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INSANE EVANGELISM
UCH is being said and written on “Sane
Evangelism.” Are there not, therefore,
some people impressed that there is
such a thing as insane evangelism? Are
there not some preachers and evange’-
ists (?) traveling around “kind o’ loose”
and self-advertised, preaching an in
sane, that is, unsound evangelism? And
maybe there are others who do not
{k
t.avel very far who do the same? It occurred to me
rhat it would not be out of place to exhibit some of
the earmarks of insane evangelism. The man who
blows his own horn very loudly might come under
the suspicion of being unsound. Such a ‘‘blower”
is self-inflated mostly with unwholesome gas. The
evangelists that “have conversions” (?) are to be
watched. Os course, they become mothers very
frequently, but it is to be feared it is all the worse
for the children.
A first cousin to the aforementioned person is the
brother who may be pretty sound, but he is great
at “counting noses.” He is of the decided opinion
that there must be converts even if they have to be
forced into birth.
Who is this feVow who pounds the desk and
stamps the floor “like all blazes” and gyrates and
vociferates until the “far-off stars are attracted and
wait in their courses a little?” He is the man tre
mendously in earnest at least physically and thinks
bodily movements and noise among his hearers are
all important to salvation. He is intensely “propo
sitional and mechanical.” He believes “in more
straw” for fear “some sinner will go straight to
hell.” Brimstone, blood-curdling stories, and many
graveyard and funeral remarks are his stock in
trade. And he scares somebody into —birth (?).
If there is any gospel, nobody reports it. After he
has gone, matters are very quiet—quiet as a cem
etery. Then, too, we must not leave off that cool
calculating preacher who thinks any demonstration
at all is a violation of gospel decorum. He is one
of these profound scholastics who would do away
with all excitement at all, shedding any tears, and
just let the people decide from his logical perform
ance. He bases everything on “making up your
mind, then act.” Religion is a business matter large
ly and you are to go at it very much as a man who
buys his groceries and pays for them. Repentance
is just quitting your meanness, and joining the
church and saving yourself by your own device and
From "Searchlights,” George W. Coleman's Stirring Nelv Book, Published
by The Golden 'Rule Co., Tremont Temple, Boston.
When men show no respect whatever for the
law of the land and commit deeds of violence in
cold blood just to wreak their vengeance on society
in general, every normal-minded man is horrified.
The “black hand” villain and the bomb-throwing
anarchists are the mad dogs of human society, and
must be dealt with accordingly. That is plain to
every one.
But here is a man who is a black-hearted villain
and a disease-spreading moral anarchist; and he is
a thousand times more numerous than his twin
brother "who murders with bomb or stilletto. This
man says in his heart deliberately that he will
recognize neither the laws of God nor man as they
relate to the sexes. The libertine, the man or
woman of loose morals, the man who believes in one
standard of morals for women and another for him
self, the man who believes in young men’s sowing
wild oats, all of these are genuine moral anarchists,
striking savage blows at the vitals of the home,
Don't forget our proposition to give
you that bright little paper, the Geor
gian’s Weekly News Briefs, Free yylth
tbe Golden Age.
By Prof. Shelby E Jones, Carson and Nelvnan College.
MOEAL MNAECHL
activity. Some such evangelist may add baptism
for the remission of sins and so close up the busi
ness in water.
Who is this preacher that has “decision day” and
what does he mean? He gets twenty or thirty of
the trundle-bed kind to decide all at once. It is a
question in this scribe’s mind what they have de
cided! Suppose they have decided to become Chris
tians as urged, does that make them Christians?
Are they ready for church membership or priestly
hands? And where is there any Scriptural warrant
for fixing a day? It looks very much as if somebody
were working up a job for Sunday or some othei’
day. That powerful appeal to the little fellows is
responded to most any way the evangelist wants.
Children can be converted and ought to be, and
“now is the accepted time,” but it is believed by
some who are close observers along this line that
there is a great responsibility in taking children
into the church or telling them they are saved. There
may be something remarkable in this “decision
day” conversion, and doubtless there is! Let some
one that can explain, do so.
In general any sort of evangelism that ignores the
Holy Spirit that preaches little or no gospel, that is
not discriminating as to repentance and faith, that
neglects the gospel of blood, regeneration and many
other great truths needing emphasis, is insane.
Time will come that the false preacher and
teacher wili be relegated to his true place; and let
all devout men pray daily for his early demise (min
isterially speaking). Amen.
The conditions of sane evangelism are a thor
oughly regenerated evangelist, whose soul is aflame
with love to Christ and men lost, who relies on God
the Spirit to use the simple story of the cross and
co-operating with him men and women who believe
the truth and live it. When the Holy Spirit quick
ens, and men repent truly and see Jesus as their
Savior in a realistic way, then are they saved. What
about that oM-fashioned “experience of grace?”
