FEARLESSNESS.
PETER THE FEARLESS.
There was a man among the one hundred and twenty "upper room believers"
in whom Pentecost effected a most apparent and almost spectacular
change. It was Peter. We remember him as the man at whom the young girl
pointed her finger and laughed. We recall that he was so cowardly that
he denied his Lord on the spot, swearing that he did not know Him.
Behold this same Peter on the day of Pentecost. He is charging home the
murder of Christ. Fear is gone, and gone forever. He faces men and does
not flinch an iota. Carnality, the source of cowardice, has been
removed, and the weakling is turned into a Lord Nelson for bravery, and
a Savonarola for faithfulness to men's souls.
SHALL WE TREMBLE?
Fear of man is one of the most illogical things in the world. Men sell
the blood of Jesus and hope of heaven and eternal happiness because of
"what people say." Think of it, afraid of a man who will die and be
hurried under ground before he rots! Frightened at a thing dressed in a
long black coat and a white cravat with a golden-headed cane and a tall
hat and a frown; a thing which will stop breathing some fine day and
the worms will eat! Shall I tremble when an ecclesiastical Leo utters a
roar? Shall I halt and stammer because a top-heavy lad from a
theological seminary, hopelessly in love with himself, scowls at the
word "sanctification"?
QUEER COURAGE.
There are some who bolster their courage by saying ostentatiously, "I
don't care what folks say," but their very vehemence shows that they DO
care a very great deal. We boys all remember how we used to whistle
when we passed a graveyard after dark to show we "weren't afraid"; and
how hard it was to keep our mouths puckered and how shaky our legs felt!
AFRAID TO BREAK STEP
The folks we are afraid of are afraid of us. What a situation! A great
regiment of people marching straight down to hell, everyone afraid to
break step for fear the others will laugh! That is precisely the
condition of nearly every sinner.
COURAGE OF THERMOPYLAE
Sanctification takes away the shrinking timidity and puts in a courage
like that at Thermopylae. There was once a young man who, previous to
his sanctification, was so timid that he frequently stayed away from
church for no other reason than that he feared God might ask him to
testify. He enjoyed meetings and loved to hear preaching, but the very
idea of testimony would frighten him almost ill. Now he frequently
addresses many hundreds and never feels the slightest embarrassment.
UNMASK PRURIENCY.
The ministry is sadly in need of a blessing which will give it courage
to attack sin of all kinds and degrees. We need men who will rip the
mask off the putrid face of corruption and pronounce God's sentence
upon it; who will lift up the trap-door of the cess-pools of men's
hearts and bid them look within at their own slime and filth; who will
"cry aloud and spare not," though the infuriated cohorts of bat-winged
demons snarl and shriek.
SPEAK PLAINLY.
There will be a day when men will curse us because we have not preached
more plainly. You can call a spade "a spade" or you can designate it as
"an iron utensil employed for excavating purposes," but if you want
folks to understand what you are driving at use the shorter term.
SHOOTING OVER MEN'S HEADS.
There is too little plain Anglo-Saxon preaching. We shoot far over the
heads of our congregations and do not even scar the varnish on the
gallery banister. We dwell on the points of distinction between
Calvinism and Arminianism when the greater part of our people do not
know the difference between an Arminian and an Armenian, and some good
old sister thinks we are preaching on the cruelty of the Turks. Here I
am discussing "The Dangers of Imperialism" and "The Anglo-American
Friendship," while men are starving for the Bread of Life! Brethren in
the ministry, let us be less anxious about the syllogistic accuracy of
our sermons and be more eager to help men live right and quit sin and
go to heaven.
THE PULPIT CANNON.
There are many sins which few men have the courage to antagonize in
public. Theoretically the pulpit is supposed to cannonade all sin of
every variety and species, but, alas, it is usually too cowardly. The
Spirit-filled man fears no one from Sandow down to Tom Thumb, from a
plug-hat Bishop to a little pusilanimous dude preacher.
GHASTLY CRIMES.
It is not that ministers are unawares of the prevalence of black and
ghastly crimes, but that they dare not speak openly against them. Too
many are contaminated with evil and involved in guilt for the preacher
to voice with impunity the truths which burn in his soul. He knows only
too well that if he dares assert his manhood and exercises the
prerogative of Christ's minister, the retribution will be swift and
terrible, viz: ejectment from his pastorate!
MURDER
How ominous is the silence concerning murder. And yet the land is
swarming with crimson-handed murderers and murderesses. Many of them
are members of our "best churches" and move in the most select society.
Some of them read with animation the responses in church service and
repeat the Lord's Prayer with the greatest gusto. A few--not many, we
devoutly trust--talk about "sanctification." Poor, deluded, hoodwinked
souls! they are blinded by Satan. Their hands are red with blood, and
their hearts are black as hell. Were they to ever approach the heaven
of which they sanctimoniously prate, they would be met at the gate with
the curse of murdered infants who never saw the light.
INFANTICIDE
If there is a pitiable sight in all God's great universe, if there is a
scene over which angels shed tears and demons shriek laughter, it is an
old cruel-eyed mother, who has seared her conscience and sinned away
all noble womanliness and blasted her own soul, whispering into the
unsoiled ears of her daughter the way in which to murder her own
offspring; and if there is a hot hell, such a mother will make her bed
in it.
POODLE-DOGS.
The duties and cares of maternity are too irksome, and so the women who
might be the mothers of John Wesleys and Fenelons and Metchers and
Inskips and Cookmans are petting poodle-dogs and rat-terriers.
THE VITRIOL OF WRATH.
How many preachers dare speak in clarion tones what religion and
science concur in asserting concerning vice? But know ye by these
presents, all of Adam's race, that what depraved humanity pronounces
all right and harmless, the Almighty God who whirls the worlds will
corrode and scald with the burning vitriol of His wrath, and woe! woe!
woe! to the man or woman with whom is found sin.
GILT-EDGED FRAUDS.
Any tyro knows who drowned Morgan, but the clergyman who "opens up" on
Masonry is a curiosity. Why, how can the ministers say anything when
they are the chaplains of these gilt-edged frauds called "lodges"? It
does not take much calculation to show that an institution which spends
three dollars in giving away one has no right to exist. Some of the
more weak-minded and puerile of the clergy are doubtless in fear lest
their "tongues should be torn out by the roots and their hearts buried
in the rough sands of the seashore." Brave men are not so easily scared.
BOLOGNA SAUSAGE.
Secretism in itself is suspicious. Solon said that he wanted his house
so constructed that the people could see him at all hours and thus know
him to be a good man. A system which is so built that the public is
kept in the dark is entitled to the attention of a Pinkerton. Bologna
sausage made in a factory at the door of which is a huge sign, "No
Admittance," may be all right, but you can not make people think so.
THE ENTERTAINMENT.
There are few preachers so foolish and illogical as to believe that the
entertainment plan is the best way to raise money for church work, yet
scarcely one of them declares his honest straight-forward conviction
about it. Now and then a Hale, more daring than the rest, writes a
remonstrative article for the Forum, but the great mass keep quiet. A
Pentecostal ministry will wheel its guns into position and load and
fire into the supper and festival crowd notwithstanding the voices of
objectors.
HEROISM.
Whatever may be the matter under consideration the sanctified man dares
anything right. God is with him, and he feels His presence. Right is
right, and by the grace of God he will stand by it though all the world
howl and roar.