Omaha daily bee., 1915-06-01
Sunday Good
Should Be Better

n Ev WILLIAM A. SUNDAY is today Thoroughly
N established in the appreciation and cof'dsnce OF
the evangelical churches OF America az preeiInen"s
1rbe General verdict OF Protestant opinion IL: mo
man can do these signs except God be with MN =,
In one especially commanding respect his pfeaon-
ing constrans sympthy from al VINO iopo" 'oaU9 -"
q divine Saviour: ,,,-
Mr. Sunday with C. passionate ana supreme eoh. ,,
ton offers 10 his hearers continually Christ VINO tas
day here America, the same as IN Palesnns ~,
vosrs ago hath authority on earth forgive sins
and declares that I'm none other y theIe ,
Likewise his terrific Revision at the sntulhess
Of sin and his tremendous urgency on the SINNER 70
and be made clean In Christ uof"ia'o 0'
reRenerate and unregenerate consciences
Moreover the church owes Mr. Sunday sratituae
for his militant unconventionality-his smeshhs va
the priRRishneEs Of custom
Just as I'm Chrst'a time the church today is oound
in traditIonanacled by shvering fear OF doing any
thing peculiar. MIR Sunday burst these eha - -
orous propriety. So he sets thousands OK men Hee-
Christians and sinners-to stand out for what they
have known for years they ought to STAND TOT.
M, ,,.uo ,ns church thus oonfers on Mr. Sunday
its Indorsment critical world challenges It to say
whether by This It approves certain mucn oeoe'eo
idiosyncrasies OF his.
To this challenge the church can only MAKE cahu'u
II does believe Mr. sunday to be man with a
divine commission.
the unfriendiy and supeTcious II In pueTtle 20 carp
at Mr. Sundays slang his platform antics and SUCH
like eccentrcies At the worst these Things are p"s
breaches OF taste.
The only things in which the church has need &C.
allow discount from its for Mr.. Sunday are sucn
things subtract from his Imitation and nterprete
tion OF the Master he breaches
Thus the church is bound to repudiate Mr. sun
days irreverence 1t Is not his familiarity with hs
Lord which evokes criticism. holy intimacy with
Christ IA every Christians privilege. Mr. Sunday Of
tends not by intimacy but by happygo-iucty air Of
equality with his Master-especlaly In what he repro
sents to be public prayer.
Apparently Mr. sunday never yet has heard the
mystic whisper Put off thy shoes from off thy feet
for place wherein thou standest IL holy ground
Instead Of stealing hushed andawestruek to the gar
OF God the evangelist bolts into the divine
presence like a sosspy neIgh5or dropping around"
for a chat
This Is not reverence. and reverence is vital to
religion Mr.. Sundays chumminess with his Creator
is wholesome example.
II is pointleas to complain OF the frequency and
freedom with which Mr.. Sunday talks OF hell The
gospel note which he emphasizes with this unmis-
taxable word that ought 20 have larger place
In modern preaching. The present-day preacher fol-
lows Paul in reasoning gently Of "rishteousness and
self-eontrol," but evades Judgment 20 come" Mr..
Sundays puts II all In.
But his fault is that in preaching hell he breaches
II with guso instead OF anguish and yearnng Surely
II was not hearfbreak, that Jesus uttered
his deadful woes" Would Jesus gloat dives In
torment? But TO Mr.. Sunday the tongue that pleads
the abyss for drop OF cooling water is Joke
Generations ago the church put being II the
e'NNNStfc 49, NN'--N'.s's
deemed heaven would rejoice at the sight OF sinners
punished In hell II certainly cannot today approve in
Mr.. Sunday the recrudescence OF that point Of view.
The great sums If money which the people bestow
MT Sunday in free-wilI offerings are nothing to
be counted against him. II is only fair TO recognise
that he adopted this method for his own compensa-
ton when the returns from II were problematca
No sordid motives be traced in Mr. Sundays
original conservation to evangelstic work.
And now the only question worth the taxety OF
the church s the question whether the "decetfuness
OF riches" which Jesus Christ dreaded much may
have corroded In some degree the mirror in which
svangeists soul ought to reflect the image Of the
Lord.
Tho zeal with which Mr. sunday stil maintains his
financial plans against all modification that he
has discovered In them FL Dorado and the subtle
avagant gifts suggest PAINFULLY that not today
Indifferent the glitter gold when
on his work
But far the most serious defect about MIR. Sunday
Is the absence of that he has been that school
TO which Jesus invited his disciples when he said;
Learn OF me. for am meek and lowy In heart"
He knows 80 little OF what Mary learned at the
feet OF Jesus that he has rdcued IN OF his
the religion of the whom Jess praised
for having chosen the good part'a dissent from the
inspired word OF God which the most extreme of
higher critics can hardly in any instance have equaed
And there is at least text of Paul from which
It would be impossible for the preseLs Mr. Sunday 20
preach:
81 myself entreat you by the meekness and gentle
In a word. MIR. Sunday is unprepared to represent
to the tenderness compassion ana the hunil-
ty of Jesus-peculiarly not the humility. And that is
serious blank 70 leave I'm evangeistic gospel or in
evangeiistc personality.
II results not only in un-Christllke harshness to-
ward sinners. but even sadder) in lofty scorn toward
fellow Christians When Mr. Sunday declares the
failure OF his brother minister's he speaks as one
superior TO TIE faults he as the Phari
see who pridod himself being as the rest of
men"
Mr.. Sunday breaches enough gospel to bring men
into the kingdom. He does bring men into the king
dom. Therefore the church upholds him
But seeing he Is at one and the time a man
OF great power great possibility and great peril there
ought TO be prayer made earnestly OF the church
unto God for him" that he be lifted to higher ana
safer levels