The Topeka state journal., 1919-05-23
INTERNATIONAL
SUNDAY SCHOOL
LESSON
Preachers and Preaching a Present
PrOhIoU
BY WILLIAM T. ELLIS.

ranking in rank from general,
colonel and various majors down to
| two war correspondents. Fighting, |
and not theorizing. was the trade of
seven of the ten. After thrashing out |
all the old straw concerning Russia, |
| the talk took a turn. The futility of
armed force as a remedy against Boil
shevism had been admitted by the SOL
| diers.
| Then one spoke up: Really. there |
| are only two ways of this Russian |
mess. One is for the nation to be left |
! alone to exhaust itself in internal |
strife and suffering; letting the disease |
run its course. The other is for a
great prophet to arise to call that es-
sentially religious nation back to God |
| A fresh voice declaring, Thus saith |
the Lord sounding in the modern |
tones of a true man who loves the |
Russian people. will be listened to by |
| even the maddened mob. They will !
| accept the justice and true brother !
hood of the kingdom of God, instead |
of this horrible substitute of Bolshe- |
! vism when once it comes to them |
clearly in the name of the Father |
| above. Russias need of needs is a |
prophet of God
Hearing the City's Cry.
That is not the need of Russia alone. |
| War is over; but it has bequeathed |
acute problems, which seem almost |
more perplexing than war ITSELF Our
| territorial questions. our labor ques-
| ton, our moral question, our temper |
ance question, our entire social and
| political questions. bid fair to BATTLE |
| the statesmen. Especially from our
| cities there rises q cry and challenge
to which heaven itself cannot be in
| different. Ninevah's voice was heard
| of God: what of the voice of New
! York and Chicago and Montreal and
New Orleans and San Francisco?
| 1 have been sailing the wonderful
Mediterranean, whose surface and
depths have SO often attested the
might of Jehovah; and l am thinking
that this is the of runaway Jona h
as well of fearless, faithful Paul,
both bearers to cities of the divine
call to repentance. And to think of
| Jonah is to be reminded that God is
| interested in the character of cities
and of countries, well as of indi-
| viduals.
We have had the divine judgments
before our eyes. Behold Turkey and
Austria and Russia and Germany. the
great nations that defied the laws of
God and man; all are PROSTATE and
powerless today. They have been Wis
tied by the justice of the Almighty;
while the little peoples they once op-
pressed are free. We do not have to
read back as far as Ninevah to learn
that the cry of iniquity and oppres-
sion ascends to the throne of the
Judge of all the earth.
i; A Crisis Without Prophets.
time so bitterly needs? Germanys
prophets proved mere politicians;
Russia's and Austria's, only ecclesias-
tics; Turkey had none at all. What
about our prophets in the English 4
speaking world? Who are wearing
the mantle of Jonah today?
Let US face the facts fearlessfy. We
| dare not indulge in self-decepuon or
unwarranted optimism when the is
sues are so grave. Without capuous
| criticism, or yet concern for conven-
tional complacency, what do we find
when we look into the realm of our
professional prophets, the ministers
of the Gospel? Countless godly and
faithful men, certainly.
Yet it is notorious that during the
past five years of spiritual agony thru
out the whole earth, there has been
no one clear, strong, arresting voice
heard in the Christian pulpitS of the
world. We have had to look to the
laity for our prophetic MESA geS. One
reason why society is in a state ap-
preaching chaos has been the coll
lapse of great spiritual leadersip. The
men whom we thought might sound
the world note have become mere ad-
rninistratoPs and ecclesiastical func-
tionaries.
Preachers Who Sinncd in France.
Worse yet. So widely had preach
ing become a profession, without the
divine spiritual passion, that many
clergymen. instead of being leaders
and prophets, have themselves been
maintained in a conventionally cor
rect mode of life only by circum-
stances They followed the code of
their calling, because it was difficult
and dangerous to do otherwise.
Many of these men went to war,
from varying motives; and some
avowedly to escape the tedium of their
distasteful round of ministerial duties.
Of this number percentage, small,
and yet too large to be ignored BY
conscientious people, suffered a moral
lapse. With the greater number OF
these latter, the failure was merely
rela xation of their standards of speech
and of such practices as wine-drink-
ing. Others went utterly bad, sinking
into sensuality and even crime. L
know whereof 1 speak: L am not eX-
aggerating the occasional instance,
such as the minister in y. NJ. c. a.
, work, who became a confessed and
convicted thief in France. My infor-
nation comes at first hand and on the
spot, from the officials who know all
the details,
This is horrible, of course. 1 shall
be accused of slandering the ministry
for revealing the condition. Instead,
L am only serving the cause of truth
and power; for it is far better that
! the church should lose her reputation
than that she should lose her soul.
Such hideous facts as 1 have stated
should send the church to her knees.
Repentance must begin at the house
of God. How can we cry aloud to the
wandering world when our own utter
; ance is choked with sin?
t Jonahs, and Other Preachers.
Comic papers and the stage jest at
, the clergy. and the mass of mankind
i ignores them. as mild creatures who
are ineffective except as kili-joys.
l The preacher is no longer the par
son." or the" person, of a communi-
ty; the drift of decades has steadily
. . showed him to one side as a nonessen-
/ tial Nevertheless, and regardless of
whatever justification for this atti-
tude there may be in Individual in
stances, the preachers place was