The Tupelo journal., 1904-05-13
THE PASSION FOR A CROWD
Crisis Which Comes to the Minister
and the Church in the Time
of Success.

or success.
The coming Of the crowd makes q
crisis for the Christian preacher and
for the church, says Rev. Geo. E. Bur-
lingame, in the Baptist Standard. Popu-
larity is a promise of peril. 1t is not in
the isolation and obscurity of a narrow
sphere of influence that the preachers
fiercest battles with the tempter are
fought; not when Nicodemus talks with
him by night; nor when he ploughs the
heart of alone woman at the we'll for
the sowing of the word. The real test
comes when all Jerusalem is astir with
wonder at the adoring thousands who
cry h%osanna; when Sychar empties it.
self at the preachers feet; when the
multitudes press and throng. the man
whose message has caught their ear
and awakened their transient interest.
How often. alas! does the coming of
the crowd prove to be the undoing Of
the preacher who drew it together.
NicOdemuS becomes a mere incident,
the Samaritan sinner fades into in
significance, and the patient toiling
teacher is transformed into a crowd
intoxicated demagogue. If we may
parody a part of our text in order to
fit this man, we should read it thus:
But when he saw the multitude, he
was moved with the passion for q
crowd"
This passion for a crowd brings
upon the preacher-and upon the
church as well-an avalanche of temp
tations which are well nigh irresisti-
Bile. 1t tends to superficiality in
service. In the smaller sphere we
demand of ourselves the most thorough
and genuine effort and method. We
lake nesting In the mountains has
the passion for a crowd leads us to a
tolerance of less thoroughness. We
become more extensive, but less in.
tensive; broader but thinner; the blue
lake nesting in the mountains has
become an overlooking sea-, but the
little lake had depth; the great sea
is a shallow fraud.
The passion for a crowd depreciates
the individual. He Is no longer a
soul to be won at every cost, a life
to be rescued from peril and woe. He
is simply a bead on the counting
frame; he has value only as he Is a
part of a crowd. A story is told Of
Bishop Grafton, Of Fond du Lac, who
once went to church to deliver a ser
mon. He found an audience of six or
seven persons gathered to hear him.
He was angry and chagrined, and
after a sharp scolding at the parish
for it's Indifference, he left. He told
some of his auditors that he had spent
four days on his sermon n he did
not propose to waste it on a handful
of people. The doughty bishop was
sorely afflicted with the passion for a
crowd. individuals had no value and
presented neither opportunity nor OBJ
legation.
The passion for a crowd leads to the
love of popularity. Where the crowd
is considered essential to success it is
accepted as a sure sign of that sue
cess, and thus becomes an end in itself.
The soul of the preacher is drawn into
sympathy with the popular estimate
Of himself, and the graces of self-sat-
isfaCtion and s~elf-laudation are rap
idly developed. 1t is far easier for the
average Christian teacher to be popu-
lar than for him to be i%nfexibly true
to his divine commission
For the passion for a crowd further
tempts him to compromise with the
truth. If the crowd is so essential to
his success. and even to his personal
satisfaction, then no word must be ut
tered to ALLEVIATE or alarm his impul-
sive and easy-going constituency. He
must handle their failings gently and
ignore their sins entirely. If he must
have homiletic exercise, he may use
the Jews for a punching bag or the
Morrnons for a cushion to jump on.
The crowd is his only while he tickles
its ear and warns its tickle heart.
Truth must waive its claims in favor
of trucking. Conscience retires to
make room for compromise. The
crowd cries for smooth things; their
itching ears can endure only teachers
after their own lusts, and the man
who has a passion for a crowd must
bow at the shrine he worships.
This malady of the soul Of the
teacher or leader. so fatal to the char
acter of its victim. is not inevitable
and a necessary evil. II 1T were so, we
should need to pray for empty pews.
and hope for general indifference in
religion. We should view With regret
and fear the growth of our classes in
Sunday school. We should seek to
restrict u circle of friendship and &C.
quaintance. II the coming of The
crowd must mean the birth of the pas
sion for a crowd. then Paul should
stay away from Ephesus. and Spur
geon from London, and Moody from
Chicago, fleeing from the teeming pop
ulace as from the plague.
There is a preventive of this perilous
passion-an anti-toxin which renders
the preacher and the teacher and the
church immune to the vicious poison.
Jesus had crowds; he preached IT,