“Amazing grace! how sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch like me:
I once was lost but now I’m found,
Was blind, but now I see.”
My dear reader, have you experienced religion?
If a preacher, and you have not, repent for you are
in the gall of bitterness and the bonds of iniquity.
How can the blind lead the blind?
S§3
at the heart of society, at the citadel of moral
integrity, at the health of the body, and at the
birthright of unborn children. Isn’t that equally
plain to any mind and heart that has been cleansed
of sin?
What do we do about it? We hate the bomb
thrower and the black-hand villain so tremendously
that we would stop at nothing to exterminate them
and their whole breed. But this moral anarchist,
this black-hearted villain, we treat with in busi
ness, we recognize him socially, we apologize for
him and excuse him when occasion requires. In
stead of wiping him and his breed off the face of
the earth, we give him of our best and our fairest
whenever he condescends to take them.
How our fighting blood does boil at the mere
mention of murderous anarchists whom we have
never seen do not know personally! How well
we have subdued our prejudice against the moral
anarchists whom we know personally and meet
face to face, perhaps every day!
The ordinay anarchist murders society.
The moral anarchist pollutes society.
Typhoid germs are worse than stray bullets.
* *
A lot of energy is expended in trying to And out
things we are sorry to know,—Anon.
The Golden Age for April 21, 1910.
What Shall We Vo With Col.
Eposebelt ?
(Continued from Page 1.)
go into competition with the huge armaments of
Europe. It would be a thousand times wiser for
us to use our energy and capital in constructing a
great American merchant marine, rather than in
building costly battleships. The sum of from $12,-
000,000 to $20,000,000 is needed to build a single one
of the new battleships. This amount of money would
build an admirable macadam road all the way from
New York to Chicago, a distance, in round figures,
of 1,000 miles. Three-quarters of the cost of one of
these great battleships would reclaim 250,000 acres
of land in Arizona, and would thus provide homes
for from 80,000 to 100,000 families. It is estimated
by physicians that the cost of two or three of these
battleships would stamp out the “White Plague,”
which annually destroys more than 10,000 people
in the City of New York alone. Is it wise to make
such enormous expenditures in the construction of
battleships? I am not opposed to a reasonably large
navy. lam simply opposing the idea that our nation
should go into competition with European nations in
constructing these enormously expensive battleships,
which soon will be useful only for the junk-shops.
All tne nations are really anxious to disarm, or, at
least, not to increase their armaments, but no na
tion, apparently, is possessed of sufficient courage
to take the initiative. The increase in armaments
of one nation necessitates a corresponding increase
in the armaments of all other nations. Their relative
strength, therefore, in case of war remains substan
tially the same. If Great Britain, Germany and the
United States would combine and declare that there
should be no war, except with their consent, wars
would practically cease among nations. The inter
relation of nations now is such that no nation can
declare war with any hope of success without the
moral support of several nations. These relations
are now so close that war between any two peoples
practically affects all nations from the prince to the
pedant. The far-reaching injurious influence of war
only careful students can at all appreciate. The na
tions simply need a common agreement among sev
eral leading peoples to induce them not to increase
armaments, but to strive to maintain peace by inter
national arbitration when international disputes
arise.
Roosevelt Can Do the Thing.
He’ ? we have a noble sphere for the varied tal
ents, remarkable skill, and wide experience of Colo
nel Roosevelt. No one will ever charge him with
being a “mollycoddle,” a poltroon or a coward of
any sort. His bravery has been proven on fields of
battle, and in halls of debate. He is as brave morally,
as he is physically; he has the ear of the civilized
world in places high and low, as no other man ever
had. To him doors of palaces and cabinets will
readily open. Listening ears in palaces and hovels
await his slightest word. The day which Tennyson
described in his “Locksley Hall” as “The Parliament
of Man, the Federation of. the World,” is rapidly ap
proaching. If Theodore Roosevelt can be a dominant
factor in the era of universal and perpetual peace,
his name will be honored above that of all warriors
on all battlefields through all the centuries. He will
prove the truth of Milton’s words: “Peace hath her
victories, no less renowned than war.” The man who
can lead the nations to this sublime achievement
will have his name written high before men and the
Throne of Almighty God as the mightiest peace
maker since the birth of the Prince of Peace.
I nominate Theodore Roosevelt as the man, under
God, to secure this result, and thus to have his name
written in letters of universal light.
The whole American nation ought to say with
Charles Sumner, in his magnificent oration on “The
True Grandeur of Nations,” “Let the bugle sound the
Truce of God to the whole world forever.”
NOW IS THE TIME TO GET YOUR NAME ON
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