Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1892-03-09
SAM JCNES'S LETTER.
THE GOOD GETTING BETTER.
THE BAD GETTING WORSE-WHY SEN
SATIONAL PREACHING IS NEEDED.

THE BAD GETTING wORSE-wHY SEN
SATIoNAL PREACHING IS NEEDED.
CARTERsvILLE, February 49,
To the Editor of Atlanta Journal:
l was asked to-day, rs the worlC
growing better or worse? p
| replied that in the financial wOrlC
the rich are getting richer and the pool
are getting poorer, so in the mora
world the good are getting better anC
the bad are getting worse. 1t is as true
in the one case as it is true in the 9th
er.
The united ranks and the aggressive
spirit of the bad, and the divided ranks
and Indifferent spirit of the good give
the devil fair play in the race.
| Combinations on the side OF the devil
between the saloon, the gambling hells,
the shameless house, ETC., etc. The in
difference, want of harmony. and COW
dice of the church, makes it an easy
force to unite and defeat.
Stagnation, stinginess and slavish
fear, have bound us and carried us like
Samson, shorn of his locks into an enc
my's country.
If there is anything the average
|
editor will pitch into, it is sensational
preaching. 1t almost gives some editors
hydrophobia. And yet it remains the
truth of history, that whenever the
| Church or cause of God has made a for
NAL movement it has been amid tre-
mendOus sensation, from the day OF
| PentecOst until this moment.
| The press of the world has admitted
the fact that sensation means subscrip-
tions and circulation, and every news
paper in the United States to-day not
sensational is having dull time and
but few readers.
I've often thought that 1 would like
to see the daily papers published at
Jerusalem in the day of Christ and the
apostlesl Of course there were none,
but you imagine the dailies of this de-
cade on the ground then. The morning
after John the Baptist was put in jail
see the big head lines:
John insulted the king and his wife
He is now looking through the bars
Served him right"
| Then when his head was cut off they
said: ''He will no more shock this com
munity with his slang and vulgarisms. >
And those head lines, the morning af-
ter Peter got licking and was put in
jail ''Old Peter in jail initiating John
the Baptist" And again, when ST.
Paul was scourged and imprisoned fo1
initiating John and Peter, ETC.
l wonder what the boy vendors OF
those papers cried out on the streets OF
Jerusalem next morning, as the papers
sold thick and fast:
| 'All about John the Baptist" etc.
| The newspaper must be sensational
or take back seat. The preacher must
be sensational or join the innumerable
company of those whose "most princi-
pal job is to keep out of devilment.'
| have an abiding confidence in the
piety ndgoodness of the ministry, but
| also have an abiding fear that unless
we move out more aggressively upon
| the enemies of God and the Church
that the Salvation Army will yet make
history say that their pluck, vim and
| conservation saved the Church from
utter overthrow in this nineteenth cen
tury.
A presiding elder of North Carolina
said to me the other day that he would
give me fifty dollars to kill all these lit
tie tekid evangelists going through the
country"
| replied, I will give you 800 to kill
all the mo count pastors in the coun-
try.
He answered. "That won't buy the
powder and shot, much less pay me for
my work.
Seriously, no wise man, who knows
that the right side is the strong side,
and that God and one man make a
majority, but will say as he looks at
America
'The woe has come, for VIC are at ease
in Zion" SAM P. JONES.