Belington progressive. [volume] (Belington, W. Va.) 1912-1927, 1924-11-20
WHAT'S WRONG WITH THE
CHURCHES?
Editor Progressive:

!
and while you state that you are not
sure there is anything wrong with the
churches you say you will welcome
opinions on the subject. Then per-
NIT me to give mine.
The writer is absolutely sure that
there is something seriously wrong
with the churches and feels that he
is beginning to understand something
of what is causing the trouble. This
article is not written for the purpose
of showing that all the real servants
of God are dead, for we still have
great numbers of them, but these
words are to prove that too few real
| Christians are alive.
What is wrong with the churches ?
Is it the preaching? Hardly al
though they are splendid Christian
souls are preaching sermons that act
as a soporific on our modern congre-
cations When folks go to church
they expect to hear something, and
may God pity the preacher who acts
on the supposition that all he must
do is loaf through the week, then go
into his pulpit on Sunday morning,
and the Lord will fill his mouth. To
a certain extent this is true, but the
Bible teaches that we are to study to
increase in wisdom and show our
selves worthy servants Of God and
man One minister said, AYes, the
Lord will fill these preachers mouths
all right, but He'll fill them with
wind" One thing greatly wrong
with the preaching is that we do not
have enough sermons of the Pentc-
costal type, the kind that Peter
preached on the day of Pentecost
when three thousand souls were saw
ed There are too few ministers of
the Gospel that have nerve enough
to call a spade spade.
There are too many sugar-coated
Gospel pills being administered to
spiritually dead congregations in our
English preacher once told in a SER
mon that he knew of a preacher who
land Charles Sturgeon, the great
once told in a sermon that he knew
of a preacher who said to his flock
once, "If you do so and so, you are
liable to go to that place which it is
not polite to mention,p Preachers
must not use euphonious an flow
cry words in dealing with sin, but
they must call sin, sin; hell, hell
and warn men and women everywhere
of the consequences of serving the
devil. The writer does not mean that
they shall hold people out over the
fiery furnace until they are scorched
but that they shall preach the whole
Gospel as it is found in Gods Word
But the trouble with the preach
ing is very small thing compared
! to the greater trouble with the church
es. There are so many thousands of
church members that are actually dead
as far as spirituality is concerned
They were converted once and bap-
tized, and that is about as far as a lot
of them have ever gone. They may
have concluded then that their work
was done and all they need to do is to
sit idly by the oars and somehow they
would drift through to glory. There
would be no souls saved by their eff
forts, there would be no stars in their
crowns, but they would be satisfied
if they might enter that land of bliss
even if, to use the Language of JOB,
they got there by the skin of their
teeth. What has been the result :?
They were converted and baptized but
have never had the baptism of the
Holy Ghost and fire Water baptism
is important, it is true, but what
does it amount to without that great
er baptism of the Holy Ghost
Mr.. Editor, you hit the nail pretty
squarely on the head when you spoke
of some of the methods the churches
are using to get crowds to attend their
services. Surely you did not mean
that, these methods were good. One
might infer that from the reading of
your editorial, but the writer thinks
some of your statements were meant
to be ironical. Yes many of our
churches have grown so cold and for
NAL that it is easy to get large con-
gragation to hear musical or liter
airy program or even a beautifully
worded essay by minister: but what
about the real religion of the Lord
Jesus Christ? Well, this religion
doesn't take with the worldly element
in the churhes, for it condemns all
who take part in sinful worldly nlea-