocted to entice
people to enter bars, to get people into this place, and that place, to this
social club and that organization, to this brothel and that bar. In short, who does not know that in our
great cities, it seems as if these things were deliberately placed together as
close as possible. They thrust
something into every nook. To attract
attention, the streets are lined with all kinds of suggestive billboards. But this is not enough; they send men
throughout the city to advertise, spread, and promote numberless
indulgences. And, again, men drive
around the city with enticing and immoral stickers posted on their
vehicles. Now, ust think! The whole place is swarming with them. Wherever you go you see them, and feel their
influences. These are all so many
stimuli tending to develop the love of sin, to develop selfishness, to tempt
the will to indulge the appetite. These
things are seen everywhere, and as the Christian walks the streets, he must
either hold constant communication with God, or yield himself up to temptation.
III. I must
mention some of the conditions of overcoming these great evils.
1. The great need
is, then, is a heart that is supremely and singly set on overcoming these obstacles. It is a very trite and commonplace saying,
but is very true, that, “Where there’s a will, there’s a way”. Wherever there’s a will, there’s a way, to
actually accomplish all that God requires.
If God requires that the Church should convert the world, and He does,
if there’s a will there’s a way. The
thing is, then, for the Church to make up her mind to do it.
2. The next thing
to be done is to lay aside this ungodly unbelief, and have confidence that
God’s Almighty arm can do it. What is
this great mountain before Jerubbabel?
What are such difficulties as these to the Almighty? Oh!
Do God the honor and believe He is able, for if anything can be done to
overcome the unbelief of the Church, the world may be saved. What can be done, my dear brethren, to get
out of your mind the difficulties that you think about until your hearts become
discouraged? You cannot do, or expect
to do, anything, while you allow your heads to hang down, and are ready to
faint with discouragement.
3. Union is an
indispensable condition. The devil will
tell you it can’t be done, but you must not believe it. Ministers must lay aside all party
differences, and unite against the common enemy. Christians must lay aside their divisive views and prejudices,
and assail the common enemy of God and man.
Let us forget that we belong to this or that Church, let us lose sight
of this, and go forward, united together, to the work.
4. We must study
the movements of the enemy. We must act
as wisely as they act. The children of
this world are wiser in their generation than “the children of light”. Yet, it is not because they chose a better
end, but a better means, a more appropriate means. God requires the use of means in proportion to the existence of
means. We should not expect a miracle
to be performed if we have enough evidence to establish the Gospel without
it. For example, if there was no trace
of evidence to establish the truth of the Gospel, we would expect the
performance of miracles, we would expect that God would accommodate Himself to
such a state of things. But, where
there are means, God expects those means to be used, and we must, therefore,
adapt them wisely to the end. We must
not expect that God will overrule and set aside His own laws; we must study
those laws, study how to counteract the efforts that the devil is making to
bring men into bondage within the Church and ruin those who are outside the
Church.
The efforts of the
Church must be placed against the efforts of the world. You see how men advertise
worldly amusements; they stir the whole city with their advertisements, they
make everybody understand clearly who and what they are, and what they are
going to do. Now, if the Church is as
zealous in getting people to hear the Gospel as the world is in getting them to
its amusements, why, every Church in the city would be filled with worshippers
and hearers. Christians should oppose
their efforts, and God’s means would surely prevail over the means of the
devil. Truth is mightier than error,
God is stronger than Satan, but Satan is allowed to take the field almost
alone. He wields the press, and uses it
effectively to excite and draw men in the wrong direction. Now, if God’s children were really awake,
they would come forth and devote their money, their talents, and all their influence,
to searching out ways and means of putting them on the right track, and opposing
the ways and means of wicked men.
United, they would lift up their hearts in prayer, and soon they would
see the mighty truths of Jehovah prevailing over the masses around them.
There
must be a great deal more done to interest the masses. The masses must be sympathized with, there
must be references to them in sermons and everything that is done. The world is carrying the masses away; we
must reclaim them! While the world is
running away with the masses, the Church is satisfying herself with securing
the support and attendance of a few, while the masses fail to be converted, or
even interested. There must be much
more prayer and self-denial. Now, who
does not know, from the nature of the case, and from the history of the Church,
and from the world, that intemperance is going on to ruin our great
cities. Until Christians deny themselves,
touch not, taste not, handle not, there can be no hope of saving the masses
from going down to destruction. As you
walk along the streets and see men and women, and even little children, sitting
in front of taverns, you should say, and resolve that, as God lives, and as you
live, anything you can do in this respect, any self-denial you can make, you
are willing to submit to, in order that you may lead the way. I have been pained to see how slow British
Christians are in this respect. I have
heard them say, that teetotalers make it their religion. Now, I think there is some danger of making
“drinking a little” a religion, too. I
know some who, when they have drunk “just a little”, can pray, or sing, or do
anything else well. When I was a young
man I taught a school and boarded with a family, where the man came home three
times a-week half intoxicated. Now, I
noticed that on these occasions, he used to pray very earnestly, and at no
other time did he pray at all. I have
thought about this many times, when I have seen ministers take “just a little
to assist them”. May the Lord deliver
me from such a snare as this!
But I cannot
elaborate. Don’t you believe that if
the entire membership of the Churches were to lift up their voices against the
drinking customs of this country, and if the ministers were to lead them, that
they would exert a mighty influence in counteracting them? You must believe it! Will Christians embrace any branch of reform
that is indispensable? It is
indispensable that if you must be reformers throughout, you must reform
yourselves. And if you cannot reform
men without total abstinence, you must be ready to imitate the apostolic
example; neither to eat meat, or do anything that would make a brother stumble. Now, such a man could possibly shake the world. He might say if
he shakes the world that the secret of his success was, that he would deny
himself anything under heaven he considers would stand in the way of his saving
the souls of men. He might even go so
far as to say that he could wish himself accursed if it would benefit his
kinsmen after the flesh. By this, he
means to say, that he would almost be separated from his own salvation. He doesn’t mean to say he would be damned,
but that he could submit to anything to save his dear brethren.
I
can only say that every reform must be carried out this way. You persuade men to stop drinking, but do
you drink? How inconsistent! Why don’t you say, I abstain for your sake,
I give up these things which I can lawfully use; but since you abuse them, I
will refrain for your sake. Christ did
many things for the sake of His disciples that otherwise He would not have been
obligated to do. One great thing He
did; He died for their sakes. Are you
ready to act in this spirit? Are you
ready to take the lead in every branch of reform, and to go up having washed
your hands of every unclean thing? Set
your business transactions right! If
you are engaged in a wicked business, run from it! If you have cheated any man, make restitution and come forth;
wash your hands, and strengthen your hearts in God; go up to the work, and IT
SHALL BE DONE!