The following purports to be taken from one of Moody’s sermons, and is
reported in the _Baptist Union_:
If I thought that baptism was God’s way of saving men, I’d give up
preaching, borrow a pail and go round the streets baptizing every one
I met, and if they wouldn’t let me do it, I’d catch them asleep and
baptize any way. He says, “Ye must be born again.”
It is a wonderful humiliation to be compelled to admit that this
undignified, irreverent and reckless language is from the lips of a man
probably at this time attracting as much attention as any man in the
world, as a preacher, or it may be more. It is mortifying in a high
degree to be convinced that the state of the public mind is such that a
man like this is caressed, lauded and admired by the multitude.
It is no small work to enlighten the people of the world. We have
gained the right of private judgment, private interpretation of the
Scriptures, the liberty of speech and of the press; and we have the
Bible, translated into our own language, in almost every house; and
we have our system of free schools and universal education. But still
there is a premium for ignorance.
Moody with his commonplace talks, and Sankey with his songs, call
out greater crowds and have more admirers than the most profound
Bible instructor in the world. What reverence has he for the Lord,
who ordained baptism and submitted to it himself, “was baptized of
John in Jordan,” after saying, “Thus it becomes us to fulfill all
righteousness,” and over whom the heavens parted as he rose from his
baptism, and on whom the Spirit descended, and to whom the Almighty
Father said, “Thou art my Son, the beloved in whom I am well pleased?”
What appreciation has he, or what respect for our Lord’s commission,
in which he has the preaching of the gospel, the belief of it, the
repentance, the baptism and salvation all connected together, when he
talks of giving up preaching and borrowing a pail and going round the
streets baptizing every one he met? What does he know or care about
what baptism is? He may find the untaught multitudes who will gaze
at him and admire such irreverent manifestations of ignorance, want
of piety and dignity, mingled with such low slang as we find in the
language quoted above, and he may find plenty of thoughtless people who
will be pleased with such unworthy flings at things which he does not
understand, and which he perverts and misapplies. But there are many
people in this country who can not be gulled in any such style. Low
slang is not preaching Jesus nor his gospel, nor is misrepresentation
or perverting Scripture preaching Jesus.
If he has our Lord’s commission, and ever reads it, he knows or ought
to know, that the same commission has in it the preaching of the
gospel, the believing, repenting, baptism and salvation. The preaching,
believing, repentance, baptism and salvation all go together; and if
he has intelligence enough to preach at all acceptably to the Lord, he
knows that no people in this country think that baptizing is of any
value, without being preceded by the preaching of the gospel and the
faith, unless among those who profess to baptize infants. They did not
understand him to make this fling at them, or they would soon have
depleted his audience.
Moody and Sankey have the clear Scriptures before them, giving an
account of inquiring persons coming to the apostles inquiring the way
of salvation, and the plain answers giving the apostolic way, and
they ignore these instructions—keep them out of sight. They have the
answers of the apostles showing them the way, and they have refused to
even read these Scriptures, or to let the people know what the way was,
as set forth by the apostles. For this they will give an account. They
ignored it, evaded it, and avoided it. They neither enter the kingdom
themselves nor will they permit those who would enter.
Before we lay down our pen, we must refer Moody and Sankey, with some
others, to a lesson Paul once taught a man, in view of a transaction no
worse than the uttering the words quoted from Moody, at the beginning
of this article. The man with whom Paul dealt, was simply trying to
turn the deputy away from the faith. The deputy was by name, Sergius
Paulus. When he did this, Saul (who is called Paul) filled with the
Holy Spirit, set his eyes on him, and said, “O full of all subtlety and
all mischief, you child of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness,
will you not cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord? And now
behold, the hand of the Lord is upon you, and you shall be blind, not
seeing the sun for a season. And immediately there fell on him a mist
and a darkness; and he went about seeking some one to lead him by the
hand. Then the deputy, when he saw what was done, believed, being
astonished at the doctrine of the Lord”. Acts xiii. 9-12.
It is a most fearful thing to pervert the right ways of the Lord—to
try to turn any one away from the faith, or to put asunder that which
God has joined together, and which he forbids man to put asunder.
In the last commission, the only authority for all gospel preaching,
the Lord has joined together, preaching the gospel, believing the
gospel, repentance, baptism and salvation, or pardon of sins, and no
man can part these asunder, except at the peril of his soul. Is it
possible that any man can fail to see that no man can be, in the true
sense, a preacher of Jesus and ignore any part of this commission, or
any part of the way of salvation, as set forth by the apostles under
this commission?